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Monday 05th January 2009
United States president-elect Barack Obama has made Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations a top priority "from day one" of his administration come January 20. But the longer Israeli brutalities in Gaza continue, the higher the regional stakes rise and the prospects for Obama's initiative diminish. Indeed, the Likudnic ethnic cleansers with the complicity of the Bush administration, have tried to ensure that Obama is presented with a fait accomlpli and is unable to waver from criminal and unconditional US backing for the Zionist genocide of Palestinians.
Related Links
Israel's 'Fait Accompli' in Gaza
Obama is losing a battle he doesn't know he's in
Inheriting Bush's blinkers
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Monday 05th January 2009
The similarities between what is taking place in Gaza today, and what took place in Lebanon in 2006, are striking. Both wars were waged by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) against a small military group, seen as "heroes and resistance leaders" by the Arab world, labeled as "terrorists" by Israel and the United States. In both wars, Israel resorted to unconditional force, devastating Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008, and it seems like this war - just like 2006 - will last longer than most people expect. It won't be that easy to eliminate Hamas from Gaza, however, because of its grassroots popularity, just like Israel was unable to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Related Links
Middleman in the Middle East
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Monday 05th January 2009
Over the last seven years, the US-led war on terror has been thoroughly discredited - not only morally, but militarily and strategically. The gloating Likudnik neocons have yet to learn that shock and awe barbarity has produced the attacks of 11 September. Unrestrained ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinians is creating an enabling environment for future blowbacks.
Related Links
Our spirit will not die
On the other side from civilisation
Britain has a duty to Arabs
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Monday 05th January 2009
The UK and "New Europe" enthralled by the US, are defanging any EU call for an end to Israeli brutalities. As a result the EU is in grave danger of miscalculating its own interests.
Related Links
EU must hold Israel to its agreements
Confusion as usual in Brussels
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Monday 05th January 2009
As the race for the Iranian presidential election heats up, hard-liners are cracking down on activists who have supported reformist candidates in the past.
It is not clear who will run against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June election, but Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former president, has hinted that he might enter the race. Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of Parliament and a reformer, has said he will run. Khatami's potential candidacy puts the fear of God into the conservatives and the present wave of intimidations is to forestall the need for more robust rigging of elections nearer the time.
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Monday 05th January 2009
The authorities in the western desert region of Xinjiang in China approved the arrests of nearly 1,300 people in the first 11 months of last year on suspicion of "endangering state security," according to a report published Sunday in an official newspaper. The number of arrests on that particular charge represents an extraordinary leap over the number in 2007 and is drawing scrutiny from human rights groups. The newspaper, The Procuratorial Daily, which is published by the Chinese equivalent of the attorney general's office, said that prosecutors' departments in Xinjiang approved 1,295 arrests of individuals and indicted 1,154 of those people. The newspaper article was also posted on a Xinjiang government Web site, lending legitimacy to the statistics.
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Resurgence of Islam in Tajikistan celebrated by many
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Monday 05th January 2009
Iran warned Iraq on Sunday an "intensely treacherous" United States habitually broke pacts like one it recently concluded on American troops quitting Iraq by 2011. "The Americans are intensely treacherous and break pacts to the extent that they do not have real friendship even with their close allies in the region."
Related Links
Iraq plans to close Iranian dissidents' border camp
Everything You Needed Know about Iran but the Mass Media, the Republicans and Hillary Clinton Wouldn't Tell You
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Monday 05th January 2009
Women have traditionally been encouraged to practice their religion at home but they are increasingly praying and entering social activities in the mosque.
While no statistics exist on the increasing number of Egyptian women praying outside the home, several religious scholars in Cairo say there is a clear trend of more women attending mosques and playing a greater religious role.
Related Links
Popular 'satellite sheik' draws youth to a modern Islam
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Monday 05th January 2009
India gave Pakistan what it says is the most detailed evidence yet tying the militants who attacked Mumbai to "elements" in Pakistan on Monday, responding to weeks of demands from Islamabad for proof that the siege began across the border. In so doing India has subtley changed its cetral accusation from the terrorists being Pakistani nationals to "tying the militants to 'elements' in Pakistan". As with all previous attacks in India, this shows a lack of solid evidence on India's part and its tendency to make wild accusations for public consumption.
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Monday 05th January 2009
Pandering to Likudnic neocon postures on Iran, this key alternative supplier of gas has been shunned by the EU, led by a belligerent UK Foreign Office. This flawed policy has exposed the EU itself to blackmail by Russia over its critical gas supplies. Decisively breaking away from the Likudnic neocon paradigm and genuinely engaging with the Muslim world, is the only way of for the EU to preserve its long term interests.
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Monday 05th January 2009
A Muslim bank manager who claims she was accused of trying to sleep her way to the top is suing Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) for damages of £16.7m for sex, race and religious discrimination. She also alleges one of the men mocked her fasting during the month of Ramadan as "ridiculous" and said that he did not want to work with Asians. Awad, who is British-born but of Egyptian origin, claims a third colleague asked her at a Christmas party whether she was an "active Muslim". When she asked what he meant, he allegedly replied: "Do you carry bombs on trains?"
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Monday 05th January 2009
Police have been given the power to hack into personal computers without a court warrant. The Home Office is facing anger and the threat of a legal challenge after granting permission. Ministers are also drawing up plans to allow police across the EU to collect information from computers in Britain. The moves will fuel claims that the Government is presiding over a steady extension of the "surveillance society" threatening personal privacy. Last month European ministers agreed in principle to allow police to carry out remote searches of suspects' computers across the EU. Details of the proposal are still being developed by the Home Office and other EU ministries, but critics last night warned it would usher in a vast expansion of police hacking operations.
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Friday 02nd January 2009
Closing the Guantanamo Gulag without trying inmates for any crimes for lack of evidence means that the prisoners were innocents caught in Bushmen's self fantasy as the "most dangerous men on earth". Indeed, blatantly wrongful incarceration may understandably have radicalised the individuals. So any help to Washington to wrangle itself out of this own goal should come with a proper and public admission of wrongdoing and exemplary compensation packages for the hapless inmates. This will then also open channels for trying the key perpetrators of this barbarity in appropriate jurisdictions.
Related Links
What to Do About the Torturers?
Australia unlikely to take U.S. detainees
Another brutal year for liberty
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