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from UN News Centre
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35473&Cr=&Cr1=
29 July 2010 –More than 6,200 children attending a summer camp in the Gaza Strip run by the United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees have broken their own world record for the number of kites flown at the same time.
The feat comes exactly one week after more than 7,200 children bounced basketballs simultaneously for five minutes, doubling a 2007 record set in the United States.
“We still have to await final confirmation from the Guinness Book of World Records, but according to our figures the kids have done it. What an amazing achievement – two world records in a week,” said John Ging, Director of Operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Both record-breaking events were part of the Summer Games programme organized by UNRWA in nearly 150 locations across Gaza over a period of six weeks, beginning on 12 June. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on July 29, 2010 - י"ח אב תש"ע at 4:41 pm
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Reprinted from Sify News, July 29, 2010
A specific part of our brain processes information about human and animal faces and is responsible for how we recognize them and interpret facial expressions. Now, Israeli researchers are exploring what makes this highly specialized area of the brain unique.
In her “Face Lab” at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Galit Yovel of TAU’s Department of Psychology is trying to understand the mechanisms at work in the face area of the brain called the “fusiform gyrus” of the brain. She is combining cognitive psychology with techniques like brain imaging and electrophysiology to study how the brain processes information about faces. Her most recent research on the brain’s face-processing mechanisms appears in the Journal of Neuroscience and Human Brain Mapping.
The study of face recognition does more than provide an explanation for embarrassing memory lapses. For instance, it may help business executives better match names with faces, and more important can lead to better facial recognition software to identify terrorists or criminals. Similar to faces, bodies are also processed by distinct brain areas. How we perceive faces is not totally intuitive, she says, and therefore raises the question of how this information is combined in our brain to understand how separate face and body areas generate a whole body-image impression. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Mental Health, Middle East, Science on July 29, 2010 - י"ח אב תש"ע at 10:02 am
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The Jakarta Post | Mon, 07/19/2010 4:28 PM (http://www.thejakartapost.com)
Dicky Christanto
Some point their finger to poverty, others the hostility of US troops in several Muslim countries, but for security analyst and former journalist Noor Huda Ismail, terrorism is mainly caused by the people’s failure to think critically.
“The culture that has been ingrained within the Jamaah Islamiyah [JI] environment is that members should be subservient to clerics.
As a result, members cannot think critically about clerics’ advice and teachings,” said Noor Huda during the launching of his first book last week.
Titled My Friend the Terrorist, the book provides first hand information on how a close friend of Noor Huda, who graduated from the Al-Mukmin Islamic traditional boarding school in Ngruki, Surakarta, in 1991, became a radical and joined militant groups such as JI.
Al-Mukmin, led by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, has been under the public spotlight after some of its alumni, both teachers and students, were found to be involved in a number of terrorist activities throughout the country.
The book follows the journey of Noor Huda and Utomo Pamungkas, widely known as Mubarok, a terrorist convict now serving a life sentence in prison for his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings.
Huda and Mubarok were roommates when they were in Al-Mukmin. “After graduating from Al-Mukmin, I was heading to the West, meeting people from other religions and cultures, who used to be labeled as infidels by our clerics back then and I found that they didn’t fit this picture,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mubarok was led by his passion to study Islam from its original countries in the Middle East. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 20, 2010 - ט' אב תש"ע at 10:27 am
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by Ruth Amber Gristak and Maayana Miskin
(Israelnationalnews.com) One in 91 children worldwide, and one in 58 boys, are diagnosed with autism. Where do Jewish children rank in autism numbers? As there is no research in that specific area of autism, there is no answer. In Israel, the official statistic is 1 in 241. “Lack of answer” is the common end point for most questions about autism. There is no definitively known cause for the disorder.
This may be one reason that the Icare4autism 2010 International Autism conference in Jerusalem brought in over 500 attendees from Israel and around the globe. Attendees included educators, researchers, and those touched by autism. This conference was Israel’s first major international autism conference.
The event was held on July 5-6, 2010, by the NY-based, global non-profit, the International Center for Autism Research and Education (Icare4autism). It featured 30 speakers from around the globe and was held at the Ramada- Renaissance Hotel. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Health Sciences, Mental Health, Middle East, Recent Posts, Special Education on July 17, 2010 - ו' אב תש"ע at 9:53 pm
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By Nathan Lipson, Haaretz, July 14, 2010
Joining the OECD was a feather in Israel’s cap. Yet with the opportunity to pat ourselves on the back for Israel’s economic achievements, there is another opportunity we must not cringe from grasping – to compare the state of our school system with that of the other members in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. We do not fare well from the comparison.
Based on a chart published in The State of the Nation report by Dan Ben-David, professor of economics and executive director of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, there are grounds for concern.
Ben-David collated data on the results of Israeli junior high school pupils who participated in two international tests: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS ) and OECD PISA – Program for International Student Assessment. The tests were conducted five times over the past 10 years.
Israelis scored much lower than the OECD average on all five exams. In all the tests but one, Israel’s pupils came in last place among a comparative sample of 25 OECD countries. In that one exception, they were nearly last.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Middle East, Opinion, Recent Posts on July 14, 2010 - ג' אב תש"ע at 11:58 am
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VOA News, 07 July 2010
NATO troops in Afghanistan (FILE)
Afghan officials say a NATO airstrike has mistakenly killed at least five Afghan soldiers.
Officials said Wednesday the troops were on patrol in the eastern province of Ghazni, when a NATO aircraft began shooting at them.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said two Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the “friendly fire” attack. The spokesman condemned the incident, saying this is not the first time NATO troops have mistakenly killed Afghan soldiers.
NATO spokesman General Josef Blotz expressed regret for the deaths and promised a joint investigation of the incident. He said the botched strike was likely caused by a coordination issue.
In other Afghanistan news, British troops are set to withdraw from one of the deadliest areas in southern Afghanistan, handing over control of the district to the United States. Reports say Britain will soon withdraw its 1,000 soldiers from the Sangin district of Helmand province. They will be replaced by U.S. forces, who now outnumber British troops in the region. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on July 7, 2010 - כ"ה תמוז תש"ע at 10:54 am
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Football, otherwise known as Soccer, can change the way friends, neighbors, especially people of different political opinion, ethnic nationality and race think about one another. Although other sports have the capability of bringing people together the number of countries and people involved in these sports: basketball, handball misnamed football and long tennis or volley ball and tracks among others are small compared to the number of people who play, watch and act as soccer fans.
The enthusiasm in soccer is also wonderful! Its massive involvement, the large number of countries that register penultimate a soccer tournament especially FIFA World Cup series puts soccer ahead as the most watched, most loved sports on earth. It’s also the most skillful and its stars are the most physically fit or agile in sports on earth. It’s this embrace, love, skills, fitness and agility that offers soccer as the sports that can heal the world if properly planned. These skills and agility can be transformed into workable skills the world needs to triumph as one group in respect, unity, justice and peace.
If participants are enlightened and given the tools to knowing that each of them represent each corner, political belief, nation and continent of the world, etc. The success soccer stars would bring to humanity in terms of a mass movement and community efforts will be at best imagined than described. Imagine the efforts in Haiti. I’m convinced a soccer movement will topple the love shown by people of goodwill around the world there. Of course, there should be honest competition in touching a soul or healing distressed people.
We’ve seen how former Pres. Nelson Mandela used Rugby to unite the once bitterly divided people of South Africa. When Mandela was released from prison in 1990, it’s under the apartheid rulership of former Pres. Fredrick W. Declerk. He became the first black majority and democratic president of South Africa. Mandela was faced with lots of challenges. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Recent Posts on July 4, 2010 - כ"ב תמוז תש"ע at 5:25 pm
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Some 350 Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian children get together in annual one-day event. ‘The mixed game gave me a feeling that we can begin to make peace and enjoy life through football,’ one of participants says
By Tamar Zmora, YNet News, June 13, 2010
Some 350 Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian students aged 10 to 14 participated in a soccer tournament last week on the Wolfson-Chodorov soccer field in Holon.
The annual one-day event serves as a celebratory culmination to a year of activities and curriculum, Gal Peleg, Development Manager of Mifalot, told Ynetnews in a phone interview.
“The whole idea is for them to get to know each other, to break down stereotypes, and to informally get to know that the other side are not demons as it sometimes seems in the news,” Peleg said.
Through the “Know Your Neighbor” project, the children work in pairs with different communities and meet altogether at the end of the year for the tournament. There are pairings of Israelis and Palestinians from east and west Jerusalem, Israelis and Jordanians, and Arab and Jewish Israelis.
These pairs meet four or five times throughout the year and go on outings together to the beach, theater, and water park among other activities. “They are no different from us,” said Ofir, an Israeli youth who played in the soccer game last week. “I am glad we got to meet like this.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Judaism, Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 13, 2010 - א' תמוז תש"ע at 7:58 pm
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G. Murphy Donovan, Faithfreedom.org, June 4, 2010
“By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.” - Edmund Burke
Arabs and Persians make common cause when it comes to Israel and now the Turks have joined the anti-Semitic axis on a sea-going front. These “freedom” flotillas have a lot more to do with intimidating Israel than they have to do with assisting Gaza.
Turkey has long been held up as an exemplar of a model Islamic state; secular, moderate, democratic, and collegial. Nonetheless, the inherent contradictions of an “Islamic republic” may be coming home to roost in Anatolia – putting the lie to secular, moderate, and collegial.
Ankara, a NATO “partner”, has been backsliding for some time now; indeed, ever since the Islamists achieved power in democratic elections. The so-called “freedom flotilla” which attempted to run the blockade to Gaza a few days ago is the latest symptom of the march backwards. The convoy,masquerading as humanitarian relief, originated in Turkey with a political cargo of 700 pro-Hamas activists – spoiling for confrontation. The agitators got the fight they were looking for, and predictably, Israel is now vilified for defending its borders against hard core Islamist Turks and a small mixed bag of “progressive” nitwits.
Lest there be any doubt about Turkey/Hamas nexus in this contrived confrontation at sea, it should be noted that the unrealized port of debarkation in Gaza was festooned with Turkish flags and a gargantuan portrait of Recep Tuyyip Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister.
We might also note that Hamas is the radical step-child of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (al Ikhwan). The Brotherhood is illegal in Egypt where it has been responsible for countless assassination attempts and gratuitous acts of terror for nearly a century. Nonetheless, Hamas is held up as the people’s representative in Gaza. Never mind that the Hamas insurgency split the Palestinians into two irreconcilable factions. Yet, somehow Israel is supposed negotiate a two state solution with two groups of Arab fanatics, who can’t share the same tent, no less a country.
Caroline Glick’s 15 Oct piece in the Jerusalem Post called”How Turkey was Lost”, sounded an early alarm about the Turkish malignancy, a cautionary tale about confusing elections with democracy. She described Ankara’s backsliding since the election of Erdogan, head of the formerly outlawed Islamist AKP. Since Erdogan came to power in 2002, Turkey has given Hamas a reception usually reserved for heads of state, eliminated the visa requirements for Syrian travelers to Turkey, and now cancelled air exercises with Israel and begun joint military maneuvers with Syria. Glick seems to believe that the Turks have cast their lot with the ShiiteCrescent. If what she suggests is true; we now have an Islamist fox in the NATO henhouse – and Turkey’s campaign for membership in the European Union has hit the hard rocks of reality.
The irony of elections in a country with a Muslim majority is that it often represents the camel’s nose under the tent; opening the door for religious opportunists to hold the one election that could be the last. On this score, Algeria evokes hot flashes of déjà vu. Islamists might be fanatics, but they’re not morons; they will use Western institutions to undo apostates and infidels. Such are the vicissitudes of democracy. And such is the dilemma also in Afghanistan; where the choice is between the corruptible Karzai and the incorruptible Taliban, Mullah Omar. Not too many good options in this neighborhood. If Omar ever ran in a UN supervised election; he might win in a landslide.
The big problem with Afghanistan, like Iraq before, is its potential for distraction. The only accomplishment of elections in Iraq was to reverse the sectarian poles – and assist Iraq in becoming the second Shiite nation in the Crescent, another potential ally for theocratic Tehran. Over time, American good intentions have managed to do to Iraq what the ayatollahs could not.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 6, 2010 - כ"ד סיון תש"ע at 7:27 am
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Aljazeera.net, June 4, 2010
Civilians have borne the brunt of the fighting between government forces and al-Shabab fighters [AFP]
At least 17 civilians have been killed after Somali government forces, supported by African Union peacekeepers, launched attacks against fighters from al-Shabab, the armed anti-government group, in Mogadishu.
Among the dead are six women and a family of five whose home was destroyed by shelling, Ali Muse, the head of the city’s ambulance service, said on Thursday.
He said at least 61 other civilians were wounded in the heavy shelling and gun-battles that started early on Thursday in northern Mogadishu.
Most of the victims lived in the Somali capital’s Kaaran district, the scene of heavy exchanges of shellfire between the two sides.
Residents said the government soldiers were backed by AU peacekeepers in armoured vehicles. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 4, 2010 - כ"ב סיון תש"ע at 11:09 am
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