[Asharq al-Aswat] Sudanese opposition parties threatened on Wednesday to boycott their country's first multiparty election in a quarter century, saying fair contests were not possible.
Over a dozen northern opposition parties were meeting Wednesday to consider the boycott after their calls for postponing the April 11 vote were ignored. The surest way to lose an election is not to run. Usually you boycott an election that you think you're going to lose -- if you're going to win you don't mind it being a crooked affair. So announcing a boycott is tantamount to saying that you're a loser and you know it. Not surprisingly a big chunk of the population then begins to wonder if you're the strong horse.
The opposition maintains that overwhelming government control of the media and election monitoring bodies as well as biased legislation make a fair vote impossible.
The junior partner in the governing coalition, the southern Sudan People's Liberation Party, said it would back the opposition's decision, throwing its relations with the president's party into jeopardy.
The elections are a crucial step in the 2005 north-south peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war and paves the way for a referendum when southerners would decide whether they will opt for secession from the Muslim-dominated north.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir already struck back threatening to cancel the south's cherished referendum in which they hope to become an independent state. "If they (the south) say there will be no elections, we will say there will be no referendum," he said in a rally Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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Russia's president has made a surprise visit to Dagestan, a day after 12 people were killed in a double suicide attack in the North Caucasus republic. Dmitry Medvedev called for "tough, severe and preventative" anti-terrorism tactics at talks with regional leaders.
Funerals are meanwhile being held in Moscow for most of the 39 people killed on Monday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on the city's Metro. A rebel Chechen leader, Doku Umarov, has said he ordered the attack.
Accompanied by top security officials, President Medvedev flew to Makhachkala on Thursday to hold emergency talks with the leaders of Russia's troubled North Caucasus republics, including Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia. "The list of anti-terrorism measures should be expanded. They should be not only effective but also tough, severe and preventative," Mr Medvedev said, according to Russian news agencies. "We need to punish."
Speculation continues that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will imminently visit China. A senior South Korean government official on Wednesday said Seoul is paying close attention. Attention now focuses on early April, before the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly opens on April 9.
A South Korean security official said, "In 2004, Kim crossed the Apnok (or Yalu) River three days after we found out about his plan to visit China. But in 2007, he just went to [the border city of] Sinuiju and returned."
Since he took power, Kim had visited China four times -- in 2000, 2001, 2004, and 2006. The last visit was in April 2006. Topics to be discussed could include economic aid from China and the North's return to the six-party nuclear talks. It will be interesting to see if he is accompanied by his son and heir apparent Jong-un.
China's official Xinhua news agency on Wednesday said Xu Caihou, the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, held talks with a North Korean military delegation led by Maj. Gen. An Yong-gi in Beijing on Tuesday.
A North Korean source speculated, "An and his delegation may have discussed protocol and security as an advance party for Kim."
Kim is said to have been in Pyongyang since he had dinner with new Chinese ambassador to the North Liu Hongcai in Pyongyang on Monday. Liu is likely to accompany Kim on his visit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Compare wid PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE NEXT STEP FOR PAKISTAN - FULL NATO ALLY?
A Belgian parliamentary committee has voted to ban face-covering Islamic veils from being worn in public.
The home affairs committee voted unanimously to endorse the move, which must be approved by parliament for it to become law.
Such a vote could be held within weeks, correspondents say, meaning that Belgium could become the first European country to implement a ban.
France is also considering restricting face-covering veils.
There are several types of headscarves and veils for Muslim women - those that cover the face being the niqab and the burka.
The BBC's Dominic Hughes reports from Brussels that there are about 500,000 Muslims in Belgium, and the Belgian Muslim Council says only a couple of dozen wear full-face veils.
Several districts of Belgium have already banned the burka in public places under old local laws originally designed to stop people masking their faces completely at carnival time.
The wording of the draft law approved by the parliamentary committee says the ban would apply to areas accessible to the public - which would include people walking in the street or using public transport - and would be enforced by fines or even prison.
Denis Ducarme, from the Belgian centre-right Reformist Movement that proposed the bill, said he was "proud that Belgium would be the first country in Europe which dares to legislate on this sensitive matter".
A colleague, Corinne De Parmentier, said: "We have to free women of this burden."
#1
This is not entirely accurate. A veil is allowed if one also wears pants backwards and with the belt loop below their ass cheeks. A sideways pointed Glock is optional.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2010 1:20 Comments ||
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#2
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > NIQAB VEIL BAN CONTROVERSY BECOMING A FLASHPOINT IN CANADA [amongst Muslims, Muslims-vs.CAN Govt].
* SPACE WAR > OFFICIAL: EUROPEAN DEFENCE ALLIANCE IS DISSOLVED [Post-WW2, Pre-NATO WEU Agreement].
#4
Progress from across the pond. Yet more evidence that Europe is getting tougher, even as Barry & Holder want us to be more relaxed. At some point they're going to surpass us. sigh.
NEW DELHI: Maoists seem to be facing a leadership crisis due to differences at the top.
Though the arrest of six out of 14 politburo members of CPI (Maoist) in the past three years had already made a heavy dent, recent reports indicating differences between chief Ganapathi and senior leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji has made ripples down to the lower cadre.
Security agencies recently seized a number of documents, including correspondence between Ganapathi and Kishenji, showing that the differences had turned into suspicion' between them over their individual security.
The documents show that there are clear differences at the top over method of operations. It, in fact, corroborated what Kishenji's right-hand man Telugu Deepak told his interrogators in West Bengal,' said a senior security official. Deepak alias Venkateswara Reddy, a West Bengal state committee member, was arrested by the state police on March 2.
Besides stating how the top leaders were not sure about each other's actions amid facing heat from security forces across Naxal-infested states, Deepak had told cops how even the movement of politburo members had, of late, been compromised.
Referring to the seized documents, the official said the differences had occurred over the way Kishenji and his comrades in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar were associating themselves with the Lalgarh resistance as against Ganapathi's idea of taking on security forces simultaneously in different states.
CPI (Maoist) which came into existence after the merger of People's War Group (PWG), active in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, with the West Bengal-Bihar-Jharkhand centred Maoist and Communist Centre (MCC) in 2004 is now facing pulls from different sides.
While one group led by Kishenji wants to dominate Lalgarh considering it the centre of their resistance, the other led by Ganapathi feel the West Bengal unit is excessively obsessed with local politics. Though both Kishenji and Ganapathi were with PWG in Andhra Pradesh, security agencies found that the former now seems to be more interested in the affairs of the northern parts having its nerve centre in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
The MCC and PWG groups within CPI (Maoist) also differ on the methods of operation. Differences had cropped up in the wake of beheading of Jharkhand police inspector Francis Indwar last year. While erstwhile MCC leaders had justified such action, ex-PWG cadres had objected to the killing. Besides, erstwhile PWG members are finding it tough to deal with MCC leaders who are divided on caste lines.
The security forces are now trying to use these differences as an opportunity to break the cadre,' a security official said.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2010 18:05 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq has ended. Want to bet that doesn't make the CBS Evening News?
Although the crisis has ended, there are still some weak points,' the UNICEF said in a report posted online. It said that investments in Iraq should move from dealing with minor cases toward embracing more permanent solutions. So keep that money rolling in, okay?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Say thank you to the US Military and our Allies, and the generosity of the US people (mainly red-state types).
#2
It is truly tragic that UNICEF changed from being a proponent of children to being an instrument of what must be called "evil".
Founded to help starving children in Europe after WWII, in 1989 it embraced the extreme left-wing "Convention on the Rights of the Child", which was anything but what its title suggested.
Before it had been concerned with the "big four interventions: growth monitoring, oral rehydration therapy, breastfeeding, and immunization."
But after the CRC it embraced the doctrines of radicals of all stripes. It now funds children's suicide bomber schools in Gaza, and the "International Child's Day of Broadcasting", spending huge amounts of money to advocate for international taxation for things like AIDS--while no longer funding programs to help children with AIDS.
It is also likely that UNICEF will go the way of the UN "Human Rights" Commission, which is now run by the worst human rights offenders of the world. As such, UNICEF will no longer discourage child slavery, child labor and prostitution, infanticide, etc.
Interviewer: "There has always been killing -- every occupier kills people. But the Zionist occupier [not only] kills people, but also destroys stones, destroys the Islamic holy places, destroys the trees of this land, and destroys Islamic and non-Islamic antiquities. Do they have a natural disposition towards these criminal deeds? Throughout history, these Zionists or Jews have done nothing good."
Dr. Yousef Al-Sharrafi: "It reminds me that when the people whom Allah saved with Moses encountered people worshipping their idols, they said to Moses: 'Make for us gods like their gods.' We are talking about the 'respected' race, which Allah saved from drowning.
"Imagine what tricks they play with regard to God's decrees. God said: 'Do not fish on the Sabbath.' They said: 'We won't.' But to those who violated the Sabbath, Allah said: 'Be apes, despised and hated.' They cast their nets on the Friday in order to collect them on the Sunday. They specialize in deceit. Therefore, they now bring shekels -- or the currency they used before the shekel -- and place them in the excavations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, so that when their future generations come -- and we ask Allah that they don't come -- they will say that the Jewish antiquities from these excavations prove that this blessed land belongs to them.
"The enemy will be driven out by means of martyrdom operations, like the ones that were carried out from the West Bank. Immediately after the [1994] Hebron massacre, we witnessed the operations in Afula, in Hadera, in Dizengoff Street [in Tel Aviv], operations in Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip. All these operations were carried out in order to avenge the blood of the people who were slaughtered in the Hebron massacre.
"If the enemy knew that it would pay the price -- especially through martyrdom operations in its buses and its restaurants - it would think a million times before taking such measures."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, doc, if it happens, the first thing on my agenda would be putting a coupla bullets in your face.
In an interview last month on Al-Arabiya TV, former Saudi Shura Council member Ibrahim Al-Buleihi said that Arab individualism has been erased, rendering the Arab "incapable of independent thinking," and that what prevails is "the spirit of the herd that cannot free itself from the captivity of the prevailing culture."
In the interview, which aired on February 26, 2010, Al-Buleihi sang the praises of Western civilization, saying that notions such as human rights are not "an accumulated achievement, in which all societies played a role, but an achievement of the West." Arab societies "should benefit from this rich experience," rather than remaining "a burden on the West."
"Tyranny is a tremendous obstacle, which makes any progress impossible," said Al-Buleihi. On the situation in post-Saddam Iraq, he said: "Iraq has not been permitted to achieve stability. The whole world has intervened in its affairs." He viewed Western intervention in Iraq as a positive thing, comparing the situation to that of Japan after World War II.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Fatwa to be issued against Ibrahim for saying this?
#2
This runs to the roots of Islam, which at the time of its founding was better than the murderous tribalism that dominated the region. They actually took up and had pride in the mantle of civilization.
However the rest of the world caught up, then passed them, so now they are the barbarians, fighting to keep their primitivism. Yet still clutching to the idea that they are more civilized. Which explains much of their arrogance.
It does serve as a warning that we should never be complacent about our superiority. That there will likely come down the pike those who advocate resting on our laurels and no longer striving for greatness. These people, Democrats, would lead to our downfall, by taking of our harvest, but not sewing or cultivating a new crop.
Anyway , had a scoot round the internet looking for fatwas , and heres a few that made me chuckle :
1)Sheik Sadeq Abdallah bin Al-Majed, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, issued a fatwa that prohibits vaccination of children claiming it is a conspiracy of the Jews and Freemasons.conspiracy to make Muslims sterile-fine by me, check
2)In 2008, a Pakistani religious leader issued a fatwa on President Asif Ali Zardari for "indecent gestures" toward Sarah Palin, U.S. Vice Presidential candidateWhen ratings are slack, pull a bird or give the bird!
3)In 2005, the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued the Fatwa that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam and that Iran shall never acquire these weaponspower and influence still embracing you ?
4)Grand Mufti Sheikh Ibn Baaz: The Sun Revolves Around the Earth
In a 2000 Fatwa titled The Transmitted and Sensory Proofs of the Rotation of the Sun and Stillness of the Earth, Saudi Arabian Grand Mufti Sheikh Ibn Baaz asserted that the earth was flat and disk-like and that the sun revolved around it. He had insisted that satellite images to the contrary were nothing but a Western conspiracy against the Islamic world.The underlying unpleasant conspiracy theory strikes again , its like halitosis !!
5)The Fatwa: Rashad Hassan Khalil: No Nudity for Sex
In 2007, the former dean of Islamic law at al-Azhar University in Cairo issued a fatwa that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage between husband and wife. Debate was immediate. Suad Saleh, head of the womens department of Al-Azhars Islamic studies, pleaded for anything that can bring spouses closer to each other and Islamic scholar Abdel Muti concurred, saying Nothing is prohibited during marital sex, except of course sodomy.
For his part, Al-Azhars fatwa committee chairman Abdullah Megawar backpedaled and said that married couples could see each other naked but should really cover up with a blanket during sex.Aaah good times !
6)The Fatwa: Sheik Ali Gomaa: Urine Fatwa
According to Egypts Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, drinking the urine of Muhammad is deemed a great blessing. What, they have a lot of this stuff lying around, going to waste or something? Remember, Muhammad never claimed that he himself was divineso why does his piss have magic properties? Failing to pass the laugh test with Muslim scholars, Mufti later recanted, saying it was only his personal opinion. ooooookay, lol
Where do I sign up ! Such enlightenment makes me want to just throw in the towel and my lot with these crazy pillocks.
Posted by: Oscar ||
04/01/2010 9:49 Comments ||
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#4
Mustn't forget the first muslim to go into space; the continuing arguement about what counts as a day, how to pray 5 times within what that day is, and how to make which direction to face or how to prevent spinning wildly off-target while making such a motion in free fall.
#5
Sometimes looking in the mirror and obsession with one's own image can lead to craziness and dangerous narcissism. Worst case is spodadopes or large-scale destruction/murder of people. It also manifests as a desire for holocausts.
Senator John Kerry is in Syria, and has concluded after meeting with President Assad the Younger that Syria is committed to peace, whatever that means. It's only that there are a few niggling details to work out, like arming Hezb'allah in Lebanon and supporting Hamas in Gaza. Sen. Kerry is one of a flow of U.S. officials who have called on Damascus recently.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt on Wednesday, the official Syrian news agency said, sealing reconciliation with one of his fiercest former critics in Lebanon.
Jumblatt had turned fiercely anti-Syrian after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri and criticized Assad as responsible for the killing. But he has since said good ties with Syria were crucial to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos and to preserve its Druze minority.
Jumblatt said recently that critical comments he had made about Assad were inappropriate.
The reconciliation was being mediated by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. "Sign here, Wally."
The enigmatic Jumblatt was a powerful warlord during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, during which his father, Kamal Jumblatt, was assassinated after disagreements with Damascus. Most of Lebanon's Druze elders blamed Syria for the killing, but Damascus denied any role.
After the Hariri killing, Jumblatt spearheaded the strategy of the "March 14" alliance, which accused Syria of the killing. He was also one of the strongest critics of Syrian and Iranian backed Hezbollah, and its operations outside the control of the sectarian-based Lebanese state.
Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies fought Jumblatt's followers in a 2008 conflict that brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war, but their relations have since improved.
The Hariri killing sparked international criticism that forced an end to Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon. A special court set up in The Hague has yet to indict anyone for Hariri's killing, in which Damascus has denied any role.
Syria has been regaining influence in Lebanon since then, helped by its emergence from Western isolation and a subtler approach to its management of Lebanese politics and ties with Beirut.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
All you need is Wally to see which way the wind is blowing...
[Al Arabiya Latest] A U.N. team investigating the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri has interrogated members of Shiite militant party Hezbollah, the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday.
"In the past few weeks the prosecutor's office in Beirut contacted a number of our brothers, some of them members of Hezbollah and others close to the party, and requested they come in for interrogation," Nasrallah said in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar television. "They called in 12 of our brothers in recent weeks, and I believe they are now in the process of summoning six more," he added.
The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by a U.N. Security Council resolution in 2007 to try suspects in the murder of Hariri, who was killed in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.
Not in the line of fire
In its first annual report published in March, the tribunal said investigators were getting closer to identifying the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.
But Nasrallah said his party was not currently in the tribunal's line of fire.
"Representatives of the prosecutor's office guaranteed us that all those being interrogated were called in as witnesses, and not as suspects, at a semi-official meeting with representatives of Hezbollah," Nasrallah said.
"The prosecutor's office has not until now accused any Hezbollah member. But we don't know what could happen in the future," he added.
None of those interrogated were public figures, Nasrallah said, adding that the tribunal had also interrogated male and female party members in previous years.
"Some of our brothers and sisters were interrogated at the end of 2008, after the events of May 7 and right before the four generals were released," he said.
He was referring to street battles that broke out in the Lebanese capital Beirut on May 7, 2008 -- the worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war -- pitting supporters of a Hezbollah-led alliance to those of a rival camp loyal to Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, an MP and now prime minister.
The clashes, sparked by a government crackdown on Hezbollah's private communications network, left over 100 people dead.
Four Lebanese generals were detained for nearly four years in connection with Hariri's assassination but were released last April, after evidence against them was deemed insufficient.
The Hariri murder has been widely blamed on Syria, a main backer of Hezbollah, although Damascus has roundly denied any involvement.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2010 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.
Speculation continues that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will imminently visit China. A senior South Korean government official on Wednesday said Seoul is paying close attention. Attention now focuses on early April, before the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly opens on April 9. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] A U.N. team investigating the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri has interrogated members of Shiite militant party Hezbollah, the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday.
