Arabs to Davos: Invest in us, don't fear us
New Age Islam News Bureau
28 Jan 2012
- Saudi Arab, Iraq not to execute each other's prisoners
- Dutch government approves Burqa ban
- Saudi Shoura chief heads for Indonesia meet
- Declining birth rates make the Islamic world more dangerous
- Rape, corruption in camps blight lives of Somali displaced
- Saudi Arabia warns of Mideast nuclear race
- Pak Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam vows to make Pakistan Islamic Welfare State
- Libya prisoners make new torture allegations
- Syria crisis: UN Security Council mulls Assad measures
- Leon Panetta concern over Bin Laden 'informer' Shikal Afridi
- Gunmen kill 15, burn bodies in northern Nigeria
- More than 50 killed in 2 days of turmoil in Syria
- Communal Tension in Hyderabad, India over temple bell row
- Pakistan turned into a security state: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
- Pakistan key player in securing peace in Afghanistan
- Pakistan religious party condemns drone attacks
- Pakistan mulls panel to probe fake drugs deaths
- Army school near Osama lair attacked
- Pakistan needs honest, sincere and loyal leadership: Jamaat-i-Islami
- India-Pak committee meets jail inmates
- Sherry gets updates on Dr Aafia’s condition
- Musharraf will be arrested if he returns: Gilani
- Boko Haram 17 Suspected Sect Members Arrested In Enugu
- Five injured in hand grenades attack in Pakistan
- Panetta believes Pakistan knew Osama hideout
- Taliban ready to make compromises, say Afghan negotiators
- US says Pakistan not sidelined in Afghan talks
- Pakistani Americans meeting held in Dallas
- Delegation of Taliban diplomats reaches Qatar
- Pentagon to send ‘floating base’ to Middle East: report
- Amid real estate boom, Meccans face housing crisis
- Taliban may soften stance for peace talk
- Russia won’t back UN call for Syria’s Assad to go
- Pakistan knew of bin Laden hideout: US Defense Secretary
- Boko Haram vows to fight until Nigeria establishes Sharia law
- Afghan president in UK to discuss French troop
- Islam and the West through the Eyes of Two Women
- Israelis assess threats by Iran as partly bluff
- Muslims demand NY police chief's head over inflammatory film
- Gilani retreats some more: Nothing against Army, no threat to democracy
- Duo arrested with fake notes in Indore maybe part of Pakistan nexus
- On revolution anniversary eve, Egypt eases emergency laws
- Pak Ambassador seeks Pakistani-Americans’ support on Pakistan-US ties
- Justice eludes Pakistan family of CIA victim
- Suspect bomber from Pakistan joined Gawli's gym
- UN launches tree plantation campaign in Pakistan
Complied by New Age Islam News Bureau
Photo: People walk past a banner of Reuters News in front of their office during the World Economic Forum (WEF) at a library in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos January 24, 2012.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/arabs-davos-invest-us,-don/d/6490
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Arabs to Davos: Invest in us, don't fear us
Jan 27, 2012 23
DAVOS: Leaders of the Arab Spring sought to assure the world's elite in Davos that the rise of political Islam is not a threat to democracy, and pleaded for help creating jobs and satisfying the hunger of their people for a better life.
Politicians, activists and entrepreneurs from countries that have cast off dictators and held free elections in the last 12 months were prized guests at the World Economic Forum, where they asked for patience, understanding and investment.
The new prime ministers of Tunisia and Morocco, both chosen from Islamic parties, dismissed Western worries about a surge of political Islam across North Africa and sought to dispel the notion that the promise of last year's protests had faded.
"I do not believe the new regimes should be called political Islamist regimes. We must be careful with our terminology... For the first time in the Arab world, we have free and honest elections that led to democratic regimes," Tunisian Prime Minister Hammadi Jebali told a Davos panel.
Twelve months ago, stunned Davos delegates watched live television images of crowds surging into Cairo's Tahrir Square in a political earthquake few had anticipated.
Arab officials and civil society activists urged Western executives and commentators not to demonize the Islamic movements that have gone from prison to parliament and the corridors of power in a year of stunning transformation.
"I would like to ask the businessmen in the room. Have you suffered from the victory of the Islamists? You supported the dictatorships in the past," Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane said.
"Today we can guarantee your interests more than they did in the past."
Officials trying to meet huge expectations for economic improvement, jobs and social progress in newly democratic states that suffered big losses during the upheaval said the Arab Spring would take years to produce results.
"One year ago, when the revolution starts, I think we were dreaming, and we were dreaming with our feet in the sky. Now we are still dreaming, but we are dreaming with our feet on the ground," said Mustapha Kamel Nabli, governor of Tunisia's central bank.
A year ago this week protests began in Egypt, the most populous and consequential Arab state, culminating in the downfall of strongman Hosni Mubarak, now on trial for his life.
Since the wave of revolts began in Tunisia in December 2010, that country's long-time president was toppled, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown and killed, and Syrian President Bashar Assad has failed to halt an uprising despite a bloody crackdown.
Ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh left this week for Oman, possibly en route to exile in the United States.
WORRYING FOR SOME
For some Western commentators, the results have taken a worrying turn with a surge of support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
But from many Arabs' viewpoint, the success of religious-based groups is not surprising.
Moez Masoud, an Islamic scholar and preacher at Egypt's Al-Tareeq Al-Sah Institute, said opinion polling showed people voted for Islamic groups in Egypt primarily because they were the most organized and effective.
"It wasn't about bikinis or no bikinis. It got down to jobs, money and security, and the people wanted the best-organized groups," Masoud said.
"First you have to let the Arab world be for a while... Stop trying to impose secularism from afar," he advised his Western audience.
That advice was echoed by many others in conference rooms and hallway chats.
"Even if we don't like what Islamists stand for, it's a reality on the ground," said Shadi Hamid, of the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Doha Center. The Obama administration "should find a way to live with political Islam. That should be the priority right now."
Hamid was on a panel on "Politics and Islam", one of numerous Davos sessions devoted to the Arab Spring.
In interviews and in public remarks, Arab delegates said the debate over Islam and democracy was a distraction at a time of deep economic crisis in Egypt and elsewhere.
"All of us love Islam and respect Islam, but (jobs) is the main issue now," said Amr Khaled, a televangelist who created a popular Egyptian television show. Egypt's economy "is in intensive care," he said.
"We have to get busy and keep busy with the situation in the country," Amr Moussa, foreign minister under Mubarak and now an Egyptian presidential candidate, told Reuters. Debates over the role of Islam in politics were "issues of secondary importance".
Egypt faces an economic emergency. The political turmoil has pushed up unemployment, widened budget and balance of payments deficits and drained foreign reserves. Many economists believe a devaluation of the Egyptian pound is imminent.
Egypt said on Thursday it would ask the World Bank for a $500 million loan and another $500 million loan from the African Development Bank to help plug a budget gap.
"Economic conditions are tough, and they're going to be tougher," said Ahmed Heikal, CEO of Egypt's Citadel Capital, adding he was "modestly optimistic" on the political front.
While new foreign investment has stalled in Egypt and its neighbors, PwC International Chairman Dennis Nally said foreign firms had not abruptly pulled out as they might have in the past — an illustration of the importance of emerging markets today.
"Five or eight years ago if we'd had the Arab Spring, I think you'd have seen most companies operating in that part of the world pull out of the Middle East," he said in an interview.
"There's an acknowledgement that the economic rebalancing is real and it's here to stay and therefore companies are getting much more comfortable that in order to capitalize on the opportunities they are going to have to be there and deal with more volatility," he said.
For post-revolutionary governments, Tunisia's Nabli said, the "cost of the transition is much, much more than anticipated." Generous financial backing promised by the international community, especially the G8 major industrialized economies, had never materialized, he complained.
To make matters worse, recovery has been hurt by the global economic picture, especially the euro zone crisis.
"The global environment has not been supportive," Nabli said.
http://arabnews.com/economy/article568519.ece
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Saudi Arab, Iraq not to execute each other's prisoners
Jan 28, 2012
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia and Iraq have agreed in principle to put on hold execution of prisoners on death row in the two countries for at least two months until a final agreement to swap prisoners is reached.
This was reported by local daily Al-Eqtisadiah on Friday quoting an official source at the Iraqi Embassy in Riyadh.
Muhammad Al-Obaidi, in charge of bilateral relations in the embassy, described the agreement to be only in principle and said no official papers were signed.
"This agreement in principle to put on hold execution of prisoners would automatically terminate when the two countries sign a final agreement to exchange prisoners," he said.
There are 113 Saudi prisoners in Iraq including six on death row after being charged with the crimes of illegally entering the country and carrying out terrorist operations there. There are 138 Iraqi prisoners in the Kingdom of whom 11 were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of carrying out terrorist operations in the country.
The Iraqi diplomat did not reveal when the two countries reached the agreement in principle but said that according to it, Iraq will not execute the six Saudi prisoners on death row.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the National Society for Human Rights Mufleh Al-Qahtani said the two sides were very serious in their intent to sign a final agreement to exchange prisoners, especially those sentenced to death.
"There are some procedural matters currently delaying the signing of the final prisoner swap accord but the agreement might be signed within the next two months," he said.
Al-Qahtani said the society recently received a delegation from the Iraq Embassy and discussed with it the affairs of Saudi prisoners in Iraq. "We have got serious and favorable response from the Iraqi side," he added.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article568514.ece
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Dutch government approves Burqa ban
Jan 28, 2012
THE HAGUE: The Dutch government Friday approved a ban on face-covering clothing, such as a Burqa, a Niqab, a forage cap, or a full face helmet, reported Xinhua.
People going on the streets with one of these now risk being fined for up to 380 euros ($499).
"It is very important that people in an open society meet each other in an open way," Minister of Interior Affairs Liesbeth Spies said after the cabinet meeting.
The burqa ban was already part of the government coalition agreement. In September 2011, the proposal was sent for advice to the council of state, which issued a negative opinion.
The council considered the proposal contrary to the prohibition of freedom of religion and contrary to the standards of non-discrimination. The government's main advisory body also wondered whether a burqa ban was too heavy a measure.
However, the cabinet neglected the advice and claimed the European Convention on Human Rights offers the opportunity to limit religious freedom when it is in the interest of the public order.
"We think we have to make a legitimate exception to the freedom of religion," Spies said.
In April last year, France introduced a burqa ban and became the first European country to ban people from concealing their faces in public in many manner.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Dutch-government-approves-burqa-ban/articleshow/11662033.cms
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Saudi Shoura chief heads for Indonesia meet
Abdullah Al- Asheikh
By MD RASOOLDEEN
Jan 28, 2012
RIYADH: Shoura Council Chairman Abdullah Al-Asheikh will lead a parliamentary delegation to Indonesia to attend the 7th session of the Parliamentary Union of Islamic Countries
The Saudi team will leave Saturday for the session that begins Sunday in the south Sumatra provincial capital city of Palembang. Indonesia was elected as the president of PUIC when the organization convened in the Ugandan capital of Kampala in January 2010. Fifty-one member states and 40 observing countries will attend the event.
In a statement Friday, Al-Asheikh said that the proposed conference is taking place at a time when there is strong need for cooperation and understanding among Muslim countries in jointly confront the challenges faced by the Muslim world.
“As a founder of this PIUC, Saudi Arabia under the able guidance of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, ably assisted by Crown Prince Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, supports the cause for a joint action by all Muslim countries in resolving the current issues faced by the Islamic world at regional and global levels, as well as at the parliamentary level,” Al-Asheikh said.
He added that the Saudi foreign policy is dedicated to maintain peace, security and fair play in all Muslim countries and at all levels.
The president of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Speaker of Indonesia's House of Representative Marzuki Alie said that Indonesia maintains its strong commitment to PUIC and hoped that the event would benefit its members.
Delegates are scheduled during the first meeting of the three-day session to elect members of the PUIC bureau, comprising two deputies to the chairman — to be selected from the Arab and African groups — and the registrar. They would also endorse agenda of the gathering.
The conference will examine a request for full membership from the Maldives, a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation since 1976, and consider an application for observer status from the Moro National Liberation Front.
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Declining birth rates make the Islamic world more dangerous
By Phil Lawler
January 27, 2012
David Goldman, who writes online under the pseudonym Spengler, has a new book out: How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too). While I haven’t yet read the book, I recently happened across Goldman’s preface, and it’s brilliant. It’s a longish piece, and not always easy going, but his insights are more than enough to reward the patient reader.
Goldman’s fundamental argument is a familiar one: that demography is destiny, and the societies that do not reproduce themselves are doomed. He makes some unusually powerful arguments in support of that thesis, however. Here’s one that commanded my attention:
In the absence of religious faith, if our culture dies, our hope of transcending mere physical existence dies with it. Individuals trapped in a dying culture live in a twilight world. They embrace death through infertility, concupiscence, and war.
Full Report At:
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=891
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Rape, corruption in camps blight lives of Somali displaced
Thu Jan 26 2012
Mogadishu : Nurto Isak's food rations are feeding her, her three children, and -- she suspects -- the militiamen guarding the camp in Mogadishu where she and other uprooted Somalis have taken refuge.
The city is host to more than 180,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who, like Isak, have fled a killer combination of conflict, drought and hunger back home.
Many risk long, difficult journeys to reach the capital, their sights set on the numerous aid agencies that have set up relief operations to hand out food and treat malnutrition there.
Yet many people at various IDP settlements in the war-torn city complain that food aid is not reaching them and accuse local aid workers working for international and Somali NGOs of taking it to line their own pockets.
Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/904317/
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Saudi Arabia warns of Mideast nuclear race
Thu Jan 26 2012
Davos, Switzerland : An influential member of the Saudi royal family has warned that unless the Middle East becomes a nuclear weapon-free zone, a nuclear arms race is inevitable and could include his own country, Iraq, Egypt and even Turkey.
Prince Turki Al Faisal said yesterday that the five permanent UN Security Council members should guarantee a nuclear security umbrella for Mideast countries that join a nuclear-free zone and impose "military sanctions" against countries seen to be developing nuclear weapons.
Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/904271/
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Pak Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam vows to make Pakistan Islamic Welfare State
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Fazlur Rehman has vowed to make Pakistan an ‘Islamic Welfare State’, claiming that his party would sweep the elections if the establishment stopped meddling in politics.
While addressing a huge-crowd in the Islam Zindabad’ rally in Karachi on Friday, he observed, “Why are institutions not accepting that they have failed? The nation is still a beggar and the institutions should accept their failure. US supremacy in Pakistani foreign policy is not acceptable. Implementation of Sharia through guns is not the right way.”
In his hard-hitting address, the JUI-F chief said that the people had always criticised his party for not getting enough votes in elections but they did not know that the establishment did not let the party to come in power.
Full Report At:
http://www.newspakistan.pk/2012/01/28/fazlur-rehman-vows-pakistan-islamic-welfare-state/
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Libya prisoners make new torture allegations
28 January 2012
Allegations of torture have been rife since the death of Colonel Gaddafi in October
New evidence has emerged that supporters of the former Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, have been tortured while in detention.
The BBC has been told by inmates at a jail in Misrata that they were beaten, whipped and given electric shocks.
The head of the city's military council has dismissed the allegations.
United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay has called on Libya's transitional government to take full control of all prisons.
Full Report At:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16771372
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Syria crisis: UN Security Council mulls Assad measures
28 January 2012
The BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Damascus suburb where President Assad appears to be losing his control
The UN Security Council has met to consider a draft resolution against Syria's government.
Full Report At:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16769156
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Leon Panetta concern over Bin Laden 'informer' Shikal Afridi
28 January 2012
WASHINGTON — US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta still believes someone in authority in Pakistan knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding before US forces went in to find him, he said in a TV interview to air Sunday.
Intelligence reports found Pakistani military helicopters had passed over the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where US Navy SEALs discovered and killed bin Laden last year, according to excerpts of an interview Panetta gave to CBS News.
"I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound. Don't forget, this compound had 18-foot walls... It was the largest compound in the area.
Full Report At:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWBNlAApoe1qnEEz0SLdR_o5S9nA?docId=CNG.782ee6697adf10e19e14035be0f1302b.2a1
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Gunmen kill 15, burn bodies in northern Nigeria
Kano, Nigeria, January 27, 2012
Gunmen have killed 15 village traders returning from a market at night and set their bodies ablaze in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state, a local police chief said on Friday. "Gunmen, suspected to be armed robbers, attacked some local traders on their way back from a market
Full Report At:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Africa/Gunmen-kill-15-burn-bodies-in-northern-Nigeria/Article1-803039.aspx
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More than 50 killed in 2 days of turmoil in Syria
By ZEINA KARAM
Jan 27, 2012
BEIRUT: Two days of bloody turmoil in Syria killed more than 50 people as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad shelled residential buildings, fired on crowds and left bleeding corpses in the streets in a dramatic escalation of violence, activists said Friday.
Much of the violence was focused in Homs, where heavy gunfire hammered the city Friday in a second day of chaos. A day earlier, the city saw a flare-up of sectarian kidnappings and killings between its Sunni and Alawite communities, and pro-regime forces blasted residential buildings with mortars and gunfire, according to activists who said an entire family was killed.
Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article568473.ece
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Communal Tension in Hyderabad, India over temple bell row
28 January 2012
HYDERABAD:Jan 28, 2012,Tension was palpable near the historic Charminar on Friday afternoon, but, for a change, it did not take communal hue. A row over sounding the bell at the Bhagya Laxmi temple abutting the heritage structure during Juma (Friday) prayers put police on their toes for a couple of hours.
However, the Friday prayers passed off peacefully at the Mecca Masjid. Trouble began at noon when nearly 300 Hindu rightwing activists descended on the Bhagya Laxmi temple and started ringing the bell, breaking an unwritten rule of not sounding it during the Juma prayers.
Full Report At:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Tension-in-Old-City-over-temple-bell-row/articleshow/11658968.cms
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Pakistan turned into a security state: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
28 January 2012
Karachi: Chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rahman has said that Pakistan has been turned into security instead of a welfare state.
Addressing a massive Islam Zindabad rally adjacent to Quaid’s masouleum in Karachi Friday night he said that those studying in seminaries are labelled as militants.
Saying that attempts are being made to force the religious segments of the society to wage a war he added that poor Americans are demanding the just interest-free financial system of Islam at Wall Street, New York.
We are neither against Pakistan nor against the US, he said, adding that if change could come in Egypt and Turkey why it couldn’t things cal also be changed in Pakistan.
Labour unions, he said, should not only be given a permanent role in the economic and financial system of Pakistan but the labourers should be made partners in profit.
The JUI chief said that Shariat should not be demanded on gun-point.
He also demanded compensation should be paid to the heirs of the victims of target-killing in Karachi.
Full Report At:
http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=188597
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Pakistan key player in securing peace in Afghanistan
28 January 2012
Peshawar—Former Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said on Friday that Pakistan was a key player in settlement of durable peace in Afghanistan and as such any decision about future of that war torn country excluding Pakistan would not be productive. Addressing a press conference here at his residence, he said, ignoring Pakistan from the proposed US and taliban peace talks and other peace efforts under ways at the global level, would not bear the desired results.
Full Report At:
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=137670
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Pakistan religious party condemns drone attacks
28 January 2012
KARACHI – Over 100,000 supporters of Pakistan’s largest religious political party gathered in Karachi on Friday and condemned drone attacks by the United States in the country’s troubled northwest.
The public meeting organised by the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI) party also demanded that the government continues the two-month blockade on NATO supplies crossing into Afghanistan.
Pakistan shut supply routes to Afghanistan after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, precipitating a new low in Pakistani-US relations.
Drone strikes in the nuclear-armed state were halted after the incident but have since resumed.
Full Report At:
http://pakistan.onepakistan.com/news/breaking/44192-pakistan-religious-party-condemns-drone-attacks.html
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Pakistan mulls panel to probe fake drugs deaths
28 January 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan may set up a judicial panel to probe over 100 deaths due to spurious drugs in its Punjab province.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday hinted at setting up the judicial commission to probe the spurious drugs case, which claimed lives of around 104 people in Punjab.
"I will discuss the matter with the top leadership and suggest setting up a judicial commission to bring the real culprits to task. I will recommend including a representative of media as member in the commission," Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Malik as saying.
He said that directives have been given to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to arrest whosoever are involved in the fake drugs case.
Full Report At:
http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/pakistan-mulls-panel-to-probe-fake-drugs-deaths_755289.html
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Army school near Osama lair attacked
Jan 28, 2012
ISLAMABAD: Unknown assailants fired rockets on Pakistan's elite military academy on Friday morning, near the compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad where US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in May, 2011.
Officials said that nine rockets were fired from behind a renowned Ilyasi Mosque at the hilltop overlooking Abbottabad city at around 3.30am.
"Three rockets hit the wall of the Pakistan Military Academy and damaged it. Some exploded, some did not but there was no loss of life," said Khalid Khan Umerzai, the commissioner of Abbottabad division.
Full Report At:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Army-school-near-Osama-lair-attacked/articleshow/11655376.cms
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Pakistan needs honest, sincere and loyal leadership: Jamaat-i-Islami
January 28, 2012
TIMERGARA: Central leader of Jamaat-i-Islami and former senior minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sirajul Haq on Friday said that Pakistan did not need atom bomb but it needed honest, sincere and loyal leadership. Addressing party gatherings at Shingrai Timergara, Mian Kalay and Talash, Mr Siraj alleged the country lacked true political leadership and the nation should elect sincere and honest representatives during the next general election.
Full Report At:
http://www.thefrontierpost.com/?p=109292
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India-Pak committee meets jail inmates
28 January 2012
AMRITSAR: Jan 28, 2012, India-Pakistan Joint Judicial Committee on Prisoners visited Amritsar central security jail on Friday to meet Pakistani inmates and discuss the ways and means to expedite their repatriation.
The committee comprising A S Gill, M A Khan, both retired judges from India; and Naseer Alam Jahid and Mian Mohammad Ajmal from Pakistan had earlier visited Delhi and Jaipur jails.
Full Report At:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-Pak-committee-meets-jail-inmates/articleshow/11658802.cms
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Sherry gets updates on Dr Aafia’s condition
January 28, 2012
WASHINGTON:Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman on Friday met with Tina Foster, the lawyer for Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving a prison term in an American jail.
Foster apprised the ambassador of her client’s situation and discussed with her various options to ease Aafia’s conditions of incarceration, and in the long term, her repatriation to Pakistan.
Full Report At:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/328360/sherry-gets-updates-on-dr-aafias-condition/
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Musharraf will be arrested if he returns: Gilani
Sat Jan 28 2012
Davos : Former president Pervez Musharraf will "certainly" be arrested if he returns to Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said today.
"In fact there had been murder charges against him, and there had even been some very grave charges against him, and the Supreme Court had already given a verdict against him," Gilani was told CNN from the Global Economic Forum in Davos.
"Certainly when he'll come back, he has to face those charges and certainly be arrested," he said.
Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/904930/
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Boko Haram 17 Suspected Sect Members Arrested In Enugu • As Heavily Armed Soldiers Take Over Kano Streets
Written by Isaac Shobayo and Jude Ossai
Saturday, 28 January 2012
POLICE detectives in Nsukka, Enugu State on Friday arrested 27 persons suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect.
It was learnt that the security operatives intercepted the religious sect at Okpuje, a border town between Enugu and Kogi States, when they were being conveyed by a young driver and a conductor in a Toyota Bus belonging to the Zamfara State Government with registration number XA 581 MRD.
Full Report At:
http://tribune.com.ng/sat/index.php/front-page-articles/6482-boko-haram-17-suspected-sect-members-arrested-in-enugu--as-heavily-armed-soldiers-take-over-kano-streets.html
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Panetta believes Pakistan knew Osama hideout
28 January 2012
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the US in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound last May.
Panetta told CBS’s ”60 Minutes,” in a profile to be broadcast on Sunday, that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.
Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden’s presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is ”very concerned” for the doctor.
Full Report At:
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/28/panetta-believes-pakistan-knew-osama-hideout.html
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Taliban ready to make compromises, say Afghan negotiators
28 January 2012
KABUL: Senior Afghan peace negotiators believe the Taliban are willing to significantly soften stance, with its leaders already laying the ground for possible peace talks in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Former Taliban minister Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, a member of the High Peace Council set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with militants, said that after a decade of fighting with Nato the Taliban were ready to make compromises on key issues.
And despite the assassination only last September of former president and leader of the peace process Burhanuddin Rabbani, secret discussions that began in Germany in November 2010 between US, Taliban, German and Qatari representatives had a good chance of success, Rahmani said.
Full Report At:
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/28/taliban-ready-to-make-compromises-say-afghan-negotiators.html
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US says Pakistan not sidelined in Afghan talks
28 January 2012
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has a very important role to play in the Afghan reconciliation process, says the US State Department, rejecting suggestion that the Obama administration’s new initiative to directly engage the Taliban militants has sidelined Islamabad.
The State Department also confirmed that a top US diplomat held a number of meetings in Qatar last week on the reconciliation process but stopped short of naming the Taliban as the group he had met.
Full Report At:
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/28/us-says-pakistan-not-sidelined-in-afghan-talks.html
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Pakistani Americans meeting held in Dallas
By Raja Zahid A Khanzada
28 January 2012
DALLAS: A meeting to establish a watch group was hosted by Dallas prominent Pakistani community leader Syed fayyaz Hassan at his residence. The meeting was attended by several of high profile and leading Pakistani Americans.
The current Pakistani situation and issues pertaining current challenges to democracy in Pakistan was discussed. An ad-hoc committee was formed in order to brain storm the vision, mission, scope and name of the proposed democracy watch group.
This ad-hoc committee will consist of famous Dallas attorney Barrister Tauseef Kamal, Syed fayyaz Hassan, Asif Effandi, Dr. Qaiser Abbas, Dr. Ghulam Nabi, Raja Zahid A Khanzada, Hadi jawwad and Aftab siddiqui.
Full Report At:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-32861-Pakistani-Americans-meet-in-Dallas
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Delegation of Taliban diplomats reaches Qatar
28 January 2012
DOHA: A team of senior Taliban diplomats has arrived in Qatar in preparation for the opening of a political office to host negotiations between America, the insurgents and the Afghan government, British newspaper said in a report.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, the envoys from the former regime have assembled in the past month and the first tentative talks could begin within weeks according to former Taliban officials now part of Hamid Karzai's peace council.
Full Report At:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-32859-Delegation-of-Taliban-diplomats-in-Qatar
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Pentagon to send ‘floating base’ to Middle East: report
28 January 2012
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats, a US newspaper said in a report.
According to Washington Post’s report, in response to requests from the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos.
Unofficially dubbed a "mothership," the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-32855-US-to-send-%E2%80%98Floating-Base%E2%80%99-to-Mideast
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Amid real estate boom, Meccans face housing crisis
Jan 28, 2012
At a time when Makkah’s real estate sector is witnessing an unprecedented boom, several local residents are up in arms against a growing housing crisis in the holy city. They blame landlords for creating such a situation. Speaking to Arab News, a number of prominent figures and local residents said most landlords prefer leasing their buildings only on a temporary basis so that they can earn huge profits. They can earn bigger margins of revenue through leasing their residential apartments to pilgrims during peak Umrah and Haj seasons instead of receiving low revenue when leasing them permanently to local residents. Eventually, many tenants, especially newly married couples, find it very difficult to secure rented residential apartments on a permanent basis. This new phenomenon has also resulted in a hike of rents and real estate prices by 40 to 70 percent.
Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article568496.ece
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Taliban may soften stance for peace talk
Jan 27, 2012
KABUL/PARIS: Senior Afghan peace negotiators believe the Taliban are willing to significantly soften past hard-line ideologies, with its leaders already laying the ground for possible peace talks in Qatar.
Former Taliban minister Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, a member of the High Peace Council set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with insurgents, said that after a decade of fighting with NATO, the Taleban were ready to moderate on reimposition of fundamentalist positions.
And despite the assassination only last September of former president and leader of the peace process Burhanuddin Rabbani, secret discussions that began in Germany in November 2010 between US, Taleban, German and Qatari representatives had a good chance of success, Rahmani said.
“The Taleban are not back to govern the same way as the old Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. When they are back, they will be back as Afghans,” Rahmani, a Taleban defector but with strong ties to the movement, said at his sparsely furnished home in a part of western Kabul heavily damaged during the country’s bloody civil war.
“For Taleban members with the talent and skills, they will be election candidates for Parliament, the presidency or the Cabinet. The Taleban are not back to take over Afghanistan,” he said.
Martine van Bijlert, of respected independent think-tank Afghanistan Analysts Network in Kabul, said no one could assume that talks with the Taleban would not work. “But at the same time, we can’t get ahead of ourselves,” she said. “There seems to be a real chance at the moment. The high council has an interest in optimism of course, given their role in the process. But whether it can work is a fine balance. There is not an option not to try.”
Meanwhile, Karzai met Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday hoping to convince Paris not to accelerate its troop withdrawal and clinch a partnership agreement for post-2014.
The French president last week suspended all French training and support operations on the ground and sent his defense minister and armed forces chief to Kabul after four of their soldiers were killed by a rogue Afghan soldier. Paris has 3,600 troops in Afghanistan as part of the 130,000-strong NATO-led force there. French troops mainly patrol Kapisa, a mountainous province near Kabul.
http://arabnews.com/world/article568478.ece
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Russia won’t back UN call for Syria’s Assad to go
By STEVE GUTTERMAN
Jan 27, 2012
MOSCOW: Russia signalled on Friday it could veto any UN Security Council resolution demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad resign and said an attempt to rush such a proposal to a vote is doomed to fail.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov’s comments were a strong indication that Russia would be ready to block a new Western-Arab draft resolution that is intended to halt months of bloodshed in Syria and could be voted on next week.
“Any decision about a future political settlement in Syria must be made during the political process without ... preliminary conditions, and the demand for Assad’s resignation is a preliminary condition,” Interfax quoted Gatilov as saying.
“We cannot support a call to support Assad’s departure in any UN Security Council resolution,” said Gatilov, whose country is an old strategic ally of Syria and one of Assad’s major arms suppliers.
Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/world/article568475.ece
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Pakistan knew of bin Laden hideout: US Defense Secretary
28 January 2012
WASHINGTON — US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta still believes someone in authority in Pakistan knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding before US forces went in to find him, he said in a TV interview to air Sunday.
Intelligence reports found Pakistani military helicopters had passed over the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where US Navy SEALs discovered and killed bin Laden last year, according to excerpts of an interview Panetta gave to CBS News.
Full Report At:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWBNlAApoe1qnEEz0SLdR_o5S9nA?docId=CNG.782ee6697adf10e19e14035be0f1302b.2a1
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Boko Haram vows to fight until Nigeria establishes sharia law
Monica Mark in Abuja
Friday 27 January 2012
A screengrab from YouTube reportedly shows the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, who threatens in an audio message to bomb schools in Nigeria. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
The Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed almost 1,000 people in Nigeria, will continue its campaign of violence until the country is ruled by sharia law, a senior member has told the Guardian.
Full Report At:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/27/boko-haram-nigeria-sharia-law
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Afghan president in UK to discuss French troop withdrawal
28 January 2012
Most French soldiers in Afghanistan are deployed in Kapisa province, near Kabul
The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is in Britain to meet David Cameron following France's decision to speed up the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.
They will leave by the end of 2013 - a year earlier than planned.
President Karzai and Mr Cameron will sign an agreement setting out how their two countries will work together after British combat troops withdraw in 2014.
Mr Karzai said in Paris on Friday that Afghan troops would replace the French.
He said: "France and other allied countries have helped Afghanistan considerably in the past 10 years.
Full Report At:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16771301
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Islam and the West Through the Eyes of Two Women
By ELIZA GRISWOLD
Published: January 27, 2012
Very few of the heroes and villains made famous in the wars of the past decade are women. Of the scant exceptions, two of the most fascinating are the subjects of Deborah Scroggins’s thoughtful double biography, “Wanted Women.”
Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui
One is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born thinker and neoconservative darling; the other is Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who, in 2010, was sentenced to 86 years in prison for her assault on American personnel in Afghanistan. She is known as Al Qaeda’s highest-ranking female associate.
Full Report At:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/wanted-women-the-lives-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali-and-aafia-siddiqui-by-deborah-scroggins-book-review.html?_r=1
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Israelis assess threats by Iran as partly bluff
By Ethan Bronner
January 27. 2012
JERUSALEM — Israeli intelligence estimates, backed by academic studies, have cast doubt on the widespread assumption that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities would set off a catastrophic set of events like a regional conflagration, widespread acts of terrorism and sky-high oil prices.
Full Report At:
http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120127/NEWS0107/201270390/
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Muslims demand NY police chief's head over inflammatory film
Fri Jan 27 2012
New York : New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly is under fire from civil rights group, who are demanding his resignation over his appearance in an inflammatory anti-Muslim film shown to his department's officers during training.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said Kelly and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne should immediately resign from their positions for taking part in the production of the 'Third Jihad', "a blatantly bigoted and hate-filled film vilifying the American-Muslim community".
Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/904568/
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Gilani retreats some more: Nothing against Army, no threat to democracy
Fri Jan 27 2012
Islamabad : In signs of a thaw in the tense standoff between Pakistan's beleaguered government and the powerful Army, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that democracy is not under threat and he has nothing against the military.
Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/904603/
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Duo arrested with fake notes in Indore maybe part of Pakistan nexus
28 January 2012
Indore: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) probing Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN ) printed in Pakistan suspects that the two youths arrested in Indore on Wednesday might be conduits of the international racket involved in it. City police detained the two youths from West Bengal with nine counterfeit currency of `500 denominations.
Full Report At:
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MP-IND-duo-arrested-with-fake-notes-in-indore-maybe-part-of-pakistan-nexus-2796136.html
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On revolution anniversary eve, Egypt eases emergency laws
Wed Jan 25 2012
Cairo : Egypt's military ruler has decreed a partial lifting of the nation's hated emergency laws, an apparent attempt to ease criticism of his policies ahead of the first anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said in a televised address Tuesday that the draconian laws, in force for more than three decades, would be lifted effective Wednesday but would remain applicable to crimes committed by 'thugs'. The military has often labelled organisers of anti-government demonstrations 'thugs'.
Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/903838/
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Pak Ambassador seeks Pakistani-Americans’ support on Pakistan-US ties
28 January 2012
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (APP): In her first public engagement since assuming office two weeks ago, Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington Sherry Rehman reached out to the Pakistani-Americans to seek their support towards better Pakistan-U.S. relations, which she underscored, must be based on “mutual respect, interests and shared values.” “This embassy is not going to work alone in Washington. It is going to work with many ambassadors, which are yourselves, to attempt to change the way this important bilateral relationship works,” Ambassador Rehman said.
Speaking about Pakistan-U.S. relations, the Ambassador said these are certainly not “normal” times.
Full Report At:
http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=176665&Itemid=1
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justice eludes Pakistan family of CIA victim
(AP) ISLAMABAD - One year after a CIA contractor shot to death two Pakistanis, relatives of the victims are living off generous compensation they received in a deal that led authorities to free the American.
But the family of the man killed by an U.S. vehicle rushing to the scene of the shootings has received nothing, a lingering sore in still festering ties between Washington and Islamabad.
"Pakistani rulers are puppets of America," said Malik Waqar, who demonstrated with dozens of others Friday in the city of Lahore. "We are here to tell the Americans that we are not cowards like our rulers, and we will continue raising our voices until Abbad ur Rehman's family gets justice."
Full Report At:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57367593/justice-eludes-pakistan-family-of-cia-victim/
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Suspect bomber from Pakistan joined Gawli's gym
Jan 28, 2012
MUMBAI: Investigations into the 13/7 serial blasts have revealed that one of the two suspected Pakistani bombers had enrolled himself at a gym set up by gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli. The bomber, said the police, had paid three months' fee in advance. But the officials refused to reveal his identity.
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has seized the Shambu Narayan Trust's gym attendance register and the admission card from which it has got the suspect's photograph. "Someone else had introduced this person (bomber) to the gym and helped him get admission there. We have recorded the statements of the gym manager and the trainers," said ATS chief Rakesh Maria. The bomber, suspected to be Waqqas, had paid the gym Rs 3,700, which included the admission fee and three months' fee. The gym is located at Dagdi Chawl near Byculla station.
Full Report At:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Suspect-bomber-from-Pakistan-joined-Gawlis-gym/articleshow/11657463.cms
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UN launches tree plantation campaign in Pakistan
28 January 2012
ISLAMABAD: The UN has launched a tree plantation campaign in Pakistan's flood-hit areas and plans to plant 200,000 trees in 400 villages.
The campaign is part of an initiative by the UN Human Settlements Programme or the UN-Habitat. It is the UN's agency for human settlements aimed at promoting socially and environmentally sustainable towns with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
As many as 30,000 families across the country will take part in the 45-day plantation campaign, the Online news agency reported.
Full Report At:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/the-good-earth/un-launches-tree-plantation-campaign-in-pakistan/articleshow/11662458.cms
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/arabs-davos-invest-us,-don/d/6490