LONDON // Britain’s parliament should not try to ban wearing full-length veils in public after France’s lower house passed a bill which could see Muslim women fined for wearing the burqa, the immigration minister Damian Green has said.
“I stand personally on the feeling that telling people what they can and can’t wear, if they’re just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do,” he added. “We’re a tolerant and mutually respectful society.”
A ban on wearing the burqa in France, home to western Europe’s largest Muslim minority, would not be likely to have an impact on immigration in Britain, Mr Green said.
Of France’s five million Muslims, it is thought only about 2,000 women wear the full-length veil.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010
Jonathan Cook:Netanyahu admits on video he deceived US to destroy Oslo accord
"The contemptuous view of Washington Mr Netanyahu demonstrates in the film will confirm the suspicions of many observers – including Palestinian leaders – that his current professions of good faith should not be taken seriously.
Critics have already pointed out that his gestures have been extracted only after heavy arm-twisting from the US administration.
More significantly, he has so far avoided engaging meaningfully in the limited talks the White House is promoting with the Palestinians while the pace of settlement building in the West Bank has been barely affected by the 10-month freeze, due to end in September."
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Critics have already pointed out that his gestures have been extracted only after heavy arm-twisting from the US administration.
More significantly, he has so far avoided engaging meaningfully in the limited talks the White House is promoting with the Palestinians while the pace of settlement building in the West Bank has been barely affected by the 10-month freeze, due to end in September."
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Friday, July 16, 2010
Netanyahu caught on tape: "American foreign policy easy to maneuver"
"A newly revealed tape of Netanyahu in 2001, being interviewed while he thinks the cameras are off, shows him in a radically different light. In it, Netanyahu dismisses American foreign policy as easy to maneuver, boasts of having derailed the Oslo accords with political trickery, and suggests that the only way to deal with the Palestinians is to “beat them up, not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until it’s unbearable” (all translations are mine).
According to Haaretz’s Gideon Levy, the video should be “Banned for viewing by children so as not to corrupt them, and distributed around the country and the world so that everyone will know who leads the government of Israel.”
“I know what America is,” Netanyahu replied. “America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in their way.” He then called former president Bill Clinton “radically pro-Palestinian,” and went on to belittle the Oslo peace accords as vulnerable to manipulation. Since the accords state that Israel would be allowed to hang on to pre-defined military zones in the West Bank, Netanyahu told his hosts that he could torpedo the accords by defining vast swaths of land as just that."Israeli military has leveled two houses, accommodating 13 members of a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank, claiming it had found no resident
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A Palestinian woman from the al-Shawamreh family sits on the rubble of her house after the demolition. |
The Israeli military has leveled two houses, accommodating 13 members of a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank, claiming it had found no residents there.
The demolition went ahead on Thursday, leaving the al-Shawamreh household to trawl through the debris for their belongings, AFP reported. The family reportedly had nine children.
"These specific houses were built illegally and there was no one living there, so that's why we destroyed them," a spokesman for the Israeli military claimed.
The Palestinian Authority says the destruction, which according to the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions have rendered 130 Palestinians homeless so far this year, torpedo the prospects of peace.
Tel Aviv has, meanwhile, refused to stop expanding the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, causing the indirect talks come to a standstill.
The demolition went ahead on Thursday, leaving the al-Shawamreh household to trawl through the debris for their belongings, AFP reported. The family reportedly had nine children.
"These specific houses were built illegally and there was no one living there, so that's why we destroyed them," a spokesman for the Israeli military claimed.
The Palestinian Authority says the destruction, which according to the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions have rendered 130 Palestinians homeless so far this year, torpedo the prospects of peace.
Tel Aviv has, meanwhile, refused to stop expanding the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, causing the indirect talks come to a standstill.
Flotilla journalists to sue Israel
A group of journalists has announced that it plans to sue Israel over its deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip in May.
Lawyers have already begun preparing lawsuits in several European countries, according to several of the journalists, who met in Istanbul on Wednesday. The group accused Israel of violating international law.
One of the nine people killed on board the Mavi Marmara, the main ship, was Cevdet Kulclar, a Turkish journalist
Israel Resumes Demolitions of Palestinian Homes
The Israeli government has resumed destroying Palestinian homes after a brief freeze. On Tuesday, Israeli bulldozers razed six Palestinian-owned buildings in Jerusalem, including three homes. Israel had informally suspended the demolitions in October following criticism from the United States. The resumed demolitions come just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from the United States after meeting President Obama at the White House. Obama had praised Netanyahu during the talks, saying the Israeli government has shown "restraint." Standing outside of her demolished home, Jerusalem resident Linda al-Rajabi said she and her five children were forced out with no advance warning.
Linda al-Rajabi: "They emptied the house. They made me take out everything. And then, as you see, they demolished the house without giving a warning or anything. They can build 600 settlements, but I am in a shack made from asbestos, and they demolish it. All I have is children, five small ones, and their father, who sometimes works and sometimes does not."
Palestinians may soon have to swear loyalty to the "Jewish" state
The cabinet is expected to approve a series of measures on Sunday that would make it harder for Palestinians to acquire permanent residency or citizenship in Israel. The most notable would require Palestinians to declare their loyalty to "a Jewish and democratic state" before being granted Israeli citizenship.
Desperation: Israel approves initial reading of bill that will make it illegal for Israelis to openly support anti-occupation boycott
The Knesset approved on Wednesday an initial reading of a bill calling for heavy fines to be imposed on Israeli citizens who initiate or incite boycotts against Israel. If approved into law, the fines would apply to anyone boycotting Israeli individuals, companies, factories, and organizations.
Countries promised $5.3 billion to Haiti, so far only 2% of that has been handed over, by 4 countries: Norway, Australia, Brazil and Estonia
(CNN) -- Six months after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, most governments that promised money to help rebuild the country have not delivered any funds at all, a CNN investigation has found.
Donors promised $5.3 billion at an aid conference in March, about two months after the earthquake -- but less than 2 percent of that money has been handed over so far to the United Nations-backed body set up to handle it.
Only four countries have paid anything at all: Brazil, Norway, Estonia and Australia.
Thank you and goodbye
For good or ill, change is coming to Egypt and Saudi Arabia soon
Jul 15th 2010
THE fate of the Arab world’s two most important states lies in the hands of ageing autocrats. Hosni Mubarak, an 82-year-old air-force general who has ruled Egypt since 1981, is widely reported to be grievously ill. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who assumed the throne of the Arabs’ richest country five years ago but has run the show for longer, is reckoned to be 86. The grim reaper will bring change in both places soon.
Maybe the old men will manage to control their succession. President Mubarak has been preparing the ground for his son, Gamal, to take over (see special report). King Abdullah’s anointed successor, Crown Prince Sultan, one of his 18 surviving brothers, has long been poorly, but there are plenty more where he came from (see article). Decades of repression have ensured that the opposition is quiescent in Egypt and virtually inaudible in Saudi Arabia. But they have also made these countries vulnerable to violent disruption. Transition in autocracies often means instability.
The fate of these two countries matters to the West for two big reasons: energy and security. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been reliable, if flawed, allies. Should they stumble, the West’s interests in the region will be imperilled. That is why those regimes need to be encouraged to liberalise their countries’ economic and political systems further and turn them into places where change brings hope not fear.
Hugo Chavez orders review of Vatican ties
Hugo Chavez has had previous public disputes with the Catholic Church
President Hugo Chavez has ordered a review of Venezuela's ties with the Vatican amid tensions between his government and the country's bishops.
An accord with the Vatican gave privileges to the Catholic Church not enjoyed by other churches, he said.
The Venezuelan Episcopal Conference warned this week about growing political polarisation ahead of key legislative elections in September.
Ukraine no longer interested in joining NATO
Scientists find bizarre creatures of the deep
A deep-sea jellyfish Atolla, discovered off the far north coast of Queensland, July 2006 (Queensland Brain Institute)
Australian scientists have discovered bizarre deep sea life hundreds of metres down in the seas around the Great Barrier Reef.
See more stunning pictures here
Was our universe born inside a black hole in another universe?
The current explanation of the universe's origins relies on clumsy assumptions and can't explain most subatomic particles. A small tweak to general relativity solves these problems - and seemingly proves the universe must have come from a black hole elsewhere.
As it stands right now, the explanation for the universe's beginnings is built around a combination of Einstein's general relativity and observation of the ancient universe. Mixing these two theories together creates some problems - for instance, the universe is impossibly large according to its current rate of expansion, so astrophysicists have to invoke the idea of inflation, in which the early universe expanded at a tremendous rate within the first second after the Big Bang.
General relativity, however, can't explain inflation, so another theory is required to account for it. There's nothing technically wrong with that, but it's an inelegant solution, and physicists tend to prefer an all-encompassing explanation to a bunch of piecemeal solutions. That's not the only issue with the current explanation - it can't deal with many properties of subatomic particles, consigning them entirely to the realm of quantum mechanics.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
One of my all time favorite draughtsmen..Nicolai Fechin..
The Philospher (c. 1937,
I've seen him on ABC a while ago..I like...Neil deGrasse Tyson - The Universe
Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about humanity's place in the universe, and the universe's place in humanity. From the final minutes of The History Channel's documentary series 'The Universe', the episode 'Beyond the Big Bang'.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Oldest written document is found in Jerusalem, predates Hebrew conquest
A tiny clay fragment - dating from the 14th century B.C.E. - that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem's Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, say researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal (Canaanite) archives, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say.
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Coulter vs. the neocons
Ann, We Hardly Knew Ye
Justin Raimondo
Justin Raimondo
The “gaffe” (i.e., truth-telling) committed by GOP chairman Michael Steele continues to reverberate from one end of the political spectrum to the other: the latest wave to come crashing onto the shore is Ann “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity” Coulter. I very much doubt she ripped off my headline – “Bill Kristol Must Resign” – although it was posted well before her column went up. Great minds think alike, and, in any case, it seems we agree on the subject of Steele’s alleged heresy: it’s Kristol who ought to resign as the unelected leader and Grand Strategist of the GOP, and Steele who ought to stay.
Sure, her piece is intensely partisan: like “other recent Democratic ventures into military affairs,” she avers, the occupation of Afghanistan “isn’t likely to turn out well.” According to her, we “won” in Iraq, because that country is relatively well-educated and prosperous, as opposed to Afghanistan: “literacy rate, 19 percent; life expectancy, 44 years; working toilets, 7.” Translation: the measure of civilization is knowing when you’re defeated. Bush was right to invade Iraq, and right to ignore the Afghan front after toppling the Taliban: after all, Iraq “had vast oil reserves; and is situated at the heart of a critical region” – an argument that raises the question: then why not invade Russia – or, say, Kazakhstan – which also fits that description? But never mind: if the first half of her piece merely reiterates the same old neoconnish talking points, then the second half breaks some new ground in the continuing evolution of Ms. Coulter (and, perhaps, her legion of admirers on the right).
Egyptian Islamists attempt to draw a veil over 'salacious' masterpiece
Copies of 1001 Nights on display in a Cairo store
Robert Fisk reports on the hardline law group that wants to censor passages from 'One Thousand and One Nights':
How come the Muslim world – at its moments of greatest crisis – will invariably manage to deflect its energies into the most preposterous cultural, historical or religious questions?
Egyptian Islamists have said they want to censor "salacious" passages from the One Thousand and One Nights, one of the Muslim world's priceless literary works. This is the same country whose prelates once ordered a university professor to divorce his wife because he had dared to suggest a reinterpretation of the Koran.
Ayman Abdel Hakeem, a member of the "Islamist Lawyers without Shackles" group, wants to censor the tales told in the Arabian Nights because the epic "contains profanities which cannot be acceptable in Egyptian society." The very idea of an insatiable woman offends him. "We understand that this kind of literature is acceptable in the West, but here we have a different culture" he is reported as saying.
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