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Iraq poll hit by deadly attacks
Iraq’s second parliamentary election since the 2003 invasion has been hit by multiple attacks, with at least 35 people being killed.
Two buildings were destroyed in Baghdad and dozens of mortars were fired across the capital and elsewhere.
Despite the violence, there were long queues of voters at polling stations in a number of cities.
Polls closed at 1700 (1400 GMT) but people already in line were allowed to cast their votes.
An immense security operation was mounted, involving more than 500,000 Iraqi security personnel.
The border with Iran was closed, thousands of troops were deployed, and vehicles were banned from roads.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki had called on voters to turn out in large numbers, saying that participation would boost democracy.
“ I am not scared and I am not going to stay put at home ”
Baghdad voter
In Washington US President Barack Obama issued a statement after polls had closed, saying Iraqis had chosen "to shape their future through the political process".
"We mourn the tragic loss of life today, and honour the courage and resilience of the Iraqi people who once again defied threats to advance their democracy," he said.
Multiple attacks
There were mortar, grenade and bomb attacks in Baghdad and in other cities, including Mosul, Falluja, Baquba and Samarra.
But the capital was hardest hit, with dozens of mortar shells falling in several neighbourhoods. Twenty-five people were killed in one explosion that destroyed a residential building in the north of the city.
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Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on March 7, 2010 - כ"א אדר תש"ע at 2:42 pm
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News Summary, Purim 5770
Google News, February 28, 2010
Editor’s Note: Despite all the disasters, strife, conflicts, struggles, and injustices going on in the world, Israel is still condemned for its defensive actions necessary for its survival. These articles were compiled from today’s World News from Google.
Compiled by Israel Zwick, CN Publications
Herald Sun - 29 minutes ago
By staff writers Devastation wrought by the earthquake in Pelluhue, a town about 322km southwest of Santiago. It now lies mostly under mud and debris / AP Source: AP A powerful new 6.1-magnitude aftershock has hit just offshore from central Chile.
News24 - 20 minutes ago
Mogadishu – Somali insurgents on Sunday barred the World Food Programme (WFP) from the famine and war-plagued Horn of Africa country, where the UN says four million people, half the population, needs emergency food aid.
BBC News – Islam Online – Radio Netherlands – Wikinews
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – At least 1000 minority Christians, many holding olive branches, marched in protest near the restive city of Mosul on Sunday to urge the Iraqi government to act decisively after a series of killings.
PARIS – A violent late winter storm with fierce rain and hurricane-strength winds ripped across western Europe on Sunday, battering France and four other countries, leaving at least 50 people dead.
BBC News - 3 hours ago
The bomb, blamed on Taliban insurgents, hit a coach in Nawzad district, said a spokesman for the provincial governor. The blast was well to the north of where Nato and Afghan troops are waging a major offensive against the Taliban.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on February 28, 2010 - י"ד אדר תש"ע at 2:45 pm
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Obama: ‘I’m Really a Space Cadet when it Comes to the Mideast’
Purim is a holiday on which Jews are expected to get tipsy, wear costumes and do silly things – including posting completely imaginary and false interviews with the President of the United States on news websites that are perfectly serious on all the other days of the year.
by Gil Ronen, Arutz Sheva, Purim 5770, February 28, 2010
(Israelnationalnews.com) United States President Barack Obama admitted, in a special Purim interview for Arutz Sheva, that he “frankly does not have a clue” regarding the psychology of the Middle East and that “a three year old child with some experience in nursery-school power politics could probably understand the Middle East better than [he does].”
“I really am a space cadet when it comes to Middle East,” he said.
His mood swung from low to high and back again as he sipped occasionally from the Purim wine that the Arutz Sheva team had brought him. To our surprise, Obama chugged away at the bottle, finishing it before the interview was halfway through and asking for seconds. His mood from that point onward could best be described as “drunkenly sober” – until the end of the interview, when matters took a surprising turn.
ARUTZ SHEVA: Mr. President, as the Jewish people celebrate Purim, we remember our struggle with an evil Persian official named Haman, and look with foreboding at a new Iranian regime that threatens us with destruction too. Can you promise us that the US intends to apply biting sanctions against Iran before it is too late?
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA: First of all let me say that I am very much in favor of sanctions that bite. As a matter of fact, I think all sanctions bite. They really do. Sanctions are out! Any form of punitive action against a Muslim country is really counterproductive because Islam is a religion of peace and the US is after all a colonialist power. I was just talking to some old madarassah buddies of mine from Indonesia about this on Facebook.
Suddenly beaming, Obama waves at the camera and exclaims: “Hi Bilal and Japoor! Hope you are watching!” He fondles his wine glass pensively and continues.
BHO: Having said that – we have no intention of abandoning Israel to the wolves, so to speak. I have said before and I will say it again: the United States will not stand idly by as Israel is turned into a radioactive parking lot. If and when Iran uses nuclear weapons against Israel, and if we see that there is serious fallout and hundreds of thousands of people die horrible deaths – we will apply sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards.
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Posted by CNP Webmaster as Fun Stuff, Humor, Judaism, Middle East, Recent Posts on February 28, 2010 - י"ד אדר תש"ע at 9:03 am
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Arabs have to be more pragmatic to end Palestinian suffering, says Bahrain Crown Prince
The prince reiterated a call he first made in July to the Arabs to be more pragmatic in seeking solutions to the conflict that has plagued the region for generations
- By Habib Toumi, Bahrain Bureau Chief
- Gulf News, February 24, 2010
Manama: Palestinians have been suffering and losing precious lives because of the Arabs’ unclear policies, Bahrain’s crown prince has said.
“We have to put an end to the senseless bidding and be realistic and responsible in our approach to the Palestinian issue,” Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said.
“The Palestinians have been suffering and paying a heavy price because of the Arab’s blurred and confused policy towards their sensitive issue,” he said in an interview published in Al Ayam.
The prince reiterated a call he first made in July to the Arabs to be more pragmatic in seeking solutions to the conflict that has plagued the region for generations.
“We need to reach out to the Israeli people through a constructive dialogue and use the media to highlight the importance of a fair solution in their minds,” Prince Salman said.
“We need to drive the concept that we favour a negotiated peaceful solution over irresponsible claims,” he said.
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Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on February 24, 2010 - י' אדר תש"ע at 11:25 am
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Archaeologist Discovers Jerusalem City Wall from Tenth Century B.C.E.
ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2010) — A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. — possibly built by King Solomon — has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.
Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.
The excavations in the Ophel area were carried out over a three-month period with funding provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, a New York couple interested in Biblical Archeology. The funding supports both completion of the archaeological excavations and processing and analysis of the finds as well as conservation work and preparation of the site for viewing by the public within the Ophel Archaeological Park and the national park around the walls of Jerusalem.
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Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education, Judaism, Middle East, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Science on February 22, 2010 - ח' אדר תש"ע at 8:09 pm
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Scientists irate after top education official questions evolution
By Or Kashti and Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent, February 21, 2010
The Education Ministry’s chief scientist sparked a furor among environmental activists and scholars Saturday with remarks questioning the reliability of evolution and global warming theory. The comments from Dr. Gavriel Avital, the latest in a series of written and oral statements casting doubts on the fundamental tenets of modern science, led several environmentalists to call for his dismissal.
“If textbooks state explicitly that human beings’ origins are to be found with monkeys, I would want students to pursue and grapple with other opinions. There are many people who don’t believe the evolutionary account is correct,” Avital said yesterday.
“There are those for whom evolution is a religion and are unwilling to hear about anything else. Part of my responsibility, in light of my position with the Education Ministry, is to examine textbooks and curricula,” he said. “If they keep writing in textbooks that the Earth is growing warmer because of carbon dioxide emissions, I’ll insist that isn’t the case.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Climate Change, Education, Evolutionary Biology, Middle East, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Recent Posts on February 22, 2010 - ח' אדר תש"ע at 2:37 pm
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YEMEN: “I’d rather die than go back to him”
Aisha was 10 years old when she was married. Today, two years later, she is still hoping for a divorce
SANAA, 21 February 2010 (IRIN) – It was every little girl’s dream – she was to get a new dress, jewellery, sweets and a party for all her friends.
What 10-year-old Aisha* did not know was that after the wedding party she would have to leave school, move to a village far from her parents’ home, cook and clean all day, and have sex with her older husband.
“He took out a special sheet and laid me down on it,” Aisha told IRIN, wringing her small plump hands. “After it, I started bleeding. It was so painful that I was crying and shouting, and since then I have seen him as death.”
After a week of fighting off her husband every night, Aisha’s father was called. He had received 200,000 Yemeni Rial (US$1,000) for his daughter in `shart’, a Yemeni dowry, which he could not pay back.
“My Dad made a cup of tea and put some pills in it, which he gave me. The pills made me feel dizzy,” said Aisha. “My Dad told me to sleep with my husband, or he would kill me, but I refused.”
Instead Aisha broke a glass bottle over her head in a desperate attempt to stay awake. “My Dad hit me badly. I was bleeding from my mouth and nose,” she said.
After spending a few months in her husband’s home, where she said he would regularly drug her and beat her, Aisha managed to escape. Now, two years later, aged 12, she is unable to divorce him.
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Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East, Recent Posts on February 21, 2010 - ז' אדר תש"ע at 4:08 pm
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Baha’is offer decision-making model at UN commission
Bahai World News Service, 16 February 2010
UNITED NATIONS — A new model of decision-making among peoples of different cultures would contribute to integration “at this time of transition to a new social order,” according to a new Baha’i statement.
The statement was prepared for the 48th United Nations Commission for Social Development, which concluded on 12 February. The commission is the chief UN body charged with following up on the World Summit on Social Development held in 1995 in Copenhagen, where world leaders outlined principles that would characterize a new “society for all.” These principles included respect for diversity and participation of all people.
The Baha’i International Community said in its statement that it was offering its experience in the method of consultation used by Baha’i communities around the world – a key component in creating unity among people.
The consultative process, the Baha’i statement said, rests on the understanding that all human beings are essentially noble – “they possess reason and conscience as well as capacities for inquiry, understanding, compassion, and service to the common good.”
Mr. Ming H. Chong of Singapore, a delegate to the commission who presented a summary of the Baha’i statement, said afterward that understanding the nobility of all humans prevents people from dismissing others as needy rather than being in charge of their own development. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Recent Posts on February 18, 2010 - ד' אדר תש"ע at 4:32 pm
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Is Israel-bashing anti-Semitic?
By David Frum, CNN Contributor, February 16, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- David Frum says Israel is facing a delegitimization campaign
- He says some critics engage in wild charges without any foundation
- Frum says he defended Andrew Sullivan against charges of anti-Semitism
- But he says in other cases, hatred of Israel and of Jews go hand-in-hand
Editor’s note: David Frum writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, he was special assistant to President George W. Bush in 2001-2. He is the author of six books, including “Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again” and the editor of FrumForum.
Washington (CNN) — Jennifer Tonge is not a lunatic. She is a member of the British House of Lords, appointed to that eminent body in 2005 after a career in politics and medicine.
On February 11, she was asked a question by www.thejc.com, the online version of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle.
Tonge serves as patron of an online journal based in Gaza, the Palestine Telegraph. The previous week, the Palestine Telegraph accused the Israeli medical teams doing humanitarian work in Haiti of harvesting organs from earthquake victims. TheJC.com asked Tonge for comment. Tonge first commended the Israeli teams for their work in Haiti. She then added these words:
“To prevent allegations such as these — which have already been posted on YouTube — going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.”
The YouTube video to which Tonge refers can be seen here. It’s the work of a solo crank, and hardly seems to require an “independent inquiry” to refute.
The statement to TheJC.com was not Lady Tonge’s first entry into Middle East analysis. She has expressed herself often on the subject of Israel and Israel’s supporters, and in vivid terms. In a speech to a meeting during her Liberal Democratic Party’s annual conference in 2006, Tonge declared: “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the Western world, its financial grips. I think they’ve probably got a grip on our party.”
(That grip was not too tight to prevent Tonge’s party from collectively denouncing Israel for attacking Hezbollah after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.)
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Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Middle East, Monotheistic Religions, Opinion, Recent Posts on February 18, 2010 - ד' אדר תש"ע at 10:45 am
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Longer Saudi Arabia Is Left to Exist, Closer A Nuclear Terrorist Act Comes
Authorities continue to systematically suppress, or fail to protect, the rights of fourteen million Saudi women and girls, eight million foreign workers, and some two million Shia. Thousands of people have received unfair trials or were subject to arbitrary detention. Curbs on freedom of association, expression, and movement, as well as a pervasive lack of official accountability, remain serious concerns. In May the government cancelled scheduled municipal elections.- HRW
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
American Chronicle, February 14, 2010
Saudi Arabia is not a state; it is a factory of inhuman hatred, evil rancor, vulgar behaviour, deep ignorance, compact inanity, and utter bestialization of the human beings who happen to live there. Never ever in the World History has the Humankind testified to such an ulcerous enmity of the Knowledge, Science, Art and Philosophy. Yet, the territory presently occupied by Saudi Arabia was not always the realm of the utmost barbarism. Degradation and decay came with the gradual rise and prevalence of the Hanbal pseudo-Muslim school of jurisprudence, the pathetic theological system of Ibn Taimiya, and the Satanic cult of Abdel Wahhab – a long historical development that took almost 10 centuries to be completed.
Acting against the interests of their own citizens in the long run, the calamitous Freemasonic regimes of England and France early realized the decadence of the Ottoman Empire and its reasons, namely the predominance of the aforementioned layers of Islamic alteration. With their premeditated, anti-Ottoman and anti-Turkish acts, they averted the possibility of an Islamic Renaissance that would sweep away the aforementioned ignorance and barbarism. And with their intentional detachment of the territory presently occupied by Saudi Arabia from Turkey, they promoted to local power the main factor of this barbarism: the incestuous family of the Wahhabi Saudi tribe.
They further facilitated the expansion and the diffusion of this barbaric pseudo-version of Islam throughout the vast lands inhabited by Muslims that the colonial powers had taken good care to first occupy and then terrorize.
Their plan is evil and easy to understand: by imposing a debilitated, demented, barbaric and idiotic doctrine as Islam, and by eliminating all forms of authentic Islam preserved down to our times from Mali to Yemen and from Somalia to Indonesia, they create a fake and virtually impotent adversary that they plan to effectively eliminate. And they imagine that in this way they will eliminate Islam once and forever. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Islam, Middle East, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Opinion, Recent Posts on February 15, 2010 - א' אדר תש"ע at 12:00 pm
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