Brainwashing suicide bombers: New Book
More than 155 killed, injured in Karbala during Eid holidays
Iranian President Ahmadinejad urges girls to marry at 16
'Jihadists planning Mumbai-style attack on German parliament'
Karachi: Minor girl sexually abused, strangulated
Two of Pakistani origin appointed to House of Lords
No drone op expansion: Pak to US
Al-Qaeda vows to ‘bleed enemy to death’ with parcel attacks
Christmas is hijacked by Muslims and Hindus' claims Daily Star
Pope criticises French burqa ban
Saudi Arabia: Islamic Radio broadcasts to be expanded
Muslim Kids in Hajj Pilgrimage
Militants torch fleet of NATO supply tankers in Peshawar
Meeting on The Role of Quran in Islamic Awareness in Makkah
Saudi Arabia's call for inter-religious dailogue serves Islam, Humanity
'Islamophobia not targeting Muslims only'
US court halts Afghan Muslim killing case
Pakistan leader may free condemned Christian woman
Ghailani verdict: debate on military trials
We have no link with Maoists: Mirwaiz
Five Taliban killed in Swat clash
Seven killed, 35 injured in fresh Afghan violence
Pakistan receives six new F-16 fighters from US
George Bush Gives His Version of Events that Defined His Tenure
PM renews pledge to build poverty-free Bangladesh
With Afghan control by 2014, Obama sees combat end
Islamic Barbie: Iran unveils Fatima
Pak's objection to India's UNSC endorsement reflects trust deficit
Hand over voice samples of LeT men, India to tell Pak
UAE shooter wins first medal at Asian Games
Move to better lives of disabled children
‘Missile threat comes from Iran’
Pakistan, US rebuilding trust: Haqqani
Russia stops short of joining NATO missile shield
Belgian ladies sue Israeli officials in Brussels
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Brainwashing suicide bombers: New Book
Nov 21 2010
The author narrates the story of radical militants and how they try to “explain” why people should resort to destruction, terrorism, and suicide bombings to stand by their principles
Jihad al-Kuffar, a new book by Michael A. Rome, has been released by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc.
Michael Rome goes to Indonesia to spend a leisure day when he crosses the path of a tour guide, Eki, who apparently holds a CD—keeping secret documents of appalling information about underground terrorist organizations. When Eki is suddenly killed, Michael uncovers the whole truth about the files stored on the CD—writings that encourage a series of battles between self-proclaimed “true believers” and those they consider the unbelievers and the allies of the devil.
The author narrates the story of radical militants and puts an emphasis on edicts, statements, and documents that “explain” why people should resort to destruction, terrorism, and suicide bombings to stand by their principles.
In Jihad Al-Kuffar, we’ll meet personalities who have various plans but one outcome: strike with violence. Eventually, eradication of barriers that “restrict” the freedom of humanity and do not permit them to obey alleged divine orders is the utmost objective of unscrupulous fanatics.
Given the close relationship between underdevelopment and terrorism, the book also shows why social diseases can only be defeated through aid programs, which are strictly based on a two-way commitment.
Michael A. Rome is an engineering professor who lives in Italy. Aside from this book, he also published scientific papers on numerical methods in the field of applied mechanics.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/11/prweb8007464.htm
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More than 155 killed, injured in Karbala during Eid holidays
Nov 21 2010
Karbala’s hospitals received 16 dead bodies and 140 others injured while ambulances carried 367 people suffering from different health problems to hospitals, a local health official said on Saturday.
“Three hospitals in Karbala received 156 people killed or injured during Eid al-Adha holidays, among them 16 motorcycle accidents, in addition to six people killed while al-Hindiya hospital received 15 cases including four killed, and Eid Tamur town hospital received eight injury cases,” Salim Kadhim told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Kadhim also said there were other deaths and injuries in different towns and villages of Karbala during the Eid holidays, including car accidents and clashes.
The holy Shiite city of Karbala lies 108 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=213932
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Iranian President Ahmadinejad urges girls to marry at 16
Nov 21, 2010
TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged young girls to marry at age of 16 in his latest rejection of the country's once effective family planning program, local newspapers reported on Sunday.
Following record birth rates in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran implemented an internationally praised family planning program in the 1990s that dramatically reduced the growth rate. Ahmadinejad has criticized the program as an ungodly and a Western import.
"We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17," he said, according to the state-owned Jam-e Jam daily. "The marriage age for boys has reached 26 and for girls to 24, and there is no reason for this."
Since coming to power in 2005, the Iranian president has sought to increase of the country's population, which is already at 75 million, with a third between the ages of 15 and 30.
In July, he inaugurated a new policy to encourage population growth with financial incentives for every new child born, having previously said the country could feed a population of 150 million.
Critics said the policy will only exacerbate unemployment, currently set 9 per cent officially. There are an estimated 3 million unemployed people of working age in the country.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Iranian-President-Ahmadinejad-urges-girls-to-marry-at-16/articleshow/6964171.cms#ixzz15uhuUOjX
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'Jihadists planning Mumbai-style attack on German parliament'
Nov 21, 2010
BERLIN: Germany's decision to step up security measures this week was prompted by discovery of militant plans to break into the Reichstag parliament building and shoot hostages, a German magazine said on Saturday.
The weekly Der Spiegel, citing security officials, said a jihadist living abroad had informed them in recent telephone calls of a plan for armed militants to enter the 19th century building in central Berlin and open fire. It said police considered the information credible.
Germany's federal crime office (BKA) had no immediate comment on the report , but later announced its chief, Joerg Ziercke, would hold a news meet soon. The information, the magazine said, had prompted officials to announce they were raising security, especially at public places including airports and train stations.
Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said authorities were on guard against threats of an armed attack of the kind that killed 166 in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008. The jihadist, Der Spiegel reported , said the group of attackers was to be made up of six people. Two had already arrived in Berlin and another four, including a German, a Turk and a North African, were under way.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Jihadists-planning-Mumbai-style-attack-on-German-parliament/articleshow/6962681.cms#ixzz15ui8ySek
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Minor girl sexually abused, strangulated
Nov 21 2010
KARACHI: A minor girl was sexually abused and strangulated, and then her body dumped at the Lyari Expressway, the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police said on Saturday. Six-year-old Tooba Shahid, a resident of Azeem Goth, went missing on Thursday when she had left the house to buy something from a nearby shop. Unidentified culprits kidnapped the girl and then raped her before strangling her and dumping her body. Her body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Medico-Legal Officer Dr Yasmin Qamar said the child was raped by more than one man, adding that the body was 24 hours old. The girl’s body was handed over to her family after completing legal formalities. Police have registered first information report No 867/10 against unidentified men on the complaint of the victim’s father.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\21\story_21-11-2010_pg12_3
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Two of Pakistani origin appointed to House of Lords
Nov 21 2010
LONDON: Of the 54 new members appointed to the British Parliament Upper House of Lords, three are South Asians including two of Pakistani origin.
They include businessman and former vice chairman of the Conservative Party, Tariq Ahmad, said to belong to the Ahmedi community; Qurban Hussein, deputy leader of the Liberal-Democrat group on Luton Borough Council and Sir Ghulam Noon, a leading businessman with Indian roots.
Other prominent personalities chosen to be the peers, include former chief of the General Staff, British Army; General Sir Richard Dannat and Rachael Heyhoe Flint, former captain of the England women cricket team.
The new appointments have raised the number of the House of Lords to 794. The Labour Party has 244 members, but the new additions will see the coalition government benches swell to 316 or 39 percent of the total representation.
The new intake could also cost the British taxpayer up to 2.5 million pounds a year, since each peer can claim up to 300 pounds for every day they attend, amounting to a maximum 43,500 pounds annually if the house sits for 145 days.
Meanwhile, member, Kashmir Council and central leader of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) People’s Muslim League, Hameed Pothi has congratulated the three newly elevated Asian members of the House of Lords.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\21\story_21-11-2010_pg7_14
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No drone op expansion: Pak to US
Omer Farooq Khan
Nov 21, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday rejected demands for expansion of American drone attacks to its western province of Baluchistan, saying Islamabad wouldn't compromise on its sovereignty.
Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said that his country would act against militants on its own inside its territory. "We're the allies in the war against terror . But there is no way that drone operations could be extended to Quetta (Baluchistan )," he said, while reacting to a recent Washington Post report that the US was seeking to target Quetta, where the Taliban leadership is believed to be hiding.
Basit said the US knows repercussions of such a move. "The raising spectre of the socalled Quetta Shura is preposterous ," he said. Drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal northwest are highly unpopular in the country and seen as an affront to its sovereignty . The attacks have become a weapon of choice for the US in its fight against al-Qaida .
Islamabad publicly condemns drone strikes, but reportedly has a tactic agreement with the US to use its military bases and target militant hideouts its tribal areas. Newspaper reports say the CIA uses Shamsi airfield, 310km southwest of Quetta and 48km from the Afghan border, as its base for the drone operations.
The CIA has increased its bombing campaign in the mountains of the tribal belt in recent months. The US labels the region as al-Qaida's global headquarters and the most dangerous place on earth.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/No-drone-op-expansion-Pak-to-US/articleshow/6962674.cms#ixzz15ui2TXmA
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Al-Qaeda vows to ‘bleed enemy to death’ with parcel attacks
Nov 21 2010
HONG KONG: The Yemen-based branch of Al-Qaeda has vowed to continue attacks against the West such as last month’s cargo plane parcel bombs, in a “strategy of a thousand cuts” that will “bleed the enemy to death”, a monitoring group said.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said the packages it put aboard freight planes bound for the US in late October were never intended to cause mass casualties, but were aimed at creating maximum economic damage.
The group said the parcels, which were intercepted by security officials in Dubai and Britain, were part of “Operation Hemorrhage” a plan that had cost just 4,200 dollars to mount.
It said there was now little focus on large-scale mass-casualty attacks like those on New York and Washington in September 2001.
“To bring down America we do not need to strike big,” the terror network said, in an English-language magazine called Inspire which was monitored Saturday by the US-based Intelcenter.
“In such an environment of security phobia that is sweeping America, it is more feasible to stage smaller attacks that involve less players and less time to launch and thus we may circumvent the security barriers America worked so hard to erect.
“This strategy of attacking the enemy with smaller, but more frequent operations is what some may refer to as the strategy of a thousand cuts. The aim is to bleed the enemy to death.”
The two parcels were addressed to synagogues in Chicago and found to contain the hard-to-detect explosive PETN hidden in ink toner cartridges.
A massive global security clampdown on airfreight followed the discovery, with a number of countries banning cargo or flights originating from Yemen, including the United States, Canada and several western European countries.
The AQAP magazine details the “total bill of 4,200” dollars for Operation Hemorrhage, adding that it was three months in the planning and execution.
“On the other hand this… will without a doubt cost America and other Western countries billions of dollars in new security measures. This is what we call leverage.”
“From the start our objective was economic… It was determined that the success of the operation was to be based on two factors: The first is that the packages pass through the latest security equipment.
“The second, the spread of fear that would cause the West to invest billions of dollars in new security procedures.”
“We will continue with similar operations and we do not mind at all in this stage if they are intercepted. It is such a good bargain for us to spread fear amongst the enemy and keep him on his toes in exchange of a few months of work and a few thousand bucks.”
The magazine says AQAP intends to pass on its know-how to other radical Islamists around the world, to encourage them to mount similar operations.
“We are laying out for our enemies our plan in advance because… our objective is not maximum kill but to cause a hemorrhage in the aviation industry, an industry that is so vital for trade and transportation between the US and Europe.”
http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/21/al-qaeda-vows-to-%E2%80%98bleed-enemy-to-death%E2%80%99-with-parcel-attacks.html
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Christmas Is Hijacked By Muslims And Hindus
November 21, 2010
BARMY PC do-gooders have put up their town’s Christmas lights along with displays for Muslim and Hindu festivals – even though those celebrations have already finished.
Councillors were so anxious not to offend other faiths that they decided to share the Christian display with lights to mark the other celebrations.
But residents have slammed the move because although the lights were switched on last night, the Muslim festival of Eid ends today and Sikhs and Hindus celebrated Diwali two weeks ago.
One angry father told the Daily Star: “It’s like Christmas is being hijacked. It’s mad. Why do we have these lights up for Eid and Diwali when they’ve finished?
“We wouldn’t go around putting Santas up on any of these festivals.”
But council bosses in Rochdale say they want to keep the lights to “represent the community”.
Another resident said: “The lights look fantastic ... but I don’t see why they have to have all these other festivals in them.”
Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, West Yorks, said: “I’ve no idea why local authorities up and down the country are so ashamed of celebrating Christmas.
“All this kind of pussyfooting around is done in the name of not offending other people from other faiths. But it tends to be done by white middle-class people with some kind of bizarre guilt complex.”
Former Blue star Simon Webbe, 31, flicked the switch last night to turn on the lights, which cost £89,500.
A spokesman for Rochdale Council said: “We have a varied and diverse display, representing our community.”
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/163598/Christmas-is-hijacked-by-Muslims-and-Hindus
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Pope criticises French burqa ban
Nov 21 2010
BERLIN: Pope Benedict XVI criticised a French law banning Muslim women from wearing the burqa in public, saying women should be able to wear them voluntarily, according to a book due out on Tuesday. “As far as the burqa is concerned, I do not see a reason for a general ban,” Benedict said in a series of interviews in his native German to be published as a book. “Some women do not wear the burqa entirely voluntarily and it is correct to talk of a violation against that woman. Of course one cannot agree with that,” he said. “But if they want to wear it voluntarily, I don’t know why one must ban them,” he said, according to a copy of the German text obtained by AFP.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\21\story_21-11-2010_pg7_8
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Saudi Arabia: Islamic Radio broadcasts to be expanded
Nov 21 2010
The government has plans to increase the broadcasting hours of Islam Call Radio, according to Dr. Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information.
JEDDAH (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The government has plans to increase the broadcasting hours of Islam Call Radio, according to Dr. Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information.
Khoja was speaking here Thursday night at a reception to honor members of the media who covered the Haj this year. Also present at the event was Prince Turki Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Culture and Information.
Khoja said King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has ordered that Islam Call Radio should increase its broadcasts from four to 12 hours daily from the month of Muharram, 1432H. It will possibly be broadcast 24-hours a day in future, he added.
"What enhances the positive impact of the media is to take advantage of the technological revolution in the field of mass media," the minister said.
He said the Kingdom has already been blessed with two satellite channels one for the Holy Qur'an from the Holy Mosque of Makkah and another one for the Prophetic Sunnah from the Prophet's Mosque in Madina.
The two channels were established a year ago and were linking Muslims around the globe, he added.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=214027
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Muslim Kids in Hajj Pilgrimage
Nov 21 2010
Participation of kids in Hajj and performing Hajj pilgrimage is a rare though quite effective in upbringing children.
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Most of the kids who participate Hajj pilgrimage are from Arab or Southeastern Asian countries, Rohama reported.
Although the pilgrimage is not mandatory for the immature Muslims, some parents would like to take the burden due to the positive effects of the experience on upbringing of the children.
"My mom has taught me that Hajj is a very important event and actually part of our daily life," said Jbair bin Sheikh Jamil from Bangladesh.
Little Bilal Ibrahim from Egypt, excited at his presence in Mecca expressed his gratitude at visiting some Muslim luminaries and said visiting the grave of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was his wish.
More interesting than all is the story of little Kamran Muzaffar from Pakistan who is on Hajj as his prize for memorizing the holy Qur'an.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=213935
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Militants torch fleet of NATO supply tankers in Peshawar
Nov 21 2010
Peshawar : Unidentified armed militants launched an attack on a workshop in Peshawar, torching a number of NATO supply tankers parked there.
Rescue sources revealed that a bomb -- weighing 2.5 kilogram -- was also found from the crime site, which has been defused, Geo News reported.
According to sources, the workshop is located at a Ring Road leading to the Pak-Afghan Torkhum Border, where armed militants attacked, and subsequently set the NATO supply tankers on fire.
Police, which arrived on the scene shortly after the incident, said that the militants succeeded in fleeing from the spot.
According to the police, at least six militants launched the strike, while eyewitnesses claimed that as many as 24 assailants carried out the attack, and also tortured the security guard outside the workshop.
While at least ten oil tankers have been completely burnt in the attack, fire fighters have come along the fire tenders, and are trying hard to tame raging blazes.
This is the third attack on the NATO supply line in this area.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/militants-torch-fleet-of-nato-supply-tankers-in-peshawar/713808/
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Meeting on the Role of Quran in Islamic Awareness in Makkah
Nov 21 2010
A meeting on “the role of the Quran in Islamic awareness” is to be held today, November 21 at the representative office of the Supreme Leader in the holy city of Makkah.
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - It has been planned to begin from 9 to 11 am. local time at the mosque of the office and 6 speeches as well as 3 papers will be presented at the program to discuss the theme.
Ayatollah Seyyed Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, will be the first speaker of the meeting and Molavi Abdul Rahman Molazehi, Masjed Jame’i and Taheri as the next speakers will continue the session.
Kermani and Shoja’i Fard are the last two speakers who will discuss ‘the opposition with the Quran during the history’ and ‘the role of the Quran in voiding enemies’ plots’, respectively.
Papers on ‘the role of the Quran in voiding enemies’ plots’, ‘Islamic revolution and revival of Islamic values’ and ‘the role of the scholars in Islamic awareness and clarification of Quranic teachings’ will be presented by Nasrin Gorgij, Shahin Shadab and Davoud Belkafeh respectively.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=214023
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Saudi Arabia's call for inter-religious dailogue serves Islam, Humanity
Nov 21 2010
Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz has said that Saudi Arabia's call for inter-religious dialogue is aimed at promoting the dignity of Islam and the common interests of humanity and enhance harmony among the different nations of the world.
MECCA (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz has said that Saudi Arabia's call for inter-religious dialogue is aimed at promoting the dignity of Islam and the common interests of humanity and enhance harmony among the different nations of the world.
"This call drew praise from the international community in its entirety and gave me the promise of success to put an end to the world's ordeals of violence and extremism increasingly associated to religious affiliations," the King said in his annual address to the Muslim pilgrims here Wednesday.
He highlighted the Muslims' need for dialogue among themselves in order to promote tolerance and moderation and curb extremism, divisions and misconceptions which "risk undermining the aspirations of the nation."
"Terrorism, which poses a grave threat to the entire world, is usually blamed on Muslims; it stems from the acts of (Muslim) extremists who defected from the tolerant spiritual values of Islam," the King said.
"This bunch of people represents nobody except themselves even if they outfitted themselves in Islamic clothing," he said.
King Abdullah urged the Arab and Muslim nations to unite, join forces against the causes of division and sectarian incitement, and foil the hostile designs targeting them.
Regarding the current hajj season, he took great pride in the fact that his country plays host to the holy occasion and serves millions of Muslim pilgrims who came from all parts of the world.
He said the government of the Kingdom would spare no effort in providing the pilgrims with the latest facilities and services, and would continue modernizing and expanding the infrastructure in and around the holy sites.
He also extended greetings to the Muslim nations on the occasion of the Eid Al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) and congratulated the pilgrims over the blessings of their fulfilled pilgrimage.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=213795
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'Islamophobia not targeting Muslims only'
Nov 21 2010
Political parties in Europe are using Islamophobia to garner more public support in elections, inciting anti-Muslim sentiments.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), says that the current trend is reminiscent of "the beginning of the 1930s, when an anti-Semitic agenda, fascism and Nazism became politically a big issue."
Instead of stopping or fighting the xenophobia directed at Muslim immigrants, hopeful candidates have taken to expanding extremist agendas behind Islamophobia.
More than 50 million Muslims presently live in Europe and their numbers are growing rapidly.
To discuss what Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu calls the "institutionalization of Islamophobia", Press TV has interviewed London-based Reza Kazim, with the Islamic Human Rights Commission.
Press TV: Comparisons are being made to what we saw in the 1930s. Let's come forward to the present day. And I am sure many European politicians and those who are heading movements that are concerned about Islam and Muslims in their countries would say, "Hold on a minute! When it comes to the hate-mongering, we feel it is the Muslims that are doing the hate-mongering."
Reza Kazim: I think it is quite ironic that people ... (being victimized) in this situation, (are) being called the aggressors. It is quite typical of the way that some of these narratives actually seem to work in the media.
We had a situation where someone who has converted to Islam recently… there have been all sorts of media reporting about her and what kind of a woman can actually become a Muslim. That kind of thing [is] being said in the media.
We need to think about where society is actually going. What is the use -- as in this particular person ['s case] -- to direct the attacks and the viciousness and the anti-Muslim hatred that they actually feel, and being up (against) all sorts of ignorance, prejudices, and xenophobia?
We need to keep in mind where this could potentially head... And make sure that is something that we fight against; make sure that we are trying to bring up the arguments with regards to this in any sphere that we possibly can. Because it has been going on for quite some time.
The climate has been created where Muslim dress, for example, can be the subject of ministers' comments. And we have very few people actually saying from different sections of society … how can a minister comment on that. We have silence from the feminists, who usually talk about women's right to choose whatever it is that they wish to wear ... without even that level of discussion or argument going on.
So, I think demonization is taking place at every level of Muslims' [lives].
Press TV: When we are talking about, for example, 70 percent of the electorate coming out and voting for a politician, who is being very clear and very blunt about how he feels about Islam, if we look at some of the polls across Europe, in France, [the number of] people with a fear of Islam is much higher than the percentage even just after September 11.
When it comes to these electorates, or these populations, these communities, where is the affair coming from? I mean, the way they see it… They say "I am not racist, but…" They feel they have genuine feelings about this religion, about the communities.
Reza Kazim: I think there are a number of things that we actually need to think about very carefully here. We have talked about the rise of the far right. And I think what we need to also think about is how that has been possible. One of the reasons it has been possible is that so-called mainstream politicians have made and created the climate where things that are more associated with the far right can actually be said and a climate can actually be created where people can get away with saying things like this.
We have laws in Britain, for example, which deal with racial hatred; but we have this strange scenario that when it comes to religious hatred, that is perfectly allowed. There is not a problem with that.
And I think it is also interesting [that] this whole idea that we call 'Islamophobia'… A phobia is supposed to be something that is an irrational fear. We need to think about that terminology. Do we really mean an irrational fear? Because I think it is more akin to the fact that it is a hatred... We need to call it what it actually is. It is hatred that is being spread. And when you say whether it is to garner votes or whatever it is that people are trying to do, it is not just about garnering votes and trying to get as many votes as you possibly can. Obviously that plays a part, definitely. But it is more about creating the climate so that we can have this demonization and this alienation of the society and community actually taking place.
Press TV: If we take what you are saying, to what benefit to European politicians would that kind of demonization be?
Reza Kazim: I think that is exactly the actual issue. This is not going to benefit anyone because it is something that is, in the long-run, going to create an unfair and unjust society. A lot of these things you have talked about, the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s, etc. and what actually happened there… We didn't just have Jews being targeted; we had whole other sections of the community being targeted, one after another. And this was in a climate where Europe had this anti-Semitism being part of it. And the same kind of things that were actually happening then are (occurring in) this moment in time. And we are not recognizing the parallels that actually can be drawn. We have had a much closer parallel, you know detention without trial -- called 'internment' -- was something that was part of the 1980s, [it was] the way the Britons actually dealt with the Irish nationalists.
Now this is something that is being done again here in terms of control orders, and prior to that, being held without trial…, etc. And it is something again that is continuing. Why have they done that?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/149828.html
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US court halts Afghan Muslim killing case
Nov 21 2010
One of five American soldiers accused of killing Afghan civilians for fun earlier this year, has won a temporary reprieve from murder charges.
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A US army appeals court has suspended proceedings against Private Andrew Holmes of Idaho, after his lawyer argued that the Army's refusal to make public gruesome pictures of the killings, impede his client's right to a fair trial, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.
Holmes' lawyer, Dan Conway, who has seen the photos, says there are no bullet holes in the body consistent with the machine gun Holmes' was carrying that day. He wants the army to release the photos so he can have a forensic expert review them.
However, the US military says it is worried that releasing the images could incite an anti-American backlash.
The halt would leave time for the lawyer and army prosecutors to argue over the release of photos of the bodies of Afghans allegedly slain by Holmes and his companions.
Defense attorneys and the Army investigating officer in charge of the case have seen the photos, which are said to depict badly mangled corpses, but they are not allowed to have copies of them.
According to Major Kathleen Turner, a spokeswoman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, where the accused soldiers are stationed, the images are "highly sensitive.”
Eugene Fidell, President of the National Institute of Military Justice and a military law lecturer at Yale University, reproached the Army's attempt to conceal the photos from the public eye.
"Stays do not grow on trees," Fidell said Saturday. "You're talking about suspending the trial process, and that's a huge inconvenience to the government.”
Holmes, a member of the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, faced a preliminary hearing last week to determine whether there was enough evidence to send his case to a court martial.
Horrifying details have emerged of how the soldiers executed three Afghan civilians and mutilated their bodies in the Kandahar province between January and May.
There are also reports that the unit in question was plagued by widespread drug use and was under limited supervision from commanders.
One of the soldiers revealed information about the killings in January. But the US army made the first arrests nearly five months later.
Serious questions remain about how the US army has handled the case.
Civilians have been the main victims of the war in Afghanistan, particularly in southern and eastern provinces.
Pundits have been quick to point out that the rise in civilian casualties in NATO attacks has strained relations between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies, who are under increasing pressure at home over the unpopular war.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=214021
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Pakistan leader may free condemned Christian woman
Nov 21 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s president may pardon a Christian woman facing a death sentence for blasphemy against Islam, officials said Saturday, as the mother of five tearfully denied the charge.
The case of Asia Bibi, 45, has drawn appeals from Pope Benedict XVI and human rights groups to free her. She was sentenced to death earlier this month and has been in prison for the last 1 1/2 years.
Bibi appeared in a televised interview at her prison Saturday, protesting her innocence to reporters and maintaining the case stemmed from a personal dispute.
“It was just the outcome of a rivalry. I would never even think of blasphemy,” she said weeping. “I have small children. For God’s sake, please set me free.” The verdict has drawn attention to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which critics say are used to persecute Christian and other minorities and fan extremism. They are also often exploited to settle personal grudges.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs, said Saturday that President Asif Ali Zardari has asked for a report on the case.
“The president has taken notice of this case ... he is concerned on this issue,” Bhatti said, adding that Zardari has the power to pardon her even ahead of the court appeal.
Her husband says Bibi’s original spat was in June 2009 with a group of Muslim women who refused to drink from the same water bowl as a Christian when they were picking fruit in an orchard in their village of Attian Wali, west of Lahore in Punjab province.
After Bibi argued with them, the women told the local imam that Bibi had insulted the Prophet Mohammed. The imam told the police and she was arrested. A local court sentenced her to death Nov. 8.
Dozens of Pakistanis — many of them Christians — are sentenced to death each year for blasphemy. Most cases are thrown out by higher courts and no executions have been carried out, Bhatti said, but the law is being examined to prevent what he said is widespread abuse by religious extremists and opportunists.
Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer told reporters in a televised conference he believes Zardari will soon pardon her.
“I am going to take this petition to president and the president will forgive her,” he said.
http://arabnews.com/world/article196910.ece
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Ghailani verdict: debate on military trials
Narayan Lakshman
Nov 21 2010
Washington: This week's acquittal of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (36), a Guantanamo Bay detenu and alleged Al-Qaeda member involved in the 1998 bombings of the United States' embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, has fuelled an increasingly shrill political debate on the Obama administration's rejection of military courts for such cases.
Cleared
On Wednesday, a federal district court in Manhattan cleared Mr. Ghailani, originally from Tanzania and captured in Pakistan in 2004, of all 276 murder and attempted murder charges that Attorney- General Eric Holder brought against him, and also four conspiracy charges.
He was, however, convicted on one count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property and when he is sentenced in late January still faces a minimum of 20 years imprisonment. He is also facing a life sentence — an outcome that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said he would push for.
An important turning point in the Ghailani trial, a test case for President Barack Obama's plan to use civilian courts and ultimately close down Guantanamo Bay prison, came last month when presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan forbade the use of evidence from a key witness whose identity was discovered when Mr. Ghailani was allegedly tortured while in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency.
According to media reports the witness, Hussein Abebe, “would have testified that he had sold Mr. Ghailani the TNT used to blow up the embassy in Dar es Salaam,” and he was described as “a giant witness for the government”. Yet some reports noted that Judge Kaplan had explained that he had found the witness, who testified in a pre-trial hearing, not credible.
The verdict in the case led to sharp criticism of the Obama administration for not persisting with military trials for individuals classified as “enemy combatants”.
Representative Peter King, Republican, reacted to the decision saying, “I am disgusted at the total miscarriage of justice today in Manhattan's federal civilian court. . . This tragic verdict demonstrates the absolute insanity of the Obama Administration's decision to try Al-Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts.”
Complex cases
However, government officials defended the use of civilian trials strengthening rule of law in complex cases relating to U.S. military engagement abroad.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was reported to have said, “A jury of 12 Americans convicted Ahmed Ghailani of a terrorist conspiracy. Miscarriage of justice? No, it's called the rule of law.” Mr. Crowley added, “The Ghailani case shows America practices what it preaches, protecting our national security through a transparent legal system.”
http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/21/stories/2010112165301800.htm
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We have no link with Maoists: Mirwaiz
Shujaat Bukhari
Nov 21 2010
SRINAGAR: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, head of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, on Saturday refuted Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's statement that efforts were being made to link Maoists with Kashmir militants.
Talking to journalists at his residence here, the Mirwaiz said the “struggle for freedom” in Jammu and Kashmir was purely indigenous and it was wrong to link Kashmiris with Naxalites.
The past 20 years and especially the past three years had shown how “indigenous our struggle is.”
The Mirwaiz, who is also a religious leader, has been under house arrest for the past few weeks. “All those children killed by the forces in broad daylight in June this year that led to present uprising were schoolchildren. Our struggle is indigenous and we have time and again showed it.”
Gratitude to Khamenei
The Mirwaiz extended gratitude to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his message to Haj pilgrims, in which he appealed to the Muslim elite worldwide to back the “struggle” in Kashmir. “We are happy to know that Iran has joined other countries to seek resolution of Kashmir dispute,” the Mirwaiz said.
He said the Kashmiri separatist leadership appreciated “the statements of China, the United States and Iran about Kashmir and for referring Kashmir as a dispute.”
The Hurriyat leader said he would travel to various cities in the country from next week to mould public opinion in favour of “our genuine struggle.”
He suggested that tripartite talks involving Pakistan, India and Kashmiris would provide a solution to the issue.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/21/stories/2010112155261100.htm
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Five Taliban killed in Swat clash
Nov 21 2010
LAHORE: Five terrorists, including three key militants, have been killed in clashes with security forces in Swat, a private TV channel reported on Saturday.
According to the security sources, the gun battle took place in the Totano Bandi area of Kabal when the forces received a tip-off that some terrorists were trying to enter the valley. The security forces sealed the area and launched a search operation after which the militants opened fire at the forces. Ammunition has also been recovered from their possession after the gunfight, the channel reported.
Earlier, security had been beefed up in Swat on the eve of Eidul Azha while vacations of all the police officials had been cancelled.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\21\story_21-11-2010_pg7_5
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Seven killed, 35 injured in fresh Afghan violence
Nov 21 2010
MEHTAR LAM: Seven persons were killed in Afghanistan in two separate incidents when Taliban suicide bombers on bicycles killed four people and wounded 31 and when NATO forces accidentally killed 3 people and injured 4 others on Saturday.
One bomber detonated his explosives at a police checkpoint in Mehtar Lam, the provincial capital of Laghman province, with the second striking several hundred metres away, Laghman Governor Mohammad Iqbal Azizi said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came after a spike in violence over the past week and on the second day of a NATO summit in Lisbon. Leaders at the summit endorsed plans to start handing responsibility for security to Afghans next year and transfer control of the entire country by the end of 2014.
“We are not sure what the target of the second bomber was but we think he may have detonated his explosives prematurely,” Azizi said. Earlier reports said the attacks had taken place in neighbouring Alisheng district.
Meanwhile, coalition forces accidentally killed three Afghan civilians and wounded four others when the mortars it fired, missed insurgents and landed near a village, NATO said.
NATO said in a statement that the deaths occurred on Friday when coalition troops came under fire in Pech district of Kunar province.
“When coalition forces returned fire, three or four rounds landed short of the target area, near a village, killing and wounding the civilians,” the statement said.
“We take civilian casualties seriously and we do everything within our power to prevent civilian casualties in the course of operations. In this case, we failed,” said US Army Colonel Rafael Torres.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly criticised civilian casualties caused by US and NATO operations. He highlighted the importance of reducing civilian deaths at a NATO summit on Saturday in Lisbon, Portugal.
The number of Afghan civilians killed or injured in the war soared 31 percent in the first six months of the year, but Taliban bombings and assassinations were largely responsible for the sharp rise, according to the United Nations.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\21\story_21-11-2010_pg7_6
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Pakistan receives six new F-16 fighters from US
Nov 21 2010
LAHORE: Pakistan received six new F-16 C/D Block 52 high-tech aircraft from the US, a private TV channel reported on Saturday. According to the PAF spokesperson, six F-16 aircrafts have landed at Shahbaz Airbase, Jacobabad. The addition brought the number of such fighter aircraft in the Pakistan Air Force to 12, the channel said. Pakistan had signed a contract with the US in 2005-2006 for the acquisition of 18 F-16 C/D Block 52 planes. Under the agreement, the PAF would receive the 18 aircrafts from the US in staggered batches. Another batch of six F-16 C/D Block 52 aircrafts is expected to be delivered in December 2010, the channel reported.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\21\story_21-11-2010_pg7_7
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George Bush Gives His Version of Events that Defined His Tenure
By Manoj Joshi
Nov 21 2010
IT IS conventional wisdom to look at the Obama administration in the US through the lens of the crises he inherited — the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic meltdown.
George W. Bush’s administration, too, was poisoned at the outset — by 9/11. The attack that killed 3,000 people shook the United States as nothing else has since Pearl Harbour. Responding to the event, then, became the leitmotifof the Bush Administration and we will forever judge its place in history through the manner in which it responded to the attack.
Here, W’s memoir plays a commonplace enough role — providing a seemingly rational explanation for his controversial actions — the war on Afghanistan, the distracting diversion to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the issue of torture of terrorist detainees and that of illegal surveillance of people in the United States.
But to be self-serving is part of the territory of a memoir. The issue is how we judge him. And on our scales, too, W is found wanting, perhaps not as an individual, but certainly as a leader of men. Unlike his hero, Ronald Reagan, the team he picked was flawed, from the sinister Dick Cheney to the self-righteous and incompetent Don Rumsfeld.
Bush was no fool — those who see him as some kind of bumbling preppy do not understand the hard grind of American politics and his sheer achievement in winning not one but two presidential elections.
The book has entire chapters on the important elements of the administration — the stem cells controversy, 9/11, the Afghan war, the Iraq invasion and so on. In that scale of things, Bush’s relations with India occupy a couple of lines of one page.
Perhaps even he has not realized the importance of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The issue was not that of clean energy for India, but a US expiation for the long embargo and off-shore balancing of India.
Without US help, and without W’s personal intervention, India could never have got the unique status in the international system where it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, tested nuclear weapons and still managed to persuade the world to allow civil nuclear trade with it. The Indo-US nuclear deal has removed a pill that was stuck in the Indo-American throat.
In some ways, this book is about sin and redemption. The theme runs through Bush’s personal crises arising out of drinking, as well as his political ones. At every stage it is the grace of God that comes to play. This is not unusual for an American politician, for the United States is probably the last major developed country where religion plays such an important role in the life of people and the society and, inevitably, politics. W has put forward his own record, fairly honestly, whether or not these are ‘sins’ is for you to judge.
There have been four great revivals or awakenings in American history. The first began in the early eighteenth century and lasted till the middle of it. Since then, there have been revivals in the 1800s and gave rise to a slew of reform movements. The third revival was at the end of the century and the fourth, over whose existence scholars still debate, began in the mid-1960s. It led to the decline of the orthodox denominations and the rise of the ‘born again’ Christians. Politically, it culminated in the Reagan- era that transformed American politics. W is a creature of the fourth revival which has had a profound impact on American politics.
Mail Today
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PM renews pledge to build poverty-free Bangladesh
Nov 21 2010
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday renewed her pledge to build a hunger, poverty and illiteracy-free Bangladesh imbibed with the spirit of the Liberation War.
The prime minister made the remark at a reception to the gallantry award wining freedom fighters and their successors hosted by her at the Armed Forces Division premises in Dhaka Cantonment in the morning marking the Armed Forces Day 2010.
Sheikh Hasina, who also holds the charge of the Defence Ministry, said her government is working relentlessly to turn the country into a peaceful nation in South Asia, free from all sorts of terrorism and militancy.
Paying glowing tributes to the memory of the martyred freedom fighters including Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and four national leaders, she said the present government is providing due honour to the heroic sons of the nations.
The prime minister said the retirement age of the freedom fighters in the government service has been extended by two years and quota in government jobs has been extended to family members of the freedom fighters.
The freedom fighters’ allowances and other benefits have also been increased, she said.
Besides, she said five percent admission quota has been reserved for the children of the freedom fighters in different educational institutes.
Hasina said the process is underway to prepare a list of freedom fighters of 65 years and above to provide some extra facilities including free journey in buses, trains and launches and getting of medical care.
Listing various other steps for the freedom fighters, she announced that Muktijoddha Complex would be built at all district and upazila headquarters while a modern hospital at Tejgaon for the freedom fighters.
Earlier, the prime minister presented gifts to 53 gallantry award winning freedom fighters and their successors.
State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Capt (retd) AB Tajul Islam and Military Adviser to the Prime Minister Maj Gen (retd) Tariq Ahmed Siddiqui were, among others, present on the occasion.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=27004
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With Afghan control by 2014, Obama sees combat end
Nov 21, 2010
LISBON, PORTUGAL: NATO leaders on Saturday set 2014 as the date for moving Afghans into the lead role in fighting the Taliban, with President Barack Obama saying for the first time he wants U.S. troops out of major combat in Afghanistan by the end of that year.
Allies had different interpretations of that target's meaning. Capping a two-day summit of 28 NATO leaders in this Atlantic port city, Obama said that after a series of public disputes with Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- and despite the likelihood of more to come -- the U.S. and its NATO partners have aligned their aims for stabilizing the country with Karzai's eagerness to assume full control.
``My goal is to make sure that by 2014 we have transitioned, Afghans are in the lead and it is a goal to make sure that we are not still engaged in combat operations of the sort we're involved in now,'' Obama told a closing news conference.
For some U.S. allies, 2014 is more than a goal when it comes to shifting their troops from a combat role.
``There will not be British troops in large numbers and they won't be in a combat role'' by 2015, British Prime Minister David Cameron said. But he added, however, Britain has no intention of abandoning Afghanistan any time soon.
``We may be helping to train their army, we may still be delivering a lot of aid, in effect, because we don't want this country to go back to being a lawless space where the terrorists can have bases,'' Cameron told Sky News television.
Canada is ending its combat role in 2011. If Obama's expectation about ending the U.S. combat mission in 2014 holds, it would mark a turning point in a war now in its 10th year, a conflict that once appeared headed for success but that drifted into stalemate during George W. Bush's second term in the White House.
Obama entered office in 2009 pledging to end the Iraq war, which he opposed from the outset, in order to shift forces, resources and attention to Afghanistan _ a fight he says the U.S. cannot afford to lose.
It remains far from sure, however, that even an expanding and improving Afghan army will prevail without U.S. combat support.
As the U.S. experience in Iraq showed, insurgencies can prove more resilient than predicted and newly assembled government security forces can take longer than expected to become competent and experienced enough to stand on their own.
At their annual gathering, NATO leaders also proclaimed ``a true fresh start'' in relations with Russia. They agreed to construct a missile defense over Europe, signed a long-term partnership accord with Afghanistan and expressed hope that the U.S. Senate would act quickly to ratify a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia that some Republicans oppose.
Before returning to Washington, Obama met with European Union leaders. They released a statement on cooperation across the Atlantic to create jobs, avoid protectionist trade policies, and promote innovation and investment.
Afghanistan and its struggle against the Taliban dominated the NATO summit, which came just weeks before Obama is to receive an internal review of U.S. war strategy. The report is expected to conclude that despite slower-than-expected progress against the Taliban, the current approach is largely on track.
Last December, Obama ordered an extra 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, hoping to regain momentum from a resurgent Taliban, the radical Islamist group that harbored Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants prior to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York and Washington.
The U.S. has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan; other countries have about 40,000.
Many European countries see the U.S. as overemphasizing the value of military force in Afghanistan. They eagerly embraced Saturday's agreement to begin handing off security responsibility in early 2011, with a full transition targeted for the end of 2014.
``Here in Lisbon we have launched the process by which the Afghan people will become masters in their own house,'' NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark said after allied leaders reached a consensus on the handover date.
``We will make it a reality, starting early next year,'' he added.
The allies appear not to have lined up a schedule for troop reductions to coincide with the phased turnover of security control to Afghan forces. But they do seem to agree that after this year the main military focus should be on training Afghans.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday in Chile that only a ``fraction'' of the current allied forces in Afghanistan are likely to remain past 2014. They probably will function as trainers and advisers instead of fighting, he said.
U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, gave the allied leaders a private briefing on how he foresees the transition to Afghan control unfolding, district by district and province by province, starting in 2011. In its public statement, NATO did not reveal the names of the first provinces expected to be transferred to Afghan control.
Karzai has aired a long list of grievances against NATO in recent years, including excessive killing of civilians and what he called U.S. efforts to undermine his re-election campaign last year. He predicted the transition will succeed ``because I found today a strong commitment by the international community. This will be matched by the people of Afghanistan.''
The NATO leaders, after agreeing on Friday to build jointly with the U.S. a missile shield to protect Europe, later invited Russia to become part of that effort.
The allies made their pitch in private to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, but he stopped short of accepting in full. He agreed to work with NATO on an assessment of missile threats, which Fogh Rasmussen said would enable both sides to get a better technical grip on what it would take to counter the most troubling missile threats.
Medvedev appeared less than impressed with the NATO venture. ``It's quite evident that the Europeans themselves don't have a complete understanding how it will look, how much it will cost,'' the Russian leader told reporters. ``But everybody understands the missile defense system needs to be comprehensive.''
He added: ``It should also be a full partnership. Our participation has to be a full-fledged exchange of information, or we won't take part at all.''
Obama was more upbeat. ``We agreed to cooperate on missile defense, which turns a source of past tension into a source of potential cooperation against a shared threat,'' he said.
The summit also was notable for decisions it did not make. It stuck to the status quo, for example, on U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe. Germany and some other European allies want the U.S. to withdraw the estimated 150-200 nuclear bombs stored in five NATO countries. Allied leaders chose instead to put off any action to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in NATO strategy.
Obama said the U.S. would host the 2012 NATO summit, but did not say where.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/With-Afghan-control-by-2014-Obama-sees-combat-end/articleshow/6962443.cms#ixzz15ui6EBHO
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Islamic Barbie: Iran unveils Fatima
Nov 21, 2010
TEL AVIV: An Iranian firm has come up with the first Islamic doll that it has named as Fatima.
In the past there had been two dolls, Sarah and Dara, which were supposed to be Iran's answer to Barbie and Ken, but they failed to impress the local market.
And so Fatima, a doll which has a more Islamic visage , was created.
Hossein Seresht, a representative of Fam, the doll's manufacturer, said that Fatima was meant to battle against the "enemies' cultural invasion" of Iran.
"By creating Barbie and marketing it, westerners are encouraging bad veiling and not wearing the hijab; all of these factors led us to take it as our duty to present Islamic dolls to the market," Ynetnews quoted Seresht as saying.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Islamic-Barbie-Iran-unveils-Fatima/articleshow/6962771.cms#ixzz15uiBi4nu
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Pak's objection to India's UNSC endorsement reflects trust deficit
Nov 21, 2010
NEW DELHI: Reacting sharply to Pakistan's critical remarks over New Delhi's endorsement by the US for UN Security Council, India has expressed its "disappointment" and said they reflected "trust deficit" between the two countries.
"Yes, I would say I am disappointed. And I think it is a reflection of the trust deficit between our two countries," foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said.
She was asked if she was disappointed by Islamabad's outspoken criticism on US President Barack Obama's endorsement of India for a permanent seat in the UNSC.
Criticising the US move, the Pakistan Foreign Office had said "endorsement of India's bid" would add to the complexity of the Council's reforms process and hoped that America would take a "moral view and not base itself on any temporary expediencies or exigencies of power politics."
"I think where India and Pakistan are concerned - and I believe Pakistan should understand our approach very well - we have reached out to Pakistan on a number of occasions in the recent past. We have offered dialogue. We have expressed our readiness to discuss all outstanding issues...
"And I do not think we should be receiving lessons from Pakistan on morality," Rao said.
Terming Obama's support for India's bid for UNSC as a political statement, the foreign secretary in an interview said it was a statement with symbolism and substance.
Describing the Presidential visit as a "great success", Rao also welcomed the US decision to lift the ban on export controls relating to dual-use items, saying removal of Indian entities like ISRO, DRDO and BDL from the list was "very very important and substantive step".
Downplaying Obama's remarks that increased power comes with increased responsibility and India should not shy away from taking hard position on issues like human rights violation in Myanmar, Rao said he spoke frankly.
"He spoke with candour. But I think between friends and partners we can afford that degree of candour and openness," she said.
"When it comes to Myanmar, we have been very open ourselves in relaying to the US what it is that drives our relationship with that country today. We share a contiguous border with Myanmar. We have concerns of security.
"We would like to build connectivity because really Southeast Asia begins in north-east India. Therefore, obviously we would like inclusive political change in Myanmar," Rao said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Paks-objection-to-Indias-UNSC-endorsement-reflects-trust-deficit-Nirupama-Rao/articleshow/6963906.cms#ixzz15uj4CrcW
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Hand over voice samples of LeT men, India to tell Pak
Vishwa Mohan
Nov 21, 2010
NEW DELHI: India will reiterate its demand with Pakistan, asking it to hand over 'voice samples' of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists who have been in jail for their involvement in the 26/11 terror attacks and arrest the other key players including Hafiz Saeed and Sajid Majeed. New Delhi will send its formal communication to Islamabad ahead of the second anniversary of the Mumbai carnage.
"It will be second such request to Islamabad after Union home minister P Chidambaram raised the issue with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik during their meeting in June. The matter had also come up as a follow-up during foreign minister-level talks in July," said a senior government official.
Although Malik had then promised to look at India's demand favourably, he later took recourse to judicial processes stating that his government would have to follow the court's direction in this regard. Pakistan had subsequently told India that three of the seven arrested ones — Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and Abu-al-Qama — had refused to provide their voice samples invoking self-incrimination clause (not giving evidence against themselves) in the law before the court.
Besides these three, the four other whose voice samples are being demanded by India are: Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum. India has been insisting for their 1voice samples' as it wants to match them with the 'recorded' voices of the four persons who had been passing instructions to attackers from their Pakistan-based control room during 26\11. The 'voice samples' will also help Indian sleuths in connecting certain dots which emerged during various intercepts.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hand-over-voice-samples-of-LeT-men-India-to-tell-Pak/articleshow/6962373.cms#ixzz15ujBM4lN
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UAE shooter wins first medal at Asian Games
21 November 2010
Shooter Sheikh Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum won the first medal for UAE at the Asian Games when he finished second in the men’s Double Trap event in China on Sunday.
Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum of UAE won the silver with a total of 182 points (138+44) and the bronze went to Hamad Ali Al Marri (136+45) of Qatar in a shoot-off after three shooters were tied for a third place.
The team gold went to Chinese trio of Pan Qiang (143), Mo Junjie (136) and Hu Binyuan (135) with a total score of 414. IOC Kuwait settled for the silver medal with the trio of Fehaid Aldeehani (137), Hamad Alafasi (136) and Meshfi Almutairi (134) shooting a total of 407.
The 25-year-old Emirati qualified to the final by shooting a score of 138.
Dalmook Al Maktoum is following in the footsteps of UAE’s lone Olympic medallist Shaikh Ahmad Mohammad Hasher Al Maktoum who won gold in the same event at the Athens Games in 2004.
China earlier won team title as Pan Qiang, Mo Junjie and Hu Binyuan shot 414 points to push Kuwait to second place with 407.
India’s team of Sodhi, Noria Asher and Vikram Bhatnagar took the bronze with 403 points.
China lead the field with 19 of the 40 shooting titles decided so far in the 44-event competition.
South Korea are second with 13 golds, followed by North Korea (three), Kuwait (two), and Kazakhstan, Japan and India with one each.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2010/November/theuae_November565.xml§ion=theuae
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Move to better lives of disabled children
By WALAA HAWARI
Nov 21 2010
RIYADH: The Modern Industrial Company (MIC) has signed a cooperation contract with the Disable Children Association (DISCA) to better the lives of handicapped children and the services provided to them through a SR1.5 million campaign called “Their Smile in Your Hands.”
Turki Bin Moammar, MIC’s corporate reputation and trade relation manager, said the company has always cooperated and partnered with governmental and nongovernmental nonprofit establishments to achieve goals and serve society as best as possible.
Bin Moammar confirmed that the present one-year project contract crowns a previous relation between MIC and DISCA. “It’s a campaign with potential for continuity according to the end results we witness,” said Bin Moammar, adding that facilitating equipment, wheelchairs and support equipment is what the project concentrates on.
“According to DISCA, 3,000 children benefited last year from their services and with this cooperation we are hoping to double the number,” he said. The cooperation aims to speed up the waiting list of services offered to disabled children.
Prince Sutlan bin Salman, chairman of DISCA, expressed gratitude for MIC’s generosity. “It is a great reflection of responsibility and belonging,” he said.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article197048.ece
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‘Missile threat comes from Iran’
Nov 21 2010
LISBON/ANKARA: France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday that Iran poses the main threat of the type of rogue attack that NATO's planned anti-missile defense shield is designed to foil.
“No name appears in the documents made public by NATO, but let's call a spade a spade: today's missile threat, it's Iran,” he told reporters at the NATO summit in Lisbon.
The 28-member alliance had earlier agreed on a plan to design a network of radars and interceptor rockets to shoot down missiles targeted at NATO member states, and to invite former rival Russia to take part.
Several allies have in recent years expressed concern at Iran's ballistic missile program, but fellow NATO member Turkey insisted that its neighbor not be singled out as a threat in official policy documents.
President Abdullah Gul of Turkey says the NATO summit agreement to build a missile shield over Europe has met Ankara's demands. An alliance member that maintains close ties to neighboring Iran, Turkey had refused to let NATO name Tehran as a threat.
The state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as saying Saturday that the agreement “was within the framework of what we wished. We are pleased about this.” Under it, a limited system of US anti-missile interceptors and radars already planned for Europe — to include interceptors in Romania and Poland and possibly a radar in Turkey — would be linked to expanded European-owned missile defenses.
NATO leaders agreed on Friday to develop a missile defense shield linking systems in the United States and Europe to protect member states against long-range attacks from regions such as the Middle East.
US officials said the protective umbrella, which will be deployed in stages from next year until 2020, would be capable of intercepting long-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
US interceptor missiles and radar will be stationed in Europe under a plan which NATO officials say will require the 28 NATO states to invest 200 million euros ($280 million) to link existing anti-missile systems to the US system.
“It offers a role for all of our allies. It responds to the threats of our times,” US President Barack Obama told reporters at the NATO summit in Lisbon.
NATO and Russia agreed on Saturday to cooperate on missile defence and other security issues, and hailed a fresh start in relations strained since Russia’s intervention in Georgia in 2008.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the meeting represented a “fresh start” toward more trust and cooperation between the two sides, which froze ties after Russian forces invaded NATO ally Georgia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said a “period of difficult, strained relations has been overcome.”
“We have large-scale plans, we will be working in all areas, including European missile defence,” he told reporters.
Obama said the plans would be built around the US system known as the Phased Adaptive Approach which he announced last year.
This will involve the stationing of ship-based interceptors in the Mediterranean from 2011, followed by land-based interceptors in Romania from 2015 and in Poland from 2018. The United States is also keen to station a forward radar in Turkey, another NATO member state. NATO officials previously said the system was intended to counter missile threats from the Middle East, in particular Iran. By 2020 it will be able to defend against the longest range Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles.
But the sources said leaders would continue to make clear where they believe the main danger comes from, and a US official highlighted the threat from the Middle East.
“This is a phased system and if the threat of long-range missiles, ICBMS, develops, this system will be capable of actually intercepting those missiles coming from the Middle East,” said Ivo Daalder, the US ambassador to NATO.
NATO diplomats have said details, including command and control, will be worked out later.
They said expectations were that the shield would be operated through NATO's existing command structure in tandem with national commands, as is already the case with air defense.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article196962.ece
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Pakistan, US rebuilding trust: Haqqani
Nov 21 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani said on Sunday that through the strategic dialogue, Pakistan and the US were working to build a stronger and more reliable relationship. Haqqani also said that Pakistan seeks peaceful relations with all of its neighbours, including India.
Haqaani stated this while speaking to American experts and South Asian policy analysts at Washington’s Atlantic Council.
He said that through the strategic dialogue, the US was moving on from the past and was taking steps in building more trust in its relationship with Pakistan.
Haqqani said that despite all the efforts, there could be some issues over which Pakistan and US may not be able to agree upon.
http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/21/efforts-continue-to-strengthen-pak-us-relations-haqqani.html
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Russia stops short of joining NATO missile shield
Nov 21 2010
Lisbon : Russia was receptive but stopped short of accepting a historic NATO invitation to join a missile shield protecting Europe against Iranian attack.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed on Saturday to involve technicians in development plans, but did not make a commitment if it becomes operational and warned that Russia might decide against joining the US-led effort if it doesn't feel it is being treated equally as a partner.
"Our participation has to be a full-fledged exchange of information, or we won't take part at all," he told reporters after the announcement by NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
President Barack Obama won NATO support a day earlier to build the missile shield over Europe, an ambitious commitment to protect against Iran' increasingly sophisticated ballistic missiles and a nuclear program the West says is aimed at producing a bomb.
Obama praised Russia's decision Saturday, saying it "turns a source of past tensions into a source of potential cooperation against a shared threat."
Rasmussen was similarly upbeat: "We could cooperate one day in shooting down missiles."
Two key unanswered questions about the missile shield - will it work and can the Europeans afford it? - were put aside for the present by NATO members in the interest of celebrating the agreement as a boost for NATO solidarity.
Medvedev addressed those issues point blank, saying "it is quite evident that the Europeans themselves don't have a complete understanding how it will look, how much it will cost. But everybody understands the missile defense system needs to be comprehensive."
NATO says the cost of the system would be relatively cheap when spread across the entire 28-nation alliance - euro200 million euros, or about $260 million, over 10 years. But critics contend that's a big pricetag for Europe, suffering from a debt crisis that has led to higher unemployment while forcing governments to raise taxes, cut services and slash civil servant salaries amid austerity drives for many nations.
Obama said the missile system "responds to the threats of our times. It shows our determination to protect our citizens from the threat of ballistic missiles." He did not mention Iran by name, acceding to the wishes of NATO member Turkey, which had threatened to block the deal if its neighbor was singled out.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Saturday that NATO met his nation's demands and that the agreement "was within the framework of what we wished. We are pleased about this."
And France, which had had reservations that the missile shield plan might come across as a substitute from nuclear deterrence, said it too had signed on after its concerns were answered.
"France would have refused a unilateral project disconnected from reality, or costly - or if it had been for that matter hostile to Russia or had been a substitute for nuclear deterrence," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
He noted that no country was specifically mentioned as the object of the missile defense, but added: "France calls a cat a cat: the threat of the missiles today is Iran."
Under the arrangement, a limited system of U.S. Anti-missile interceptors and radars already planned for Europe- to include interceptors in Romania and Poland and possibly radar in Turkey - would be linked to expanded European-owned missile defenses. That would create a broad system that protects every NATO country against medium-range missile attack.
Medvedev on Saturday joined a meeting of NATO's 28 leaders – a gesture that marked a sea change for a partnership created after World War II to defend Western Europe against the Soviet threat.
The allies opened their summit by agreeing on the first rewrite of NATO's basic mission - formally called its "strategic concept" -- since 1999. They reaffirmed their bedrock commitment that an attack on one would be treated as an attack on all. In that context, the agreement to build a missile defense for all of Europe is meant to strengthen the alliance.
What remains in conflict, however, is the question of the future role of nuclear weapons in NATO's basic strategy. The document members agreed to on Friday says NATO will retain an "appropriate mix of nuclear and conventional capabilities" to deter a potential aggressor. Germany and some other NATO members want U.S. Nuclear weapons withdrawn from Europe.
On the topic of a US-Russia arms treaty, Obama was backed by Fogh Rasmussen, who told reporters that the treaty, called New START and signed in April by Obama and Medvedev, would improve security not only in Europe but beyond.
Ministers from six European countries - Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Norway and Bulgaria - on Saturday urged US lawmakers to ratify the stalled nuclear treaty, saying failure to do so would be a setback for European security.
The pact would reduce the limits on strategic warheads held by the U.S. and Russia and would establish an inspection system. It would be a major setback for Obama if he's unable to get it ratified by the Senate after inking it with Russia's president earlier this year.
NATO and Moscow signed an agreement to expand the alliance's supply routes to Afghanistan through Russia and were expected to set up a new training program in Russia for counter-narcotics agents from Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries; and agree on a program to provide training to Afghan helicopter crews.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hailed the expanded security cooperation, saying "it opens an unprecedented field of cooperation and expectations between NATO and the political and military power that is Russia."
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/russia-stops-short-of-joining-nato-missile-shield/714063/
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Belgian ladies sue Israeli officials in Brussels
Nov 21 2010
The federal prosecutor's office in Brussels received on Friday a lawsuit filed by four Belgian young women against Israeli officials.
BRUSSELS (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The federal prosecutor's office in Brussels received on Friday a lawsuit filed by four Belgian young women against Israeli officials.
The four young women, Fatima Al-Marabti, Kanza Asnasne, Anga Nevis and Grate Dokenber, were participants in the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy and filed charges against Israeli war minister Ehud Barak, his chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi and commander of the deadly attack on the convoy Eliezer Marom.
Their lawyer Yucca Kallwart said the lawsuit is related to serious violations committed against the international humanitarian law, and the maltreatment and unlawful imprisonment of these four women in Israel.
The lawyer noted that one of the ladies was hit in the face with an Israeli stun grenade and did not get appropriate medical care, and all of them were detained for long hours on board one of the aid ships before they were forcibly deported to Turkey without taking their confiscated personal belongings.
In another context, senior official of the European campaign to end the siege Arafat Abu Madi stated that the Freedom Flotilla coalition decided unanimously to postpone the launch of the second aid convoy to next spring.
He explained that the member organizations of the coalition agreed they need more time to organize a bigger convoy composed of 15 or 20 aid ships instead of six or seven.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=214022
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=3708
9:11 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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