(SomaliNet) Somalia's president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is now in London for medical checks after he had fallen ill last week, sources say on Sunday.
On Friday president Yusuf, 72, was taken to a hospital in Ethiopia before he was flown to London. Mr. Yusuf is said to have been undergone tests and check up in a London hospital. Unconfirmed reports say that the president was critically sick.
Pushing daisies real soon, I'm betting.
But the government officials that the country's president is in London for the results of his early medical check up.
Last month, the President of Somalia Abdulahi Yusuf was admitted to a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya after he had suffered from rejection of his transplanted liver bronchitis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Kenya's president and his chief rival made key concessions Monday to end their election dispute, calling off protests and agreeing to talks under pressure from the United States as the death toll from a week of violence neared 500.
The top American envoy to Africa said the vote count at the heart of the dispute was tampered with and both sides could have been involved. The Dec. 27 election returned President Mwai Kibaki to power for another five-year term, with his rabble-rousing opponent, Raila Odinga, coming in a close second. But even Kenyan electoral commission chairman Samuel Kivuiti, who declared Kibaki the winner, subsequently said he is not sure Kibaki won. "Yes, there was rigging," the U.S. envoy, Jendayi Frazer, told The Associated Press in an interview in Nairobi, where she has been meeting with Kibaki and Odinga for the past three days. "I mean there were problems with the vote counting process," she added. "Both the parties could have rigged."
She said she did not want to blame either Kibaki or Odinga.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
The war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, accused of controlling militia that killed and raped thousands in Sierra Leone, resumed Monday in The Hague after a six month delay.
Taylor, the first ex-African head of state to appear before an international war crimes tribunal, was present for the hearing in which the prosecution will call its first witness, an international expert on conflict diamonds.
He is accused of controlling rebel forces in neighbouring Sierra Leone who went on a blood diamond-funded rampage of killing, mutilation and rape during the 1991-2001 civil war. He denies the charges against him.
Before the hearing opened, Taylor, dressed in a dark suit and tie wearing gold rimmed glassed, looked contemplative with his hands clasped in front of him. The first prosecution witness, Canadian Ian Smillie, will focus on the prosecutions claim that Taylor hatched a plan to establish a subordinate government in Sierra Leone in order to have access to the countrys abundant natural resources like diamonds and timber. Smillie has written a report for the court called Diamonds: The RUF and the Liberian connection. At the start of his testimony the court was shown footage of the 2006 documentary Blood Diamonds that Smillie had worked on.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
.....in order to have access to the countrys abundant natural resources like diamonds and timber
The modus operandi of the typical African native governance. Next slide please.
#2
The Iraqis dealt quicker with Saddam then these 'Priest of Law' are dealing with Taylor. Given that the Euros have no stomach for a death penalty, the only thing to be decided is when to free him. However, like all priest, they must perform their rituals and incantations. Show over substance.
In my Human Events article today about the murder of the Said sisters, I wrote, "Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. have an all the more urgent responsibility to end their denial and confront these cultural attitudes. If they dont, and instead continue to glibly insist that religion has nothing to do with what happened to these poor girls, the murders of the Said sisters will only be the beginning of a new American phenomenon."
And a new phenomenon in the U.K. as well.
"'Family turned a blind eye' as teenage bride was beaten to death by arranged husband," from the Daily Mail (thanks to Josephine):
A teenage bride was beaten to death by her husband while her in-laws stood by and did nothing, a court heard yesterday. Sabia Rani, 19, was repeatedly attacked over a three-week period, suffering bruising to 90 per cent of her body and "catastrophic" injuries usually only seen in car crash victims.
She had arrived five months earlier from Pakistan for an arranged marriage to Shazad Khan, 25, of Oakwood Grange, Leeds, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told. But Khan's family, with whom she lived, took an almost instant dislike to her, said Simon Myerson, prosecuting, and Khan began beating her.
The attack which killed her was "prolonged and vicious," the court heard. Her agonising rib fractures were caused by "kicks, stamps or very hard punches".
The victim's mother-in-law and a sister-in-law blamed the injuries on "evil spirits, curses and black magic".
But after Khan was convicted of murder at Leeds Crown Court last January, police investigated the role of other family members. They arrested and charged the victim's mother-in-law Phullan Bibi, 52, sisters-in-law Nazia Naureen, 28, and Uzma Khan, 23, and her husband Majid Hussain, 28.
All deny a charge of allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. Khan and Hussain also deny perjury....
And of course we know that such people would never lie!
Heat created by burning the dead at crematoria could be used to keep mourners warm under plans to make funerals more environmentally-friendly. Instead of letting the gases emitted by cremation escape into the atmosphere, councils want to use them to heat radiators or even generate electricity.
They admit some might find the idea of being kept warm by the remains of their loved-ones macabre. But there are thought to be no religious objections, and ever-tighter controls on pollution mean such systems could become commonplace.
Harmful mercury emissions are created by cremating those with old tooth fillings. To meet tough pollution targets, councils are having to fit filters to crematoria. Cremation requires temperatures of as much as 1,000C but this must be reduced to around 160C for the mercury to be removed, which requires heat exchangers to be installed in chimneys. This involves passing the hot fumes through what are effectively cold water radiators. They absorb much of the heat and it is this which can be reused.
Tameside Council in Greater Manchester is planning to link heat exchangers at Dukinfield Crematorium with its boiler system and hopes to use it to generate electricity through turbines.
Environment officer Robin Monk said: "We are conscious that it might be a sensitive matter. Basically, it's just heat which will otherwise be lost. We could just install the mercury abatement equipment. But in this day and age we all have to look at reducing our carbon footprint."
Government requirements that half of cremations are subject to mercury filtration by 2012 means many more are likely to follow Tameside.
#2
SPOD: You know darn well that makes way too much sense. Everything the West does these days has to involve ten times as much PC expensive monkey motion as it does actual forward motion.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in an interview with supermodel Naomi Campbell predicted that the U.S "empire" is about to fall, called Jesus Christ history's No. 1 revolutionary -- and offered to pose topless.
"Why not? Touch my muscles!" the burly, 53 year-old former paratrooper said, when asked if he would follow the example of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who caused a stir last year with a series of shirtless pictures.
An actress and model of Jamaican heritage, Campbell was hired by GQ magazine to interview the left-wing leader, who is known for his tirades against the United States.
In the article, to be published on Thursday, Campbell describes Chavez as a "rebel angel," praises his singing voice and chats with him about the Spice Girls. Read the rest and learn how Naomi has conquered her gag reflex.
Posted by: ed ||
01/08/2008 14:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
About to fall...
Any day now....
It's commin.....
I think he should be concerned with prolonging his own life.
TBILISI, Georgia: Mikheil Saakashvili says he knows his country needs to make changes. But he argued Monday that the election that returned him to Georgia's presidency for a second term showed that the former Soviet republic was on the road to becoming a European democracy.
"I believe there are many aspects that need to be criticized," Saakashvili said in an interview. "This is still a country in transition, this is still not a full-fledged, very well-formed, crystallized society. We still have lots of things to do. But I think we are on the right track and this election has just proved that."
While much of Georgia took a break from months of political tension to celebrate Orthodox Christmas on Monday, Saakashvili's interview focused on the future and his delicate position after winning a second term. His victory, announced late Sunday, was uncomfortably narrow. His opponents, citing fraud, have promised prolonged protests.
Saakashvili, 40, a close ally of Washington, has been under pressure to prove he remains committed to democracy. Late last year, he ordered the dispersal of anti-government protests, imposed a state of emergency and shut down an independent television station.
Although monitors pointed to an array of violations in the election Saturday, including cases of multiple voting, they said that over all it was in accordance with democratic standards. With more than 85 percent of the precincts counted, Saakashvili had 51.94 percent of the vote - just clearing the 50 percent threshold for a first-round victory, the Central Elections Commission said Monday. His main challenger, Levan Gachechiladze, had 25.19 percent.
Both candidates went to church Sunday for a midnight liturgy that was broadcast live on national television. Saakashvili offered his hand to Gachechiladze, who shook it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to Orthodox believers on the Russian Christmas Day on Monday, as in the United States presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton claimed Putin had no soul.
This festival has for centuries brought the light of faith, hope and love, Putin said in the Christmas message released by the Kremlin on the Orthodox Christmas day, January 7. It draws us towards primordial spiritual values uniting millions of people, values that play a special role in the history of Russia and nourish our national culture, Putin said. Putin has committed himself to the Orthodox faith despite his background in the KGB security service in the Soviet era, when Christianity was suppressed. Dressed entirely in black, the Russian leader joined Christmas ceremonies overnight at a church in the snow-covered northern town of Veliky Ustyug, where the temperature was about minus 17 degrees Celsius (one degree Fahrenheit).
But as Russians and branches of the Orthodox faith in other countries celebrated Christmas, in the United States presidential candidate and former first lady Clinton made a cutting assessment of Putins spirituality while campaigning in the state of New Hampshire. Her remark that Putin had no soul came as she savaged President George W. Bush for his tactic of trying to forge warm personal bonds with foreign leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hmm. Would you rather have a leader with a brain, a heart, or a soul?
#2
I thought she was going to make foriegners like us. How would questioning Putin's committment to Christianity improve her electability? If she plans to court the evangelicals, she will be every bit as successful as Romney would be if he reaches out to the NAACP.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/08/2008 7:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
an actual quote of her? Could it be that a Paki paper misinterpreted something she said about Bush looking into Putins eyes?
#4
Dignified comment, but no more than I'd expect from her. He wants to put the Soviet Union back together more than anything, and he'll do anything he can to get it done. He's duplicitous, conniving and ruthless, but not soulless. I'd MUCH rather have him as prez than her if those were my only two choices.
#5
Interesting. I'm thinking it could be Putin realizes that things like culture and religion unite people better than bogus ideologies like Marxism. Wasn't one of the lessons they learned in WWII that when they called on people to defend the mother land the people tended to respond better than when the call was to defend international socialism? Hillary can talk about the man's soul all she wants. I wouldn't judge his commitment to Jesus anymore than I would hers (pot calling kettle black). But he is clearly not stupid. OTOH, to deliberately insult the powerful leader of a country like Russia with whom you may one day have to negotiate important bilateral agreements doesn't strike me as being all that smart.
China is planning to send troops into North Korea to restore order and secure its nuclear arsenal in the event of the regimes collapse.
According to a new report, Beijing would send in the Peoples Liberation Army if it felt threatened by a rapid breakdown in Kim Jong-ils rule over the country.
China would seek to win the backing of the United Nations first, but would be prepared to act unilaterally if necessary.
If the international community did not react in a timely manner as the internal order in North Korea deteriorated rapidly, China would seek to take the initiative in restoring stability, said the report by two Washington think-tanks.
Based on extensive interviews conducted in China, including with PLA academics, the reports findings back up previous indications of Chinas major change in attitude to Kim Jong-il after the North Korean nuclear test of October 2006, and also demonstrate its willingness to assert itself in international affairs.
Separately, Beijing today announced its ambitions in space for the coming year, including the launch of 15 rockets and 17 satellites as well as its first space walk.
According to PLA academics quoted by the report, which was written by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the US Institute of Peace, the army has three missions in a failing North Korea.
One would be humanitarian to deal with refugees or the consequences of natural disaster.
The second is peacekeeping and maintaining order, and the third requires it to deal with contamination from a military strike on North Koreas nuclear facilities, and to secure nuclear weapons and materials to prevent them getting into the wrong hands.
The report said that there were disagreements among its sources as to whether China still wished to preserve its special relationship with North Korea, the only country with which it has a formal, mutual defence alliance.
But they agreed that Beijing would neither intervene to replace Kim Jong-il, nor to prevent him being replaced by others.
The Chinese governments prime concern was stability, though there was thought to be no immediate danger of a breakdown.
Chinas foreign ministry spokesman said she had no knowledge of the plan, but did not deny its existence.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Beijings Peoples University, said the plan might have been drawn up when the North Korean regime was under greater pressure than now.
It was still unclear how it would react in future, though. China, as with other powers, is a little confused about this, he said.
Operation "Lookit Me!" may have just hit a wall. Ever since French President Nicolas Sarkozy took office in May, leaked media reports on his private life have increasingly overshadowed political news that was often less uplifting. But French pundits and pollsters are now saying that if that preference for soft news over hard has been orchestrated by the Elysée, it is beginning to backfire. New opinion polls are showing serious erosion in Sarkozy's support and displeasure with the overexposure of his private life just when the news splashes that he plans to wed former super-model Carla Bruni.
The Sunday paper Journal du Dimanche ran a front-page photo of Sarkozy and Bruni together under the headline "They're Getting Married! The 9th of February?" The accompanying story offered details of the diamond-studded ring Sarkozy slipped on Bruni's finger as he proposed to her, along with an eye-batting reply that would have given even Barbara Cartland the vapors ("Monsieur le President, I have no reason to refuse you"). The story ends on a similarly schmaltzy note, promising readers, "If you loved Grace Kelly in Monaco, you'll adore Carla Bruni in the Elysée."
Or not, as it turns out. Sunday's daily Le Parisien published a new opinion poll showing Sarkozy's public approval rating had dropped seven points since December to 48%. Perhaps just as bad for the reportedly altar-bound Sarkozy, however, was that poll's finding that 48% of respondents said he overexposes his private life.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
For crying out loud, this is FRANCE! Y'know, the country of luuuuuuv and romaaaaance! THIS from a country who was so close behind England in prying into Lady Di's private life that the score was nose to ass.
F-ck. Do they resent it that Sarkozy's enthusiastically being more French than they are?
#4
This article is written like a crap opinion piece found in a free campus newspaper or a check-out aisle rag.
I remember Sarkozy walked out of an interview b/c the questioning was personal not professional; so this article makes no sense to me. If there is too much media coverage it is the media's fault. Also, wouldn't this qualify him to go to snooty arabia?
James Kirchick of the New Republic has a devastating piece on Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) online today on the TNR website. Kirchick provides a meticulously detailed history of the Ron Paul Political Report, a newsletter Paul had circulated to a network of some 7,000 subscribers from the late 80s and early 90s.
As Kirchick reportswhether describing post-apartheid South Africa as a destruction of civilization, alleging that Martin Luther King seduced underage girls and boys, warning of tens of thousands of well-placed friends of Israel in all countries who are willing to wok [sic] for the Mossad in their area of expertise, or urging white readers to arm themselves after the first skirmish in the race war of the 1990s,virtually every historic trope of racism, anti-Semitism, anti-gay bigotry, or conspiracy theorizing has been featured in the Ron Paul Political Report in one way or another. For his part, Paul has alternately acknowledged writing some of the material that went out under his name, only to deny authorship when confronted with the most disturbing details. In any case, Paul has taken moral responsibility for the contents of the Ron Paul Political Report. What follows is a quick digest of some of his greatest, which is to say most disgraceful, hits.
I might add, on a personal note, that as a libertarian with significant sympathy for Pauls platform, I initially viewed claims of his past history of racism skeptically. But the evidence is so overwhelming that the defense of Paul is now, itself, indefensible. . . .
A few points to add:
1. Yes, I know, it's TNR, but the primary source for the report is hard copies of actual documents authored (or at least published) by Ron Paul himself, not the fever dreams of wannabee Hemingways.
2. Opposing affirmative action is not, in and of itself, racist. Indeed, it's the most defensably non-racist position on the issue. However, Ron's comments (see quotes at the link) go 'way beyond principled opposition to racial preferences.
3. Given Ron's vigorous defense of al-Qaida and his followers' flirtations with 9/11 Trooferism, is anyone surprised by the Mossad paranoia?
4. If I were a libertarian, I'd be fuming that this nutcase is the public face of my movement. Nutcases can win converts, but they're not the sort of converts you want.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/08/2008 15:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yes, I know, it's TNR, but the primary source for the report is hard copies of actual documents authored (or at least published) by Ron Paul himself
I'd have to see a bit more confirmation that the docs weren't printed in 1976 using Microsoft Word. I'm not a Ron Paul fan and think he is a nutcase but TNR is no longer a reputable source, epecially printing this the day before the vote and day after he had a positive appearance on the Jay Leno show last night.
However, that being said, I view this with EXTREME salt levels. I will wait for this to be investigated by other news outlets and see if it passes the smell tests. It is awfully convenient for this to come out at this time and needs looked at closely.
If it does prove to be true, Paul needs to be removed from the Republican party ASAP if not sooner. They don't need trash like that.
#3
TNR will do anything to rehab its reputation, assuming that's even possible.
That said, I've seen reports on this in the past, and I have little doubt that Mr. Paul is the nutter he appears to be. I'd prefer him out of the Republican party ASAP.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2008 17:17 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Remind me, what's the process for that again? Is there a fine or anything that can be levied because he calls himself a republican?
KEENE, NH -- Several Ron Paul supporters shadowed a much larger Clinton entourage as Bill Clinton greeted supporters downtown. During his third stop of the day, the former president posed for pictures and shook hands as he strolled down Main Street on this unseasonably warm Primary Eve day. Across the street, a few Paul supporters shouted his name. Eventually, Clinton stopped outside a bakery, offered some remarks, and took questions. As he was answering one on Iraq, one of the Paul backers interrupted and shouted that the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job, and that the U.S. didnt need to be in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When he dropped an F-bomb, the crowd booed. Clinton, who had tried to talk over the man, gave up.
"You wanna know what I think? Clinton said. You guys who think 9/11 was an inside job are crazy as hell. My wife was the senator from New York when that happened. I was down at Ground Zero. I saw the victims' families. You're nuts."
Bravo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A stopped clock is right twice a day (or once, if it's a 24 hr clock.)
#2
ASIA TIMES > SPENGLER - PUTIN FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; + RENSE > OBAMA AND HIS WARMONGERING CABINET LEADING TO WW3. Some of Obama's campaign advisors-mentors in past suppor/favored BOMBING PAKISTAN + BOMBING SUDAN.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/08/2008 1:57 Comments ||
Top||
#4
My brother lives up there. He says it's like a tornado sucked up every loon in America and dropped them in New Hampshire.
He'll be glad when today's over.
A Muskie moment, or a helpful glimpse of 'the real Hillary'?
"It's just so hard!"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Too much campaign trail pizza, frequent flying, sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, stress, cariovascular strain, anger, fits of crying and resultant hyphohydration......all well deserved and I love it!
#4
Even the strongest cry. But not for their loss of power or dreams, but for those comrades who have given their last full measure of devotion to each other. It's not about issues or office. It's about the willingness to give that which most precious, life itself for the future of those near to you. It's not about SELF. It's not about POWER. It's about a concept of HONOR and RESPECT that is timeless.
#7
From the Wall Street Journal: As is typical in campaigns, Sen. Clinton's travails have ignited infighting within her organization, much of it aimed at pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn. Critics say Mr. Penn underestimated the electorate's appetite for change as the campaign promoted her Washington experience, a charge he contests. "On the very first day of the campaign, Sen. Clinton talked about the bold change we need, and the campaign slogan began 'Ready for Change.' ... So it has always been a central part of the campaign," he said in an email.
People are ready for a change, but not change back to the Clintonistas.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/08/2008 14:37 Comments ||
Top||
#8
if anybody cares, I have the "Dorothy's House-fell-on-the-Wicked-Witch" graphic that may be useful in the coming days (don't ask why)......
Computer is acting crazy this afternoon & dumped my cookies. (Just like the Hildebeest make me want to blow my cookies.)
#10 GS was me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/08/2008 17:17 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Critics say Mr. Penn underestimated the electorate's appetite for change as the campaign promoted her Washington experience, a charge he contests.
I watched the debates last Saturday and it seem like "change" and health care were all they wanted to talk about. Richardson kept blathering about how the Iraq war was taking money we could use on health care. Hillary claimed that she has been working for 35 years to bring change.
So I finally started thinking: I have health insurance and I'm afraid that when they say change it's really a code word for socialism. So why do I need these people?
#13
#12; "Hillary claimed that she has been working for 35 years to bring change."
35 years? And she ain't succeeded yet?
So why would I want to give her another chance to fail at my expense, exactly?
You're right, EU - the only change she's interested in is turning America into a communist socialist nation, with her and her cronies as the ones "more equal than others."
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/08/2008 17:43 Comments ||
Top||
#14
The mrs., who leans left, flat out denounced hillarity for this deal. "Hillary should not be president," she said, "but instead of maybe having a female president in 4 or 8 years, it could be more than 30 years because nobody want to see a woman lose control and break down crying in public, especially someone who wants to be president."
Have to agree EU6305, it isn't 'if' we need national health care it is always 'how much and how soon', and that the change comment was so awkward I can't even find good snark for it unless they mean pennys for paychecks.
#15
"Don't do it for me, do it for the children."
-A plea for votes from a lip-quivering Bill Clinton
"Some people think that elections are a game, it's about who's up or who's down. It's about our country and it's about our kids' future."
-A plea for votes from a lip-quivering Hillary Clinton
Can we change the channel? I think I've seen this movie before.
#17
You have to admit though as much as she sucks she'll make a better pres than any of the Republican candidates.
Posted by: B for Benedetto ||
01/08/2008 21:44 Comments ||
Top||
#18
Yep Bennedito. The free world needs a President that knows how to weep and wail when you don't get your way. Now that is what I call a loser (remember another loser Dhimmicrat, Al Gore?).
Get your mind out of the gutter! It's a car made in India!
And besides, there's only room for me here . . . . :-)
Around noon on January 10, the massive Tata Motors pavilion at the Pragati Maidan would be the place to be, if you are a chronicler of history or an industry specialist or just a plain automotive enthusiast. At that time Ratan Tata will take the covers off the Tata people's car which has been dominating mindspace both inside and outside the industry for its sheer concept and execution since the better part of a decade.
The obvious need to provide a more stable, safe and protective set of basic transportation at an affordable price point to the Indian masses who prefer to be astride a two-wheeler was what got the Tata car project going in 1997. The genesis for this car took in a lakh as inspiration, one hundred thousand rupees being the target selling point and the team went to work, conjuring up an all weather car with seating for four and with a modicum of performance allied to low operating costs.
Earlier it was perceived that the car would be go down the same route as some microcar makers had shown, bare bones basic and almost akin to a four-wheeled autorickshaw. However all that changed midway through the project when Tata decided, in the face of zealous skepticism and also the apparent living in denial allegations from other more illustrious car makers that such a car could even be thought of at the price point outlined. Out went an easy approach to doing a four-wheeled autorickshaw and in came strong design and processes which went beyond prevailing thought.
Reinventing the manufacturing process (and minimizing that as well) was one mantra to meeting the rigid six figure price point while innovative product design and packaging brought its own worth to the table. A third aspectas important as meeting the price and mission objectivewas getting component makers to also question and challenge all prevailing work and design approaches and come out with practical solutions that were logical, contemporary and effective without being overly complex.
What will be revealed on January 10 will be a properly designed and built car which could have been done by any other car maker in the world but they shied away from this. Credit the team led by Ratan Tata for sticking doggedly to their task and beavering away for almost a decade to come up with what promises to be the most cost effective people's car in the history of the automobile. On this count itself India has shown the way forward and while many lived in outright skepticism of this, only know is there grudging recognition form the majority behind the viability of such a car. Of course strong praise has come forth from none other Renault's Carlos Ghosn, the man who knows all about value engineering and cost shredding. Ghosn has been the first within the international automotive world to have seconded Tata's concept and given it the ultimate accolade by announcing a rival to it!
Yes, Auto Expo 2008 will be notable for the spate of small cars and small car announcements from domestic and global players. The Tata people's car will dominate mindspace but there will be strong stuff from many other OEMs as well. Fiat Auto will be showing off its small car skills with the Grande Punto and Linea saloon which will get an Indian-premiere at the expo on January 9.
Both these models will be made in India later in 2008 but the interesting bit is that Fiat would also be bringing in its Cinquecento city car and the Bravo as CBUs in the second quarter of the year. Alfa Romeo is already mentioned but the bigger story on the Italian front would be an announcement of the Prancing Horse getting ready to gallop in India.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that Brazil, Germany, India, Japan and an African country should join the U.N. Security Council as permanent members.
During a news conference, Sarkozy, who was elected as president in May, called for an urgent reform of the 192-member United Nations.
The world body cannot work if it remains unchanged as a 20th century organization for the 21st century, he said.
Brazil, Germany, India and Japan -- known as the Group of Four -- have sought permanent seats at the Security Council for years.
The Security Council currently consists of five veto-wielding permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and 10 non-permanent members.
#2
Lets see, the EU could be considered which covers UK, France, and Germany. US, Russia, EU, China, Brazil, Japan and India then?
Sometimes Sarkozy confuses me. Why with everything which is going on in Africa would there 'have' to be a -permanent- UNSC member from Africa?
Nah, load the whole damn place up on garbage barges and burn it at sea. If there has to be this 'parliament of man' then start from scratch instead of trying to turn a willy's jeep into an emission safe handicapped accessable GPS guided 10 passenger hybrid airport shuttlebus.
#3
That would work. Since any permanent member can stop any progress with a veto, having more permanent members would guarantee nothing would ever happen. The UN would then become permanently deadlocked. (more than it is now)
This article is disturbing that it comes from the United States. So much for cultural assimilation. The men and their families try to justify this behavior because it says so in the Koran. Tolerance for religion only goes so far. This kind of crap has to stop.
CHICAGO: After enduring seven years of beatings from her husband, a young Yemeni-American woman recently fled to a local shelter, only to find that the heavy black head scarf she wore as an observant Muslim provoked disapproval. The shelter brought in a hairdresser, whose services she accepted without any misgivings. But once her hair was styled, administrators urged her to throw off her veil, saying it symbolized the male oppression native to Islam that she wanted to escape.
Instead the woman, who asked for anonymity because she feared further violence from her relatives, decamped to the Hamdard Center for Health and Human Services in suburban Chicago, a shelter that caters mainly to Muslim women by not serving pork and keeping prayer rugs handy. Such shelters are extremely rare nationwide, activists say, because Muslim Americans only recently began confronting the issue of spousal abuse.
Domestic violence among Muslims has long straddled a blurry line between culture and religion, but now scattered organizations founded by Muslim American women are creating a movement to define it as an unacceptable cultural practice. The problem occurs among American Muslims at the same rate as other groups, activists say, but is even more sensitive because raising the issue is considered an attack on the faith.
"The Muslim community is under a lot of scrutiny, so they are reluctant to look within to face their problems because it will substantiate the arguments demonizing them," said Rafia Zakaria, a political science graduate student at Indiana University who is starting a legal defense fund for Muslim women. "It puts Muslim women in a difficult position because if they acknowledge their rights, they are seen as being in some kind of collusion with all those who are attacking Muslim men. So the question is how to speak out without adding to the stereotype that Muslim men are barbaric, oppressive, terrible people."
The answer, she and other activists have concluded, is to show that Muslim Americans are tackling the problem. "Domestic violence is an issue we can deal with as a community, and not by saying we don't have this problem, which is obviously a lie," Zakaria said.
Some activists describe being expelled from mosques and holiday fairs when they first tried to broach the topic five years ago, but they have achieved a wider audience by allying themselves with sympathetic clerics.
The Yemeni-American woman sought advice from several imams after her Yemeni husband of just a few months started to slap, punch and degrade her. The clerics offered marriage counseling, but only if the husband came, too, a condition she knew doomed the idea. Her sister suggested she lose weight and be more obedient. Her father encouraged obedience, too, while her husband hit her through three pregnancies. After she filed for divorce, she said, her father hauled her home and hit her, too, for shaming him.
"Both my dad and my husband told me that women don't talk back," said the 29-year-old woman. "They told me the Koran said I had to be obedient, and I answered that it does not say beat up your wife."
At Hamdard, calls for help come from Muslim women as far afield as Wisconsin, Kentucky and Louisiana, shelter workers said, far more than they can accommodate with just 11 beds. They turned away 647 women and children in 2007, said Maryam Gilani, the director of Hamdard's domestic violence program, noting that about 55 percent of the women the center helped were Muslim. Some large, wealthy Muslim communities, like the one in the San Francisco area, have been unable to raise money for a shelter, which activists attribute to the wish to label the problem as foreign to Islam.
"There was resistance, and there still is," said Gilani, adding that opponents dismissed shelters as some kind of brothel. "There are some who say what we do is not right, you have to stay with your husband and make it work. They try to turn it either into a religious thing, or they say that it is just a normal thing that happens in the family."
The challenge for most organizations is getting accurate legal information to women who are often closeted at home and may not speak English. Hamdard developed several novel solutions. Briefing area grocery store owners and hairdressers that cater to Muslims produced numerous referrals. More often, it organizes mosque seminars about breast cancer, then slips in a few minutes about domestic violence.
Activists describe mosques as the most effective way to reach Muslims because immigrant societies remain heavily patriarchal and because American mosques serve as community centers. The latter also means that immigrant imams ill-equipped to deal with social problems are prone to give battered women advice like "Read the Koran more," or will try couples counseling, which can bring disastrous consequences at home.
One outspoken cleric is Imam Muhammad Magid, who runs a collective of seven mosques in suburban Virginia and is vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, the main Muslim umbrella organization in the country. Anyone getting married at one of his mosques must undergo marriage counseling during which domestic abuse is discussed.
But activists expect real change will only come with the next generation of Muslim women here, raised in an American context that condemns such violence. In most Muslim countries, the law is rooted in a combination of the Koran and tradition, so immigrants are more reticent.
"It is much more difficult there to say I want a divorce, I want custody or my husband is forcing me to have sex without my permission," said Samira Ansari, a family lawyer in San Jose, California. "Because they don't get that legal support back home, it takes them a while to understand what exists here."
Magid said older immigrants in particular refused to hold men accountable and expected imams to advise the wife to return to her husband. "So many people emphasize trying to keep the family together regardless of the pain or consequences," he said. "We tell them that the foundation of the family is peace and tranquillity and if that doesn't exist, then the family doesn't exist as a unit."
To counter opposition rooted in religious texts, Magid and others use the example of Prophet Muhammad. There is no record of him striking one of his wives; rather, he would withdraw when angered.
The raging debate comes with Chapter 4, Verse 34, in the Koran, long interpreted as giving husbands the right to strike their wives as the final step in an escalating series of punishments for being rebellious.
Maha Alkhateeb, who helped edit a book on domestic violence called "Change From Within," is among the leading activists pushing a new interpretation of the verse that understands it as calling for women to be obedient to God.
But given that the Koran is considered the unassailable word of God, it is particularly difficult for young, often secular women to promote a new interpretation. Although few men cite the Koran as justification for hitting their spouses, Alkhateeb said that in every seminar she organized about ending domestic violence, at least one man invariably asked on what authority the verse could be reinterpreted.
Re: Last Week's "Honor Killing" (domestic child abuse/murder of Sarah and Amina)
This thing down here seems to be an attempt at something broad. You have these guys who come into Dallas, marry, maybe even marry an American girl like Said did and then try to continue the Islamic (dark ages IMO) life in a Western culture. Next thing you know, there are enough people here like you who have families and they are completely devoted to Islam. They have kids, and the kids, many, many of them, are deeply influenced by Western culture and are almost impossible to keep adhered to your Islamic culture.
What do you do. You find someone who is willing to make a HUGE impression on these kids. Someone who will kill their own kids in the name of Islam, an apostates punishment per the Koran, so that when Pop says to his kids who are out of line that he will take them out, they will through deep seated fear now, go with the Islamic program, even in Western Culture.
This guy was the man to do that in Dallas. Where there are 100,000 Muslims in the Dallas/Ft Worth area per one Mosque. In other words, what this guy did to his daughters was "for the Islamic community" in their Jihad against the Western Culture, a struggle starting with their own families.
Solution. The Western Culture MUST turn around and put this man out with the death penalty. And to give these kids under a death threat a place to go if that is what they are being threatened with. Will child protective services do that? I think that should be a new responisbility for CPS. Since this thing is fairly new here.
That is what we got from talking about what we have seen here in Dallas this past week.
#2
Thank you www for keeping those of us interested in the Dallas developments informed of events and local opinion.
my favorite mind-bender from many posted in this artilce: "The Muslim community is under a lot of scrutiny, so they are reluctant to look within to face their problems because it will substantiate the arguments demonizing them," said Rafia Zakaria
Won't deal with the problem because that proves there is a problem?
#4
I suspect every other immigrant group has had the same problem, justified because that's how things were done in the old country. As the children and grandchildren assimilate, the girls refuse to accept it anymore. It sounds like that is already happening... and women who find their own interpretations of the Koran aren't likely to encourage their children to blow up the neighbors.
There are plenty of reasons to object to old country Muslim behaviour being brought over here. Female abuse, even honour killing, is not unique to the Muslim culture in the way that working to impose a choice of conversion or humiliating submission on all unbelievers is.
Malaysia has stopped granting visas for workers from India, amid rising domestic tensions. A government official said the decision might be linked to the actions of a group that led protests complaining of discrimination against ethnic Indians. But the official did not say why the decision had been made, or how long the restrictions would last.
The ban will affect thousands of manual labourers as well as professionals, including religious workers. There are currently about 140,000 legal workers from India in Malaysia.
"The government decided it is enough, and we don't want to recruit any more," Malaysian Works Minister S Samy Vellu told Reuters news agency, while at a conference in Delhi.
The Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur told the Associated Press it had contacted the relevant authorities but did not give any further details.
The Malaysian authorities had already stopped issuing work visas for Bangladeshi migrant workers, arguing that labour agents were bringing in more workers than there were jobs.
The move to stop issuing visas to Indians was taken three weeks ago, the government said.
But Tuesday's announcement took many people by surprise. A Vaithilingam, president of a Malaysian inter-faith group, said that the decision came without dialogue and was "unprecedented".
The BBC's correspondent in Kuala Lumpur, Robin Brant, said it was a significant diplomatic move by the Malaysia government. A Home Ministry official told the BBC that the decision "may be linked to Hindraf", the Hindu activists group which organised recent rallies by Malaysian ethnic Indians. Thousands of ethnic Indians took to the streets late last year in protest against perceived social and economic discrimination by the Malay-Muslim majority.
The announcement came on the final day of a visit to Malaysia by Indian Defence Minister AK Antony. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Mr Antony "did not raise the issue of ethnic Indians in Malaysia," reported the French news agency AFP.
An unnamed Indian professional told Reuters that the Malaysian government should not have taken such a drastic step. "They should recognise the contribution made by Indian workers and professionals in the economic growth of the country," he said.
Our correspondent said that tensions are high with a general election expected to take place early this year. Many people fear a repeat of the racial violence which has broken out in the past.
A Malaysian state's refusal to allow the construction of a giant Taoist statue is making the country's non-Muslim minority increasingly insecure about their religious and cultural rights, politicians said Tuesday.
Ethnic Chinese community leaders began work in 2005 to build a statue of Mazu the Taoist goddess of the sea who is believed to protect fishermen and sailors in the coastal town of Kudat in Sabah state on the northern tip of Borneo island. State officials ordered the project halted in June 2006, citing objections to its location. This sparked a protracted dispute that recently escalated after Chong Kah Kiat, a prominent Sabah politician, sought a court order to reverse the state government's decision.
"The Chinese no longer feel secure and they no longer trust the government," said Chong's lawyer, Ansari Abdullah, who is also a key state opposition leader. "They feel there has been an encroachment on their religious and cultural rights." Opposition activists expect the spat to hurt support for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's ruling coalition in Sabah traditionally one of the federal government's strongholds in general elections widely expected by mid-2008, Ansari said.
The Mazu statue on privately owned land in Sabah was to have become the world's tallest, standing at 32 meters (108 feet). Sabah media have said the objections to it were based on an Islamic cleric's claim it could offend Muslims because it was considered too near a mosque. Granite carvings made by craftsmen from China had been shipped to Sabah and a 1 million ringgit (US$300,000; 200,000) platform was built before the stop-work order was issued, according to Chong's petition filed in Sabah's High Court last month.
Some ruling coalition leaders representing non-Muslim minorities have pledged support for the project, saying it would be a major attraction for tourists from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. "If you are part of the community belonging to the Buddhist and Taoist faiths, you will feel frustrated because (this is) a legitimate project," V.K. Liew, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, a ruling coalition member, told The Associated Press.
State officials have suggested an alternative site, but activists insist there is nothing wrong with the current one. The High Court has not scheduled a hearing for Chong's petition.
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) Somalia's president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is now in London for medical checks after he had fallen ill last week, sources say on Sunday. 
The war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, accused of controlling militia that killed and raped thousands in Sierra Leone, resumed Monday in The Hague after a six month delay.
In my Human Events article today about the murder of the Said sisters, I wrote, "Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. have an all the more urgent responsibility to end their denial and confront these cultural attitudes. If they dont, and instead continue to glibly insist that religion has nothing to do with what happened to these poor girls, the murders of the Said sisters will only be the beginning of a new American phenomenon."
Operation "Lookit Me!" may have just hit a wall. Ever since French President Nicolas Sarkozy took office in May, leaked media reports on his private life have increasingly overshadowed political news that was often less uplifting. But French pundits and pollsters are now saying that if that preference for soft news over hard has been orchestrated by the Elysée, it is beginning to backfire. New opinion polls are showing serious erosion in Sarkozy's support and displeasure with the overexposure of his private life just when the news splashes that he plans to wed former super-model Carla Bruni. 
A Muskie moment, or a helpful glimpse of 'the real Hillary'?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that Brazil, Germany, India, Japan and an African country should join the U.N. Security Council as permanent members. 
Malaysia has stopped granting visas for workers from India, amid rising domestic tensions. A government official said the decision might be linked to the actions of a group that led protests complaining of discrimination against ethnic Indians. But the official did not say why the decision had been made, or how long the restrictions would last. 
