The Middle East Times
Iraqi Sunnis leaderless; meeting turns nasty
Beth Potter
United Press International
April 5, 2005
SPEAKER: Current Iraqi industry minister Hajem Al Hassani talks to reporters after the Iraqi National Assembly elected the Sunni Arab to be the speaker of parliament in Baghdad on April 3.
(REUTERS)
BAGHDAD -- The setting could as easily have been the new Iraqi parliament: Tribal sheikhs yelled at men with ties to insurgents; Shia representatives were shouted down when they tried to speak.
The event took place at a private meeting in the swankiest of former president Saddam Hussein's guesthouses. The new "dialogue council" was called by Sunni Muslims to try and come to some agreement about how they could get involved in government.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050405-094305-4611r
Romanians in shock over kidnapping in Iraq
Dan Stoenescu
Middle East Times
March 31, 2005
Video grab taken from Al Jazeera TV of three Romanian hostages and their American translator.
CAIRO -- Romanians were in a state of shock on Thursday after Qatar-based TV station Al Jazeera aired a tape showing armed kidnappers holding three Romanian journalists who disappeared in Baghdad on Monday.
The tape shows the three Romanians and their American translator, sitting on the floor with two men pointing guns at them. According to Al Jazeera the journalists were held by an unknown group that made no demands.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050331-084100-4650r
Family says Doha suicide bomber innocent scapegoat
Summer Said
Middle East Times
March 30, 2005
CAIRO -- Anyone visiting Souad Ali's modest flat in downtown Cairo is accustomed to hearing the 65-year-old woman reciting the Koran and talking about how much she misses her three children who live in Qatar. Her plan for this summer was to go and visit them.
But life as Souad knew it came crashing to an end when her son, Omar Ahmed Abdullah Ali, was identified as the perpetrator of the March 19 car bombing that killed a Briton outside a theater near a British school in Qatar's capital Doha.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050330-063835-5110r
Muslim Brotherhood disappointed by lawyer syndicate election results
Summer Said
Middle East Times
April 4, 2005
CAIRO -- The elections of Egypt's Lawyers' Syndicate are finally over, after a long, two-stage campaign that made headlines over the past couple of months.
The long-awaited round two of the elections ended with the triumph of the current Nasserist President Sameh Ashour, who was reelected for another four years, while the Muslim Brotherhood won 15 of the association's 24-member council seats.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050404-074435-9520r
US vigilantes jailed in Kabul win shorter sentences
Sardar Ahmad
March 31, 2005
LIGHT RELIEF: September 2004 file photo of US vigilante ringleader Jonathan Keith Idema waiting for an Afghan court verdict that sentenced him to 10 years in jail. On Thursday, his sentence was reduced to five years.
(REUTERS)
KABUL -- An Afghan appeal court on Thursday drastically reduced the prison sentences of three Americans convicted of torturing suspects in a so-called private war on terror.
Alleged ringleader Jonathan Keith Idema, 48, had the 10-year jail term passed at a chaotic trial last September reduced to five years, Abdul Latif, one of the four judges hearing the case, said.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050331-094838-9098r
Annan vows not to resign after scandal probe
Marc Carnegie
March 30, 2005
CONFIDENT: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan discusses the latest report on the investigation into the United Nations oil-for-food program, in New York on March 29.
(REUTERS)
UNITED NATIONS -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday vowed that he had no intention of resigning after a critical new report on the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program, which he said cleared him of wrongdoing.
The report said that his chief of staff destroyed three years of documents after the announcement of an inquiry into the program, and that "serious questions" remained about the business dealings of Annan's son Kojo.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050330-074241-3600r
Man kills sister in new Jordan 'honor killing'
March 28, 2005
AMMAN -- A man stabbed to death his sister in Jordan after finding out that she had agreed to an unofficial marriage with a man who subsequently disappeared, security sources said on Sunday.
The woman, 30, a resident of the Schellner Palestinian refugee camp in the northern province of Zarqa had "told her elder sister she made an unofficial marriage with a young man", a common practice among young people in the kingdom.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050328-075722-2120r
Rape victim at center of tribal revolt flees Pakistan
AFP
March 29, 2005
KARACHI -- A female doctor whose rape triggered violence between tribesmen and government forces in southwestern Pakistan has fled the country for Britain, officials said.
Dr. Shazia Khalid and her husband left for London last week after she complained that her lack of faith in Pakistan's justice system and the harsh reactions of the still conservative Islamic society had ruined her life.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050329-011019-2920r
Tsunami survivors anxiously face a future without women
Bhimanto Suwastoyo
AFP
March 30, 2005
BANDA ACEH -- Tarmizi Mohammad has plenty to worry about as he helps tsunami survivors in a village in Indonesia's devastated Aceh province, but as the emergency subsides, one thing is preying more on his mind - the absence of women.
"Look at us here, we are all men and mostly under 30," said Mohammad, who runs a survivor coordination post in Cot Lamkuweuh, a small community on the coastal outskirts of the main city of Banda Aceh.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050330-041821-3777r
Pope's deeply ingrained views of women angered feminists
April 4, 2005
VATICAN CITY -- The late Pope John Paul II, who lost his mother at the age of nine and devoted himself to the Virgin Mary, had deep-seated views on the role of women that drew the ire of modern feminists.
While the pope's affection and respect for women marked a radical shift from the traditional arms-length attitude of Catholicism's all-male clergy, who are sworn to celibacy, the advancement of women was not on his agenda.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050404-064441-6740r
The women who cared for Pope John Paul II
AFP
April 4, 2005
VATICAN CITY -- Toiling quietly behind the scenes in Pope John Paul II's final hours were five Polish nuns who dedicated their lives to his service, beginning when he was Bishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow.
Sisters Tobiana, Germana, Fernanda, Matylda and Eufrosyana, from the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, were "the pillars" that supported the pope, said a Vatican insider.
Paragons of discretion and deference, three of them were among those at the 84-year-old pope's deathbed along with his private secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz and the pontiff's personal doctor, Renato Buzzonetti, according to Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who did not name them.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050404-063200-9478r
Muslim women prayer leaders aim to lead in DC
Anwar Iqbal
UPI South Asian Affairs Analyst
March 31, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Muslim women who broke tradition by leading mixed prayers in New York and Boston earlier this month are now in Washington, looking for a venue to arrange similar prayers in the US capital.
The group has vowed not to let themselves be deterred by threats, even if they emanate from someone like Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi. Qadhafi was recently quoted by the New York Daily News as saying that such disrespect to Islamic traditions as allowing women to lead prayers could create "millions of Bin Ladens".
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050331-080711-3581r
South African hotel launches women-only floor
April 5, 2005
DURBAN -- The Royal Hotel in Durban, South Africa, has announced a women-only floor for female guests, the BBC reported on Sunday.
"The scheme was launched for security reasons. Women traveling alone are often uneasy," said Allen Munsami, deputy general manager of the five-star hotel.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050405-035722-1642r
Nine wounded in clash over women's race in Pakistan
AFP
April 4, 2005
ISLAMABAD -- Nine people, most of them police, were wounded on Sunday when hardline Muslims opened fire as they protested against the participation of women in a running race, police said.
"Eight policemen were injured when activists of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal [MMA Islamist Alliance] fired on them," said Gujranwala police chief Arif Mushtaq, who was among the wounded.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050404-063744-9226r
Ugandan Muslims protest against bill giving women equal rights
Vincent Mayanja
AFP
March 30, 2005
KAMPALA -- Thousands of mainly Muslim demonstrators took to the streets of the Ugandan capital on Tuesday to protest against a proposed law that would give women equal rights in marriage, separation and divorce.
As many as 3,000 noisy protestors chanting and carrying placards, said that the legislation, known as the Domestic Relations Bill, would undermine the Islamic faith and force Muslims to abide by Christian traditions.
Pasted from <http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050330-033432-9001r
Zahra Kazemi was tortured, Iranian doctor says in Canada
AFP
April 1, 2005
TORTURED? File photo of Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi. Shahram Aazam, a former physician with the Iranian department of defense, said that Kazemi was brutally tortured, beaten and raped before her death in Tehran in July 2003.
(REUTERS)
OTTAWA -- A Canadian-Iranian woman, Zahra Kazemi, was tortured and raped during her detention in Iran, according to a doctor who told on Thursday how he examined her in a Tehran hospital before her death in July 2003.
Shahram Aazam, an Iranian who has been granted asylum in Canada, contradicted conclusions by the Iranian authorities about Kazemi's death when he spoke at an Ottawa press conference.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050401-030546-3293r
Opinion: Don't radicalize Palestinian Jerusalemites
Sarah Kreimer
April 5, 2005
JERUSALEM -- In discussing the recent government decision rerouting the separation barrier in the Jerusalem area, deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert mentioned that some neighborhoods were part of Jerusalem, but not part of Israel. This rather mysterious statement can be understood when one realizes that since 2003, the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Akab - with 20,000 Jerusalem residents - has been cut off from the body of Jerusalem by the separation barrier, which our government terms, "The Jerusalem Security Envelope."
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050405-050605-6141r
Opinion: A woman's reflection on leading prayer
Yasmin Mogahed
March 30, 2005
On March 18 Amina Wadud led the first female-led Jumma (Friday) prayer. On that day women took a huge step toward being more like men. But did we come closer to actualizing our God-given liberation?
I don't think so.
http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050330-023221-5534r
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Unwanted Pregnancy
Abortion trial resumes in Portugal amid protests
About 100 pro-abortion activists protested outside a Portuguese court as the trial of three women accused of violating the staunchly Roman Catholic nation‘s strict rules against abortion resumed.
Public prosecutors in the industrial city of Setubal, just south of Lisbon, have charged two young women who had abortions as well as a nurse who allegedly carried out the procedures in exchange for around 400 euros
Abortion is banned in Portugal except in cases involving rape or where there are serious health concerns.
http://www.obviousnews.com/breakingnews/stories/obviousnews-552320.html
Sell contraceptives, gov orders druggists
April 2, 2005
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Legal Affairs Reporter
Gov. Blagojevich issued an emergency rule Friday compelling pharmacists to dispense contraceptives even if they believe the drugs kill the unborn.
An Osco pharmacist refused in February to dispense "morning- after" pills to two women, telling them they could come back later and ask for a different pharmacist. Osco and the American Pharmacists Association backed up the pharmacist's right to invoke the state's "conscience clause."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pharm02.html
ULTRA-CONSERVATISM is an extreme and not an answer to moral spirituality in the Year 2005.
Church stance on birth control seen as demographic timebomb
Posted 01:50pm (Mla time) April 04, 2005
By Karl Wilson
Agence France-Presse
THE UNCOMPROMISING birth control policies promoted by Pope John Paul II were embraced wholeheartedly by the church in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, which has one of the highest birth rates in Asia and tens of millions living in poverty.
Condom use is almost non-existent and poor birth control has left the country sitting on a demographic timebomb which has pitted advocates of birth control against the highly influential church over its spiralling population.
With a birth rate of 2.4 percent annually the Philippines could see its population double from the current 84 million within the next 30 years according to the government's Commission on Population.
http://news.inq7.net/top/index.php?index=1&story_id=32540
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