Malayala Manorama Indian Newspaper of Malayalam Language from eight places in Kerela
Bobby Jindal again denies running for VP
-
New York,: Bobby Jindal, Indian American governor of Louisiana, has reiterated that he does not want to be considered as the running mate for John McCain, scotching media speculation that the Republican presidential candidate was meeting him Wednesday to be able to decide the matter this week.
"I look forward to continuing to be governor of Louisiana. This is a once in a lifetime chance to improve our state. We've cut six taxes but we've got a lot more work to do right here in Louisiana," Jindal told FOX & Friends, a morning TV programme, Wednesday.
Jindal said he did not have any inside information on whether McCain would make a decision this week on his pick for the No.2 spot.
"I've never talked to the senator about the vice-presidency or his thoughts on selecting the vice-president. I would certainly be surprised if they made a decision this week, but that's entirely up to the senator and his campaign. They'll make that decision I think when they're ready," he said.
Jindal said the ability to possibly serve as president is the most important quality for a vice-presidential candidate.
"I think the most important thing in picking a vice-president is not what state they come from, not what demographic they appeal to, but rather whether the senator thinks this person would be ready to be president if - god forbid - that situation arises. That's probably the only thing that should matter," he said.
The Washington Post's politics blog, The Fix, said earlier this week that McCain's meeting with Jindal in New Orleans was possibly over selection of a running mate, quoting sources close to the McCain campaign. It added that McCain's trip to Louisiana Wednesday was not in his earlier schedule.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Obama's 'Muslim' picture kicks up a storm-USA-World-The Times of India
tag: Muslim-hate
Obama's 'Muslim' picture kicks up a storm-USA-World-The Times of India
Obama's 'Muslim' picture kicks up a storm
14 Jul 2008, 2148 hrs IST,AP
Obama as a Muslim
A US magazine cover depicts Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife Michelle as a terrorist (AFP Photo)
WASHINGTON: Barack Obama's campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is "tasteless and offensive".
The illustration on the issue that hits newsstands on Monday, titled "The Politics of Fear" and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Barack Obama wearing what is commonly construed by Western media as traditional Muslim garb - sandals, robe and turban - and his wife, Michelle - dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder - standing in the Oval Office.
The couple is doing a fist tap in front of a fireplace in which an American flag is burning. Over the mantel hangs a portrait of Osama bin Laden.
"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."
In a statement on Monday, the magazine said the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obama and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."
"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover," the New Yorker statement said.
The statement also pointed to the two articles on Obama contained inside the magazine, calling them "very serious."
Republican John McCain's campaign spokesman, Tucker Bonds, agreed that the cover was "tasteless and offensive."
Already the cover was generating controversy on the Internet. The Huffington Post , a left-leaning blog, said: "Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism - well, here's your image."
Obama's 'Muslim' picture kicks up a storm-USA-World-The Times of India
Obama's 'Muslim' picture kicks up a storm
14 Jul 2008, 2148 hrs IST,AP
Obama as a Muslim
A US magazine cover depicts Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife Michelle as a terrorist (AFP Photo)
WASHINGTON: Barack Obama's campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is "tasteless and offensive".
The illustration on the issue that hits newsstands on Monday, titled "The Politics of Fear" and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Barack Obama wearing what is commonly construed by Western media as traditional Muslim garb - sandals, robe and turban - and his wife, Michelle - dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder - standing in the Oval Office.
The couple is doing a fist tap in front of a fireplace in which an American flag is burning. Over the mantel hangs a portrait of Osama bin Laden.
"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."
In a statement on Monday, the magazine said the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obama and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."
"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover," the New Yorker statement said.
The statement also pointed to the two articles on Obama contained inside the magazine, calling them "very serious."
Republican John McCain's campaign spokesman, Tucker Bonds, agreed that the cover was "tasteless and offensive."
Already the cover was generating controversy on the Internet. The Huffington Post , a left-leaning blog, said: "Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism - well, here's your image."
US president lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
tag: oil
Economic Times - Indian Newspapers in English Language from seven editions.
US president lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
15 Jul, 2008, 0625 hrs IST, AGENCIES
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling Monday and challenged Congress to do the same, a gambit to turn the enormous public frustration about gasoline prices into political leverage.
Democratic lawmakers rejected Bush's plan as a symbolic stunt. With gas prices topping $4.10 a gallon (euro1.08 a liter) nationally, Bush made his most assertive move to extend oil exploration, an energy priority of his presidency. By lifting the executive prohibition against coastal drilling, Bush rescinded a White House policy that his father, President George H.W. Bush, put in place in 1990.
The move will have no practical effect unless Congress acts, too. Both executive and legislative bans must be lifted before offshore exploration could happen.
Bush had urged Congress a month ago to go first, then reversed himself Monday. He said the country could no longer afford to wait.
``Democratic leaders can show that they have finally heard the frustrations of the American people by matching the action I've taken today, repealing the congressional ban, and passing legislation to facilitate responsible offshore exploration,'' Bush said in an event held in the White House's Rose Garden.
The president's direct link between record gas prices and offshore drilling glossed over a key point. Even if Congress agreed, the exploration for oil would take a decade or more to produce real results. It is not projected to reduce gas prices in the short term. Even the White House routinely emphasizes there is no quick fix.
Both presidential campaigns weighed in on the hot political topic.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, called Bush's move ``a very important signal'' and prodded his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, to drop his opposition to offshore drilling.
``If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks,'' Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. ``But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither.''
Other Democrats also were unmoved by the presidential action. ``The Bush plan is a hoax,'' responded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. ``It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence.''
None of that stopped the president from building his case around today's prices at the gasoline pump.
He said every extra dollar that families have to spend on gas is one they could be using to put food on their tables or to send children to school. The American people, he said, are now ``waiting to see what the Congress will do.''
The White House says that acting now on a long-term solution would send a serious signal to the market that more oil supply will be coming on line. That, in turn, could ease oil prices, advocates say. Business groups and many Republican lawmakers praised the move to expand the energy supply in the United States.
Several Democratic leaders in Congress said oil companies already are sitting on millions of acres of public and coastal lands where drilling could be undertaken.
A proposal by Democrats to release oil from an emergency reserve has been rejected by the White House as a gimmick that would not reduce prices.
Economic Times - Indian Newspapers in English Language from seven editions.
US president lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
15 Jul, 2008, 0625 hrs IST, AGENCIES
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling Monday and challenged Congress to do the same, a gambit to turn the enormous public frustration about gasoline prices into political leverage.
Democratic lawmakers rejected Bush's plan as a symbolic stunt. With gas prices topping $4.10 a gallon (euro1.08 a liter) nationally, Bush made his most assertive move to extend oil exploration, an energy priority of his presidency. By lifting the executive prohibition against coastal drilling, Bush rescinded a White House policy that his father, President George H.W. Bush, put in place in 1990.
The move will have no practical effect unless Congress acts, too. Both executive and legislative bans must be lifted before offshore exploration could happen.
Bush had urged Congress a month ago to go first, then reversed himself Monday. He said the country could no longer afford to wait.
``Democratic leaders can show that they have finally heard the frustrations of the American people by matching the action I've taken today, repealing the congressional ban, and passing legislation to facilitate responsible offshore exploration,'' Bush said in an event held in the White House's Rose Garden.
The president's direct link between record gas prices and offshore drilling glossed over a key point. Even if Congress agreed, the exploration for oil would take a decade or more to produce real results. It is not projected to reduce gas prices in the short term. Even the White House routinely emphasizes there is no quick fix.
Both presidential campaigns weighed in on the hot political topic.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, called Bush's move ``a very important signal'' and prodded his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, to drop his opposition to offshore drilling.
``If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks,'' Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. ``But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither.''
Other Democrats also were unmoved by the presidential action. ``The Bush plan is a hoax,'' responded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. ``It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence.''
None of that stopped the president from building his case around today's prices at the gasoline pump.
He said every extra dollar that families have to spend on gas is one they could be using to put food on their tables or to send children to school. The American people, he said, are now ``waiting to see what the Congress will do.''
The White House says that acting now on a long-term solution would send a serious signal to the market that more oil supply will be coming on line. That, in turn, could ease oil prices, advocates say. Business groups and many Republican lawmakers praised the move to expand the energy supply in the United States.
Several Democratic leaders in Congress said oil companies already are sitting on millions of acres of public and coastal lands where drilling could be undertaken.
A proposal by Democrats to release oil from an emergency reserve has been rejected by the White House as a gimmick that would not reduce prices.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Fight to retain "allah"
Login - The Times of India
Malaysian Sikhs fight to retain 'Allah' in Granth Sahib
5 Jul 2008, 0357 hrs IST,AP
KUALA LUMPUR: A Sikh group in Muslim-majority Malaysia is demanding the right to use the world "Allah" as a synonym for God and has joined a legal battle by Christians against a government order banning non-Muslims from using it, an official said on Friday.
The Malaysian Gurdwaras Council filed an application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Tuesday seeking to join a suit by the Herald, a Roman Catholic newspaper, against the government over use of the word "Allah", said council president Sardar Jagir Singh.
The home ministry previously ordered the newspaper not to use the word "Allah" in its Malay-language publication as a translation for God, saying using the word would confuse Muslims. The Herald then filed suit, claiming it had a right to use the word.
Jagir said his council, representing more than 100,000 Sikhs, wanted to join the suit because the ruling would affect them.
The word Allah appears on "numerous occasions" in the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, he said. "Not a word can be altered. It's our holiest book ... it will mean we can't practice our own religion."
Jagir said so far he has not received a court date. The high court is scheduled next Wednesday to hear the applications of several Islamic institutions that have applied to intervene in the suit to defend the ban.
The Herald says "Allah" is an Arabic word that predates Islam and has been used for centuries to mean God in Malay.
The government has not explained how the use of "Allah" by other religions would confuse Muslims, but apparently wants to draw a sharp distinction between the Islamic God and all other deities.
The case is an example of increasing complaints by religious minorities in Malaysia that their rights have been undermined by government efforts to bolster the status of Islam, the country's official religion.
Malaysian Sikhs fight to retain 'Allah' in Granth Sahib
5 Jul 2008, 0357 hrs IST,AP
KUALA LUMPUR: A Sikh group in Muslim-majority Malaysia is demanding the right to use the world "Allah" as a synonym for God and has joined a legal battle by Christians against a government order banning non-Muslims from using it, an official said on Friday.
The Malaysian Gurdwaras Council filed an application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Tuesday seeking to join a suit by the Herald, a Roman Catholic newspaper, against the government over use of the word "Allah", said council president Sardar Jagir Singh.
The home ministry previously ordered the newspaper not to use the word "Allah" in its Malay-language publication as a translation for God, saying using the word would confuse Muslims. The Herald then filed suit, claiming it had a right to use the word.
Jagir said his council, representing more than 100,000 Sikhs, wanted to join the suit because the ruling would affect them.
The word Allah appears on "numerous occasions" in the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, he said. "Not a word can be altered. It's our holiest book ... it will mean we can't practice our own religion."
Jagir said so far he has not received a court date. The high court is scheduled next Wednesday to hear the applications of several Islamic institutions that have applied to intervene in the suit to defend the ban.
The Herald says "Allah" is an Arabic word that predates Islam and has been used for centuries to mean God in Malay.
The government has not explained how the use of "Allah" by other religions would confuse Muslims, but apparently wants to draw a sharp distinction between the Islamic God and all other deities.
The case is an example of increasing complaints by religious minorities in Malaysia that their rights have been undermined by government efforts to bolster the status of Islam, the country's official religion.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Raila Odinga of Kenya calls for Robert Mugabe's suspension
Kenya urges AU to suspend Mugabe
Raila Odinga calls for Robert Mugabe's suspension
Kenyan PM Raila Odinga has urged the African Union to suspend Robert Mugabe from the bloc until he allows free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
The call came as the Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the country faced a constitutional crisis.
The Zimbabwe crisis has overshadowed the African Union summit in Egypt.
Correspondents say the AU's response to the Zimbabwe crisis will be a major test of the bloc's effectiveness.
Mr Mugabe claimed a landslide victory as the sole candidate in the presidential election re-run after the MDC's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew.
But African observers said the election had been undermined by pre-poll violence.
Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, Mr Odinga said: "They should suspend him and send peace forces to Zimbabwe to ensure free and fair elections."
Mr Odinga, a vocal critic of Mr Mugabe, says the AU would set a dangerous precedent by accepting him as "a duly elected president".
The UN has urged African leaders to try to negotiate a solution to the crisis.
No talks
The South African presidency said it would consider reports from election observers together with other members of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) before adopting a unified position regarding the result.
The MDC says the way forward must reflect the outcome of the first round of voting in March, when Mr Tsvangirai won more votes than President Mugabe.
The opposition is prepared to take part in a transitional arrangement or a government of national unity, but it says there are no negotiations currently under way between Mr Tsvangirai and the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The BBC's southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says that apart from the recent political violence in Zimbabwe, there is continuing economic hardship, with inflation in the region of nine million per cent and the country heading for the worst harvest in 60 years
Raila Odinga calls for Robert Mugabe's suspension
Kenyan PM Raila Odinga has urged the African Union to suspend Robert Mugabe from the bloc until he allows free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
The call came as the Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the country faced a constitutional crisis.
The Zimbabwe crisis has overshadowed the African Union summit in Egypt.
Correspondents say the AU's response to the Zimbabwe crisis will be a major test of the bloc's effectiveness.
Mr Mugabe claimed a landslide victory as the sole candidate in the presidential election re-run after the MDC's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew.
But African observers said the election had been undermined by pre-poll violence.
Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, Mr Odinga said: "They should suspend him and send peace forces to Zimbabwe to ensure free and fair elections."
Mr Odinga, a vocal critic of Mr Mugabe, says the AU would set a dangerous precedent by accepting him as "a duly elected president".
The UN has urged African leaders to try to negotiate a solution to the crisis.
No talks
The South African presidency said it would consider reports from election observers together with other members of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) before adopting a unified position regarding the result.
The MDC says the way forward must reflect the outcome of the first round of voting in March, when Mr Tsvangirai won more votes than President Mugabe.
The opposition is prepared to take part in a transitional arrangement or a government of national unity, but it says there are no negotiations currently under way between Mr Tsvangirai and the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The BBC's southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says that apart from the recent political violence in Zimbabwe, there is continuing economic hardship, with inflation in the region of nine million per cent and the country heading for the worst harvest in 60 years
Iran sentences man to death for spying for Israel
Iran sentences man to death for spying for Israel
Mon, Jun 30 01:50 PM
By Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian court on Monday sentenced to death an Iranian businessman on charges of spying for Israel after a two-day trial, media said.
The Tehran court handed down its sentence at a time of high tension between Israel and the Islamic Republic amid speculation of a possible Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear installations.
Iranian media identified Ali Ashtari as the manager of a company selling communications and security equipment to Iran's government.
He was accused of "engaging in espionage for (Israel's) Mossad intelligence service," the ISNA news agency said. He had confessed and asked for clemency.
"I apologise to the Iranian people and to any organisation which has been damaged because of my acts and I request Islamic clemency," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted 43-year-old Ashtari as telling the court in Tehran.
Ashtari said he had accepted a loan of $50,000 from Israeli agents as he had been in financial straits, Fars said. He was detained a year and a half ago.
His name indicated he was a Shi'ite Muslim but Iranian media did not specify his religion. The media reports did not say whether he would appeal against the sentence.
Israeli government officials declined to comment on the issue on Monday. On Saturday, an official in Israel's Foreign Ministry said it was not familiar with the case.
Iran, which does not recognise Israel, has previously reported breaking up spy networks and accused the United States and "Zionists" of trying to destabilise the country.
SATELLITE PHONES
In 2000, 10 Jews from the city of Shiraz were convicted of spying in a closed door trial that sparked international outrage. The last five detained were released in 2003.
Fars quoted Ashtari as telling the court that three Israeli agents had presented themselves to him as foreign bank representatives looking for a commercial partnership.
Meetings with the agents, two of whom were called Jack and Tony, took place in Thailand and Turkey and they provided him with a laptop computer for coded communication as well as satellite phones, the news agency said.
Fars said Ashtari's company had branches in Tehran, Dubai and in a third country it did not name.
Speculation of an Israeli attack on Iran has risen since a U.S. newspaper reported this month that the Jewish state had practiced such a strike against the Iran's nuclear facilities.
Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity. But the West and Israel fear Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs. Israel is believed to be the only Middle Eastern state with nuclear arms.
The standoff between the West and Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, has been a factor pushing oil prices to record highs. Crude hit a record level on international markets near $143 a barrel on Friday.
Washington has said it wants diplomacy to end the nuclear row but has not ruled out military action should that fail.
(Additional reporting by Avida Landau in Jerusalem)
Mon, Jun 30 01:50 PM
By Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian court on Monday sentenced to death an Iranian businessman on charges of spying for Israel after a two-day trial, media said.
The Tehran court handed down its sentence at a time of high tension between Israel and the Islamic Republic amid speculation of a possible Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear installations.
Iranian media identified Ali Ashtari as the manager of a company selling communications and security equipment to Iran's government.
He was accused of "engaging in espionage for (Israel's) Mossad intelligence service," the ISNA news agency said. He had confessed and asked for clemency.
"I apologise to the Iranian people and to any organisation which has been damaged because of my acts and I request Islamic clemency," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted 43-year-old Ashtari as telling the court in Tehran.
Ashtari said he had accepted a loan of $50,000 from Israeli agents as he had been in financial straits, Fars said. He was detained a year and a half ago.
His name indicated he was a Shi'ite Muslim but Iranian media did not specify his religion. The media reports did not say whether he would appeal against the sentence.
Israeli government officials declined to comment on the issue on Monday. On Saturday, an official in Israel's Foreign Ministry said it was not familiar with the case.
Iran, which does not recognise Israel, has previously reported breaking up spy networks and accused the United States and "Zionists" of trying to destabilise the country.
SATELLITE PHONES
In 2000, 10 Jews from the city of Shiraz were convicted of spying in a closed door trial that sparked international outrage. The last five detained were released in 2003.
Fars quoted Ashtari as telling the court that three Israeli agents had presented themselves to him as foreign bank representatives looking for a commercial partnership.
Meetings with the agents, two of whom were called Jack and Tony, took place in Thailand and Turkey and they provided him with a laptop computer for coded communication as well as satellite phones, the news agency said.
Fars said Ashtari's company had branches in Tehran, Dubai and in a third country it did not name.
Speculation of an Israeli attack on Iran has risen since a U.S. newspaper reported this month that the Jewish state had practiced such a strike against the Iran's nuclear facilities.
Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity. But the West and Israel fear Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs. Israel is believed to be the only Middle Eastern state with nuclear arms.
The standoff between the West and Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, has been a factor pushing oil prices to record highs. Crude hit a record level on international markets near $143 a barrel on Friday.
Washington has said it wants diplomacy to end the nuclear row but has not ruled out military action should that fail.
(Additional reporting by Avida Landau in Jerusalem)
CAIR WARNS OF INVASIVE BODY SCANS AT U.S. AIRPORTS
CAIR WARNS OF INVASIVE BODY SCANS AT U.S. AIRPORTS
Muslim group reminds passengers of their right to request an alternative measure
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/13/08) The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today warned American Muslims and others concerned with personal privacy of a security procedure recently implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that scans full-body images of passengers through their clothing, revealing intimate body parts to screeners.
According to USA Today, the body-scanning machines are being used on randomly-selected passengers at airports in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque, and New York’s JFK airport. They are scheduled to be installed at airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, and Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. this month.
SEE: 10 Airports Install Body Scanners (USA Today)
The TSA website describes the process through which the machines bounce harmless radio waves off the passenger’s body, which constructs a three-dimensional image that is projected on a monitor in the security scanner’s room. The TSA characterizes the procedure as a “voluntary alternative to a pat-down,” and says it blurs passengers’ faces and does not store the images to protect privacy.
SEE: Whole Body Imaging - Millimeter Wave
However, concerns have been raised over the level of detail shown by the machines, which are capable of projecting graphic images of a person’s body, revealing private body parts and other intimate details.
SEE: ACLU Backgrounder on Body Scanners and ‘Virtual Strip Searches’
Muslim group reminds passengers of their right to request an alternative measure
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/13/08) The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today warned American Muslims and others concerned with personal privacy of a security procedure recently implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that scans full-body images of passengers through their clothing, revealing intimate body parts to screeners.
According to USA Today, the body-scanning machines are being used on randomly-selected passengers at airports in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque, and New York’s JFK airport. They are scheduled to be installed at airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, and Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. this month.
SEE: 10 Airports Install Body Scanners (USA Today)
The TSA website describes the process through which the machines bounce harmless radio waves off the passenger’s body, which constructs a three-dimensional image that is projected on a monitor in the security scanner’s room. The TSA characterizes the procedure as a “voluntary alternative to a pat-down,” and says it blurs passengers’ faces and does not store the images to protect privacy.
SEE: Whole Body Imaging - Millimeter Wave
However, concerns have been raised over the level of detail shown by the machines, which are capable of projecting graphic images of a person’s body, revealing private body parts and other intimate details.
SEE: ACLU Backgrounder on Body Scanners and ‘Virtual Strip Searches’
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape
Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape
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By DAVID STOUT
Published: June 26, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Wednesday that sentencing someone to death for raping a child is unconstitutional, assuming that the victim is not killed.
“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court. He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
The dissenters were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., generally regarded as the conservative wing of the tribunal.
Not since 1964 has anyone been executed in the United States for a crime other than murder, and of about 3,300 inmates now on death row, only two are facing execution for an offense that did not involve a killing — and both of those inmates are in Louisiana. Patrick Kennedy, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter and the other is Richard Davis, who was condemned for assaulting a 5-year-old girl.
The case of Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343, was the latest in a series in which the justices have weighed particular applications of capital punishment. In 2002, for instance, the Supreme Court barred the execution of mentally retarded defendants, and in 2005 it banned the execution of people for crimes they committed before they were 18.
But, as Chief Justice Roberts observed when Kennedy v. Louisiana was argued on April 16: “This is quite different. It is focused on the nature of the offense.” Indeed, a theme that ran through the argument was that, while the death penalty is a punishment like no other, the rape of a child is a crime like no other.
In 1977, the Supreme Court banned death sentences for rape. But the victim in that case, Coker v. Georgia, was a young married woman, and the ruling did not specifically discuss the rape of a child. Over the past 13 years, several states have reacted to public outrage over crimes against children by amending their statutes to make the rape of a child punishable by death.
Louisiana was the first state to do so, amending its death-penalty law in 1995 to include rape of a child under the age of 12. But unlike Louisiana, the other states with similar provisions (Georgia, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas) generally limit the death penalty to defendants previously convicted of sex crimes against children.
Mr. Kennedy’s lawyer, Jeffrey L. Fisher, argued before the justices that it was “at odds with national values” for the state to execute his client, who had never committed such a crime before.
But Justice Scalia pressed Mr. Fisher on that assertion, noting that the recent trend has been “more and more states permitting the capital punishment” for the rape of a child.
As for the case at hand, Juliet L. Clark, an assistant district attorney from Gretna, La., countered that Mr. Kennedy, who weighs 300 pounds, had committed “a very savage rape” that caused serious injuries to his victim. And R. Ted Cruz, the Solicitor General for the State of Texas, who argued as a “friend of the court” on the side of Louisiana, said that Mr. Kennedy (like Mr. Davis, the other child-rape defendant on Louisiana’s death row) had “committed crimes that are just unspeakable.”
Responding to a question from Justice Ginsburg, Ms. Clark said the Louisiana child-rape law could apply regardless of the sex of the criminal or that of the victim.
And in support of her argument that crimes against children have long been viewed with special revulsion, and as deserving of special punishment, Ms. Clark pointed out that the Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that states can make it a crime to possess child pornography even in one’s home.
That ruling, in Osborne v. Ohio, carved out an exception to a 1969 Supreme Court ruling that the Constitution protects the possession of obscene material in the privacy of one’s residence. Justice Byron R. White wrote for the 6-to-3 majority in the Osborne case, reasoning that Ohio was justified in trying to “destroy a market for the exploitative use of children.”
Of the current Supreme Court, only Justices Scalia, Kennedy and Stevens took part in the 1990 Osborne decision. Justices Scalia and Kennedy were in the majority; Justice Stevens joined with Justices William J. Brennan Jr. and Thurgood Marshall in finding the Ohio law to be unconstitutionally broad.
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By DAVID STOUT
Published: June 26, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Wednesday that sentencing someone to death for raping a child is unconstitutional, assuming that the victim is not killed.
“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court. He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
The dissenters were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., generally regarded as the conservative wing of the tribunal.
Not since 1964 has anyone been executed in the United States for a crime other than murder, and of about 3,300 inmates now on death row, only two are facing execution for an offense that did not involve a killing — and both of those inmates are in Louisiana. Patrick Kennedy, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter and the other is Richard Davis, who was condemned for assaulting a 5-year-old girl.
The case of Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343, was the latest in a series in which the justices have weighed particular applications of capital punishment. In 2002, for instance, the Supreme Court barred the execution of mentally retarded defendants, and in 2005 it banned the execution of people for crimes they committed before they were 18.
But, as Chief Justice Roberts observed when Kennedy v. Louisiana was argued on April 16: “This is quite different. It is focused on the nature of the offense.” Indeed, a theme that ran through the argument was that, while the death penalty is a punishment like no other, the rape of a child is a crime like no other.
In 1977, the Supreme Court banned death sentences for rape. But the victim in that case, Coker v. Georgia, was a young married woman, and the ruling did not specifically discuss the rape of a child. Over the past 13 years, several states have reacted to public outrage over crimes against children by amending their statutes to make the rape of a child punishable by death.
Louisiana was the first state to do so, amending its death-penalty law in 1995 to include rape of a child under the age of 12. But unlike Louisiana, the other states with similar provisions (Georgia, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas) generally limit the death penalty to defendants previously convicted of sex crimes against children.
Mr. Kennedy’s lawyer, Jeffrey L. Fisher, argued before the justices that it was “at odds with national values” for the state to execute his client, who had never committed such a crime before.
But Justice Scalia pressed Mr. Fisher on that assertion, noting that the recent trend has been “more and more states permitting the capital punishment” for the rape of a child.
As for the case at hand, Juliet L. Clark, an assistant district attorney from Gretna, La., countered that Mr. Kennedy, who weighs 300 pounds, had committed “a very savage rape” that caused serious injuries to his victim. And R. Ted Cruz, the Solicitor General for the State of Texas, who argued as a “friend of the court” on the side of Louisiana, said that Mr. Kennedy (like Mr. Davis, the other child-rape defendant on Louisiana’s death row) had “committed crimes that are just unspeakable.”
Responding to a question from Justice Ginsburg, Ms. Clark said the Louisiana child-rape law could apply regardless of the sex of the criminal or that of the victim.
And in support of her argument that crimes against children have long been viewed with special revulsion, and as deserving of special punishment, Ms. Clark pointed out that the Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that states can make it a crime to possess child pornography even in one’s home.
That ruling, in Osborne v. Ohio, carved out an exception to a 1969 Supreme Court ruling that the Constitution protects the possession of obscene material in the privacy of one’s residence. Justice Byron R. White wrote for the 6-to-3 majority in the Osborne case, reasoning that Ohio was justified in trying to “destroy a market for the exploitative use of children.”
Of the current Supreme Court, only Justices Scalia, Kennedy and Stevens took part in the 1990 Osborne decision. Justices Scalia and Kennedy were in the majority; Justice Stevens joined with Justices William J. Brennan Jr. and Thurgood Marshall in finding the Ohio law to be unconstitutionally broad.
Obama Dismisses Dobson Criticism About Bible
Obama says Dobson 'making stuff up' in claim candidate distorted the Bible
By SARA KUGLER Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES June 25, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press
Barack Obama said Tuesday that evangelical leader James Dobson was "making stuff up" when he accused the presumed Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks during a town hall style meeting at the Springs Preserve, a cultural and historic attraction, in Las Vegas, Nevada Tuesday, June 24, 2008.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(AP)
Dobson used his Focus on the Family radio program to highlight excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal.
Speaking to reporters on his campaign plane before landing in Los Angeles, Obama said the speech made the argument that people of faith, like himself, "try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us."
Obama added, "I think you'll see that he was just making stuff up, maybe for his own purposes."
In his program, Dobson focused on examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy. For instance, Obama said Leviticus suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination. Obama also cited Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."
"Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said in the speech.
"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said.
Asked about Dobson's assessment, Obama said "somebody would be pretty hard-pressed to make that argument" that he was distorting the Bible.
Obama supporters also responded to Dobson.
The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist pastor from Texas and longtime supporter of President Bush who has endorsed Obama, said Tuesday he belongs to a group of religious leaders who, working independently of Obama's campaign, launched a Web site to counter Dobson at http://www.jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com. The site highlights statements from Obama and Dobson and asks visitors to compare them.
Caldwell said he has great respect for Dobson's advocacy for families, but said the criticism of Obama was "a bit over the top" and "crossed the line."
"There has been a call for a higher level of politics and politicking," Caldwell said. "So to attack at this level is inappropriate and I think unacceptable and we at least want to hold everybody accountable."
Tom Minnery, a senior vice president at Focus on the Family, responded: "Without question, Dr. Dobson is speaking for millions of evangelicals because his understanding of the Bible is thoroughly evangelical."
———
AP Religion Writer Eric Gorski in Denver contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
By SARA KUGLER Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES June 25, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press
Barack Obama said Tuesday that evangelical leader James Dobson was "making stuff up" when he accused the presumed Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks during a town hall style meeting at the Springs Preserve, a cultural and historic attraction, in Las Vegas, Nevada Tuesday, June 24, 2008.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(AP)
Dobson used his Focus on the Family radio program to highlight excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal.
Speaking to reporters on his campaign plane before landing in Los Angeles, Obama said the speech made the argument that people of faith, like himself, "try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us."
Obama added, "I think you'll see that he was just making stuff up, maybe for his own purposes."
In his program, Dobson focused on examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy. For instance, Obama said Leviticus suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination. Obama also cited Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."
"Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said in the speech.
"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said.
Asked about Dobson's assessment, Obama said "somebody would be pretty hard-pressed to make that argument" that he was distorting the Bible.
Obama supporters also responded to Dobson.
The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist pastor from Texas and longtime supporter of President Bush who has endorsed Obama, said Tuesday he belongs to a group of religious leaders who, working independently of Obama's campaign, launched a Web site to counter Dobson at http://www.jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com. The site highlights statements from Obama and Dobson and asks visitors to compare them.
Caldwell said he has great respect for Dobson's advocacy for families, but said the criticism of Obama was "a bit over the top" and "crossed the line."
"There has been a call for a higher level of politics and politicking," Caldwell said. "So to attack at this level is inappropriate and I think unacceptable and we at least want to hold everybody accountable."
Tom Minnery, a senior vice president at Focus on the Family, responded: "Without question, Dr. Dobson is speaking for millions of evangelicals because his understanding of the Bible is thoroughly evangelical."
———
AP Religion Writer Eric Gorski in Denver contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Gore throws his support to Obama
Gore throws his support to Obama
By Associated Press / June 17, 2008
DETROIT - Al Gore announced his endorsement yesterday of Barack Obama and promised to help him achieve what eluded the former vice president - the presidency.
more stories like this
"The outcome of this election will affect the future of this planet," Gore said last night, addressing about 20,000 people at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. "We've got to have new leadership. Not only a new president, but new policies."
In 2000, Gore won the popular vote but lost the disputed 2000 election to George W. Bush, who captured Florida and its electoral votes after a divided Supreme Court ended the recount. Since then, Gore has made combating global warming his signature issue, and has been recognized worldwide for his efforts.
"It means a lot, obviously," Obama said of Gore's support, as he greeted workers outside a General Motors plant in Flint. "He's somebody who is a visionary, not just for the party, but for the country."
Gore is one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, but he maintained a low profile in the primary campaign.
It is the second time that Obama has rolled out a major endorsement in Michigan, a state he did not campaign in during the primary because its election violated the party rules. Last month, he appeared with 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards in Grand Rapids, as party leaders united behind Obama as their nominee .
Yesterday, Gore also asked for donations to help fund Obama's effort - the first time he has asked members of his website, AlGore.com, to contribute to a political campaign.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
By Associated Press / June 17, 2008
DETROIT - Al Gore announced his endorsement yesterday of Barack Obama and promised to help him achieve what eluded the former vice president - the presidency.
more stories like this
"The outcome of this election will affect the future of this planet," Gore said last night, addressing about 20,000 people at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. "We've got to have new leadership. Not only a new president, but new policies."
In 2000, Gore won the popular vote but lost the disputed 2000 election to George W. Bush, who captured Florida and its electoral votes after a divided Supreme Court ended the recount. Since then, Gore has made combating global warming his signature issue, and has been recognized worldwide for his efforts.
"It means a lot, obviously," Obama said of Gore's support, as he greeted workers outside a General Motors plant in Flint. "He's somebody who is a visionary, not just for the party, but for the country."
Gore is one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, but he maintained a low profile in the primary campaign.
It is the second time that Obama has rolled out a major endorsement in Michigan, a state he did not campaign in during the primary because its election violated the party rules. Last month, he appeared with 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards in Grand Rapids, as party leaders united behind Obama as their nominee .
Yesterday, Gore also asked for donations to help fund Obama's effort - the first time he has asked members of his website, AlGore.com, to contribute to a political campaign.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Nepal's deposed king leaves palace for last time
Nepal's deposed king leaves palace for last time
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal's deposed king has left the royal palace for the last time but has no plans to leave the Himalayan country.
Former King Gyanendra says he wants to stay to "help establish peace" as the country moves from a monarchy to a republic.
Hundreds of people came to see Gyanendra leave Katmandu's royal palace Wednesday night. His departure marks the end of the final chapter of the world's last Hindu monarchy.
Nepal was declared a republic last month after elections that saw the country's former communist rebels win the most seats in a special assembly charged with rewriting the constitution.
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal's deposed king has left the royal palace for the last time but has no plans to leave the Himalayan country.
Former King Gyanendra says he wants to stay to "help establish peace" as the country moves from a monarchy to a republic.
Hundreds of people came to see Gyanendra leave Katmandu's royal palace Wednesday night. His departure marks the end of the final chapter of the world's last Hindu monarchy.
Nepal was declared a republic last month after elections that saw the country's former communist rebels win the most seats in a special assembly charged with rewriting the constitution.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Chinese Persecute Tibetans
Tibetans who fled Lhasa after March 10 crackdown recount horrors of life
Mon, Jun 9 09:05 PM
Dharamshala, June 9 (ANI): With eyes still wide with fear, Tibetan protesters recount how the Chinese guns silenced the recent protests in Lhasa.
Police went door-to-door in midnight swoops as they searched for Tibetans who participated in the protests that flared up in March, one of the protesters said.
Kunsang Sonam, a 38-year-old textile trader and father-of-one said in Dharamsala that he saw at least six Tibetans die from gunshot and knife wounds.
Sonam said he feared for his life and so he sneaked across the Nepal border-- a major transit point for those fleeing Tibet to come to Dharamsala in India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
"On March 10, we held a peaceful demonstration against the Chinese rule and on March 14, we had a bigger demonstration held in Tibet. At that time, lots of Chinese police came to Lhasa and they started firing on us. Chinese soldiers also came up and they were arresting people and were firing on us with tanks, guns, and they were bombing us with tear gas bombs," Sonam said..
Days of monk-led marches in Tibet's capital Lhasa devolved into a citywide riot on March 14 that saw Chinese shops thrashed and burned and cars overturned. China says about 20 "innocent" civilians were killed by mobs. The government-in-exile says more than 100 protesters were killed by Chinese troops. Hundreds of rioters have been arrested.
Sonam is one of the few who managed to escape from Tibet after the outbreak of violence.
He said the Tibetans in his homeland were living in perpetual fear-especially those who participated in the demonstrations.
The protests were the climax to years of resentment towards the Chinese policy of filling up the Tibetan areas with people of Chinese origin, outnumbering and outranking the ethnic Tibetans in their own land, he said.
"Those who have been arrested by the Chinese police, they are being tortured badly. Those who have not been arrested are living in fear of when the Chinese police will come and arrest them. Tibetan people are not allowed to move around freely-- this is the situation inside Tibet," said Sonam.
The dormitories in Dharamsala may be drab, but they offer much relief and happiness to the Tibetans who have fled their home country to be with their leader.
They are free to stick up any number of smiling pictures of the Dalai Lama or wave Tibetan flags -- both prohibited activities in Tibet.
Almost all of the 2,500 to 3,000 Tibetans who escape from the country each year pass through the centre in Dharamsala-- a small Himalayan foothill town teaming with tourist-filled cafes and souvenir shops stuffed with Indian crafts.
However, officials at the refugee centre say the number of fresh arrivals from Tibet has dropped sharply over the past couple of months- mainly because of stricter border patrols by the Chinese authorities, which makes it nigh impossible for Tibetans to escape.
Sonam yearns to return to his family - daughter, wife, brother and father-- but that is now impossible.
Mingyur Youdon, one of the workers at the refugee centre said the condition of the monks inside Tibet was depressing.
"Chinese authority- they also stop supplying food, water, and electricity to the monastery. Monks are dying because of starvation inside monastery," Youdon said as tears welled up her eyes.
Monks caught with images of the Dalai Lama were forced to curse his name or be jailed, she added.
The Dalai Lama is pressing world leaders to urge China to ease the crackdown on Tibet and his envoys held talks with officials in China last month, but Beijing blames the rioting on the India-based Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader. (ANI)
Mon, Jun 9 09:05 PM
Dharamshala, June 9 (ANI): With eyes still wide with fear, Tibetan protesters recount how the Chinese guns silenced the recent protests in Lhasa.
Police went door-to-door in midnight swoops as they searched for Tibetans who participated in the protests that flared up in March, one of the protesters said.
Kunsang Sonam, a 38-year-old textile trader and father-of-one said in Dharamsala that he saw at least six Tibetans die from gunshot and knife wounds.
Sonam said he feared for his life and so he sneaked across the Nepal border-- a major transit point for those fleeing Tibet to come to Dharamsala in India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
"On March 10, we held a peaceful demonstration against the Chinese rule and on March 14, we had a bigger demonstration held in Tibet. At that time, lots of Chinese police came to Lhasa and they started firing on us. Chinese soldiers also came up and they were arresting people and were firing on us with tanks, guns, and they were bombing us with tear gas bombs," Sonam said..
Days of monk-led marches in Tibet's capital Lhasa devolved into a citywide riot on March 14 that saw Chinese shops thrashed and burned and cars overturned. China says about 20 "innocent" civilians were killed by mobs. The government-in-exile says more than 100 protesters were killed by Chinese troops. Hundreds of rioters have been arrested.
Sonam is one of the few who managed to escape from Tibet after the outbreak of violence.
He said the Tibetans in his homeland were living in perpetual fear-especially those who participated in the demonstrations.
The protests were the climax to years of resentment towards the Chinese policy of filling up the Tibetan areas with people of Chinese origin, outnumbering and outranking the ethnic Tibetans in their own land, he said.
"Those who have been arrested by the Chinese police, they are being tortured badly. Those who have not been arrested are living in fear of when the Chinese police will come and arrest them. Tibetan people are not allowed to move around freely-- this is the situation inside Tibet," said Sonam.
The dormitories in Dharamsala may be drab, but they offer much relief and happiness to the Tibetans who have fled their home country to be with their leader.
They are free to stick up any number of smiling pictures of the Dalai Lama or wave Tibetan flags -- both prohibited activities in Tibet.
Almost all of the 2,500 to 3,000 Tibetans who escape from the country each year pass through the centre in Dharamsala-- a small Himalayan foothill town teaming with tourist-filled cafes and souvenir shops stuffed with Indian crafts.
However, officials at the refugee centre say the number of fresh arrivals from Tibet has dropped sharply over the past couple of months- mainly because of stricter border patrols by the Chinese authorities, which makes it nigh impossible for Tibetans to escape.
Sonam yearns to return to his family - daughter, wife, brother and father-- but that is now impossible.
Mingyur Youdon, one of the workers at the refugee centre said the condition of the monks inside Tibet was depressing.
"Chinese authority- they also stop supplying food, water, and electricity to the monastery. Monks are dying because of starvation inside monastery," Youdon said as tears welled up her eyes.
Monks caught with images of the Dalai Lama were forced to curse his name or be jailed, she added.
The Dalai Lama is pressing world leaders to urge China to ease the crackdown on Tibet and his envoys held talks with officials in China last month, but Beijing blames the rioting on the India-based Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader. (ANI)
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Obama Declares Victory: FULL SPEECH
FULL SPEECH: Obama Declares Victory
Barack Obama Delivers First Speech as Presumptive Democratic Nominee
June 3, 2008
The following remarks are the text as prepared for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on June 3, 2008, his first speech after declaring victory in the Democratic nomination contest over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. The speech was delivered in St. Paul, Minnesota, site of the Republican National Convention in August 2008.
On June 3, 2008, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., declared victory in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Tonight, after fifty-four hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end.
Sixteen months have passed since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Thousands of miles have been traveled. Millions of voices have been heard. And because of what you said – because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another – a journey that will bring a new and better day to America. Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
I want to thank every American who stood with us over the course of this campaign – through the good days and the bad; from the snows of Cedar Rapids to the sunshine of Sioux Falls. And tonight I also want to thank the men and woman who took this journey with me as fellow candidates for President.
At this defining moment for our nation, we should be proud that our party put forth one of the most talented, qualified field of individuals ever to run for this office. I have not just competed with them as rivals, I have learned from them as friends, as public servants, and as patriots who love America and are willing to work tirelessly to make this country better. They are leaders of this party, and leaders that America will turn to for years to come.
That is particularly true for the candidate who has traveled further on this journey than anyone else. Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight.
We've certainly had our differences over the last sixteen months. But as someone who's shared a stage with her many times, I can tell you that what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning – even in the face of tough odds – is exactly what sent her and Bill Clinton to sign up for their first campaign in Texas all those years ago; what sent her to work at the Children's Defense Fund and made her fight for health care as First Lady; what led her to the United States Senate and fueled her barrier-breaking campaign for the presidency – an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult the fight may be. And you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory. When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen. Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There are those who say that this primary has somehow left us weaker and more divided. Well I say that because of this primary, there are millions of Americans who have cast their ballot for the very first time. There are Independents and Republicans who understand that this election isn't just about the party in charge of Washington, it's about the need to change Washington. There are young people, and African-Americans, and Latinos, and women of all ages who have voted in numbers that have broken records and inspired a nation.
All of you chose to support a candidate you believe in deeply. But at the end of the day, we aren't the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard. You didn't do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else. You did it because you know in your hearts that at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – we cannot afford to keep doing what we've been doing. We owe our children a better future. We owe our country a better future. And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say – let us begin the work together. Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.
In just a few short months, the Republican Party will arrive in St. Paul with a very different agenda. They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically. I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine. My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.
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Because while John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign.
It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush ninety-five percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year.
It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs, or insure our workers, or help Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of college – policies that have lowered the real incomes of the average American family, widened the gap between Wall Street and Main Street, and left our children with a mountain of debt.
And it's not change when he promises to continue a policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi politicians – a policy where all we look for are reasons to stay in Iraq, while we spend billions of dollars a month on a war that isn't making the American people any safer.
So I'll say this – there are many words to describe John McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as bipartisan and new. But change is not one of them.
Change is a foreign policy that doesn't begin and end with a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged. I won't stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq, but what's not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years – especially at a time when our military is overstretched, our nation is isolated, and nearly every other threat to America is being ignored.
We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in - but start leaving we must. It's time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future. It's time to rebuild our military and give our veterans the care they need and the benefits they deserve when they come home. It's time to refocus our efforts on al Qaeda's leadership and Afghanistan, and rally the world against the common threats of the 21st century – terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. That's what change is.
Change is realizing that meeting today's threats requires not just our firepower, but the power of our diplomacy – tough, direct diplomacy where the President of the United States isn't afraid to let any petty dictator know where America stands and what we stand for. We must once again have the courage and conviction to lead the free world. That is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Truman, and Kennedy. That's what the American people want. That's what change is.
FULL SPEECH: Obama Declares Victory
Barack Obama Delivers First Speech as Presumptive Democratic Nominee
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Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work and workers who created it. It's understanding that the struggles facing working families can't be solved by spending billions of dollars on more tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs, but by giving a the middle-class a tax break, and investing in our crumbling infrastructure, and transforming how we use energy, and improving our schools, and renewing our commitment to science and innovation. It's understanding that fiscal responsibility and shared prosperity can go hand-in-hand, as they did when Bill Clinton was President.
John McCain has spent a lot of time talking about trips to Iraq in the last few weeks, but maybe if he spent some time taking trips to the cities and towns that have been hardest hit by this economy – cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota – he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for.
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Maybe if he went to Iowa and met the student who works the night shift after a full day of class and still can't pay the medical bills for a sister who's ill, he'd understand that she can't afford four more years of a health care plan that only takes care of the healthy and wealthy. She needs us to pass health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it and brings down premiums for every family who needs it. That's the change we need.
Maybe if he went to Pennsylvania and met the man who lost his job but can't even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one, he'd understand that we can't afford four more years of our addiction to oil from dictators. That man needs us to pass an energy policy that works with automakers to raise fuel standards, and makes corporations pay for their pollution, and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future – an energy policy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. That's the change we need.
And maybe if he spent some time in the schools of South Carolina or St. Paul or where he spoke tonight in New Orleans, he'd understand that we can't afford to leave the money behind for No Child Left Behind; that we owe it to our children to invest in early childhood education; to recruit an army of new teachers and give them better pay and more support; to finally decide that in this global economy, the chance to get a college education should not be a privilege for the wealthy few, but the birthright of every American. That's the change we need in America. That's why I'm running for President.
The other side will come here in September and offer a very different set of policies and positions, and that is a debate I look forward to. It is a debate the American people deserve. But what you don't deserve is another election that's governed by fear, and innuendo, and division. What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon – that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonize. Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first. We are always Americans first.
Despite what the good Senator from Arizona said tonight, I have seen people of differing views and opinions find common cause many times during my two decades in public life, and I have brought many together myself. I've walked arm-in-arm with community leaders on the South Side of Chicago and watched tensions fade as black, white, and Latino fought together for good jobs and good schools. I've sat across the table from law enforcement and civil rights advocates to reform a criminal justice system that sent thirteen innocent people to death row. And I've worked with friends in the other party to provide more children with health insurance and more working families with a tax break; to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and ensure that the American people know where their tax dollars are being spent; and to reduce the influence of lobbyists who have all too often set the agenda in Washington.
In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again.
So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a Philadelphia hall the formation of a more perfect union; and for all those who gave on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam their last full measure of devotion to save that same union.
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So it was for the Greatest Generation that conquered fear itself, and liberated a continent from tyranny, and made this country home to untold opportunity and prosperity.
So it was for the workers who stood out on the picket lines; the women who shattered glass ceilings; the children who braved a Selma bridge for freedom's cause.
So it has been for every generation that faced down the greatest challenges and the most improbable odds to leave their children a world that's better, and kinder, and more just.
And so it must be for us.
America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.
The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
Barack Obama Delivers First Speech as Presumptive Democratic Nominee
June 3, 2008
The following remarks are the text as prepared for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on June 3, 2008, his first speech after declaring victory in the Democratic nomination contest over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. The speech was delivered in St. Paul, Minnesota, site of the Republican National Convention in August 2008.
On June 3, 2008, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., declared victory in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Tonight, after fifty-four hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end.
Sixteen months have passed since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Thousands of miles have been traveled. Millions of voices have been heard. And because of what you said – because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another – a journey that will bring a new and better day to America. Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
I want to thank every American who stood with us over the course of this campaign – through the good days and the bad; from the snows of Cedar Rapids to the sunshine of Sioux Falls. And tonight I also want to thank the men and woman who took this journey with me as fellow candidates for President.
At this defining moment for our nation, we should be proud that our party put forth one of the most talented, qualified field of individuals ever to run for this office. I have not just competed with them as rivals, I have learned from them as friends, as public servants, and as patriots who love America and are willing to work tirelessly to make this country better. They are leaders of this party, and leaders that America will turn to for years to come.
That is particularly true for the candidate who has traveled further on this journey than anyone else. Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight.
We've certainly had our differences over the last sixteen months. But as someone who's shared a stage with her many times, I can tell you that what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning – even in the face of tough odds – is exactly what sent her and Bill Clinton to sign up for their first campaign in Texas all those years ago; what sent her to work at the Children's Defense Fund and made her fight for health care as First Lady; what led her to the United States Senate and fueled her barrier-breaking campaign for the presidency – an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult the fight may be. And you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory. When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen. Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There are those who say that this primary has somehow left us weaker and more divided. Well I say that because of this primary, there are millions of Americans who have cast their ballot for the very first time. There are Independents and Republicans who understand that this election isn't just about the party in charge of Washington, it's about the need to change Washington. There are young people, and African-Americans, and Latinos, and women of all ages who have voted in numbers that have broken records and inspired a nation.
All of you chose to support a candidate you believe in deeply. But at the end of the day, we aren't the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard. You didn't do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else. You did it because you know in your hearts that at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – we cannot afford to keep doing what we've been doing. We owe our children a better future. We owe our country a better future. And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say – let us begin the work together. Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.
In just a few short months, the Republican Party will arrive in St. Paul with a very different agenda. They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically. I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine. My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.
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Because while John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign.
It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush ninety-five percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year.
It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs, or insure our workers, or help Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of college – policies that have lowered the real incomes of the average American family, widened the gap between Wall Street and Main Street, and left our children with a mountain of debt.
And it's not change when he promises to continue a policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi politicians – a policy where all we look for are reasons to stay in Iraq, while we spend billions of dollars a month on a war that isn't making the American people any safer.
So I'll say this – there are many words to describe John McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as bipartisan and new. But change is not one of them.
Change is a foreign policy that doesn't begin and end with a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged. I won't stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq, but what's not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years – especially at a time when our military is overstretched, our nation is isolated, and nearly every other threat to America is being ignored.
We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in - but start leaving we must. It's time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future. It's time to rebuild our military and give our veterans the care they need and the benefits they deserve when they come home. It's time to refocus our efforts on al Qaeda's leadership and Afghanistan, and rally the world against the common threats of the 21st century – terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. That's what change is.
Change is realizing that meeting today's threats requires not just our firepower, but the power of our diplomacy – tough, direct diplomacy where the President of the United States isn't afraid to let any petty dictator know where America stands and what we stand for. We must once again have the courage and conviction to lead the free world. That is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Truman, and Kennedy. That's what the American people want. That's what change is.
FULL SPEECH: Obama Declares Victory
Barack Obama Delivers First Speech as Presumptive Democratic Nominee
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Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work and workers who created it. It's understanding that the struggles facing working families can't be solved by spending billions of dollars on more tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs, but by giving a the middle-class a tax break, and investing in our crumbling infrastructure, and transforming how we use energy, and improving our schools, and renewing our commitment to science and innovation. It's understanding that fiscal responsibility and shared prosperity can go hand-in-hand, as they did when Bill Clinton was President.
John McCain has spent a lot of time talking about trips to Iraq in the last few weeks, but maybe if he spent some time taking trips to the cities and towns that have been hardest hit by this economy – cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota – he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for.
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Maybe if he went to Iowa and met the student who works the night shift after a full day of class and still can't pay the medical bills for a sister who's ill, he'd understand that she can't afford four more years of a health care plan that only takes care of the healthy and wealthy. She needs us to pass health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it and brings down premiums for every family who needs it. That's the change we need.
Maybe if he went to Pennsylvania and met the man who lost his job but can't even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one, he'd understand that we can't afford four more years of our addiction to oil from dictators. That man needs us to pass an energy policy that works with automakers to raise fuel standards, and makes corporations pay for their pollution, and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future – an energy policy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. That's the change we need.
And maybe if he spent some time in the schools of South Carolina or St. Paul or where he spoke tonight in New Orleans, he'd understand that we can't afford to leave the money behind for No Child Left Behind; that we owe it to our children to invest in early childhood education; to recruit an army of new teachers and give them better pay and more support; to finally decide that in this global economy, the chance to get a college education should not be a privilege for the wealthy few, but the birthright of every American. That's the change we need in America. That's why I'm running for President.
The other side will come here in September and offer a very different set of policies and positions, and that is a debate I look forward to. It is a debate the American people deserve. But what you don't deserve is another election that's governed by fear, and innuendo, and division. What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon – that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonize. Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first. We are always Americans first.
Despite what the good Senator from Arizona said tonight, I have seen people of differing views and opinions find common cause many times during my two decades in public life, and I have brought many together myself. I've walked arm-in-arm with community leaders on the South Side of Chicago and watched tensions fade as black, white, and Latino fought together for good jobs and good schools. I've sat across the table from law enforcement and civil rights advocates to reform a criminal justice system that sent thirteen innocent people to death row. And I've worked with friends in the other party to provide more children with health insurance and more working families with a tax break; to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and ensure that the American people know where their tax dollars are being spent; and to reduce the influence of lobbyists who have all too often set the agenda in Washington.
In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again.
So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a Philadelphia hall the formation of a more perfect union; and for all those who gave on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam their last full measure of devotion to save that same union.
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So it was for the Greatest Generation that conquered fear itself, and liberated a continent from tyranny, and made this country home to untold opportunity and prosperity.
So it was for the workers who stood out on the picket lines; the women who shattered glass ceilings; the children who braved a Selma bridge for freedom's cause.
So it has been for every generation that faced down the greatest challenges and the most improbable odds to leave their children a world that's better, and kinder, and more just.
And so it must be for us.
America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.
The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Deoband first: to issue fatwa against terror
Deoband first: A fatwa against terror
1 Jun 2008, 0000 hrs IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: For the first time ever, Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa against terrorism on Saturday, stating Islam had come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. The Darul-Uloom had denounced terrorism for the first time in February, but had not issued a fatwa so far.
Saturday’s fatwa, signed by Darul-Uloom’s grand mufti Habibur Rehman, asserts that "Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form".
Citing the "sinister campaign" to malign "Islamic faith...by linking terrorism with Islam and distorting the meanings of Quranic Verses and Prophet traditions", Mahmood Asad Madani, leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, had wanted Deoband to spell out the stand of Islam on world peace.
The fatwa, issued before a huge gathering of Muslims in Delhi’s Ramlila Ground for the Anti-Terrorism and Global Peace Conference, went on to say, "It is proved from clear guidelines provided in the Holy Quran that allegations of terrorism against a religion which preaches and guarantees world peace is nothing but a lie. The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. Allah knows the best."
The conference was addressed by Jamiat chief and Darul-Uloom’s deputy rector Hazrat Maulana Qari Sayed Mohammed Usman.
He called the conference historic as Muslims of different sects and ideologies — including Nadwatul Ulama Lucknow, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and All India Muslim Personal Law Board — ratified the fatwa against terrorism.
The exclusively-male turnout that read an "oath of allegiance" to the fatwa cheered most lustily as speakers attacked the US.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Madani, an MP, stated that the fatwa should be welcomed by the entire Islamic world.
"Killing of innocent people is not compatible with Islam. The biggest challenge faced by us today is terrorism (which) threatens to strike at the very root of the secular structure of our society besides causing irreparable loss," stated Madani.
Notwithstanding the caveats like "unjust" and "innocent", which may make it appear falling short of an
unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, the fatwa is viewed by many as a significant step forward towards rallying the public opinion against terrorism.
Coming after the February 25 denunciation, it is seen as reflective of the growing recognition on the part of clerics to counter misgivings about interpretations of scriptures.
Deoband has lately been under intense focus because many of the terrorist groups — from Taliban to Jaish and Harkat — are widely perceived to be Deobandi in orientation.
However, it was when the deputy rector of Deoband, Usman, came down heavily on "the dual policy of America" that the massive crowds cheered the most. "Whenever Christian and American interests are hurt in any part of the world, they take prompt action to set things right even at the cost of human lives. They maintain silence though when Muslims are the victims," he said, further criticizing the US for its support to Israel.
According to Usman, Jamiat recently held a series of conferences and meetings with madrassas in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Surat, Varanasi and Kolkata to carry forward the anti-terror movement which was initiated at Deoband in February. Usman said that many people, especially in the West, were carrying out a propaganda that terrorism was synonymous with jehad.
He said that while terrorism is destructive, jehad is constructive. "Terrorism is the gravest crime as held by Quran and Islam. We are not prepared to tolerate terrorism in any form and we are ready to cooperate with all responsible people," he said.
1 Jun 2008, 0000 hrs IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: For the first time ever, Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa against terrorism on Saturday, stating Islam had come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. The Darul-Uloom had denounced terrorism for the first time in February, but had not issued a fatwa so far.
Saturday’s fatwa, signed by Darul-Uloom’s grand mufti Habibur Rehman, asserts that "Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form".
Citing the "sinister campaign" to malign "Islamic faith...by linking terrorism with Islam and distorting the meanings of Quranic Verses and Prophet traditions", Mahmood Asad Madani, leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, had wanted Deoband to spell out the stand of Islam on world peace.
The fatwa, issued before a huge gathering of Muslims in Delhi’s Ramlila Ground for the Anti-Terrorism and Global Peace Conference, went on to say, "It is proved from clear guidelines provided in the Holy Quran that allegations of terrorism against a religion which preaches and guarantees world peace is nothing but a lie. The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. Allah knows the best."
The conference was addressed by Jamiat chief and Darul-Uloom’s deputy rector Hazrat Maulana Qari Sayed Mohammed Usman.
He called the conference historic as Muslims of different sects and ideologies — including Nadwatul Ulama Lucknow, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and All India Muslim Personal Law Board — ratified the fatwa against terrorism.
The exclusively-male turnout that read an "oath of allegiance" to the fatwa cheered most lustily as speakers attacked the US.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Madani, an MP, stated that the fatwa should be welcomed by the entire Islamic world.
"Killing of innocent people is not compatible with Islam. The biggest challenge faced by us today is terrorism (which) threatens to strike at the very root of the secular structure of our society besides causing irreparable loss," stated Madani.
Notwithstanding the caveats like "unjust" and "innocent", which may make it appear falling short of an
unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, the fatwa is viewed by many as a significant step forward towards rallying the public opinion against terrorism.
Coming after the February 25 denunciation, it is seen as reflective of the growing recognition on the part of clerics to counter misgivings about interpretations of scriptures.
Deoband has lately been under intense focus because many of the terrorist groups — from Taliban to Jaish and Harkat — are widely perceived to be Deobandi in orientation.
However, it was when the deputy rector of Deoband, Usman, came down heavily on "the dual policy of America" that the massive crowds cheered the most. "Whenever Christian and American interests are hurt in any part of the world, they take prompt action to set things right even at the cost of human lives. They maintain silence though when Muslims are the victims," he said, further criticizing the US for its support to Israel.
According to Usman, Jamiat recently held a series of conferences and meetings with madrassas in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Surat, Varanasi and Kolkata to carry forward the anti-terror movement which was initiated at Deoband in February. Usman said that many people, especially in the West, were carrying out a propaganda that terrorism was synonymous with jehad.
He said that while terrorism is destructive, jehad is constructive. "Terrorism is the gravest crime as held by Quran and Islam. We are not prepared to tolerate terrorism in any form and we are ready to cooperate with all responsible people," he said.
Friday, May 30, 2008
UN: Myanmar Forcing Cyclone Survivors out of Camps
UN: Myanmar Forcing Cyclone Survivors out of Camps
UN official says Myanmar is forcing cyclone survivors out of refugee camps
YANGON, Myanmar May 30, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press
People line up outside an aid tent in Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday, May 29, 2008 awaiting medical treatment. Aid and relief has been slow getting to affected areas and people after a cyclone hit southern Myanmar causing mass destruction and death.
Myanmar's military government is forcing cyclone victims out of refugee camps and "dumping" them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, U.N. and church officials said Friday.
Eight camps set up by the junta for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogalay were "totally empty" as the clear-out continued, said Teh Tai Ring of UNICEF, speaking at a meeting of U.N. and private aid agency workers discussing water and sanitation issues.
"The government is moving people unannounced," he said, adding that authorities were "dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically with nothing."
After his remarks were reported, UNICEF issued a statement saying they referred to "unconfirmed reports by relief workers on the relocation of displaced people" affected by the May 2-3 storm.
However, Teh said the information came from a relief worker who had just returned from the affected area and that "tears were shed" when he recounted his findings to UNICEF officials earlier in the day.
At a church in Yangon, meanwhile, more than 400 cyclone victims from the delta township of Labutta were evicted Friday following orders from authorities a day earlier.
"It was a scene of sadness, despair and pain," said a church official at the Yangon Karen Baptist Home Missions, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisal. "Those villagers lost their homes, their family members and the whole village was washed away. They have no home to go back to."
All the refugees except for a few pregnant women, two young children and those with severe illnesses left the church in 11 trucks Friday morning, the official said.
Authorities told church workers the victims would first be taken to a government camp in Myaung Mya — a mostly undamaged town in the Irrawaddy delta. It was not immediately clear when they would be resettled in their villages.
Aid groups said Myanmar's military government was still hindering foreign assistance for victims of the cyclone, despite a promise to U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon to ease travel restrictions.
UN official says Myanmar is forcing cyclone survivors out of refugee camps
YANGON, Myanmar May 30, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press
People line up outside an aid tent in Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday, May 29, 2008 awaiting medical treatment. Aid and relief has been slow getting to affected areas and people after a cyclone hit southern Myanmar causing mass destruction and death.
Myanmar's military government is forcing cyclone victims out of refugee camps and "dumping" them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, U.N. and church officials said Friday.
Eight camps set up by the junta for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogalay were "totally empty" as the clear-out continued, said Teh Tai Ring of UNICEF, speaking at a meeting of U.N. and private aid agency workers discussing water and sanitation issues.
"The government is moving people unannounced," he said, adding that authorities were "dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically with nothing."
After his remarks were reported, UNICEF issued a statement saying they referred to "unconfirmed reports by relief workers on the relocation of displaced people" affected by the May 2-3 storm.
However, Teh said the information came from a relief worker who had just returned from the affected area and that "tears were shed" when he recounted his findings to UNICEF officials earlier in the day.
At a church in Yangon, meanwhile, more than 400 cyclone victims from the delta township of Labutta were evicted Friday following orders from authorities a day earlier.
"It was a scene of sadness, despair and pain," said a church official at the Yangon Karen Baptist Home Missions, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisal. "Those villagers lost their homes, their family members and the whole village was washed away. They have no home to go back to."
All the refugees except for a few pregnant women, two young children and those with severe illnesses left the church in 11 trucks Friday morning, the official said.
Authorities told church workers the victims would first be taken to a government camp in Myaung Mya — a mostly undamaged town in the Irrawaddy delta. It was not immediately clear when they would be resettled in their villages.
Aid groups said Myanmar's military government was still hindering foreign assistance for victims of the cyclone, despite a promise to U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon to ease travel restrictions.
Archbishop’s killer, Abu Omar, gets Death sentence
Death sentence for Archbishop’s killer
Timothy Lavin
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court sentenced an al-Qaida leader to death for the murder of a Chaldean archbishop last week, drawing praise from the US Government but angry opposition from Iraqi Catholic leaders, writes Timothy Lavin.
Ahmed Ali Ahmed, known as Abu Omar, was convicted of murdering the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, and will face execution. Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped by masked gunmen as he left Mass in Mosul in late February and found killed in March.
"If he were still alive, Archbishop Rahho himself would not permit that someone would die for him," Auxiliary Bishop Shlemo Warduni of Baghdad said, according to Asia News. "This conviction does not meet Christian values," Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk told AFP. "We are not satisfied with this decision because the Church is against the death penalty."
The US embassy in Baghdad said the verdict was just. "Reiterating our condolences to the archbishop's family and community, we commend the Iraqi authorities for bringing the perpetrator of this brutal crime to justice," an official statement said.
Timothy Lavin
The Iraqi Central Criminal Court sentenced an al-Qaida leader to death for the murder of a Chaldean archbishop last week, drawing praise from the US Government but angry opposition from Iraqi Catholic leaders, writes Timothy Lavin.
Ahmed Ali Ahmed, known as Abu Omar, was convicted of murdering the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, and will face execution. Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped by masked gunmen as he left Mass in Mosul in late February and found killed in March.
"If he were still alive, Archbishop Rahho himself would not permit that someone would die for him," Auxiliary Bishop Shlemo Warduni of Baghdad said, according to Asia News. "This conviction does not meet Christian values," Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk told AFP. "We are not satisfied with this decision because the Church is against the death penalty."
The US embassy in Baghdad said the verdict was just. "Reiterating our condolences to the archbishop's family and community, we commend the Iraqi authorities for bringing the perpetrator of this brutal crime to justice," an official statement said.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
War of the Dolls: Barbie vs. Bratz
JOHN BERMAN, ANNA WILD, KELLY HAGAN and IMAEYEN IBANGA reports that the makers of Barbie and Bratz are in a heated legal battle.Mattel Inc.'s iconic blond doll and MGA Entertainment Inc., producers of the popular Bratz dolls are in the court to settle the disputes over rights to their dolls.Carter Bryant, the man who designed the nine-inch Bratz dolls, worked at Mattel when he came up with the concept, and therefore it owns the dolls. The Bratz dolls arrived on the scene in 2001. Ever since its arrival Barbie's sales dropped, almost 12 percent,$46.6 million,in the first quarter of this year alone.
The Los Angeles-based MGA claimed that Mattel changed the design of its "My Scene" dolls to more closely resemble Bratz dolls. Though Mattel sued Bryant, the designer of their dolls, but finally settled with their former employee for undisclosed terms.
The Los Angeles-based MGA claimed that Mattel changed the design of its "My Scene" dolls to more closely resemble Bratz dolls. Though Mattel sued Bryant, the designer of their dolls, but finally settled with their former employee for undisclosed terms.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Miss Tibet joins hands in support of freedom march
Miss Tibet joins hands in support of freedom march
Wed, May 28 07:35 PM
New Delhi, May 28(ANI): Shouting passionately for a free Tibet protesters took to the streets of India's capital on Wednesday.These students symbolically started their march at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat, vowing to keep their demonstration peaceful.
Joining them was Miss Tibet 2006 Tsering Chungdak. Using her status to further the cause against Chinese rule, she says Tibetans want freedom.
Wed, May 28 07:35 PM
New Delhi, May 28(ANI): Shouting passionately for a free Tibet protesters took to the streets of India's capital on Wednesday.These students symbolically started their march at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat, vowing to keep their demonstration peaceful.
Joining them was Miss Tibet 2006 Tsering Chungdak. Using her status to further the cause against Chinese rule, she says Tibetans want freedom.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Quake Brings Rare Freedom for Journalists in China
Quake Brings Rare Freedom for Journalists in China
Foreign Journalists Given Unprecedented Freedom to Report on China Quake
By WILLIAM FOREMAN Associated Press Writer
BEICHUAN, China May 26, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press
Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party secretary of Mianzhu city, kneels on the ground pleading with... Expand
Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party secretary of Mianzhu city, kneels on the ground pleading with protesting parents, whose children were killed in a school collapse during China's recent devastating earthquake, not to complain to higher authorities, in Mianzhu in southwest China's Sichuan province Sunday, May 25, 2008. Despite Jiang's pleas, the parents of the 127 children who died in the collapse kept marching Sunday and eventually met with higher officials, who told them the government would investigate. (AP Photo) Collapse
(AP)
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Rows of body bags were laid out along streets for all to see. Sobbing parents furious about shoddily built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children were able to speak freely. Military helicopters carried reporters to tour the disaster zone.
The earthquake that flattened a wide swath of central Sichuan province May 12 has been a historic event for journalism in China. Never before have the nation's leaders allowed foreign reporters so much freedom to cover a major disaster.
Chinese leaders haven't fully explained the new openness, and periods of thaw can be brief here. Only time will tell if it is a real policy shift — a bold break from the Communist Party's traditional tight control on the release of news, particularly bad news.
It might just be a response to the disaster's exceptional magnitude — the death toll may exceed 80,000 and 5 million people are homeless — and the government's pledge to be more open before the Beijing Olympics.
"We have adopted an open policy because we think it was not only the disaster for Chinese people, but the people of the world," Premier Wen Jiabao said during a weekend tour of the quake zone. "Our spirit of putting people above all and our open policy will not change."
The contrast to previous disasters is stark.
In the past, regions ravaged by floods, earthquakes, typhoons and other catastrophes were mostly sealed off to foreign media. Information from the no-go zones was treated like state secrets. Reporters trying to cover disasters without official permission — almost never granted — were stopped by police. Notebooks were seized, and photo files deleted.
When Associated Press journalists went to cover a quake that struck the western region of Xinjiang in 2003, police waited for them in their hotel lobby and interrogated them about their reporting. As recently as two months ago, security officials in Sichuan set up roadblocks and turned back journalists trying to cover protests by ethnic Tibetans in the region.
Foreign Journalists Given Unprecedented Freedom to Report on China Quake
By WILLIAM FOREMAN Associated Press Writer
BEICHUAN, China May 26, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press
Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party secretary of Mianzhu city, kneels on the ground pleading with... Expand
Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party secretary of Mianzhu city, kneels on the ground pleading with protesting parents, whose children were killed in a school collapse during China's recent devastating earthquake, not to complain to higher authorities, in Mianzhu in southwest China's Sichuan province Sunday, May 25, 2008. Despite Jiang's pleas, the parents of the 127 children who died in the collapse kept marching Sunday and eventually met with higher officials, who told them the government would investigate. (AP Photo) Collapse
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Rows of body bags were laid out along streets for all to see. Sobbing parents furious about shoddily built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children were able to speak freely. Military helicopters carried reporters to tour the disaster zone.
The earthquake that flattened a wide swath of central Sichuan province May 12 has been a historic event for journalism in China. Never before have the nation's leaders allowed foreign reporters so much freedom to cover a major disaster.
Chinese leaders haven't fully explained the new openness, and periods of thaw can be brief here. Only time will tell if it is a real policy shift — a bold break from the Communist Party's traditional tight control on the release of news, particularly bad news.
It might just be a response to the disaster's exceptional magnitude — the death toll may exceed 80,000 and 5 million people are homeless — and the government's pledge to be more open before the Beijing Olympics.
"We have adopted an open policy because we think it was not only the disaster for Chinese people, but the people of the world," Premier Wen Jiabao said during a weekend tour of the quake zone. "Our spirit of putting people above all and our open policy will not change."
The contrast to previous disasters is stark.
In the past, regions ravaged by floods, earthquakes, typhoons and other catastrophes were mostly sealed off to foreign media. Information from the no-go zones was treated like state secrets. Reporters trying to cover disasters without official permission — almost never granted — were stopped by police. Notebooks were seized, and photo files deleted.
When Associated Press journalists went to cover a quake that struck the western region of Xinjiang in 2003, police waited for them in their hotel lobby and interrogated them about their reporting. As recently as two months ago, security officials in Sichuan set up roadblocks and turned back journalists trying to cover protests by ethnic Tibetans in the region.
China not to endorse India's bid to UN Security Council seat
China outsmarts India over UN Security Council seat
New Delhi:The symphony of South-South cooperation at the recent conclave of foreign ministers of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) at Yekaterinburg was jarred by China's refusal to endorse India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC). In the joint communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, Chinese delegates scotched Russian proposals of supporting India's cause of entering the elite league at the UNSC.
There are two ways of interpreting the latest Chinese attempt to cut India down to size and remind it of the hurdles facing its global ambitions. One reaction is of dismay that China went back on a prior commitment to recommend India for a permanent seat at the UNSC. In November 2006, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee claimed that Chinese President Hu Jintao had "reiterated" that Beijing was in favour of New Delhi's inclusion as a permanent member of the UNSC. Thus, the Yekaterinburg drama could be seen as a volte-face act of backtracking by China.
The second, more realistic, reading of the situation is that Indian officials have been applying a glossy spin to the chameleonic Chinese positions of the past, which never overtly pledged approval of a permanent UNSC seat for New Delhi. It is worth recalling that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's 2005 visit to India did not yield any definitive comment that China would be happy to second India's goal of bagging a permanent seat at the UNSC.
Likewise, despite the assertion of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon that President Hu had "assured" India on a bilateral visit in 2006 that China "would not be an obstacle" to New Delhi's push for permanent membership of the UNSC, no concrete guarantee was given in writing at the Joint Declaration.
Thus, the firm refusal of China to sign a communiqué at Yekaterinburg that unambiguously championed a permanent seat for India at the UNSC is actually consistent with Beijing's hide-and-seek strategy on the issue. More than China deluding India by rescinding on its past promises, it appears to be a case of India allowing itself to be deluded by building make-believe castles.
The last few years have witnessed numerous summits and governmental exchanges between India and China. China is now India's largest trading partner, with the annual volume of trade standing at $40 billion and expected to touch $60 billion by 2010. The political side of the relationship has also improved, with usage of phrases like 'strategic partnership' by both sides. India's containment of the Tibetan upsurge in March 2008 was applauded by China with appreciative pats. The fact that China even accepted relief aid from India for rehabilitating earthquake victims in Sichuan earlier this month suggests that Asia's giants are getting along, if not cavorting together.
Yet, in a puzzling disconnect with these trends, the military competition between the two countries is intensifying. India has been noting with great concern China's rapidly expanding space weapons programme. The discovery of a secret Chinese nuclear submarine base on the Hainan Island and the exposure of a massive nuclear missile site in central China remind New Delhi of its vulnerability to overwhelming attack. The continuing impasse over the disputed border between the two countries stands in sharp relief to the expansion of commercial goods traffic across the Nathu La pass that had been closed since the 1962 war.
These contradictory logics in the India-China relationship are fuelled by the disentanglement of the private sector from the state in both countries. The enormous corporate interests of India and China view their counterparts across the McMahon Line as compatriots with whom business can be done for mutual benefit. Economic liberalisation and private sector booms in both countries have unleashed an appetite for economic interaction that does not have to wait for resolution of military and strategic conflicts. Whether or not China is sympathetic to India becoming a permanent member of the UNSC is immaterial to exporters and importers of the two countries, as long as their profits flow.
Although states disallow the gains of trade from getting lost in the acrimony of military-strategic rivalry, they are essentially political actors with political ends. So, even as the Indian and Chinese chambers of commerce may raise toasts to each other, the standoff over a permanent seat for India at the Security Council will dog its relations with China.
New Delhi needs to drop its blinkers and openly admit that China is not sanguine about India joining the P-5 at the Security Council. Optimistic Indian diplomats argue that China has indicated in private settings that its main objection is that India's bid is knotted with Japan's attempt to garner a permanent seat. This is a red herring, because Chinese military journals and think tanks are closely monitoring India's economic, technological and military advances. To assume that China's strategic planning is Taiwan- or Japan-centric misses the changing reality of New Delhi's rise and the discomfort it is generating in Beijing.
From 1955, when Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru conceded an offer for a permanent seat at the UNSC to China, New Delhi has permitted itself to be outsmarted by Beijing on this contentious issue. It is now high time to stop living in illusions and to acknowledge that China is one of the obstacles to India's quest for global stature.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi:The symphony of South-South cooperation at the recent conclave of foreign ministers of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) at Yekaterinburg was jarred by China's refusal to endorse India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC). In the joint communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, Chinese delegates scotched Russian proposals of supporting India's cause of entering the elite league at the UNSC.
There are two ways of interpreting the latest Chinese attempt to cut India down to size and remind it of the hurdles facing its global ambitions. One reaction is of dismay that China went back on a prior commitment to recommend India for a permanent seat at the UNSC. In November 2006, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee claimed that Chinese President Hu Jintao had "reiterated" that Beijing was in favour of New Delhi's inclusion as a permanent member of the UNSC. Thus, the Yekaterinburg drama could be seen as a volte-face act of backtracking by China.
The second, more realistic, reading of the situation is that Indian officials have been applying a glossy spin to the chameleonic Chinese positions of the past, which never overtly pledged approval of a permanent UNSC seat for New Delhi. It is worth recalling that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's 2005 visit to India did not yield any definitive comment that China would be happy to second India's goal of bagging a permanent seat at the UNSC.
Likewise, despite the assertion of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon that President Hu had "assured" India on a bilateral visit in 2006 that China "would not be an obstacle" to New Delhi's push for permanent membership of the UNSC, no concrete guarantee was given in writing at the Joint Declaration.
Thus, the firm refusal of China to sign a communiqué at Yekaterinburg that unambiguously championed a permanent seat for India at the UNSC is actually consistent with Beijing's hide-and-seek strategy on the issue. More than China deluding India by rescinding on its past promises, it appears to be a case of India allowing itself to be deluded by building make-believe castles.
The last few years have witnessed numerous summits and governmental exchanges between India and China. China is now India's largest trading partner, with the annual volume of trade standing at $40 billion and expected to touch $60 billion by 2010. The political side of the relationship has also improved, with usage of phrases like 'strategic partnership' by both sides. India's containment of the Tibetan upsurge in March 2008 was applauded by China with appreciative pats. The fact that China even accepted relief aid from India for rehabilitating earthquake victims in Sichuan earlier this month suggests that Asia's giants are getting along, if not cavorting together.
Yet, in a puzzling disconnect with these trends, the military competition between the two countries is intensifying. India has been noting with great concern China's rapidly expanding space weapons programme. The discovery of a secret Chinese nuclear submarine base on the Hainan Island and the exposure of a massive nuclear missile site in central China remind New Delhi of its vulnerability to overwhelming attack. The continuing impasse over the disputed border between the two countries stands in sharp relief to the expansion of commercial goods traffic across the Nathu La pass that had been closed since the 1962 war.
These contradictory logics in the India-China relationship are fuelled by the disentanglement of the private sector from the state in both countries. The enormous corporate interests of India and China view their counterparts across the McMahon Line as compatriots with whom business can be done for mutual benefit. Economic liberalisation and private sector booms in both countries have unleashed an appetite for economic interaction that does not have to wait for resolution of military and strategic conflicts. Whether or not China is sympathetic to India becoming a permanent member of the UNSC is immaterial to exporters and importers of the two countries, as long as their profits flow.
Although states disallow the gains of trade from getting lost in the acrimony of military-strategic rivalry, they are essentially political actors with political ends. So, even as the Indian and Chinese chambers of commerce may raise toasts to each other, the standoff over a permanent seat for India at the Security Council will dog its relations with China.
New Delhi needs to drop its blinkers and openly admit that China is not sanguine about India joining the P-5 at the Security Council. Optimistic Indian diplomats argue that China has indicated in private settings that its main objection is that India's bid is knotted with Japan's attempt to garner a permanent seat. This is a red herring, because Chinese military journals and think tanks are closely monitoring India's economic, technological and military advances. To assume that China's strategic planning is Taiwan- or Japan-centric misses the changing reality of New Delhi's rise and the discomfort it is generating in Beijing.
From 1955, when Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru conceded an offer for a permanent seat at the UNSC to China, New Delhi has permitted itself to be outsmarted by Beijing on this contentious issue. It is now high time to stop living in illusions and to acknowledge that China is one of the obstacles to India's quest for global stature.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
Monday, May 26, 2008
Manmohan, Pranab differ on N-deal with US: Natwar
Monday, May 26, 2008
Manmohan, Pranab differ on N-deal: Natwar
New Delhi: There are differences in the way Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, see the much-discussed India-US civilian nuclear deal, former foreign minister Natwar Singh has said.
"The prime minister says the deal is on and they will get it through but when Mukherjee is asked about it there is a big question mark. Mukherjee has even said the deal is not going to pass," Natwar Singh told IANS in an interview.
When told that it was Mukherjee who is selling the deal to the Left parties on behalf of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Natwar Singh said: "Much depends on how enthusiastic he himself is about the deal."
The India-US civilian nuclear deal has run into rough weather with the Left parties - who lend outside support to the UPA government - opposing it. The main opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is also opposed to the deal in its present form.
The US government has repeatedly told the Indian government that time may be running out for the deal to materialise as the George Bush presidency enters its last leg ahead of polls.
"The UPA government has gone about the deal in the wrong manner. When it knew that parliament would not approve it, it should not have gone ahead," said Natwar Singh, who was external affairs minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet till December 2005. He was succeeded by Pranab Mukherjee.
Natwar Singh had to resign when he, and his son Jagat Singh, were named beneficiaries by a UN inquiry committee headed by Paul Volcker in an Iraqi oil scam.
The former minister said the draft of the civilian nuclear deal had undergone several drastic changes since he first saw and approved it as external affairs minister on July 18, 2005. "Manmohan Singh and I saw it during our visit to Washington. I supported it then for two reasons. One, it tacitly recognised India as a nuclear power. And two, it was energy-oriented."
Natwar Singh said the term energy was later downplayed and non-proliferation was emphasised. "There were no questions about the 123 agreement, the Hyde Act, or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections then," he said. "The US has shifted the goalpost several times," he said, adding: "I don't see the deal going through".
Natwar Singh, who was in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) before joining the Congress, said: "The United States is selling this deal to us in an attempt to pitch us against China. We should not fall for it. (US President) George Bush has tried to sell it so that he can claim it as an achievement.
But the next US president is not going to endorse it, whether it is John McCain (Republican candidate) or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (Democrat frontrunners)."
Source: IANS
Manmohan, Pranab differ on N-deal: Natwar
New Delhi: There are differences in the way Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, see the much-discussed India-US civilian nuclear deal, former foreign minister Natwar Singh has said.
"The prime minister says the deal is on and they will get it through but when Mukherjee is asked about it there is a big question mark. Mukherjee has even said the deal is not going to pass," Natwar Singh told IANS in an interview.
When told that it was Mukherjee who is selling the deal to the Left parties on behalf of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Natwar Singh said: "Much depends on how enthusiastic he himself is about the deal."
The India-US civilian nuclear deal has run into rough weather with the Left parties - who lend outside support to the UPA government - opposing it. The main opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is also opposed to the deal in its present form.
The US government has repeatedly told the Indian government that time may be running out for the deal to materialise as the George Bush presidency enters its last leg ahead of polls.
"The UPA government has gone about the deal in the wrong manner. When it knew that parliament would not approve it, it should not have gone ahead," said Natwar Singh, who was external affairs minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet till December 2005. He was succeeded by Pranab Mukherjee.
Natwar Singh had to resign when he, and his son Jagat Singh, were named beneficiaries by a UN inquiry committee headed by Paul Volcker in an Iraqi oil scam.
The former minister said the draft of the civilian nuclear deal had undergone several drastic changes since he first saw and approved it as external affairs minister on July 18, 2005. "Manmohan Singh and I saw it during our visit to Washington. I supported it then for two reasons. One, it tacitly recognised India as a nuclear power. And two, it was energy-oriented."
Natwar Singh said the term energy was later downplayed and non-proliferation was emphasised. "There were no questions about the 123 agreement, the Hyde Act, or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections then," he said. "The US has shifted the goalpost several times," he said, adding: "I don't see the deal going through".
Natwar Singh, who was in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) before joining the Congress, said: "The United States is selling this deal to us in an attempt to pitch us against China. We should not fall for it. (US President) George Bush has tried to sell it so that he can claim it as an achievement.
But the next US president is not going to endorse it, whether it is John McCain (Republican candidate) or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (Democrat frontrunners)."
Source: IANS
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sichuan Earthquake: Ban Ki-Moon praises the Chinese
CHENGDU, China — The secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, flew to the heart of China’s earthquake zone in Sichuan Province on Saturday to praise the nation’s response to the disaster and pledge his organization’s support.
Mr. Ban met in Yingxiu, one of the towns hardest hit by the earthquake, with the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao. “If we work hard, we can overcome this,” Mr. Ban said with Mr. Wen standing by his side. “The whole world stands behind you and supports you.”
The State Council, China’s cabinet, has placed the confirmed death toll at 60,560 from the May 12 earthquake and counted 26,221 more people as missing. But on Saturday, Mr. Wen said the death toll “may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more.”
The Chinese authorities said they were making an all-out push to rescue 24 coal miners trapped underground by the earthquake nearly two weeks ago. Mr. Wen, however, gave the clearest indication to date that China had largely concluded its effort to find survivors amid the rubble of towns that lie flattened throughout the earthquake zone. “Previously our main priority was the search and rescue of affected people,” Mr. Wen said. “Our priority now is to resettle the affected people, and to make plans for the post-quake reconstruction.”
China is struggling to cope with the immediate crisis, which is to provide temporary shelter to an estimated five million people left homeless by the earthquake. Beijing has made an emergency appeal to other provinces to provide tents for the large numbers of people whose homes have been destroyed and who have no other shelter.
China has also created a sort of adoption program in which other provinces have been designated to provide financial and material support for the reconstruction of counties in Sichuan Province that were devastated by the quake.
Mr. Ban, the United Nations leader, visited Sichuan immediately after visiting Myanmar, where some 130,000 people were left dead or missing by a cyclone on May 3, and his actions and comments seemed to invite comparisons between the responses of the two countries.
During his visit to Myanmar, Mr. Ban was able to secure a promise from the authorities there to allow foreign aid workers into the country, but this comes weeks into the crisis.
“The Chinese government, at the early stage of this natural disaster, has invested strenuous effort and demonstrated extraordinary leadership,” Mr. Ban told reporters in Yingxiu, according to Reuters. He added: “I’m coming from my visit to Myanmar, where 130,000 people were killed or missing. It was very humbling and very tragic.”
Speaking later during his flight out of China, Mr. Ban was asked if his praise of China was intended as a message to Myanmar’s leaders. “You may have your own interpretation,” he replied, according to Reuters. “I just wanted to talk about the facts.” (Courtesy The New York Times)
Mr. Ban met in Yingxiu, one of the towns hardest hit by the earthquake, with the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao. “If we work hard, we can overcome this,” Mr. Ban said with Mr. Wen standing by his side. “The whole world stands behind you and supports you.”
The State Council, China’s cabinet, has placed the confirmed death toll at 60,560 from the May 12 earthquake and counted 26,221 more people as missing. But on Saturday, Mr. Wen said the death toll “may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more.”
The Chinese authorities said they were making an all-out push to rescue 24 coal miners trapped underground by the earthquake nearly two weeks ago. Mr. Wen, however, gave the clearest indication to date that China had largely concluded its effort to find survivors amid the rubble of towns that lie flattened throughout the earthquake zone. “Previously our main priority was the search and rescue of affected people,” Mr. Wen said. “Our priority now is to resettle the affected people, and to make plans for the post-quake reconstruction.”
China is struggling to cope with the immediate crisis, which is to provide temporary shelter to an estimated five million people left homeless by the earthquake. Beijing has made an emergency appeal to other provinces to provide tents for the large numbers of people whose homes have been destroyed and who have no other shelter.
China has also created a sort of adoption program in which other provinces have been designated to provide financial and material support for the reconstruction of counties in Sichuan Province that were devastated by the quake.
Mr. Ban, the United Nations leader, visited Sichuan immediately after visiting Myanmar, where some 130,000 people were left dead or missing by a cyclone on May 3, and his actions and comments seemed to invite comparisons between the responses of the two countries.
During his visit to Myanmar, Mr. Ban was able to secure a promise from the authorities there to allow foreign aid workers into the country, but this comes weeks into the crisis.
“The Chinese government, at the early stage of this natural disaster, has invested strenuous effort and demonstrated extraordinary leadership,” Mr. Ban told reporters in Yingxiu, according to Reuters. He added: “I’m coming from my visit to Myanmar, where 130,000 people were killed or missing. It was very humbling and very tragic.”
Speaking later during his flight out of China, Mr. Ban was asked if his praise of China was intended as a message to Myanmar’s leaders. “You may have your own interpretation,” he replied, according to Reuters. “I just wanted to talk about the facts.” (Courtesy The New York Times)
Careless Quip by Hillary Clinton
'You Get Careless': Obama Blames Clinton RFK Quip on Stress of Long Campaign
Obama Says He Accepts Clinton Explanation of Controversial Comment
By TAHMAN BRADLEY, KATE McCARTHY, JOHN COCHRAN and MICHAEL S. JAMES
May 24, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama gives Hillary Clinton the benefit of the doubt that she had no hidden meaning when she invoked the assassination of Bobby Kennedy as an explanation for remaining in the Democratic presidential race.
Clinton Kennedy Obama
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., mentioned the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in defending why her race against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has continued to June.
"I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Sen. Clinton and I have been campaigning," he told the Puerto Rico radio station Isla, "sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make. And I think that is what happened here.
"Sen. Clinton says that she did not intend any offense by it," he added, "and I would take her at her word on that."
Clinton's remarks to the editorial board at the Argus Leader in South Dakota Friday struck some nerves partly because it came in the wake of Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's health problems and because of longstanding concerns about Obama's security.
"People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa," Clinton said Friday. "I find it curious because it is unprecedented in history. I don't understand it.
"You know, my husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary sometime in the middle of June. Right?" she added later in the conversation. "We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know, I just-- I don't understand it."
The remarks initially prompted a less-gracious response from the Obama campaign Friday. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the remarks were "unfortunate."
Clinton soon apologized, saying she meant no offense.
She was backed up by a supporter, Robert Kennedy, Jr. who said in a statement: "It is clear from the context that Hillary was invoking a familiar political circumstance in order to support her decision to stay in the race through June."
Today, the Rev. Al Sharpton talked to Clinton about her remarks and gave her the benefit of the doubt.
"I don't believe that anyone is dumb enough to suggest that something happen to Sen. Obama," Sharpton said.
But ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, former chief strategist for George Bush's 2004 campaign, told ABC News Radio that Clinton's remark was a huge political misstep.
Obama Says He Accepts Clinton Explanation of Controversial Comment
By TAHMAN BRADLEY, KATE McCARTHY, JOHN COCHRAN and MICHAEL S. JAMES
May 24, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama gives Hillary Clinton the benefit of the doubt that she had no hidden meaning when she invoked the assassination of Bobby Kennedy as an explanation for remaining in the Democratic presidential race.
Clinton Kennedy Obama
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., mentioned the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in defending why her race against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has continued to June.
"I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Sen. Clinton and I have been campaigning," he told the Puerto Rico radio station Isla, "sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make. And I think that is what happened here.
"Sen. Clinton says that she did not intend any offense by it," he added, "and I would take her at her word on that."
Clinton's remarks to the editorial board at the Argus Leader in South Dakota Friday struck some nerves partly because it came in the wake of Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's health problems and because of longstanding concerns about Obama's security.
"People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa," Clinton said Friday. "I find it curious because it is unprecedented in history. I don't understand it.
"You know, my husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary sometime in the middle of June. Right?" she added later in the conversation. "We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know, I just-- I don't understand it."
The remarks initially prompted a less-gracious response from the Obama campaign Friday. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the remarks were "unfortunate."
Clinton soon apologized, saying she meant no offense.
She was backed up by a supporter, Robert Kennedy, Jr. who said in a statement: "It is clear from the context that Hillary was invoking a familiar political circumstance in order to support her decision to stay in the race through June."
Today, the Rev. Al Sharpton talked to Clinton about her remarks and gave her the benefit of the doubt.
"I don't believe that anyone is dumb enough to suggest that something happen to Sen. Obama," Sharpton said.
But ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, former chief strategist for George Bush's 2004 campaign, told ABC News Radio that Clinton's remark was a huge political misstep.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Is John Hagee anti-Semitic ?
Jews defend Hagee's words
By Julia Duin
May 24, 2008
Evangelist Rev. John Hagee leads a march of Christians in support of Israel in Jerusalem. Jews rushed to the pastor's defense yesterday claiming the pastor is not anti-Semitic and an ally of the Jewish people. (Associated Press)
Jewish allies of the Rev. John Hagee rushed to his defense yesterday to say the Texas evangelist is not anti-Semitic despite Sen. John McCain campaign's repudiation Thursday of the evangelist's endorsement.
"John Hagee is one of the Jewish people's best friends," Los Angeles talk show host Dennis Prager said on the air yesterday morning. "Identifying John Hagee with anti-Semitism would be like identifying Raoul Wallenberg, the great Swede who saved thousands of Jews in the Holocaust, with anti-Semitism."
Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, of Congregation Rodfei Sholom in San Antonio, appeared at an afternoon press conference yesterday to say Mr. Hagee's "words were twisted and used to attack him for being anti-Semitic."
In actuality, Mr. Hagee "interpreted a biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities," the rabbi said.
"Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian," the rabbi said.
"I have devoted most of my adult life to ensuring that there will never be a second Holocaust," Mr. Hagee told reporters. "I have worked tirelessly to eliminate the sin of anti-Semitism from the Christian world and to ensure the survival of the state of Israel."
At issue was Mr. Hagee's reference — in a late 1990s sermon and in his 2006 book "Jerusalem Countdown" to Adolf Hitler being a "hunter" used by God to force Jews to emigrate to Israel.
In a reference to the Book of Jeremiah, whose author predicts a scattering of the Jewish people but saying God would bring them back to the promised land, Mr. Hagee says in the sermon: "How did [the Holocaust] happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel."
By Julia Duin
May 24, 2008
Evangelist Rev. John Hagee leads a march of Christians in support of Israel in Jerusalem. Jews rushed to the pastor's defense yesterday claiming the pastor is not anti-Semitic and an ally of the Jewish people. (Associated Press)
Jewish allies of the Rev. John Hagee rushed to his defense yesterday to say the Texas evangelist is not anti-Semitic despite Sen. John McCain campaign's repudiation Thursday of the evangelist's endorsement.
"John Hagee is one of the Jewish people's best friends," Los Angeles talk show host Dennis Prager said on the air yesterday morning. "Identifying John Hagee with anti-Semitism would be like identifying Raoul Wallenberg, the great Swede who saved thousands of Jews in the Holocaust, with anti-Semitism."
Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, of Congregation Rodfei Sholom in San Antonio, appeared at an afternoon press conference yesterday to say Mr. Hagee's "words were twisted and used to attack him for being anti-Semitic."
In actuality, Mr. Hagee "interpreted a biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities," the rabbi said.
"Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian," the rabbi said.
"I have devoted most of my adult life to ensuring that there will never be a second Holocaust," Mr. Hagee told reporters. "I have worked tirelessly to eliminate the sin of anti-Semitism from the Christian world and to ensure the survival of the state of Israel."
At issue was Mr. Hagee's reference — in a late 1990s sermon and in his 2006 book "Jerusalem Countdown" to Adolf Hitler being a "hunter" used by God to force Jews to emigrate to Israel.
In a reference to the Book of Jeremiah, whose author predicts a scattering of the Jewish people but saying God would bring them back to the promised land, Mr. Hagee says in the sermon: "How did [the Holocaust] happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel."
Thursday, May 22, 2008
India blames World Bank, IMF for food, fuel crisis
India blames World Bank, IMF for food, fuel crisis
22 May 2008, 1132 hrs IST,PTI
UNITED NATIONS: Firmly rejecting the contention that rising consumption in developing nations was responsible for the soaring food and fuel prices, India has blamed the policies of World Bank and IMF and "excessive and unsustainable" demand in developed countries for the crisis.
"This consumption trend has existed for more than a decade," said Indian UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen, pointing out that over last two years, the demand for oil has gone up one per cent but prices in dollar terms have risen by 90 per cent.
Addressing a special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council to consider the issue of rising food prices, he held financial crisis leading to weakening dollar and diversion of grains to production of bio-fuels among the major causes.
Sen also blamed the policies followed by the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) responsible and severely criticised their advice to countries to shift from food crops for domestic population to cash crops for exports.
The debate came in the backdrop of UN agencies warning that more than one billion could added to those already needing food assistance because of high prices. Finger pointing over the issue was sparked off after the US and EU said the growth of India and China which has led to rise in consumption level has led to the shortage.
Rejecting the BWI's prescription of eliminating restriction on food exports in the interest of market purism, Sen told the delegates that this continues the tradition of these institutions' advice which is partly responsible for the crisis in the first place.
In terms of consumption, the problem is not per capita consumption in developing countries but excessive and unsustainable consumption in developed nations, Sen said.
Decrying the "dismal" response of the international community to the crisis, he said the initial conjunction of lower food prices and high oil prices led to sale of grain to energy producers for conversion into bio-fuels.
In several developed countries, Sen said, land for food crops shrank as it was lost to bio-fuels and supported calls for roll back.
"For the first time, there is a direct link between oil prices and food prices, oil markets and food markets, as our Prime Minister has said.
"It is this structural consequence that is disturbing and complicates policy," he added.
The financial crisis, Sen said, too has had an impact. "A consequence is that speculators, encouraged by the dollar's relative decline, 'invest' in food futures to profit from the 'commodities super cycle'", he said.
Conceding that this is not a primary cause of the crisis, he said "but it makes it worse".
"Hopefully this bubble would also burst with at least a marginal beneficial effect on food prices," he added.
Stating that the international community collectively can do much, he told the delegates that for various international bodies, key areas are land development, water management and seed technology.
22 May 2008, 1132 hrs IST,PTI
UNITED NATIONS: Firmly rejecting the contention that rising consumption in developing nations was responsible for the soaring food and fuel prices, India has blamed the policies of World Bank and IMF and "excessive and unsustainable" demand in developed countries for the crisis.
"This consumption trend has existed for more than a decade," said Indian UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen, pointing out that over last two years, the demand for oil has gone up one per cent but prices in dollar terms have risen by 90 per cent.
Addressing a special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council to consider the issue of rising food prices, he held financial crisis leading to weakening dollar and diversion of grains to production of bio-fuels among the major causes.
Sen also blamed the policies followed by the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) responsible and severely criticised their advice to countries to shift from food crops for domestic population to cash crops for exports.
The debate came in the backdrop of UN agencies warning that more than one billion could added to those already needing food assistance because of high prices. Finger pointing over the issue was sparked off after the US and EU said the growth of India and China which has led to rise in consumption level has led to the shortage.
Rejecting the BWI's prescription of eliminating restriction on food exports in the interest of market purism, Sen told the delegates that this continues the tradition of these institutions' advice which is partly responsible for the crisis in the first place.
In terms of consumption, the problem is not per capita consumption in developing countries but excessive and unsustainable consumption in developed nations, Sen said.
Decrying the "dismal" response of the international community to the crisis, he said the initial conjunction of lower food prices and high oil prices led to sale of grain to energy producers for conversion into bio-fuels.
In several developed countries, Sen said, land for food crops shrank as it was lost to bio-fuels and supported calls for roll back.
"For the first time, there is a direct link between oil prices and food prices, oil markets and food markets, as our Prime Minister has said.
"It is this structural consequence that is disturbing and complicates policy," he added.
The financial crisis, Sen said, too has had an impact. "A consequence is that speculators, encouraged by the dollar's relative decline, 'invest' in food futures to profit from the 'commodities super cycle'", he said.
Conceding that this is not a primary cause of the crisis, he said "but it makes it worse".
"Hopefully this bubble would also burst with at least a marginal beneficial effect on food prices," he added.
Stating that the international community collectively can do much, he told the delegates that for various international bodies, key areas are land development, water management and seed technology.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Racist grammar in US electioneering
Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 11 :: May. 24-Jun. 06, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
Racist grammar
VIJAY PRASHAD
Barack Obama’s opponents have turned to the coded language of race perfected by Republicans. But even this is not effective as few can resist the Obama allure.
THE “race card” is out in full force. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley, Republicans want to make their stand against Democrats. The city is at the centre of the 1st Congressional District, where a special election was held on May 13. Reliably conservative, the Republican Party has held the seat for several decades. The seat was hard fought between the Democrat Travis Childers and the Republican Greg Davis. Both are white, and both are fairly conservative. They would have to be to compete in a district that sent George Bush back to the White House in 2004 with a plurality.
The Republican Party sent out its heavy hitters (Vice-President Dick Cheney among others) to prevent a Democratic victory in the Deep South. They did not want the Democrats to use this victory as a harbinger of what is to come this November: an across-the-board Democratic victory against a party too closely identified with the Iraq debacle and the imploding economy. For Republicans, it was far better to turn this election into a mandate on race than to allow the real grievances of the population to enter the ballot box.
One part of the onslaught against Childers, who eventually won the election, was that he was in the same party as Barack Obama. Advertisements using images of Obama with Childers, drawing on fears that Childers is as liberal as Obama, flooded television channels. But this was not just about politics. It was also about reviving fears that Childers was too closely affiliated with a powerful black man.
This was the old Republican playbook, which was well crafted during the Nixon years and named the “Southern Strategy”. In 1964 and 1968, the overtly racist George Wallace ran for President on his own party ticket. Wallace’s run created the basis for a racist coalition against the victories of the civil rights movement. It was this coalition that was adopted by Nixon into the Republican Party, and which became its base for the next 30 years. A combination of poor whites, whose only claim to dignity was that they were legally superior to blacks, and the big business faction threw its support behind the racist populism of Republicans.
When Ronald Reagan ran for office in 1980, he went to the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, just to the south of the 1st Congressional District to announce his candidacy. In 1964, a group of white supremacists killed three civil rights workers in this small town of several thousand. Reagan chose it not for its numbers but as a symbol of the Republicans’ quiet solidarity with entrenched racism.
Reagan returned in 1984 and chanted “The South Will Rise Again”, a long-time favourite phrase of the racist Ku Klux Klan. Rather than consider that it was his own policies of privatisation and deregulation that threatened the livelihood and dignity of the white working class, Reagan and Republicans put the onus on what they called “special interests”, whose main beneficiary, they pointed out, were blacks. Hatred for the advancement of blacks and an irrational fear of “black domination” allowed Republicans to package themselves as the defenders of “American values” and “state’s rights”, code phrases for racism in a world that no longer honours overt racism.
Coded language
Overwhelmed by the Obama phenomenon, Hillary Clinton and her team have resorted to the kind of coded language that appeals to this racist voting bloc. After her loss in the South Carolina primary, where the Democratic electorate is substantially black, Hillary Clinton’s husband, Bill, told the press, “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988. Jackson ran a good campaign and Obama ran a good campaign here.”
On the surface, this is empirically true. However, a little beneath the surface lies another reality. The reporters did not ask Bill Clinton about Jackson, nor did they ask him if Obama ran a good campaign. His statement was unsolicited. The point he seemed to be making is that Obama won in the same way as Jackson won: as black men they appealed to the “black vote”. Obama is not a candidate for President, Bill Clinton seemed to suggest, but a black man who would do well in South Carolina but cannot win the majority of the votes in the country.
When he was roundly criticised for this remark, Clinton lost his temper and suggested that he was being unfairly charged with racism and that the Obama camp “played the race card on me”. The Obama people disputed that their campaign won only because Obama is black, but they did not say that Clinton was being racist in his comments. He, however, took the occasion to play the aggrieved white man unfairly called racist. In doing this, Clinton appealed to those other white men who might find their privileges threatened by the presence of non-white people in their workplaces and neighbourhoods.
The surreptitious use of this kind of highly charged race language continued from South Carolina to Pennsylvania and onward. Eager to win the “white vote”, Hillary Clinton’s campaign began to question the ability of a black man to win over white voters. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Clinton supporter, told the press, “Some white Pennsylvanians are likely to vote against Barack Obama because he is black. You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African American candidate.”
Bill Clinton went to small Pennsylvania towns, to rooms with all-white audiences, to warn them that Obama did not represent “voters like you”. After her loss in North Carolina and slight win in Indiana, Hillary Clinton told the press that Obama does not have the support of “working, hardworking Americans, white Americans”. The only hardworking Americans in her scenario are white Americans, a view held precisely by those who believe the racist dogma that non-whites leech the system.
Terms like “swing voters” and warnings about “electability” have swept the punditocracy, which pretends to be neutral when discussing how the “white working class” will vote, without a consideration of how the Clinton camp has joined the Republicans to grow their constituencies on a racist soil.
When Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, became the focus of a controversy about his comments on America, Hillary Clinton seized on them to point out once more that Obama carries too much baggage to appeal to these “white voters”.
Clinton made no noise about the distasteful comments made by John McCain’s religious friend, John Hagee, who attacked the humanity of core Democratic voters (gays and lesbians, Jews and African Americans).
Wright speaks the “truth to power”, arguing that United States history is filled with examples of the government being unjust to the people. Hagee, on the other hand, speaks the truth to the powerless, claiming that events such as Hurricane Katrina occurred because New Orleans is a city that welcomes gays and lesbians.
Clinton saw the political opening against Obama and took it but did not go after Hagee-McCain. Making common cause with McCain allowed Hillary Clinton to appeal once more to that racist white bloc against Obama. But this concern for working-class whites is shallow.
In 1995, Hillary Clinton told her husband at a strategy session that he owed nothing to this demographic which failed to vote for his agenda in the 1994 midterm election. “Screw ’em,” she said. “You don’t owe them a thing, Bill.” This section now allows Hillary Clinton a wedge against Obama.
Obama’s appeal
Barack Obama shone in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention. He was a local politician from Illinois, given the stage at Boston fortuitously, at John Kerry’s request. Obama catapulted himself to fame principally because he appealed to the population to give up the politics of despair and cynicism for the “politics of hope”.
Obama’s slogans “yes we can” and “you are the change you are waiting for” offered a bright light through the darkness of the Bush years. Few are untouched by the phenomenon, which is not so much about the actual programmatic beliefs of Obama as with the sense that the U.S. is not on a one-way road to destruction. Obama is the parachute to another world.
Hard to beat on these terms, Obama’s opponents have turned to the coded racist grammar perfected by Republicans. But even this is not as effective as it once was. It gave Hillary Clinton the edge in Pennsylvania, but it did not give her as much a victory as she wanted in Indiana. In another special election, in Louisiana, Democrat Don Cazayoux defeated his Republican rival in a conservative district. The Republicans painted Cazayoux as a clone of Obama. While that cut into his lead, it could not bring him down.
The Mississippi election portends a shift in the power of this “white vote” and the declining significance of racist electioneering. The Republicans now talk of Obama’s “toxicity” in the general election, but perhaps if the Louisiana and Mississippi elections are any indicator, the ground might have shifted from Nixon’s Southern Strategy. Few can resist the Obama allure. Even the man who officiated over the wedding of George Bush’s daughter, Reverend Kirbyjon Caldwell, is an Obama supporter. The race card might finally be trumped.•
Volume 25 - Issue 11 :: May. 24-Jun. 06, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
Racist grammar
VIJAY PRASHAD
Barack Obama’s opponents have turned to the coded language of race perfected by Republicans. But even this is not effective as few can resist the Obama allure.
THE “race card” is out in full force. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley, Republicans want to make their stand against Democrats. The city is at the centre of the 1st Congressional District, where a special election was held on May 13. Reliably conservative, the Republican Party has held the seat for several decades. The seat was hard fought between the Democrat Travis Childers and the Republican Greg Davis. Both are white, and both are fairly conservative. They would have to be to compete in a district that sent George Bush back to the White House in 2004 with a plurality.
The Republican Party sent out its heavy hitters (Vice-President Dick Cheney among others) to prevent a Democratic victory in the Deep South. They did not want the Democrats to use this victory as a harbinger of what is to come this November: an across-the-board Democratic victory against a party too closely identified with the Iraq debacle and the imploding economy. For Republicans, it was far better to turn this election into a mandate on race than to allow the real grievances of the population to enter the ballot box.
One part of the onslaught against Childers, who eventually won the election, was that he was in the same party as Barack Obama. Advertisements using images of Obama with Childers, drawing on fears that Childers is as liberal as Obama, flooded television channels. But this was not just about politics. It was also about reviving fears that Childers was too closely affiliated with a powerful black man.
This was the old Republican playbook, which was well crafted during the Nixon years and named the “Southern Strategy”. In 1964 and 1968, the overtly racist George Wallace ran for President on his own party ticket. Wallace’s run created the basis for a racist coalition against the victories of the civil rights movement. It was this coalition that was adopted by Nixon into the Republican Party, and which became its base for the next 30 years. A combination of poor whites, whose only claim to dignity was that they were legally superior to blacks, and the big business faction threw its support behind the racist populism of Republicans.
When Ronald Reagan ran for office in 1980, he went to the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, just to the south of the 1st Congressional District to announce his candidacy. In 1964, a group of white supremacists killed three civil rights workers in this small town of several thousand. Reagan chose it not for its numbers but as a symbol of the Republicans’ quiet solidarity with entrenched racism.
Reagan returned in 1984 and chanted “The South Will Rise Again”, a long-time favourite phrase of the racist Ku Klux Klan. Rather than consider that it was his own policies of privatisation and deregulation that threatened the livelihood and dignity of the white working class, Reagan and Republicans put the onus on what they called “special interests”, whose main beneficiary, they pointed out, were blacks. Hatred for the advancement of blacks and an irrational fear of “black domination” allowed Republicans to package themselves as the defenders of “American values” and “state’s rights”, code phrases for racism in a world that no longer honours overt racism.
Coded language
Overwhelmed by the Obama phenomenon, Hillary Clinton and her team have resorted to the kind of coded language that appeals to this racist voting bloc. After her loss in the South Carolina primary, where the Democratic electorate is substantially black, Hillary Clinton’s husband, Bill, told the press, “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988. Jackson ran a good campaign and Obama ran a good campaign here.”
On the surface, this is empirically true. However, a little beneath the surface lies another reality. The reporters did not ask Bill Clinton about Jackson, nor did they ask him if Obama ran a good campaign. His statement was unsolicited. The point he seemed to be making is that Obama won in the same way as Jackson won: as black men they appealed to the “black vote”. Obama is not a candidate for President, Bill Clinton seemed to suggest, but a black man who would do well in South Carolina but cannot win the majority of the votes in the country.
When he was roundly criticised for this remark, Clinton lost his temper and suggested that he was being unfairly charged with racism and that the Obama camp “played the race card on me”. The Obama people disputed that their campaign won only because Obama is black, but they did not say that Clinton was being racist in his comments. He, however, took the occasion to play the aggrieved white man unfairly called racist. In doing this, Clinton appealed to those other white men who might find their privileges threatened by the presence of non-white people in their workplaces and neighbourhoods.
The surreptitious use of this kind of highly charged race language continued from South Carolina to Pennsylvania and onward. Eager to win the “white vote”, Hillary Clinton’s campaign began to question the ability of a black man to win over white voters. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Clinton supporter, told the press, “Some white Pennsylvanians are likely to vote against Barack Obama because he is black. You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African American candidate.”
Bill Clinton went to small Pennsylvania towns, to rooms with all-white audiences, to warn them that Obama did not represent “voters like you”. After her loss in North Carolina and slight win in Indiana, Hillary Clinton told the press that Obama does not have the support of “working, hardworking Americans, white Americans”. The only hardworking Americans in her scenario are white Americans, a view held precisely by those who believe the racist dogma that non-whites leech the system.
Terms like “swing voters” and warnings about “electability” have swept the punditocracy, which pretends to be neutral when discussing how the “white working class” will vote, without a consideration of how the Clinton camp has joined the Republicans to grow their constituencies on a racist soil.
When Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, became the focus of a controversy about his comments on America, Hillary Clinton seized on them to point out once more that Obama carries too much baggage to appeal to these “white voters”.
Clinton made no noise about the distasteful comments made by John McCain’s religious friend, John Hagee, who attacked the humanity of core Democratic voters (gays and lesbians, Jews and African Americans).
Wright speaks the “truth to power”, arguing that United States history is filled with examples of the government being unjust to the people. Hagee, on the other hand, speaks the truth to the powerless, claiming that events such as Hurricane Katrina occurred because New Orleans is a city that welcomes gays and lesbians.
Clinton saw the political opening against Obama and took it but did not go after Hagee-McCain. Making common cause with McCain allowed Hillary Clinton to appeal once more to that racist white bloc against Obama. But this concern for working-class whites is shallow.
In 1995, Hillary Clinton told her husband at a strategy session that he owed nothing to this demographic which failed to vote for his agenda in the 1994 midterm election. “Screw ’em,” she said. “You don’t owe them a thing, Bill.” This section now allows Hillary Clinton a wedge against Obama.
Obama’s appeal
Barack Obama shone in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention. He was a local politician from Illinois, given the stage at Boston fortuitously, at John Kerry’s request. Obama catapulted himself to fame principally because he appealed to the population to give up the politics of despair and cynicism for the “politics of hope”.
Obama’s slogans “yes we can” and “you are the change you are waiting for” offered a bright light through the darkness of the Bush years. Few are untouched by the phenomenon, which is not so much about the actual programmatic beliefs of Obama as with the sense that the U.S. is not on a one-way road to destruction. Obama is the parachute to another world.
Hard to beat on these terms, Obama’s opponents have turned to the coded racist grammar perfected by Republicans. But even this is not as effective as it once was. It gave Hillary Clinton the edge in Pennsylvania, but it did not give her as much a victory as she wanted in Indiana. In another special election, in Louisiana, Democrat Don Cazayoux defeated his Republican rival in a conservative district. The Republicans painted Cazayoux as a clone of Obama. While that cut into his lead, it could not bring him down.
The Mississippi election portends a shift in the power of this “white vote” and the declining significance of racist electioneering. The Republicans now talk of Obama’s “toxicity” in the general election, but perhaps if the Louisiana and Mississippi elections are any indicator, the ground might have shifted from Nixon’s Southern Strategy. Few can resist the Obama allure. Even the man who officiated over the wedding of George Bush’s daughter, Reverend Kirbyjon Caldwell, is an Obama supporter. The race card might finally be trumped.•
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Myanmar mourns 134,000 dead
Myanmar mourns 134,000 dead
21 May 2008, 0340 hrs IST,REUTERS
YANGON: Myanmar started three days of mourning on Tuesday for the 134,000 dead and missing from Cyclone Nargis as diplomats pressed the reclusive generals to speed up aid to 2.4 million survivors.
Flags would fly at half mast until Thursday, state television said a day after the first appearance in the disaster zone by junta supremo Than Shwe, who left Yangon for a new capital 250 miles to the north in 2005.
The bespectacled 75-year-old senior general was shown touring storm-hit parts of Yangon on Sunday and the Irrawaddy Delta on Monday, fuelling speculation that after two weeks, the leadership has woken up to the scale of the disaster.
"It is not insignificant that he has been forced out of his lair," a Yangon-based diplomat said. "There are obviously some in the military who see how enormous this is, and how enormously wrong it could go without further support."
Aid experts say massive foreign assistance, ideally on the scale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami aid effort, is needed to prevent the death toll from hunger and disease soaring. The onset of the monsoon season in the Irrawaddy Delta is making life even more miserable for those clinging to survival. Daily downpours are making it hard to salvage what little stores of rice escaped the storm's initial wrath.
"Our rice could recover if the sun ever got the chance to shine," one weather-beaten farmer said in a delta village. "But it will never be good quality again."
The junta has accepted foreign aid flights, including some from the US military, into Yangon and allowed UN agencies to distribute supplies. However, it has been loathe to let foreign aid teams into the delta for fear the presence of outsiders might threaten the military's 46-year grip on power.
Checkpoints have been set up on roads. Soldiers and police are searching vehicles, taking down license plates, and asking "Are you all Burmese?" However, the diplomatic wheels are starting to turn, raising hopes that experts adept at establishing networks to distribute aid may finally be able to help.
21 May 2008, 0340 hrs IST,REUTERS
YANGON: Myanmar started three days of mourning on Tuesday for the 134,000 dead and missing from Cyclone Nargis as diplomats pressed the reclusive generals to speed up aid to 2.4 million survivors.
Flags would fly at half mast until Thursday, state television said a day after the first appearance in the disaster zone by junta supremo Than Shwe, who left Yangon for a new capital 250 miles to the north in 2005.
The bespectacled 75-year-old senior general was shown touring storm-hit parts of Yangon on Sunday and the Irrawaddy Delta on Monday, fuelling speculation that after two weeks, the leadership has woken up to the scale of the disaster.
"It is not insignificant that he has been forced out of his lair," a Yangon-based diplomat said. "There are obviously some in the military who see how enormous this is, and how enormously wrong it could go without further support."
Aid experts say massive foreign assistance, ideally on the scale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami aid effort, is needed to prevent the death toll from hunger and disease soaring. The onset of the monsoon season in the Irrawaddy Delta is making life even more miserable for those clinging to survival. Daily downpours are making it hard to salvage what little stores of rice escaped the storm's initial wrath.
"Our rice could recover if the sun ever got the chance to shine," one weather-beaten farmer said in a delta village. "But it will never be good quality again."
The junta has accepted foreign aid flights, including some from the US military, into Yangon and allowed UN agencies to distribute supplies. However, it has been loathe to let foreign aid teams into the delta for fear the presence of outsiders might threaten the military's 46-year grip on power.
Checkpoints have been set up on roads. Soldiers and police are searching vehicles, taking down license plates, and asking "Are you all Burmese?" However, the diplomatic wheels are starting to turn, raising hopes that experts adept at establishing networks to distribute aid may finally be able to help.
China mourns quake victims
China stands still to mourn quake victims
By DESSIANING ARIYANTI, Associated Press Writer
WENCHUAN, China - China stood still Monday in mourning over tens of thousands of earthquake victims, and the government appealed for more international aid to cope with the country's deadliest disaster in a generation.
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Construction workers, shopkeepers and bureaucrats across the bustling nation of 1.3 billion people paused for three minutes at 2:28 p.m. — exactly one week after the magnitude 7.9 quake hit central China.
Air-raid sirens and the horns of cars and buses sounded in memory of the dead.
In Beijing's Tiananmen Square, thousands of people bowed their heads and then began shouting "Long Live China!" and thrusting their fists in the air. Traffic on the capital's highways and roads stopped, and some drivers got out of their cars.
The confirmed death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 34,073, the State Council, China's Cabinet, said Monday. Another 9,500 remained buried in Sichuan and more than 29,000 were missing, the provincial government said, according to Xinhua.
Officials have said they expect final death toll to exceed 50,000, with more than 245,000 reported as injured. Quake-related losses to companies totaled $9.5 billion, Deputy Industry Minister Xi Guohua said.
In an indication of the challenge in dealing with millions of homeless and injured survivors, China said it would accept foreign medical teams and issued an international appeal for tents.
"China requests the international community donate tents as a priority when they donate materials because many houses were toppled in the quake and because it is the rainy season," ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement, also thanking the international community for its help so far.
In the disaster area, more than 200 relief workers were reported buried over the past three days by mudslides while working to repair roads in Sichuan, Xinhua reported.
An official confirmed mudslides had caused some deaths but gave no details. "The total death toll is still being counted," said the official at the Sichuan provincial Communications Department who only gave his last name, Shi.
More potential landslides were predicted by the Central Meteorological Observatory, with heavy rains forecast this week for some areas close to the epicenter.
Meanwhile, 14 Taiwanese escaped a massive landslide in Sichuan. They were located by authorities using satellite positioning data from the group's tour bus on Friday, Chinese authorities said, and were set to head home Monday.
The military was still struggling to reach areas cut off by the earthquake, with more than 10,000 discovered stranded in Yinxiui valley near the epicenter, China National Radio said Monday. There was no information on casualties there, and 600 soldiers were hiking into the area.
During three days of national mourning ordered by the government, flags were to fly at half-staff and public entertainment was canceled — an unprecedented outpouring of state sympathy on a level normally reserved for dead leaders.
Rescuers also briefly halted work in the disaster zone, where the hunt for survivors turned glum despite remarkable survival tales among thousands buried. Two women were rescued Monday after being trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building at a coal mine in Sichuan, Xinhua reported.
A convoy of police cars, ambulances and other rescue vehicles let off a long blast from their horns as the workers in orange jumpsuits stood quietly with eyes downcast, some removing their white hardhats.
"Our hearts are so heavy, so many of our compatriots are dead," said rescuer Ma Tang Chuan. "As long as we try out best, we have some small hope."
Volunteers at Wangfujing shopping street handed out white ribbons reading, "lovingly remember," before hundreds of shopkeepers spilled into the street. The period of silence started early and ended up stretching past the three-minute mark, before it was broken by a burst of sound from a construction site next door.
"It's the first time we've stopped," said Bai Zhenzong, a worker at the site. "This is awful. This shows how importantly the Chinese government is treating this."
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Communist Party leaders were shown on state TV bowing their heads, white flowers pinned to the lapels of their dark suits. Hu had spent three days touring the worst-hit areas of Sichuan.
The moment of tribute also was marked in Hong Kong, where double-decker buses sounded their horns. Rides and performances were halted for three minutes at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the daily fireworks show was canceled.
The government order for the mourning period said all Internet entertainment and game sites had to be taken off-line and users redirected to sites dedicated to commemorating earthquake victims, the Chinese news Web portal sina.com said.
China's National Grand Theater will cancel or postpone all performances during the three days, and media reports said numerous bars, nightclubs, karaoke parlors and movie theaters had shut down beginning at midnight in major cities such as Beijing, Shenyang and Changsha.
Newspapers across China printed their logos in black and some ran entirely without color. Several front pages were covered in black, with simple messages in white text across the middle: "The nation mourns," "Pray for life," and "National tragedy."
The mourning period begins as hope of finding more trapped survivors dwindled, and preventing hunger and disease among the homeless became more pressing.
Hu Yongcui, 38, said she did not care about the official show of mourning as she headed to Beichuan, near the quake's epicenter, to search for her missing 17-year-old daughter.
"I can't feel anything. I have no words," she said. "I just want to go home. I just want to find my daughter."
In a sign the search for survivors was concluding, Japan said it was considering withdrawing rescue crews to be replaced with an expanded medical team to treat survivors because of declining opportunities to use their technology to hunt for trapped victims.
"It's been a week since the earthquake and at this point chances we can make use of our technology is very limited. It's time to think about what to do with our rescue operation," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters, according to Japan's Kyodo News agency.
"There is definitely a need for medical experts, and we can dispatch a team whenever there is a request," he said.
In Dujiangyan, three local government officials were removed from their posts for dereliction of duty over the earthquake — the first officials punished, Xinhua reported. One of the officials was reprimanded for miscounting casualty figures, while the others were punished for failing to come to work.
The Communist Party's discipline committee had instructed all officials to "stand at the front line" of the disaster and vowed to deal harshly with those who did not, the agency said.
___
Associated Press writers Audra Ang in Beichuan, and Cara Anna, Anita Chang and Henry Sanderson in Beijing contributed to this report.
By DESSIANING ARIYANTI, Associated Press Writer
WENCHUAN, China - China stood still Monday in mourning over tens of thousands of earthquake victims, and the government appealed for more international aid to cope with the country's deadliest disaster in a generation.
ADVERTISEMENT
Construction workers, shopkeepers and bureaucrats across the bustling nation of 1.3 billion people paused for three minutes at 2:28 p.m. — exactly one week after the magnitude 7.9 quake hit central China.
Air-raid sirens and the horns of cars and buses sounded in memory of the dead.
In Beijing's Tiananmen Square, thousands of people bowed their heads and then began shouting "Long Live China!" and thrusting their fists in the air. Traffic on the capital's highways and roads stopped, and some drivers got out of their cars.
The confirmed death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 34,073, the State Council, China's Cabinet, said Monday. Another 9,500 remained buried in Sichuan and more than 29,000 were missing, the provincial government said, according to Xinhua.
Officials have said they expect final death toll to exceed 50,000, with more than 245,000 reported as injured. Quake-related losses to companies totaled $9.5 billion, Deputy Industry Minister Xi Guohua said.
In an indication of the challenge in dealing with millions of homeless and injured survivors, China said it would accept foreign medical teams and issued an international appeal for tents.
"China requests the international community donate tents as a priority when they donate materials because many houses were toppled in the quake and because it is the rainy season," ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement, also thanking the international community for its help so far.
In the disaster area, more than 200 relief workers were reported buried over the past three days by mudslides while working to repair roads in Sichuan, Xinhua reported.
An official confirmed mudslides had caused some deaths but gave no details. "The total death toll is still being counted," said the official at the Sichuan provincial Communications Department who only gave his last name, Shi.
More potential landslides were predicted by the Central Meteorological Observatory, with heavy rains forecast this week for some areas close to the epicenter.
Meanwhile, 14 Taiwanese escaped a massive landslide in Sichuan. They were located by authorities using satellite positioning data from the group's tour bus on Friday, Chinese authorities said, and were set to head home Monday.
The military was still struggling to reach areas cut off by the earthquake, with more than 10,000 discovered stranded in Yinxiui valley near the epicenter, China National Radio said Monday. There was no information on casualties there, and 600 soldiers were hiking into the area.
During three days of national mourning ordered by the government, flags were to fly at half-staff and public entertainment was canceled — an unprecedented outpouring of state sympathy on a level normally reserved for dead leaders.
Rescuers also briefly halted work in the disaster zone, where the hunt for survivors turned glum despite remarkable survival tales among thousands buried. Two women were rescued Monday after being trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building at a coal mine in Sichuan, Xinhua reported.
A convoy of police cars, ambulances and other rescue vehicles let off a long blast from their horns as the workers in orange jumpsuits stood quietly with eyes downcast, some removing their white hardhats.
"Our hearts are so heavy, so many of our compatriots are dead," said rescuer Ma Tang Chuan. "As long as we try out best, we have some small hope."
Volunteers at Wangfujing shopping street handed out white ribbons reading, "lovingly remember," before hundreds of shopkeepers spilled into the street. The period of silence started early and ended up stretching past the three-minute mark, before it was broken by a burst of sound from a construction site next door.
"It's the first time we've stopped," said Bai Zhenzong, a worker at the site. "This is awful. This shows how importantly the Chinese government is treating this."
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Communist Party leaders were shown on state TV bowing their heads, white flowers pinned to the lapels of their dark suits. Hu had spent three days touring the worst-hit areas of Sichuan.
The moment of tribute also was marked in Hong Kong, where double-decker buses sounded their horns. Rides and performances were halted for three minutes at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the daily fireworks show was canceled.
The government order for the mourning period said all Internet entertainment and game sites had to be taken off-line and users redirected to sites dedicated to commemorating earthquake victims, the Chinese news Web portal sina.com said.
China's National Grand Theater will cancel or postpone all performances during the three days, and media reports said numerous bars, nightclubs, karaoke parlors and movie theaters had shut down beginning at midnight in major cities such as Beijing, Shenyang and Changsha.
Newspapers across China printed their logos in black and some ran entirely without color. Several front pages were covered in black, with simple messages in white text across the middle: "The nation mourns," "Pray for life," and "National tragedy."
The mourning period begins as hope of finding more trapped survivors dwindled, and preventing hunger and disease among the homeless became more pressing.
Hu Yongcui, 38, said she did not care about the official show of mourning as she headed to Beichuan, near the quake's epicenter, to search for her missing 17-year-old daughter.
"I can't feel anything. I have no words," she said. "I just want to go home. I just want to find my daughter."
In a sign the search for survivors was concluding, Japan said it was considering withdrawing rescue crews to be replaced with an expanded medical team to treat survivors because of declining opportunities to use their technology to hunt for trapped victims.
"It's been a week since the earthquake and at this point chances we can make use of our technology is very limited. It's time to think about what to do with our rescue operation," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters, according to Japan's Kyodo News agency.
"There is definitely a need for medical experts, and we can dispatch a team whenever there is a request," he said.
In Dujiangyan, three local government officials were removed from their posts for dereliction of duty over the earthquake — the first officials punished, Xinhua reported. One of the officials was reprimanded for miscounting casualty figures, while the others were punished for failing to come to work.
The Communist Party's discipline committee had instructed all officials to "stand at the front line" of the disaster and vowed to deal harshly with those who did not, the agency said.
___
Associated Press writers Audra Ang in Beichuan, and Cara Anna, Anita Chang and Henry Sanderson in Beijing contributed to this report.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Kasparov launches Russian opposition 'assembly'-Rest of World-World-The Times of India
Kasparov launches Russian opposition 'assembly'-Rest of World-World-The Times of India
Kasparov launches Russian opposition 'assembly'
18 May 2008, 0103 hrs IST,AFP
MOSCOW: Chess legend-turned-fierce Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov led the opening today of an opposition alternative parliament aimed at "restoration of democracy" in Russia.
About 500 Kremlin opponents ranging from liberals and human rights activists to Communists joined Kasparov in central Moscow for the self-styled "national assembly".
It was the latest attempt by Kasparov to unite Russia's weakened and often bickering opposition against former president, now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his successor President Dmitry Medvedev.
A founding charter called for "restoration of democracy and popular government in Russia" and blamed the authorities for "taking the country to the brink of national disaster."
The session was marked by strong emotions, as well as farce.
A young woman from Samara declared after reading out the charter: "I will not spare my efforts or my life for the restoration in Russia of sovereignty and power of the people." Delegates stood to respond: "We swear, we swear."
"We should spit in the face of tsars Putin and Medvedev," the woman added.
Kasparov, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time, accused Russia's rulers of creating a "feudal fiefdom" and lambasted mainstream opposition parties such as Yabloko and SPS, which did not attend the assembly.
As Kasparov spoke a toy penis with wings buzzed across the hall and around him. It was not clear who was behind the stunt.
Similar incidents mounted by Kremlin-backed youth groups were frequent during Kasparov's uphill campaign against the Kremlin in the run-up to parliamentary elections in December and Medvedev's controversial election in March.
Kasparov launches Russian opposition 'assembly'
18 May 2008, 0103 hrs IST,AFP
MOSCOW: Chess legend-turned-fierce Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov led the opening today of an opposition alternative parliament aimed at "restoration of democracy" in Russia.
About 500 Kremlin opponents ranging from liberals and human rights activists to Communists joined Kasparov in central Moscow for the self-styled "national assembly".
It was the latest attempt by Kasparov to unite Russia's weakened and often bickering opposition against former president, now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his successor President Dmitry Medvedev.
A founding charter called for "restoration of democracy and popular government in Russia" and blamed the authorities for "taking the country to the brink of national disaster."
The session was marked by strong emotions, as well as farce.
A young woman from Samara declared after reading out the charter: "I will not spare my efforts or my life for the restoration in Russia of sovereignty and power of the people." Delegates stood to respond: "We swear, we swear."
"We should spit in the face of tsars Putin and Medvedev," the woman added.
Kasparov, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time, accused Russia's rulers of creating a "feudal fiefdom" and lambasted mainstream opposition parties such as Yabloko and SPS, which did not attend the assembly.
As Kasparov spoke a toy penis with wings buzzed across the hall and around him. It was not clear who was behind the stunt.
Similar incidents mounted by Kremlin-backed youth groups were frequent during Kasparov's uphill campaign against the Kremlin in the run-up to parliamentary elections in December and Medvedev's controversial election in March.
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