[Arab News] On arriving in Islamabad on board a PIA flight from Manchester on Saturday, bigamist Javed Iqbal was surprised to be met by the seven women who he had married on different visits to Pakistain.
Unknown to Iqbal, the seven women -- from different Pak cities -- had come to know each other and of his multiple marriages. Instead of greeting him with garlands of flowers, the women had come to confront him with their shoes in hand. The women, who had come with their mothers, had learned that Iqbal was coming once more in search of an eighth wife.
Offering him no smiles as he came into the airport foyer, the women set upon Iqbal who yelled and begged for mercy.
What was further unlucky for him was the fact that a TV cameraman filmed the women beating Iqbal at the taxi stand. "His method to marry a girl has always been the same. He would say he would take them to London," one of the women told journalists.
Iqbal is from Mirpur, Azad Kashmire, and went to the UK in 1998. He worked as a handyman and now owns a grocery shop. It is unknown whether he has any wives in the UK.
As the beating ended, Iqbal took his families to Mirpur in two vehicles, telling AAJ TV, "I only married three girls. I divorced the fourth one."
How does he run a shop if he can't do simple arithmetic? Seven met him, he married four and divorced one (which is what he must have meant), which still leaves three unaccounted for... or possibly four, depending on whether she was one of the wives there. Perhaps his next wife should be a bookkeeper.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2011 00:00 ||
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wonder if the wives are all cousins?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2011 1:49 Comments ||
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Before we pass judgement we should pause to recall multiculturalism's mantra that all cultures are of equal intrinsic value.(/sarc)
If this was a white (or any non-muslim) British bigamist turning up in Pakistan and getting ambushed by his seven irate wives, it would be headlines on the BBC, and the man would become Public Enemy Nmber One (for at least a week). As things are, this isn't newsworthy, just a minor intra-cultural incident. Women's rights, amongst other things, don't apply if you're born muslim.
[Maghrebia] For more than thirty years, a special campus police unit has monitored Tunisian students. One of the first moves by the Tunisian interim government was to order an end to their presence.
"We are working towards fostering responsibility among students," government front man Taieb Baccoucheb said at a January 22nd presser.
Speaking at the same event, Minister of Higher Education Ahmed Brahim announced that he would "take all necessary steps to enforce the government decision to abolish campus police in the universities".
Along with providing security on campus, the police monitored university students' activities.
Members of the General Union of Tunisian Students (UGET), which was opposed to ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his predecessor Habib Bourguiba, were subject to particular scrutiny.
UGET members faced restrictions and were persecuted for demanding better education and accommodation. Seventeen students were nabbed as a result of a demonstration at Manouba University in 2009.
"We have been oppressed and subjugated for more than three decades, but in the end -- thanks to the Tunisian people's revolution -- we will be able to take back our rightful place in Tunisian universities," said Moez, a student at 9 April University.
The university security scheme came into existence in the 1970s as a result of campus protests when pro-government students took over the 18th conference of the UGET. This was met with resistance from all student bodies and ended in massive demonstrations under the government of Hedi Nouira.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2011 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Opposition members in Uganda are threatening Egypt-style protests if next Friday's presidential election is rigged so that Yoweri Museveni can extend his 25-year grip on power.
Museveni is widely expected to win another term in office, and the Ugandan military and police would likely crush any attempted revolt. 'As long as people are oppressed for a long time, as long as they become hopeless in all processes ... then a time comes when their anger explodes,' opposition candidate Kizza Besigye said in an interview.
Museveni, who seized power in 1986 as the head of a guerrilla army, faces Besigye and six other opponents in the election. The longtime leader, who has been accused of quashing dissent and reversing presidential term limits, warned against unrest during the upcoming poll. 'I hear some characters talking about violence during elections. There will be no violence. Whoever attempts will do so at his or her own risk,' he said earlier this month.
Pro-democracy protesters in Egypt brought down geriatric President Hosni Mubarak on Friday after three decades of authoritarian rule. Analysts are playing down the possibility of a similar Ugandan uprising. 'There may be some pockets of people coming to protest but it won't be full-scale,' said independent security analyst Levi Ochieng. 'The police and army would act with decisive force.'
At a rally on Friday, Museveni arrived to the sound of his hit campaign song, a rap tune featuring him singing the chorus 'Do you want another rap?' Museveni has tried to appeal to Ugandan youth; most are too young to remember any other ruler. The top opposition candidate is Besigye, who is Museveni's former personal physician. Besigye lost to Museveni in 2001 and 2006 polls that were tainted by intimidation and violence. Besigye claims a pro-Museveni electoral commission means next Friday's vote is already 'fundamentally flawed.'
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2011 00:00 ||
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It is hard to tell whether these protests and movements (Uganda, Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria) are secular and seeking more freedom for citizens or movements that will end up like Iran in a tyrannical theocracy bent on Mideast and possibly world domination.
#2
The current administration seems to be unaware of the latter possibility or at least it is not being voiced publically. Clapper seems to be unaware of the movement towards fundamentalism in Turkey the theocracy in Iran or the MB agenda. I worry about these "popular" movements being hijacked.
[Arab News] Russian police jugged an opposition leader and a dozen activists during a rally in Moscow that drew hundreds of protesters.
Several hundred activists headed by Sergei Udaltsov of the Left Front group rallied in central Moscow Saturday to protest what they said was the Kremlin's stifling of democracy, as well as corruption and rising prices.
Authorities limited the rally to a central square, and riot police started detentions after the protesters moved to the presidential administration building.
Moscow police spokeswoman Yelena Perfilova told the Ekho Moskvy radio that Udaltsov and 13 protesters were jugged.
Popular support for opposition groups is minimal in Russia. Their activities have been thwarted as authorities ban their rallies and police regularly break up their gatherings.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2011 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Italy's government called a humanitarian emergency on Saturdady after thousands of asylum-seekers sailed across the Meditarranean from Tunisia, overwhelming authorities on a remote island.
"The cabinet today ... has proclaimed a state of humanitarian emergency following the influx of the large number of citizens from North Africa," the government said in a statement.
The statement said that the decision to call an official emergency would enable civil protection officers "to take immediate action needed to control this phenomenon and assist citizens who have decamped from North Africa."
In particular, the move will enable the central government to release funds for local authorities in areas which have been inundated by the wave of refugees, most of whom have decamped to the tiny island of Lampedusa.
The majority of the asylum-seekers have come from nearby Tunisia, in the wake of the North African country's revolution four weeks ago.
Nearly 3,000 undocumented Democrats have landed in Italy since Wednesday, according to a number of sources, including 250 overnight.
Most were packed into small fishing boats that were intercepted by coastiess and then taken to Lampedusa where they were given blankets and received medical care after stepping off the boats.
Hundreds have had to sleep out in the open at the port because of a lack of facilities on the island, while others were taken to local hotels.
The Italian authorities have organised an airlift and put a ferry into service to take some of the immigrants off Lampedusa, transporting them to identification centres in southern Sicily.
However around a thousand immigrants were still stuck on Lampedusa on Saturday despite the efforts to clear the island.
Italy made a formal request on Friday for aid from the European Union to combat what it warned was a looming humanitarian crisis, saying the EU's justice and home affairs council should meet immediately.
In a joint statement, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini also requested "the immediate deployment of a Frontex mission for patrolling and interception off the Tunisian coast," referring to the EU's border security agency based in Warsaw.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2011 00:00 ||
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Nearly 3,000 undocumented Democrats have landed in Italy
:) Chuckle, chuckle. Are they asylum-seekers or invaders?
ARTIC > Italy deems the TUNISIAN SYSTEM AS "COLLAPSING", while expressing DISAPPOINTMENT in the EURO-UNION LACK OF RESPONSE OR ASSISTANCE as per its situation, hence its desire for potential unilateral action.
----------
ION NOT-NECESSARILY-UNRELATED, WAFF > TURKEY WARNS TURKISH CYPRIOTS BANKRUPTCY [is] LOOMING.
* WAFF > ALARM REPORTS FROM CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY, mainly Protestant denominations, as per political-legal repression via Turkish Govt + physical attacks by ordinary Turkish Muslims.
* SAME > IRAQI ARCHBISHOP [ArchB. Louis Sako] WARNS WEST CANNOT UNDERSTAND RISK OF "ISLAMIZATION", referring to the ME as a "Scary Volcano" as per CHRISTIAN = NON-MUSLIM RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES WID CONSEQUENCES FOR HIGHER US-WEST INTERESTS.
ARCHBISHOP SAKO = WEST must understand that there are...
> Extant ISLAMIC FORCES + MOVEMENTS INTENT ON
creating Islamic States = Caliphates in thier areas, where rigid ShariaLwa is dominant.
> The ABOVESAME are also intent on INDUCING FUNDAMENTAL = "TOTAL RELIGOUS CHANGE" IN THEIR AREAS + MIDDLE EAST REGIONS.
> Radical Groups which exist + operate in Iraq, e.g. AL QAEDA + ANSAR-AL-ISLAM, SUPPORT THE CONCEPT OF NON-IRAQI/LOCAL ORDINARY MUSLIMS INJECTING ISLAMIC = ISLAMIST INFLUENCE IN OTHERIWISE GENERAL STREET PROTESTS [home countries].
> IFF EGYPT BECOMES A DE FACTO ISLAMIC STATE [e.g. Iran], IT POSES A SERIOUS PROBLEM/THREAT TO THE ENTIRE REGION, WID NEGATIVE AFTERSHOCKS FOR CHRISTIANS, NON-MUSLIM MINORITIES.
[Straits Times] UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has joined in the chorus hitting out at PAS Youth's plan to play moral police on Valentine's Day, saying that as long as people are not committing sin, it was all right to observe the special day.
He said: 'Yes, I've given my wife flowers and taken her for dinner on Valentine's Day before. Sometimes, we even get jiggy with it. I am still a Mohammedan,' said Khairy in one of his tweets message on Friday.
When asked why Mohammedans need to celebrate love and affection specifically on Valentine's Day, Mr Khairy said: 'If people want to do it because they feel it's a nice occasion, as long as they are not committing sin, why not? Of course you can do it anytime. That's not the point.'
Mr Khairy cynically said the annual Jan 1 public holiday should be banned as it signifies the start of the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen also chided moral policing on Valentine's Day, saying that it would affect tourist arrivals to the country.
Dr Ng added that she had received hundreds of calls from overseas expressing alarm at PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi's comments.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2011 00:00 ||
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Mr Khairy cynically said the annual Jan 1 public holiday should be banned as it signifies the start of the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory.
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.
