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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Shuttle Discovery Lands After Delay Due to Weather Conditions

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Space shuttle Discovery and its crew are back on Earth.Discovery landed at its home port in Florida on Saturday afternoon, ending a 13-day mission that left the international space station with all its solar wings.The space station can now produce enough electricity to support a larger crew and conduct more research.The shuttle crew also helped fix a recycling machine at the space station that turns astronauts' urine and sweat into drinking water.Touchdown occurred a little later than planned. Cloudy and windy weather forced NASA to delay Discovery's homecoming by about 90 minutes. But the wind shifted and the conditions improved enough so that the seven astronauts could make the second and final landing opportunity for the day.

Muslim Women in U.S. Struggle to Balance Western Freedoms and Islamic Culture

DEARBORN, Mich. The "call to prayer" is a sound heard five times a day in this city, but this is not the Middle East. It’s Dearborn, Michigan — which has the largest Arab-American population in the U.S.Like other immigrant groups, many came here years ago in search of a better life. In the past few decades, the auto industry needed workers, so Michigan became a top destination.Over time, thousands of the Muslim faithful from around the world settled here, opening shops and restaurants and turning Dearborn into a heavily Muslim-influenced community, replete with mosques in every section of town and traditional foods from places like Pakistan and Syria.But while there are plenty of comforts from their home countries, Muslim women say they’re constantly caught balancing their lives between the freedoms they have in Western culture and the restrictions they face from religious and societal pressure. They worry about whether they’re following the habits of "a good Muslim woman."Zeinab Fakhreddine, a Lebanese-American woman raised in Dearborn, walks down the street wearing a traditional two-piece suit and a Muslim headscarf, called a hijab. The scarf covers her hair and tightly frames her face. She says the hijab was designed as a way to honor women in Islam, by concealing their beauty.

Lights go out across planet for Earth Hour

Lights were going out across the world on Saturday as millions of homes and businesses in major cities went dark for one hour in a symbolic gesture to highlight concerns over climate change.In Australia, floodlights of the Sydney Opera House were extinguished as the city's iconic harbor kicked off events for Earth Hour, a day-long energy-saving marathon stretching through 88 countries and 24 time zones.The event's Web site reported that hundreds of people lined the harbour for a glimpse of the dimming skyline at 8:30 pm -- the local time that nearly 4,000 participating cities around the world were expected to switch off non-essential lights.Sydney became the birthplace of the Earth Hour campaign in 2007 when 2.2 million turned off their lights, igniting a grass roots movement that has become a global phenomenon. 

Beijing marks 50 years since end of 'feudalism' in Tibet

China has inaugurated a new national holiday, Serf Liberation Day, to mark the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. Beijing claims today marks the end of feudalism under Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.Chinese authorities on Saturday launched a new national holiday, "Serfs' Liberation Day," to mark the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibet uprising that forced the Dalai Lama into exile. The Chinese flag was raised in front of the Potala Palace in Tibet's capital Lhasa where more than 13,000 people, most wearing Tibetan traditional dress, stood for the national anthem in a ceremony broadcast on state television.The government has said the holiday, which coincides with the quelling of an anti-Chinese uprising in the Himalayan region 50 years ago, marks the end "feudalism" in Tibet.China has ruled Tibet since 1951, after sending in troops to "liberate" the Himalayan region the previous year, and Beijing has long maintained that its rule ended a Buddhist theocracy that enslaved all but the religious elite.Speakers including a soldier, a self-described former serf and the region's top Communist official told the crowd in Lhasa that the region's past poverty was due to a system of exploitation overseen by the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader.

Many dead in Philippines fighting

At least 27 people, including seven soldiers, have been killed in fighting between Philippine security forces and members of the largest Muslim anti-government group in the south of the country, according to an army spokesman.The Philippine military has been fighting a faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the island of Mindanao for the last eight months, after the group burned farms and homes in Catholic-dominated towns there.Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Ponce said that soldiers killed about 20 fighters and that dozens more were wounded during an eight-hour battle on Friday near the Liguasan marsh area."We recovered mangled bodies in the area," he said."Some bodies were hanging on tree tops. They got hit by our artillery shelling. But we lost seven men and five were also wounded."

Varun Gandhi arrested for making hate speeches

Varun Gandhi, great-grandson of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal
 Nehru and scion of a family dynasty, is escorted by police as
 he leaves a local court in Pilibhit, in the northern state
 of Uttar Pradesh, March 28, 2009.

PILIBHIT The great-grandson of India’s first prime minister was arrested Saturday as police investigated charges against him of making hate speeches and inciting violence against Muslims ahead of national elections, a court official said.A political furor erupted after Varun Gandhi, 29, was filmed comparing a rival Muslim politician to Osama bin Laden and threatening to cut the throats of Muslims at two political rallies earlier this month.Gandhi belongs to the powerful Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has produced three prime ministers over six decades and has long promoted a secular government and tolerance for religious minorities. However, he is a member of the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.Gandhi drove Saturday through the streets of Pilibhit, a town in the state of Uttar Pradesh where he is seeking a parliamentary seat, accompanied by thousands of supporters waving saffron Hindu flags.Pilibhit is about 135 miles east of New Delhi.He then turned himself in at the court, said Chief Judicial Magistrate Nitin Kumar. He will be jailed until Monday, when he can seek release on bail, Kumar said.If convicted, Gandhi could be disqualified from running for office and imprisoned for up to three years.

Dozens hurt in sixth day of protests

At least 31 people were injured Saturday in Antananarivo during protests in support of former president Marc Ravalomanana.Police on Saturday fired warning shots and teargas at supporters of Madagascar's ousted president Marc Ravalomanana as they rallied for a sixth consecutive day of protest, leaving 31 people injured.Officers took action to prevent around 20,000 protestors who had gathered at gardens in the capital Antananarivo to march to another city square.
The May 13 Square to which they were headed was earlier the scene of protests by former opposition leader Andry Rajoelina that culminated in Ravalomanana's March 17 resignation.Most of those hurt suffered injuries in a stampede sparked by the warning shots. Others had bullet wounds and were being treated at Antananarivo's main hospital, an AFP correspondent reported.Saturday's rally attracted the largest number of protestors since the group opposing the current administration of Andry Rajoelina began city demonstrations on Monday.Ravalomanana's supporters are demanding the return of their leader who resigned after the sustained campaign by his rival Rajoelina who accused him of running a dictatorship while the people starved.Last weekend, the 34-year-old Rajoelina was sworn in as the Indian Ocean island's transitional leader, but Ravalomanana, United States and the European Union have said his takeover was a coup.The African Union has also suspended the crisis-stricken nation from the 53-member body.

Europeans protest ahead of G20 meet

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have marched through European cities to demand action on poverty, job losses and climate change ahead of a meeting of the world's 20 leading economies.In London, the British capital, about 35,000 protesters gathered on Saturday as part of an alliance of more than 100 trade unions, aid agencies, religious groups and environmental organisations to call on world leaders meeting next week to commit to reforms."Never before has such a wide coalition come together with such a clear message for world leaders," said Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress."The old ideas of unregulated free markets do not work and have brought the world's economy to near-collapse, failed to fight poverty and have done far too little to move to a low-carbon economy."

Nato terminal attacked in Pakistan

Dozens of fighters have fired rockets at a transport terminal in northwest Pakistan used to ship supplies to Nato soldiers in neighbouring Afghanistan, police have said.At least 12 shipping containers were damaged in the attack early on Saturday at the Farhad terminal in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, Zahur Khan, a local police official, said.Police opened fire at the fighters but they managed to flee, he said.Afghan-based US and Nato forces get up to 75 per cent of their supplies via routes that pass through Pakistan's Khyber tribal region and a southwestern Chaman border crossing - areas where Taliban fighters are believed to be operating.

Karzai: New U.S. Strategy for Afghanistan 'Better Than Expected'

KABUL  Afghanistan's president offered support Saturday for the new U.S. strategy for the growing conflict in his country, praising increased civil and military aid and highlighting a plan for reconciliation with moderate elements of the Taliban.Afghan President Hamid Karzai has long championed the idea of reconciliation with the Taliban as a key way to tamp down the growing insurgency in Afghanistan. The Bush administration generally opposed the idea, but President Barack Obama stressed reconciliation with more moderate elements of the Taliban when he presented the new U.S. strategy Friday."In a country with extreme poverty that has been at war for decades, there will also be no peace without reconciliation among former enemies," Obama said.The reconciliation proposal is the most novel part of the new plan, which is focused mostly on increasing the scale of ongoing initiatives — promising 4,000 additional troops to train the Afghan army, hundreds more civilian specialists to help Afghanistan rebuild and billions of dollars in civilian aid to neighboring Pakistan.Pakistan's president also welcomed the Obama administration's new policy to counter Al Qaeda as a "positive change" and insisted his country will not allow its territory to be used for terrorist attacks.

Zardari hands Punjab back to Sharif (Zardari 'U-turn')

Pakistan's president has said that he will return control of the Punjab province to the country's main opposition party, ending its rule by the central government.Asif Ali Zardari told a joint session of parliament that he will allow the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by Nawaz Sharif, to return to power in the eastern province."We shall recommend the lifting of the governor rule in Punjab," Zardari said on Saturday."The Pakistan's People Party also will support the candidates of the PML-N, whoever he may be." The speech represented a "major U-turn" in policy for Zardari.Although the opposition welcomed the speech overall, it remained concerned over the extent of the Pakistani president's powers and Zardari's apparent unwillingness to relinquish them easily, Hyder said."Some people say that he could have relinquished those powers on his own; now Zardari has told the parliament that they have to form a committee which will deliberate."Given Pakistan's history of committees, it means procrastinating over the issue," he said.