20 MINUTES: Un lycéen copte de 17 ans a été condamné mercredi à trois ans de prison pour avoir publié sur sa page Facebook des caricatures jugées offensantes pour l'islam et le Prophète à l'origine de violences intercommunautaires. Gamal Abdou Massoud était également accusé d'avoir distribué certaines de ces caricatures à des écoliers de son village situé près d'Assiout, en Moyenne-Egypte, où cohabitent une importante communauté copte et les anciens groupes islamistes armés. » | Avec Reuters | mercredi 04 avril 2012
Thursday, April 05, 2012
20 MINUTES: Un lycéen copte de 17 ans a été condamné mercredi à trois ans de prison pour avoir publié sur sa page Facebook des caricatures jugées offensantes pour l'islam et le Prophète à l'origine de violences intercommunautaires. Gamal Abdou Massoud était également accusé d'avoir distribué certaines de ces caricatures à des écoliers de son village situé près d'Assiout, en Moyenne-Egypte, où cohabitent une importante communauté copte et les anciens groupes islamistes armés. » | Avec Reuters | mercredi 04 avril 2012
NORD ÉCLAIR: Avant-hier, mardi donc, treize islamistes ont été mis en examen pour association de malfaiteurs en vue de la préparation d'actes terroristes. Il y a peu, cinq imams étaient expulsés de France. Bref, en une petite poignée de journées - et suite aux événements tragiques de Toulouse et Montauban -, justice et police ont ouvert clairement le conflit avec ce que notre pays peut compter d'islamistes radicaux. Et on pourrait même aller plus loin, on a fait mieux en quelques jours que tout au long de ces derniers mois et pourquoi pas de ces dernières années.
Le pouvoir en place a-t-il tort de procéder à cette traque systématique et, visiblement du point de vue quantitatif, très efficace ? Mon Dieu ! Non ! Ce serait faire preuve de cécité et d'angélisme que de ne pas savoir que sur notre territoire sont proférés des discours soi-disant religieux en tout opposés aux valeurs républicaines. Ce serait ridicule de penser que notre pays serait à l'abri du danger que font peser sur la communauté nationale des groupes d'individus armés d'une telle haine à l'endroit des principes démocratiques et prêts à organiser, si l'occasion se présente ou si l'ordre leur est donné, des attentats terroristes au non du djihad. C'est pourquoi toute critique à l'encontre de ces actions semble a priori inutile. » | Edito | jeudi 05 avril 2012
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy dénonce "la sempiternelle croisade anti-Sarkozy" d'une partie de la presse et défend l'action de son mari à la présidence de la République, tout en niant faire de la politique, dans une interview à paraître jeudi dans Le Nouvel Observateur. "Sur le terrain, je ne ressens pas d'agressivité, les gens semblent aimer Nicolas. L'anti-sarkozysme est un phénomène d'élite parisienne", affirme l'épouse du chef de l'État, qui souligne qu'elle l'accompagne dès qu'elle le peut dans ses déplacements de campagne. "Dans le cas de Nicolas, ce qui est bien fait est vite oublié, ou parfois littéralement zappé. Et ce qui l'est moins est éternellement ressassé", dit-elle en soulignant qu'elle ne voit pas la presse "s'acharner ainsi sur monsieur Hollande". » | Le Point.fr | jeudi 05 avril 2012
Mme Pompidou » (Français)
Mme Pompidou » (Anglais)
"Ich möchte, dass sich die Frauen ihr Recht nehmen und nicht abwarten, dass sich irgendwann etwas ändert", sagte die Muslimin, die Referatsleiterin in der Staatskanzlei von Nordrhein-Westfalen ist, im Interview mit dem evangelischen Magazin "Chrismon". Entsprechend heißt ihr aktuelles Buch "Aufstand der Kopftuchmädchen" (Piper, 2011).
An Universitäten sei ein Kampf um Gleichberechtigung muslimischer Frauen bereits zu sehen, gibt sie zu verstehen. Doch wenn muslimische Frauen in die Öffentlichkeit gingen, hätten sie Angst. "Der Gesetzgeber und die Gesellschaft können eine Menge gegen die Angst tun. Sie können Rahmenbedingungen schaffen, die Unterdrückung nicht zulässt." Überlasse man das Zivilrecht den Imamen, würde ihr allein der Gedanke ein "kaltes Grausen" verursachen.
So verurteilt Akgün etwa den Vorschlag, islamische Schiedsgerichte in Deutschland einzurichten, als falsch. Dies hatte etwa der rheinland-pfälzische Justizminister Jochen Hartloff (SPD) vorgeschlagen. Die Politikerin erinnert daran, dass Mohammed Entscheidungen in und für seine Zeit getroffen habe. "Und wir müssen entscheiden, wie wir es heute machen." Das starre Festhalten an Traditionen habe zum einen etwas Beruhigendes, gibt sie zu, aber sie nennt es eine "Pseudosicherheit". Der Islam brauche einen Reformatoren wie Martin Luther, ist Akgün überzeugt. » | Von js | Dienstag, 03. April 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Singer's drowning was caused by a combination of heart disease and cocaine use
The final autopsy report on Whitney Houston's death shows that the singer's body contained traces of cocaine, marijuana, the allergy medicine Benadryl, the muscle relaxant Flexeril and the anxiolyitc Xanax. When police arrived at her hotel room in Los Angeles on February 11, they also found an open bottle of champagne, prescription drug bottles, loose pills, and a small spoon with a "white crystal-like substance in it and a rolled up piece of white paper". » | Guardian Music | Thursday, April 05, 2012
Related »
Related »
TIMES UNION: BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's crisis deepened Wednesday, as officials in the fabled northern city of Timbuktu confirmed that the Islamic rebel faction that seized control of the town over the weekend has announced it will impose sharia law.
Rebels in the country's distant north have taken advantage of the power vacuum created last month when renegade soldiers in the capital of Bamako overthrew the nation's democratically elected leader. In the chaos that followed the March 21 coup, they advanced on strategic towns in the north, including the ancient city of Timbuktu, located over 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the capital.
The ethnic Tuareg rebels included a secular faction fighting for independence, and an Islamic wing, Ansar Dine, whose reclusive leader called a meeting of all the imams in the city on Tuesday to make his announcement.
"He had the meeting to make his message to the people known, that sharia law is now going to be applied," said the Mayor of Timbuktu Ousmane Halle, who was reached by telephone. "When there is a strongman in front of you, you listen to him. You can't react," he said, when asked what the reaction was of the imams of a historic town known for its religious pluralism and its moderate interpretation of Islam. "Things are going to heat up here. Our women are not going to wear the veil just like that," said the mayor.
Kader Kalil, the director of a communal radio station who was asked to cover the meeting and who later interviewed the Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag Ghali, confirmed that sharia had been imposed.
He said in addition to the wearing of the veil, thieves will be punished by having their hands cut off and adulterers will be stoned to death. » | Rukmini Callimachi | Associated Press | Thursday, April 05, 2012
REUTERS.COM: The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday ordered Libya to immediately hand over for trial Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the late Libyan leader, but Libya's new authorities said they still wanted to try him themselves.
The court in The Hague ordered Tripoli to "comply with its obligations to enforce the warrant of arrest" and surrender him into the court's custody without delay, rejecting a Libyan request to delay the handover.
The ICC says it has jurisdiction in the case and that a U.N. Security Council Resolution obliges Libya to cooperate. It has warned that Tripoli's failure to hand Saif al-Islam over could result in it being reported to the Council.
Along with human rights organizations, it harbors concerns about the fairness of Libya's new justice system.
Since the elder Gaddafi was killed after being captured alive by rebel fighters, competing militias have yet to lay down their arms and Western human rights organizations have accused them of carrying out numerous extra-judicial executions and other abuses, raising serious questions about the rule of law. » | Ivana Sekularac and Marie-Louise Gumuchian | AMSTERDAM / TRIPOLI | Wednesday, April 04, 2012
The school at Tunisia's 8th-century Zaitouna Mosque, one of the world's leading centers of Islamic learning, was closed by independence leader and secularist strongman Habib Bourguiba in 1964 as part of an effort to curb the influence of religion. Its ancient university was merged with the state's Tunis University.
The college reopened its ancient doors to students on Monday, part of a drive by religious scholars and activists to revive Zaitouna's moderate brand of Islam, which once dominated North Africa, and counter the spread of more radical views.
"The return of this religious educational beacon is very important in light of the increased religious extremism that we are living with," said Fathi al-Khamiri, who heads a pressure group that obtained a court order allowing the school to reopen.
"The aim is to restore Zaitouna's educational and religious role in Tunisia and North Africa in order to spread the principles of moderate religion."
Zaitouna once rivaled Egypt's Al Azhar as a centre of Islamic learning, and during the golden age of Islam generations of leading Islamic thinkers studied logic, philosophy, medicine and grammar as well as theology within its walls.
That rich tradition had already begun to atrophy by the time Bourguiba became president in the 1950s. In recent decades, radical religious ideas have spread across the Middle East, partly in response to a perceived attack on Islam by the West. » | Tarek Amara | Writing by Lin Noueihed; editing by Tim Pearce | Wednesday, April 04, 2012
CNN: The Connecticut Senate voted 20-16 early Thursday morning on a bill that would do away with the death penalty and make the state the fifth in five years to abolish capital punishment. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where it is also expected to pass.
Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, has vowed to sign the measure into law should it reach his desk, his office said.
"For everyone, it's a vote of conscience," said Senate President Donald Williams Jr., a Democrat who says he's long supported a repeal. "We have a majority of legislators in Connecticut in favor of this so that the energies of our criminal justice system can be focused in a more appropriate manner." » | David Ariosto | CNN | Thursday, April 05, 2012
The death of the 77-year-old retired pharmacist in the Greek capital's Constitution Square caused an outpouring of anger and grief and came after similar incidents in Italy.
The pensioner, named locally as Dimitris Christoulas, shot himself with a handgun a few hundred yards from the Greek parliament, which has been the focus of numerous violent protests against tough austerity measures in recent months.
Witnesses said he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger after yelling: “I have debts, I can’t stand this anymore.”
A passer-by told Greek television the man said: “I don’t want to leave my debts to my children.”
A suicide note found in his coat pocket blamed politicians and the country’s acute financial crisis for driving him to take his life, police said.
The government had “annihilated any hope for my survival and I could not get any justice. I cannot find any other form of struggle except a dignified end before I have to start scrounging for food from rubbish bins,” the note said. » | Paul Anast, Athens and Nick Squires | Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators were referred by President Barack Obama's administration to a military tribunal at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
In what has frequently been trailed as "the trial of the century", they will soon stand accused of committing multiple counts of terrorism, hijacking and murder in violation of the law of war by devising the era-defining attacks on the American mainland.
"The charges allege that the five accused are responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, resulting in the killing of 2,976 people," the Defence Department announced in a statement yesterday.
The full extent of their alleged crimes are detailed in an 88-page dossier listing every victim of the attacks by name. The charges were referred to a capital military commission, meaning that "if convicted, the five accused could be sentenced to death," the department said. » | Jon Swaine, Raf Sanchez in Washington | Wednesday, April 04, 2012
HT: Always On Watch »
LE POINT: Profitant de la vacance du pouvoir en raison du coup d'État, les rebelles du Nord ont pris le contrôle de plusieurs villes.
La junte militaire au pouvoir à Bamako a dénoncé mercredi de "graves violations des droits de l'homme" dans le nord du Mali, sous contrôle des rebelles touaregs et des groupes islamistes, dont l'influence grandissante dans cette partie du Sahel inquiète la communauté internationale. "Les populations du Nord-Mali, singulièrement celles de Gao, subissent de graves violations des droits de l'homme" depuis "l'invasion des combattants MNLA (rébellion touarègue), Ansar Dine (groupe islamiste) et Aqmi (al-Qaida au Maghreb islamique)", a affirmé la junte. "Les femmes et les filles sont enlevées puis violées par les nouveaux occupants qui y dictent leur loi", selon un communiqué qui ne fournit aucun autre détail, notamment sur l'ampleur de ces viols présumés.
Profitant du putsch à Bamako contre le président Amani Toumani Touré le 22 mars, les rebelles touaregs et des groupes islamistes ont pris en fin de semaine passée le contrôle des trois métropoles du nord du Mali, Kidal, Gao et Tombouctou, pratiquement sans rencontrer de résistance de la part d'une armée malienne sous-équipée et désorganisée, coupant de fait le pays en deux. La zone est depuis totalement isolée, inaccessible à la presse et aux organisations internationales. Mais de nombreux habitants interrogés au téléphone de Bamako ont fait état de saccages et pillages à Gao et à Tombouctou, visant en particulier des bâtiments publics, des locaux et entrepôts d'ONG internationales. Application de la charia » | Source: AFP | mercredi 04 avril 2012
Liens en relation avec l’article »
Ce n'est qu'une information non confirmée, véhiculée par une publication turque. Pourtant, paradoxalement, la dernière édition du Cyprus Weekly consacre un long article au retour possible des Chypriotes grecs à Famagouste, cette citadelle portuaire plantée à la frontière de la République turque de Chypre du Nord (RTCN), un pays autoproclamé qui n'est reconnu que par la Turquie.
Plus précisément, Ankara "libérerait" la ville nouvelle de Varosha, le principal centre touristique balnéaire de Chypre avant l'invasion de l'île par l'armée turque en 1974. Depuis 38 ans, cette cité, principalement habitée par des Chypriotes grecs, est déserte. Une soixantaine d'hôtels et près de 3 000 commerces finissent de se détériorer derrière des barbelés, à quelques pas des eaux turquoise de la Méditerranée. » | Par Ian Hamel à Paralimni, Chypre | mercredi 04 avril 2012
THE INDEPENDENT: Home Secretary accused of mishandling surveillance proposals
Plans to allow the authorities to monitor the online activity of every person in Britain were pushed back last night after being condemned by MPs of all parties.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that the contentious measures would be published only in draft form and would be subject to widespread consultation – concessions that could delay the proposals for at least a year. In a letter to Mr Clegg published in The Independent today, 17 Liberal Democrat MPs welcomed his intervention but warned him their support could not be taken for granted on the issue.
A storm erupted this week after it emerged that legislation to allow the police, intelligence services, councils and other public bodies to obtain details of messages sent via Skype and social networks would be included in the Queen's Speech.
The disclosure provoked anger among Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs alike, who warned that the proposals contradicted the parties' opposition to a similar Labour scheme – and were not included in the Coalition Agreement. There have also been recriminations within the Coalition as Liberal Democrats – understood to have been backed by some Tory ministers – accused Theresa May, the Home Secretary, of mishandling the issue. » | Nigel Morris | Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Related material here and here
Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, Somalia’s prime minister, was at the podium giving a speech when the girl detonated her explosives, at 11am local time on Wednesday.
Mr Ali was unharmed, but there were reports that one of the five government ministers also attending the event was slightly injured, as were two MPs.
At least five people died, including the presidents of the Somali Football Federation, the head of the country’s Olympic Committee, and a television cameraman, according to eye-witnesses.
Bodies were strewn across a large area as ambulances and private vehicles began ferrying the wounded to hospital.
Among them were well-known musicians and artists, and the deputy chairman of the National Union of Somali Journalists. » | Mike Pflanz, Nairobi and Abukar Albadri in Mogadishu | Wednesday, April 04, 2012
A Conservative government would ban extremist Islamist groups, refuse visas to hate preachers and insist that universities identify and root out radicals promoting violence, antisemitism and other racial intolerance on campus.
In an exclusive interview with the JC, Conservative leader David Cameron said his party would "drain the poison" of extremism. He said recent visitors to Britain such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the influential Egyptian cleric who supports suicide bombing against Israeli targets, and Ibrahim Moussawi, Hizbollah's "media relations officer", would never again be allowed into the country.
He also confirmed that a Tory government would ban the virulently anti-Zionist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which calls for the re-establishment of the caliphate (Islamic state).
While defending the principle of academic freedom, he said universities had a responsibility to root out extremism, even if this meant fingering individual students for their beliefs: "That means making clear to university authorities and student unions that they need to help identify those who are vulnerable to influence from extremists or show they are willing to promote hatred, just as they would in relation to any other suspected crime," he said. » | Martin Bright | Thursday, March 11, 2010
So that was then, and this is now. You’ve been in power for two years. So how are we doing on the banishing front, Mr. Cameron? Not too well by the looks of things. You haven’t been able to get rid of Abu Qatada, and they don’t come much more radical than he is. Or were these just empty words, Mr. Cameron? – © Mark
You could take some lessons from Sarkozy, Mr. Cameron. He doesn’t seem to have any problem banishing the preachers of hate »
HMS Dauntless sets sail for the Falklands as tensions mount between Britain and Argentina »
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)