Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Shell drafted letter Tony Blair sent to Gaddafi while Prime Minister
Tony Blair linked to arms trade with Libya
"British" Diplomat disciplined over Pope Memo
Anjoum Noorani, 31, (photo) was the leader of the Papal Visit Team which drew up a document suggesting the Pope should launch his own range of “Benedict” condoms, open an abortion clinic and stay in a council flat in Bradford.
Mr Noorani, whose identity has until now remained secret, was moved to “other duties” after he gave authorisation for the memo to be sent to Downing Street and three Whitehall departments.
The memo, which was leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, threatens to overshadow the Pope’s entire four-day visit in September after it prompted fury in the Vatican and among Catholics in Britain.
Senior members of the church have described Mr Noorani and his team as having “not the slightest understanding of Catholicism”. None of the four-strong group is thought to be a practising Catholic...
story
Mr Noorani, whose identity has until now remained secret, was moved to “other duties” after he gave authorisation for the memo to be sent to Downing Street and three Whitehall departments.
The memo, which was leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, threatens to overshadow the Pope’s entire four-day visit in September after it prompted fury in the Vatican and among Catholics in Britain.
Senior members of the church have described Mr Noorani and his team as having “not the slightest understanding of Catholicism”. None of the four-strong group is thought to be a practising Catholic...
story
Monday, April 26, 2010
Bashir Wins Election as Sudan Edges Toward Split
NAIROBI, Kenya — Omar Hassan al-Bashir handily won the country’s first multi-party election in more than 20 years, according to results released on Monday... story
Suicide Bomber Targets British Ambassador
SANAA - A suspected al Qaeda suicide bomber targeted a convoy of the British ambassador to Yemen early on Monday, killing himself and injuring three others, but the envoy was unharmed, Yemeni and British officials said... story
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Bombs, Missiles, Bullets: 29 Dead in Pakistan
The army, meanwhile, kept up its pressure on the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal belt, killing 20 suspected fighters, while apparent U.S. missiles killed five alleged insurgents in a nearby northwest region, officials said...
story
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Most French Want Burqa Law, But Not Total Ban
Marihuana Legalization in California...
OAKLAND, Calif. — Like hip-hop, health food and snowboarding, marijuana is going corporate. As more and more states allow medical use of the drug, and California considers outright legalization, marijuana’s supporters are pushing hard to burnish the image of pot by franchising dispensaries and building brands; establishing consulting, lobbying and law firms; setting up trade shows and a seminar circuit; and constructing a range of other marijuana-related businesses.... story
Friday, April 23, 2010
48 pro-Taliban militants killed in Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Forty-eight pro-Taliban militants and two security personnel were killed in clashes across the restive Orakzai tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Thursday, officials said.
Twenty-five militants and four security personnel were also injured in the clashes that occurred at three places. Three injured militants were captured by the security forces. The clashes erupted when militants tried to halt advancing forces in the Taliban strongholds of Sanghra, Qambar Masi and Mashti Mela in Orakzai Agency. Fifteen militants were killed when security forces targeted militant hideouts in Mashti Mela. Troops advanced and occupied important heights around Qambar Masi area, officials said. In a separate incident, militants blew up a state-run health centre at Akhonkot in Mamozai area of Orakzai Agency. Pakistani security forces have claimed to have killed over 350 militants since an offensive was launched last month to flush the Taliban out of Orakzai Agency. The figure cannot be independently confirmed as journalists are barred from reporting from the conflict zone. link
Twenty-five militants and four security personnel were also injured in the clashes that occurred at three places. Three injured militants were captured by the security forces. The clashes erupted when militants tried to halt advancing forces in the Taliban strongholds of Sanghra, Qambar Masi and Mashti Mela in Orakzai Agency. Fifteen militants were killed when security forces targeted militant hideouts in Mashti Mela. Troops advanced and occupied important heights around Qambar Masi area, officials said. In a separate incident, militants blew up a state-run health centre at Akhonkot in Mamozai area of Orakzai Agency. Pakistani security forces have claimed to have killed over 350 militants since an offensive was launched last month to flush the Taliban out of Orakzai Agency. The figure cannot be independently confirmed as journalists are barred from reporting from the conflict zone. link
At least 50 dead in Baghdad attacks
BAGHDAD: At least 50 people were killed in a series of car bombings today near Shiite mosques and markets in Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.Two car bombs in the impoverished district of Sadr City, one close to a political office of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr and another at a market, killed 39 people and wounded 56, the official told AFP. Goa to host European Union film festival
PANAJI: Goa, one of the earliest states in Asia to be conquered by Europe's colonial powers, will host the 15th European Union Film Festival (EUFF) of India, an EU spokesperson said on Friday. .. story
Blasts Bring Fear of More Thai Violence
BANGKOK — Five grenades exploded in the heart of Bangkok’s business district on Thursday evening, killing at least one person and wounding 75 as rival groups of protesters demonstrated and shouted insults at one another across a makeshift barricade. story
U.S. New Weapons for Fast Strikes
click image to enlarge link
Readers comment: “It warms my heart to know that while we are falling behind in almost all industries, we still lead in weapons technology. If all else would fail, we can be sure that we are still number one bully on this planet,” writes A.T.
Readers comment: “It warms my heart to know that while we are falling behind in almost all industries, we still lead in weapons technology. If all else would fail, we can be sure that we are still number one bully on this planet,” writes A.T.
Bombs Targeting Iraqi Policemen Kill 7
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Homemade bombs planted around the houses of Iraqi policemen killed seven people Friday, including a soldier trying to defuse one of the devices, authorities said, in the latest attack on security personnel working for the Shiite-led government. story
Britons ‘asked not to be served by black waiters’
Family told a hotel they did not want to be served by ‘people of colour’ or those with 'foreign accents', lawsuit says. story
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sri Lanka: D. M. Jayaratne is new Prime Minister
New Sri Lankan Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne (C) is greeted by President's younger brother Basil Rajapakse (R) as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse (L) looks on at a ceremony in Colombo on April 21, 2010... story
Saudi girl, 12, wins right to divorce her husband
A girl aged 12 has won a divorce from her 80-year-old husband in Saudi Arabia in a case that may help to introduce a minimum age of marriage in the kingdom for the first time. The girl’s unusual legal challenge to the arrangement generated international media attention and scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s record of child marriages.
It also prompted the state-run Human Rights Commission to appoint a lawyer to represent her. The commission has capitalised on the case and pushed for a legal minimum age for marriage of at least 16.
story
It also prompted the state-run Human Rights Commission to appoint a lawyer to represent her. The commission has capitalised on the case and pushed for a legal minimum age for marriage of at least 16.
story
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Sarkozy to submit Bill to ban Burka, Hijab
PARIS (AP) -- France's government spokesman says French President Nicolas Sarkozy will submit legislation to parliament on banning Islamic veils that fully cover a woman's face and body....
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Sudan: White House Faults Election
The White House on Tuesday charged that Sudan’s recent election, the first multiparty vote in more than 20 years, was plagued by ”serious irregularities” and said the United States was committed to helping ensure that a 2011 referendum on southern independence would be conducted fairly. “Political rights and freedoms were circumscribed throughout the electoral process, there were reports of intimidation and threats of violence in South Sudan, ongoing conflict in Darfur did not permit an environment conducive to acceptable elections, and inadequacies in technical preparations for the vote resulted in serious irregularities,” the White House said in a statement....story
Somali Pirates hijack Ships 1200 Miles offshore
A band of Somali pirates hijacked three Thai fishing boats and captured 77 sailors in an attack more than 1,200 miles offshore in the Indian Ocean, the European Union naval force said on Tuesday.
NATO Convoy Kills 4 Civilians in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO military convoy in eastern Afghanistan shot to death four unarmed civilians in a vehicle early Monday evening, including a police officer and a 12-year-old student, Afghan officials said Tuesday. The killings in Khost Province, near the border with Pakistan, led to a dispute almost immediately between local Afghan leaders and NATO officials.... story
At Top University, a Fight for Pakistan’s Future
An attack on a professor highlighted a power struggle between an outward-looking, educated class and those pushing an intolerant vision of Islam.The professor was working in his office on the campus of Pakistan’s largest university this month when members of an Islamic student group battered open the door, beat him with metal rods and bashed him over the head with a giant flower pot.
Iftikhar Baloch, an environmental science professor, had expelled members of the group for violent behavior. The retribution left him bloodied and nearly unconscious, and it united his fellow professors, who protested with a nearly three-week strike that ended Monday.
The attack and the anger it provoked have drawn attention to the student group, Islami Jamiat Talaba, whose morals police have for years terrorized this graceful, century-old institution by brandishing a chauvinistic form of Islam, teachers here say.... story
Saudi Cleric Fired for Advocating Mixing of Sexes
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The head of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police has fired the chief of the Mecca branch for advocating the mixing of the sexes, an official from the force said Tuesday. Ahmed bin Qassim al-Ghamidi's suggestion in a newspaper interview this week that men and women should be left to mingle freely directly clashed with a central preoccupation of the force.
The religious police, under the control of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, are charged with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam, which prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling.
''Mixing (between the sexes) is just natural and there is no good reason to ban it,'' al-Ghamidi said in the interview.
He was dismissed soon after, according to an official from the force who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to journalists... story
Monday, April 19, 2010
Iran Moves to Crush Organs of Reform
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Iranian authorities on Monday suspended two prominent opposition political parties, banned a newspaper and handed down prison sentences to three reformist political figures, in the latest sign that the country’s hard-line rulers aim to crush any official political representation by the reformist movement...
story
Top Al Qaeda Leaders killed in Raid: Irak
BAGHDAD — Iraqi intelligence officers have located and killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced on Monday.
Mr. Maliki said the intelligence team also killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of an affiliated group, the Islamic State of Iraq, in an operation that was backed by American forces.
United States military officials confirmed that Iraqi security forces had killed the two men. “The death of these two terrorists is a potentially devastating blow to Al Qaeda in Iraq,” the American command said in a statement. story
Mr. Maliki said the intelligence team also killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of an affiliated group, the Islamic State of Iraq, in an operation that was backed by American forces.
United States military officials confirmed that Iraqi security forces had killed the two men. “The death of these two terrorists is a potentially devastating blow to Al Qaeda in Iraq,” the American command said in a statement. story
Suicide Bomber kills 20 at Rally of Religious Party
ISLAMABAD — A teenage suicide bomber waded into a political rally by an Islamic party and detonated his explosives Monday, a police officer said. The bomb, which went off in Peshawar, a northwestern city that was tormented by bombings last year, killed more than 20 people, including a party leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, a hard-line political party that, until recently, had publicly supported the Taliban. A police officer was also among the dead..... story







































