[Dawn] Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received... has sent an envoy to Caracas carrying a letter addressed to Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan supremo said Monday, without revealing the contents of the message.
"The envoy brought a letter for me. That is good, the world needs to know about this," Chavez said on state VTV television.
The envoy arrived late Sunday, but Chavez said due to medical reasons he would not be able to meet with him.
Chavez, 57, is undergoing chemotherapy after a June 20 operation in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumor and has drastically limited his public appearances.
Chavez -- Qadaffy's main supporter in Latin America -- has consistently denounced the months-long military operation in Libya claiming it is an oil grab by Western powers.
On Saturday, Chavez issued a statement formally condemning NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... 's "illegal bombing" of Libyan state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
in Tripoli, in which three people were killed and 15 maimed. He described it as a "barbaric act" against journalism and the news media.
NATO said it carried out an air strike "that disabled three ground-based Libyan state TV satellite transmission dishes in Tripoli... with the intent of degrading Qadaffy's use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people."
Chavez in 2004 was awarded the Al-Qadaffy International Prize for Human Rights, a prize granted by the Libyan leader. Cuba's Fidel Castro and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega have also won the award.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A special tribunal in Chittagong yesterday rejected bail to six people, including Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... in two cases relating to smuggling of 10-truck arms seven years ago.
The arms were loaded on the trucks at the jetty of the state-run Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) under the cover of darkness before being seized by police on April 2, 2004.
The haul, largest ever in the country, was reportedly destined for rebels of Indian separatist group United Liberation Front of Assom (Ulfa).
On the first day of the hearing yesterday, pandemonium broke out as acting Judge Golum Sarwar of Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 rejected the bail prayers amid shouts and protests by defence lawyers.
The five others whose bail petitions were rejected yesterday were Brig Gen (retd) Abdur Rahim, former director general (DG) of National Security Intelligence (NSI); Mohsin Talukder, former managing director of CUFL; Enamul Hoque, former CUFL general manager (admin); Akbar Hossain Khan, former NSI field officer, and Deen Mohammad.
Motiur Rahman Nizami and another accused, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, were among those produced before the court yesterday. Babar did not seek bail.
The court fixed August 8 as the next date for hearing in the two cases.
It also asked the authorities to submit reports on the arrest warrant for two newly charge-sheeted accused--Ulfa leader Paresh Barua and former additional secretary of industries ministry Nurul Amin--both of whom are absconding.
The court asked the officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur Police Station in Dhaka to explain why he failed to submit report by the scheduled hearing yesterday on its previous order to arrest Nurul Amin.
On June 29, the same court took the two separate supplementary charge sheets into cognisance and ordered arrest of Barua and Amin. It also asked to attach their properties.
The court asked to produce before it all the accused in the cases and to submit report on the absconding two.
As no report on the previous order regarding the two accused was submitted till the hearing, the court fixed August 8 to submit the reports, said Chittagong court sources.
Public Prosecutor Kamal Uddin Ahmad told The Daily Star that they are not so much concerned about the police report on Paresh Barua since he is a foreigner.
But police should have submitted the report about Nurul Amin, said the PP. He put the blame on Mohammadpur Police Station OC.
"If the report was submitted by today [Monday], we could have taken another step of publishing the report on newspapers. The negligence of the OC caused delay in the trial since we have to wait for the report till the next hearing."
Just before the court proceedings started, the 11 accused, including nine newly and two previously charge-sheeted, were produced before the court around 11:20am.
Around one hundred pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers who entered the courtroom at the same time instantly started shouting to provide chairs for the accused to sit while the 11 sat on the benches kept for lawyers and audiences, said courtroom sources.
Especially, the pro-Jamaat lawyers several times shouted terming the case politically motivated and mockery, creating chaos during the hearing. They said pressing charges against Nizami in the case is political harassment.
The judge and senior lawyers several times tried to calm them as the proceedings were hampered.
Several Jamaat leaders including Jamaat politician of Satkania constituency Shamsul Islam Chowdhury and former politician Shahjahan Khan were seen standing beside Nizami and talking to him all the time during the hearing, said the sources.
Nizami was seen asking the Jamaat leaders to know when the next date for hearing would be fixed and whether they would be produced before the court again that day.
Former NSI field officer Akbar Hossain Khan, another accused, was seen talking over a mobile phone provided by a lawyer. After one minute or so, a policeman snatched the phone and returned it to the lawyer.
Public Prosecutor Kamal Uddin Ahmad told the court that the trial would be hampered if defence lawyers don't behave. He hoped the court would take steps to stop chaos.
HEARING
Defence lawyer Advocate Tarique Ahmed said the supplementary charge sheets were incomplete and inconsistent.
He argued that former Army Chief General (retd) Moin U Ahmed who was the then general commanding officer (GOC) of 24th Infantry Division should be the prime accused in the cases since he had the main control over the intelligence departments like NSI and DGFI.
"But Moin was not made an accused or witness and even he was not interrogated," argued the lawyer blaming the Sherlocks for hiding his role in the charge sheet.
The court took the charge sheets into cognisance earlier without giving the defence lawyers any chance to argue against it.
The public prosecutor denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! as irrelevant as the investigation was complete and the charge sheet was already taken into cognisance by the court.
The court then heard the bail petitions of six of the accused including Nizami, who was the industry minister when the sensational arms haul occurred.
Taking part in the argument, Nizami's lawyer Manjur Ahmad Ansary said his client was innocent and charged on political motive. He should be freed on bail, the lawyer said.
The state lawyer Kamal opposed the prayer arguing that the involvement of brass hats of industries ministry including the then minister in unloading the huge cache of arms at a jetty of the ministry-run CUFL was found in the investigation.
He said the then additional secretary of the ministry Nurul Amin stayed at a CUFL rest house that night though he had no official purpose to visit the place.
Liakat Ali Noor, lawyer of Akbar Hossain, in his argument on the bail prayer alleged the Sherlocks tortured his client on two-term remand and forced Akbar to give confessional statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Two Muslim teenagers have admitted drawing burkas on advertisements of scantily-clad women because they offended their religious views.
In one incident, Mohammed Hasnath and Muhammed Tahir, both 18, used black paint to draw the traditional headdress over a model in a poster for Lynx deodorant. The vandals said it was a sin for the woman to remain uncovered and they were just trying to do good. They also painted over faces in several other advertisements, including one for the Nicolas Cage film Drive Angry.
The difference between religious indignation and simple vandalism having become in that single moment non-existent. Once again, the Muslim crank turns out to be nothing more than a tarted up criminal.
Thames Magistrates Court in Bow, East London, was told the pair were caught red-handed after members of the public called police.
It takes an awful lot to get the British public to call in the coppers. The lads must have been outstandingly obnoxious.
They had been seen painting over a female angel in the advertisement for Lynx at a bus shelter in February. Paint was also applied to the other side of the hoarding, which carried the poster for Drive Angry.
When police arrived the teenagers gave full and frank admissions, said Taiwo Akinrowo, prosecuting. He said: They told them that the way the women had been photographed was against their religion and they said it was a sin in Islam for a male to look twice at a woman who is not covered.
How many times did they look at the women as they sprayed paint over them, pray tell?
Both have admitted painting over them. At first, they did not think it was a bad thing to do but they accept that it was not legal because it was not their property.
The youths admitted six counts of criminal damage.
Hasnath said: If someone was to look at our wife or mother or daughter with a bad intention we would not like it, so we were just trying to do good.
But as these were not your womenfolk, who are you to protest what is acceptable to their menfolk?
Hasnath, of Poplar, and Tahir, of Tower Hamlets, were each told to pay costs of £283 and were released on a 12-month conditional discharge.
A more creative approach would be to also require the clever lads to strip off the damaged posters and replace them with the exact same thing.
The case came only days after Islamic extremists started a poster campaign proclaiming areas where Sharia law enforcement zones have been set up. The messages order that there should be no gambling, no music or concerts, no porn or prostitution, no drugs or smoking and no alcohol.
How is that working for them?
Community leaders in East London denounced those behind the posters as small-minded idiots.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will have to sack the head of the regime's operations against South Korea to show it is "sincere" about improving cross-border relations, a government official here said Monday.
The official was referring to Kim Yong-chol, director of the North's Reconnaissance Bureau. Kim is believed to have masterminded last year's attacks against the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeaonpyeong Island.
He is also believed to be behind the hacking of agricultural lender Nonghyup. The government believes that as long as he remains close to Kim Jong-il (no relation) and his heir apparent Jong-un, inter-Korean relations cannot improve. Kim Yong-chol was only recently elected to the Workers Party's Central Military Commission, whose vice chairman is now Kim junior.
According to a well-informed source, Kim Yong-chol is concerned about what would happen to his position if inter-Korean relations were to improve. South Korean intelligence believes it was Kim Yong-chol who caused a fracas at an inter-Korean military meeting in February, and ordered secret contacts between the two Koreas in May to be revealed on June 1.
Job security is always job one in a thugocracy...
The source said that Kim Yong-chol wields much influence over Kim Jong-un as he tutored the dynastic son in military lore while Kim junior was at Kim Il Sung Military University. Rumors have it that Kim Yong-chol boasted to fellow officials that he "brought up" Kim Jong-un.
Another government official said Kim Yong-chol's arrogance makes him unpopular within the regime. Senior military figures like Kim Yong-chun and O Kuk-ryol have openly criticized him for crippling the country to flatter Kim Jong-un. Even vice marshal Ri Yong-ho and Kim Jong-gak, the first deputy chief of the General Political Bureau, who belong to the same group of patrons of Kim Jong-un, are concerned about Kim Yong-chol's growing influence.
The official added that officials in North Korea's Foreign Ministry and the United Front Department are saying the North can only make progress if Kim Yong-chol steps down. They say he only cares about furthering his own interests, according to the official.
Unlike all the rest of them, of course, they're all patriots at heart...
A government source said, "As long as Kim Yong-chol exerts influence over both Kim senior and junior, it is unlikely that recent talks on the North's nuclear issue and foreign ministerial talks will lead to an easing of inter-Korean relations." Some pundits even predict that Kim Yong-chol can push for further provocations if the two Koreas try to engage in dialogue in earnest.
One intelligence officer said, "The Reconnaissance Bureau could try to destroy infrastructure in South Korea through spies in the South, or carry out terrorist attacks on North Korean defectors campaigning against the dictatorial regime in the South. It is also possible that the North will carry out another massive cyber attack."
Another intelligence officer said that given Kim Yong-chol's "violent and reckless nature," if he sees himself on the verge of being purged, he might resort to extreme measures such as a coup d'état.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Horst Mahler, one of the founders of the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof), is currently in prison for denying the holocaust. He is one of the most paradoxical and notorious figures in modern German history: a social democrat lawyer turned leftwing terrorist who went to prison, turned to Maoism and then came out as a far-right nationalist.
Now there is another twist: Horst Mahler, a founding member of the Red Army Faction, was also a Stasi informant.
According to German newspaper reports, the revelation comes from a leaked report by state prosecutors re-investigating the shooting of a pacifist by a Berlin policeman during a 1967 protest. According to Bild am Sonntag, which claims to have seen the report into the death of Benno Ohnesorg, Mahler was a so-called inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (informal collaborator) for the East German secret service up until 1970.
The outing of any public figure as an IM is a controversial affair, but with Mahler, who is in a Bavarian prison for denying the Holocaust, it is especially striking. If he really was collaborating with the Stasi, it shines a whole new light on his time with the Red Army Faction better known in the UK as the Baader-Meinhof gang.
Mahler represented the widow of 26-year-old Ohnesorg in a civil case she brought over her husband's death. He also led the student movement's own investigation into the shooting.
The West Berlin policeman who pulled the trigger, Karl-Heinz Kurras, was exposed as a Stasi agent two years ago. The new leaked report even suggests he deliberately fired at Ohnesorg, though he was twice cleared of deliberate homicide.
If Mahler was also working for the Stasi a fact his lawyer suggests is unlikely does this mean he was somehow in on a plot to disrupt West Germany by introducing violence into the student protests?
Mahler, who was a little older than the other West German student leaders in the late 1960s, also represented Rudi Dutschke, the most prominent spokesman for the German student movement. Later on, when Mahler was in prison for bank robberies and assisting a prison escape, Gerhard Schröder, Germany's future chancellor, became his lawyer.
If the leaked investigation into Ohnesorg's death is right, Mahler only stopped being a Stasi informant when he founded the Red Army Faction with Ulrike Meinhof, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin in 1970. He was arrested shortly afterwards and spent all of the 1970s in jail.
The true circumstances of Ohnesorg's death are important because the killing is widely credited as the catalyst for the radicalisation of the West German left, including those who went on to form the Red Army Faction.
According to Bild am Sonntag, state prosecutors decided to reopen the investigation into the death in May 2009 after Kurras was outed as a Stasi agent. The newspaper claims the leaked report shows the East German secret police played a bigger role in the shooting than was previously thought. The GDR is already known to have tried to undermine West Germany by funding radical magazines and newspapers plotting its downfall, and, in the late 1970s and 80s, offering sanctuary to Red Army Faction terrorists on the run.
Mahler's current lawyer, Mirko Röder, could not be reached by phone on Monday. But the Bild am Sonntag quoted the Berlin-based Röder as saying: "If the prosecutors' findings point to him [Mahler] being an IM, I'm surprised how deeply the Stasi were able to infiltrate the political incidents of West Germany back then."
This is another intriguing piece in the wildly unusual jigsaw that is Mahler's life, said Hans Kundnani, the author of Utopia or Auschwitz, a book about Germany's 1968 generation.
"Many members of the student movement who had grown up in West Germany and saw themselves as revolutionary socialists romanticised the GDR as the 'better Germany'," he said. "After the death of Ohnesorg, Mahler called for 'resistance' against the Federal Republic, which they saw as a fascist state. In that context, he may have seen the 'anti-fascist' GDR as a potential ally. In a sense, his whole life has been a struggle with the Nazi past."
Kundnani met Mahler when researching his book, first at a neo-Nazi retreat in Thuringia and then at his home in a Berlin suburb.
"He preferred talking about Hegel than his own life," said Kundnani. "When I asked him whether he accepted that he had changed his views since the 1960s, he said, 'You have to see it dialectically. One changes, and at the same time one remains the same.' "
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/02/2011 08:01 ||
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#1
Was there anyone back then who wasn't working for Stasi?
Posted by: S ||
08/02/2011 19:59 Comments ||
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#3
kinda wonder what the unemployment levels would've been back then if they acknowledged Stasi paychex?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2011 20:11 Comments ||
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#4
Why is this surprising? It was an open secret back in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s that the Soviet Union along with its Warsaw Pact allies trained, equipped, paid, provided safe houses and false identities to all of the major terrorist groups in the West, including the Islamic ones. The fall of the Soviet Union bankrupted and eventually destroyed the left-wing terrorists operating in Europe.
The 2011 message is shorter than in 2010 or 2009 and seems less hopey/changy. It contains the following,
"The heartbreaking accounts of lost lives and the images of families and children in Somalia and the Horn of Africa struggling to survive remind us of our common humanity and compel us to act. Now is the time for nations and peoples to come together to avert an even worse catastrophe by offering support and assistance to on-going relief efforts."
"Ramadan is also a time of intense devotion and reflection -- a time when Muslims fast during the day and pray during the night; when Muslims provide support to others to advance opportunity and prosperity for people everywhere"
"This month is also a time of renewal and this marks the first Ramadan since the President outlined his vision for a new beginning between America and the Muslim world...True partnerships also require cooperation in all areas -- particularly those that can make a positive difference in peoples' daily lives, including education, science and technology, health, and entrepreneurship - fields in which Muslim communities have helped play a pioneering role throughout history." In none of those messages did the President use the Islamic Year (which this year is 1432). In 2009 (1430) he ended his message with 'Ramadan Kareem' which means 'Bountiful Ramadan' or 'Generous Ramadan'. It would have been interesting if the President had used the alternate Islamic Greeting, "Ramadan Mubarak" which means "Blessed Ramadan".
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/02/2011 11:35 ||
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#1
Hey Ramadamadingdongers,
How about sending some of your leftovers to your coreligionists in Somalia. The infidels are tired of feeding these ingrates.
the statement "Ramadan is also..." was from 2009
the statement "This month is ..." was from 2010
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/02/2011 13:28 Comments ||
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#3
MY MESSAGE: Mr President, before you cut into that meat from an animal who was left to bleed to death in agony after a knife was thrust in its throat, think about what the Eid Festival means. In 624 AD, Muhammad's bandits ceased plundering Syian and Yemeni traders, and set out to slaughter their own families. The butchery that you celebrate is taken by the cult of the child abandoning reprobate who sired you, to mean the dehumanization of all "disbeliever" (kafirs) in a cult that has Murdered over 300,000,000 Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, etc and destroyed thousands of indigenous cultures.
At the Badr-Massacre, which you celebrate in Eid, sons murdered fathers. Eid is symbolic in this way: the throat of the lamb that is cut is taken as your throat. Your presence at Eid means that you are serving up kafirs to Genocidal mohammadanism. Attendance at Eid is the exact equivalent of Neo-Nazis using Zyklon-B gas-chamber knock-offs, to celebrate the Holocaust, and with dhimmi Jews participating.
Consider this when you bite into that lamb, the enemy that you serve are the historical spawn of the wild animals who have slaughtered a number nearly equivalent to the population of the country that you serve to the benefit of that enemy.
Eid Mubarak may translate as "happy feast", but it means: slaughter kafirs without moral constraint.
#4
before someone complains, the years in my post and Tyranasaurus's comment don't calculate well because one Islamic year = about 355 days where
one Julian or Gregorian (secular) year = about 365 days; and yes, that does mean that sometimes Ramadan occurs twice in one secular year
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/02/2011 18:31 Comments ||
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#5
Bizarre means are used to date ramadan.
It is important to separate ramadan from eid, which symbolizes the glory of murder of kafirs. The Badr-Massacre was fought during ramadan, thus has its own significance.
As for ramadan, mohammadans are not even allowed to swallow their own saliva during same. How would you like to be on a bus at 8 PM, with a driver who has had no nourishment for 14 hours?
Johnson! Stop the presses!!
[Tolo News] National Directorate of Security on Monday said that if the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is alive, he may be imprisoned or hidden by Pakistain's intelligence to avoid him facing the late Osama bin Laden's ... Maybe his Mom misses him... fate.
NDS Spokesman Lotfullah Mashal dismissed the claim by Afghan politician Mrs Homa Sultani that Mullah Mohammad Omar is in Afghanistan and is her guest.
Homa Sultani who represents Ghazni province in the House of Representatives said she even informed President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... , but the president refused to accept her claim.
"The United States is after him and he is included in the UN black list. If his safety is guaranteed, I would bring him to deliver a speech before the Afghan people. Mullah Omar's life is vital to stability in Afghanistan," Omar Sultani said.
Experts express suspicion that Mrs Homa Sultani may be suffering from some mental problem.
Faizullah Jalal, a lecturer at Kabul University, said: "The National Directorate of Security should pursue this case and should make it clear what is the psychological status of this lady."
Mr Jalal added if Mullah Omar is not found at Mrs Sultani's house, then she should be punished, because this sort of remarks confuse the Afghan people.
NDS Spokesman Lotfullah Mashal said: "Mullah Mohammad Omar is living in the city of Quetta in Pakistain and he could never come to Afghanistan so openly."
To prevent him from joining the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, Mullah Omar may have been held in jug or hidden by Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), Mr Mashal said.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the runaway leader of the Taliban, has been one of the controversial figures in Afghanistan and in the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
And Pakistan is a nuclear power. Why? Pak muslims were allowed to work in Dutch' nuclear facilities, and took the technology back to their terrorist homeland. Check the nuclear-medicine department at your local university and you will see a lot of Muhammads on the faculty list. I wonder what they do in their spare time?
#2
Mostly they have a nuclear program because China gave it to them, Thumper and Tenille2812. Pakistanis are quite good at machine shop stuff, witness their private gun manufacturies, but they teach a physics tht involves putting the djinn constants into their equations. Even Libya's nuclear program, acquired courtesy of A.Q.Khan, PhD, had the original Chinese assembly directions, still in the original wrapper.
[Dawn] Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain on wee hours of Tuesday gave an ultimatum to the president and the prime minister to impede violence in Bloody Karachi within next 48 hours, DawnNews reported.
In a press statement issued from London, Hussain also threatened the government of strong public retaliation if the deadline expires without obtaining desired results.
People would take on the task of defending their lives and belongings by taking the law into their own hands, the statement said.
Hussain said he tried everything possible within his powers to help stop murders and violence in the city but his efforts were appeared to be going in vane.
He warned President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... , that the government would be the sole responsible for repercussions if peace was not restored in the Sindh capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] MQM member Haider Abbas Rizvi on Monday accused Senior Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and other gangs responsible for the unrest in Bloody Karachi, DawnNews reported.
Sindh Information Secretary Sharjeel Memon rejected the statements against Zulfiqar Mirza and called it irresponsible.
Speaking to the media Haider Rizvi said that the MQM is not rejoining the federal cabinet.
He further said that MQM will play its part of the opposition in the province and in the centre.
He also said that agreements made for the Sindh Governor Dr. Ishrat- ul- Ebad's return have not been fulfilled.
"Sindh Governor has not yet received the administrative powers. If the governor decides to resign it would lead to more unrest in the city," said Haider Rizvi.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Legislature of Iraqs al-Ahrar (Liberals) Bloc of the National Coalition, Maha al-Douri, has called on the Iraqi government and Parliament to issue a decision banning attacks and detentions by the U.S. forces in Iraq, calling on the Iraqi Legislation to arrest any American, who violates the Security Agreement, concluded between both countries.
The Iraqi government and the Parliament must issue a decision to ban the American forces from carrying out any military operation in Iraq, Douri told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, expressing anxiety for the Iraqi governments silence towards the American military operations, that violated the said Agreement.
She said that the American forces had carried out an air-landing in southern Iraqs Basra city, arrested 3 citizens, beaten women, stolen money and terrified children, in al-Qurna townships Nukheilat village, calling on the Iraqi Judiciary to arrest any American, who carries out a military operation.
Must be taking lessons from Sheila Jackson Lee...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has bowed to US pressure by agreeing for the first time that a Palestinian state should roughly follow the contours of the 1967 ceasefire lines separating the West Bank from Israel.
The offer, which emerged tonight appeared to represent a major climb-down by Mr Netanyahu, who has consistently refused to discuss specific borders of a future state.
A government official in Jerusalem told The Daily Telegraph the offer was dependent on the Palestinians dropping their campaign for statehood at the United Nations next month and accepting Israel as a Jewish state.
The offer appears to cross Palestinian red lines, and it seemed likely to be rejected although the onus is now likely to be placed on the Palestinians to present a counter offer.
Mr Netanyahu reacted angrily when the 1967 proposal was made by Barack Obama in May but was now said to be offering to trade Israeli territory on its side of the line for West Bank land where its main settlements were located.
We are willing in a framework of restarting the peace talks to accept a proposal that would contain elements that would be difficult for Israel and we would find very difficult to endorse, said an official, answering a question about the Obama proposal.
The Palestinians said they had not received a proposal from Israel. They have demanded that Israel stop construction in its West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem before peace talks resume. Mr Netanyahu was said to have wanted talks with no preconditions where issues such as settlements and borders would be discussed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/02/2011 08:00 ||
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#1
Huge mistake. Only postponing what is going to happen in the future anyway. Take a stand even if it is your last stand. Trust in American. Obama is a fraud and is going to be removed. Let the "toothless" UN order up whatever they want. How are they going to enforce their orders? Remember: Divide and Conquer. Lord Howard Hurts
Posted by: Lord Howard Hurts ||
08/02/2011 9:17 Comments ||
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#2
I agree this isn't a good idea. However, given that Hamas exempts itself and the Gaza Strip from the discussion on the one hand, and Dahlan (for the rising generation) is feuding with Abbas (for the elders) for control of Fatah/the Palestinian Authority, who is going to sign off for the Palestinians?
#4
IMO Benji + Knesset are counting on the PA = Paleos to reject the pre-conditions, so they lose nothing while simul gaining alot of PR in their favor.
And even presum that the PA did accept the pre-conditions, HEZBOLLAH + AL-QAEDA + OTHER DIE-HARD MILTERR GROUPS WON'T.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah condemned on Monday the Wazzani clash that broke out earlier in the day, saying it is a reminder to the Lebanese people of the Jewish state's "hostile nature."
It said in a statement: "Any attack against any element of the army, people, and Resistance equation is an assault against the whole of Leb.
"L'etat c'est moi."
It therefore voiced its "complete solidarity" with the army, stressing that it will stand by it in any Israeli attack.
Even the ones it triggers by its own actions.
Furthermore, Hizbullah noted that the attack coincided with the Lebanese army's celebration of Army Day and a few days short of the sixth anniversary of the end of the July 2006 war.
A clash erupted between the Lebanese and Israeli armies Monday morning when a Jewish state patrol crossed the Blue Line into Leb.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Hokay. Works for me.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/02/2011 23:00 Comments ||
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One day before the start of Ramadan, the once avowedly secular regime of Bashar Assad in Syria has found religion amid growing civil unrest threatening to reach the capital Damascus.
A new government-run religious TV station, Nour A-Sham (The Light of Syria) began test broadcasts on Friday, the official SANA news agency reported. The channel is to broadcast Friday sermons and religious programming "to provide a correct understanding of Islam and Islamic rules," SANA reported.
Meanwhile, in the coastal city of Tartus, a conference titled "Reform From a Religious Point of View," brought together the country's Minister of Religious Endowments and pro-regime clerics, trying to subdue the popular uprising through religious argumentation.
"The clerics are complementing the role of the security forces," Faraj Bayrakdar, a Syrian poet and dissident living in Sweden, told The Media Line. "Every tyrannical regime has used clerics to get legitimacy, and Assad's is no exception."
Assad's Baath party, which took control of the country in a military coup in 1963, traditionally banned public religious discourse as part of its secular, Socialist and pan-Arab ideology. The regimes newfound religiosity comes as the death toll in the country dramatically peeked over the weekend and the once secular agenda of the anti-government opposition, which called for political reform, has taken on an increasingly religious tinge.
At least 45 civilians were killed in the central Syrian city of Hama on Sunday, as troops and tanks stormed civilians shouting "God is great!" Three weeks ago in Istanbul, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Support of the Syrian People issued a religious opinion (fatwa) declaring support for the Syrian revolution to be a religious obligation.
In their closing statement, the Istanbul clerics called on pro-Assad clerics to stand up to him or "face the consequences in this world and the afterlife."
In addition to dispatching troops, Assad has adopted a variety of tactics to quell protests now into their fifth month. He has blamed foreign interference for instigating the protests, boosted subsidies and promised democratic reform. Nothing has worked, and Bayrakdar said the Syrian public isnt buying the regime's new religious veneer either.
The killings are now estimated to have reached in excess of 1,400 people and even those far removed from the violence are witness to them through pictures and videos sent by cellphone cameras, he said.
Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, a Qatar-based think tank, said Assad was acting out of concern that Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and prayer, might spur a surge of new protests. The president is trying to counterbalance religiously inspired calls to protest via an alliance with clerics who favor the status quo.
"This is a preemptive move to try and retake control of the situation," Hamid told The Media Line.
"There is no justification for protests because a series of reforms is underway," Minister of Endowments Muhammad Abd A-Sattar Al-Sayyid was quoted by London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, adding that Syrian clerics have religiously prohibited demonstrations. The daily reported that religious figures and mosque imam's across the country has been directed to discourage protests during Ramadan.
One day before the start of Ramadan, the once avowedly secular regime of Bashir al-Assad in Syria has found religion amid growing civil unrest threatening to reach the capital Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... .A new government-run religious TV station, Nour A-Sham (The Light of Syria) began test broadcasts on Friday, the official SANA news agency reported. The channel is to broadcast Friday sermons and religious programming "to provide a correct understanding of Islam and Islamic rules," SANA reported.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... in the coastal city of Tartus, a conference titled "Reform From a Religious Point of View," brought together the country's Minister of Religious Endowments and pro-regime holy mans, trying to subdue the popular uprising through religious argumentation.
"The holy mans are complementing the role of the security forces," Faraj Bayrakdar, a Syrian poet and dissident living in Sweden, told The Media Line. "Every tyrannical regime has used holy mans to get legitimacy, and Assad's is no exception."
Assad's Baath party, which took control of the country in a military coup in 1963, traditionally banned public religious discourse as part of its secular, Socialist and pan-Arab ideology. The regime's newfound religiosity comes as the corpse count in the country dramatically peeked over the weekend and the once secular agenda of the anti-government opposition, which called for political reform, has taken on an increasingly religious tinge.
At least 45 non-combatants were killed in the central Syrian city of Hama on Sunday, as troops and tanks stormed civilians shouting "God is great!" Three weeks ago in Istanbul, the Association of Mohammedan Scholars in Support of the Syrian People issued a religious opinion (fatwa) declaring support for the Syrian revolution to be a religious obligation.
In their closing statement, the Istanbul holy mans called on pro-Assad holy mans to stand up to him or "face the consequences in this world and the afterlife."
In addition to dispatching troops, Assad has adopted a variety of tactics to quell protests now into their fifth month. He has blamed foreign interference for instigating the protests, boosted subsidies and promised democratic reform. Nothing has worked, and Bayrakdar said the Syrian public isn't buying the regime's new religious veneer either.
The killings are now estimated to have reached in excess of 1,400 people and even those far removed from the violence are witness to them through pictures and videos sent by cellphone cameras, he said.
Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, a Qatar-based think tank, said Assad was acting out of concern that Ramadan, the Mohammedan month of fasting and prayer, might spur a surge of new protests. The president is trying to counterbalance religiously inspired calls to protest via an alliance with holy mans who favor the status quo.
"This is a preemptive move to try and retake control of the situation," Hamid told The Media Line.
"There is no justification for protests because a series of reforms is underway," Minister of Endowments Muhammad Abd A-Sattar Al-Sayyid was quoted by London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, adding that Syrian holy mans have religiously prohibited demonstrations. The daily reported that religious figures and mosque imam's across the country has been directed to discourage protests during Ramadan.
#1
"to provide a correct understanding of Islam and Islamic rules,"
i.e.: Allah forbids protesting against Assad
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2011 15:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What, are the Assads going to convert to Islam next? Seeing as Alawis are about as Muslim as Mormons are Christian, there's a pretty damn good set of reasons why the Syrian Ba'ath held on to their secular character a lot longer than their Iraqi brethren did.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/02/2011 15:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Saddam tried this too at crunchtime.
How'd that work out?
the Shah allegedly bribed or coerced a group of Iranian shia clergy produced a fatwa declaring the Alawites to be non heretics. In addition, a Lebanon Shia clergyman also proclaimed the Alawites to be non heretical
that might not make sense theologically but not all theological decisions are theologically consistent
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/02/2011 19:02 Comments ||
Top||
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One day before the start of Ramadan, the once avowedly secular regime of Bashir al-Assad in Syria has found religion amid growing civil unrest threatening to reach the capital 
"The 
In their closing statement, the Istanbul 
