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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Fitna The Movie -Original English Version- [Part 2]

Fitna The Movie -Original English Version- [Part 1]

Controversial Cartoons

Danish Free Speech Group Sells Copies of Controversial Cartoon

A Danish press freedom group said Wednesday it is selling copies of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that caused outrage across the Muslim World. Some 1,000 printed reproductions of a drawing depicting the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban are being sold for $250 each, said Lars Hedegaard, chairman of the Danish Free Press Society."All we are doing is starting a debate," Hedegaard said. "We are using our freedom of speech."Hedegaard said Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, who drew the cartoon in 2005, had given the society permission to produce the copies and sell them. Each numbered copy has been signed by Westergaard, Hedegaard said."We have not, and are not, breaking any laws," Hedegaard told The Associated Press.Westergaard has been living under police protection since an alleged plot to murder him was discovered last year.Twelve cartoons depicting the prophet, including the one by Westergaard, were published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005.The following year, they triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia, with rioters torching Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products.Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry.Throughout the crisis, then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologize for them, citing freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for the actions of Denmark's press.On Saturday, Fogh Rasmussen was chosen to become NATO's new secretary-general despite threats by Turkey, the alliance's only Muslim member, to veto his election.

Italy quake death toll rises

The death toll from the earthquake that hit central Italy on Monday has risen to 260, and 28,000 are reported to have lost their homes.Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, said the death toll from the quake included 16 children.Mass state funerals are expected to take place in the city on Friday, Berlusconi added.Rescuers found 15 more bodies in the debris of the medieval mountain city of L'Aquila overnight on Tuesday, and were able to save two women who had survived for up to 42 hours.Berlusconi said the search for people still missing in the rubble would continue for another 48 hours, but the focus of the operation was shifting to looking after those who had survived.

Taleban storm district near Swat

Taleban militants from Pakistan's troubled Swat valley have stormed the nearby district of Buner, killing at least five people, police say.A local tribal force has been battling the militants since Monday, but their resistance is weakening, residents say.The Taleban overran Swat district nearly two years ago, and have held it despite an 18-month-long military operation to uproot them.The Buner incursion is likely to strain a peace deal with the NWFP government.Police said a group of Taleban fighters travelled late on Monday from Swat to Buner, a previously peaceful district about 100km (60 miles) north-west of the capital, Islamabad.After the militants ignored appeals from community leaders to go back, armed tribesmen and police confronted them, sparking a battle that left three policemen and two tribesmen dead, local police officer Zakir Khan said.Mr Khan claimed that more than a dozen militants were killed in the clash, but this has not been confirmed by independent sources.The people of Buner oppose the Taleban presence and have raised a tribal force since last year to resist them.This force frustrated the Taleban's attempt to infiltrate the area during the autumn of 2008, killing at least six Taleban militants.In December, a suicide bomber killed more than 30 people during an election campaign in Buner.Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of militants, claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was in response to the tribal force's action against the Taleban.Residents of Buner told the BBC that this time the Taleban have come in greater numbers and the local force is unlikely to resist them for long, unless backed by aerial support from the military.The government of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has not yet called for such support, apparently because this could jeopardise a peace deal it recently signed with the Swat militants.The NWFP government says it signed the deal in February to bring 18 months of bloodshed in Swat to an end.Under the deal, the government has promised to implement Islamic Sharia law in Malakand division, a grouping of six districts including Swat and Buner.But the draft has not yet been signed by President Asif Zardari.A presidential spokesman told the media earlier the draft would be signed only after peace had been established in Swat and the writ of the government restored.But the militants have so far refused to give up their positions, or disarm.Officials in Buner say militants refused to leave the positions they have established on the hilltops in Buner during talks held on Tuesday between the militants and Malakand Commissioner Syed Mohammad Javed.The spokesman of the Swat Taleban, Muslim Khan, told the media the Taleban were in Buner to monitor the establishment of Islamic courts and would remain there.

Two Tibetan protestors sentenced to death

Two Tibetans were sentenced to death for their part in the 2008 Lhasa riots, Chinese media reported. According to the Chinese-appointed court, the two rioters were responsible for the death of 21 people.A Tibet court has sentenced two people to death for their part in riots last year, China's state media said Wednesday, in the harshest sentences yet reported over the deadly unrest.Two others were given suspended death sentences while another was sentenced to life imprisonment, said the report, which quoted a spokesman for the intermediate court in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.Fierce anti-China riots broke out in Lhasa in March last year and spread across Tibet and adjacent areas with Tibetan populations, prompting a massive Chinese security crackdown that has remained in place since.Xinhua said the crimes committed by the five defendants resulted in seven deaths and the destruction of five shops in Lhasa.It said the court was still hearing a separate arson case that led to another five deaths.China has said "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths, while saying that its security forces had killed only one "insurgent."However, the exiled Tibetan government headed by the Dalai Lama has said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in China's subsequent crackdown. 

Indonesians set to head to polls

Voters in Indonesia are preparing to elect a new national parliament, in a vote that will shape how the world's third largest democracy responds to the challenges of the global economic crisis.About 171 million Indonesians are eligible to vote, with more than 13,000 candidates competing for 132 seats in the upper house of parliament and 560 seats in the lower house.The election is only the third democratic vote since the fall of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998 and will help decide the field of contenders for presidential elections scheduled for July.About half a million polling stations will be in operation during the vote, across an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands spread across three time zones.The three week campaign period leading up to Thursday's vote has been billed as a celebration of the Indonesia's young democracy, with towns and cities decked in colourful flags of the 38 competing parties.

Rebel leaders sentenced to up to 52 years in prison for war crimes

The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone sentenced three rebel leaders to sentences of up to 52 years in prison for committing war crimes - including rape and mutilations - on a massive scale to establish control in the 1990s.The war crimes court for Sierra Leone on Wednesday handed down sentences of up to 52 years in prison for three rebel leaders convicted of overseeing a trail of rapes and killings."The crimes were committed on a massive scale... Sierra Leoneans were raped, enslaved, hacked to death and brutalised," presiding judge Pierre Boulet said in his judgment."The impact of the crimes on the Sierra Leonean society has been enormous," he added.Revolutionary United Front interim leader Issa Sesay was sentenced to a total of 693 years, but as the judges ordered separate sentences for 16 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity to be served concurrently, he will spend a maximum of 52 years in prison. Sesay's is is the highest sentence ever handed down by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, which cannot impose a life sentence.

U.S. to Join Group Talks With Iran Over Nuclear Program

The Obama administration has decided to take a different
 approach from his predecessor in dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme

WASHINGTON In a major departure from previous policy, the United States will join direct talks between U.N. and European powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, the State Department announced Wednesday.The Obama administration has asked the European Union's international policy chief, Javier Solana, to invite Iran to new talks with the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.Washington, which does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, has stayed out of those talks to date."If Iran accepts, we hope this will be an occasion to seriously engage Iran of how to break the logjam of recent years and work in a cooperative manner to resolve the outstanding international concerns about its nuclear program," Wood said.Iran has so far refused Security Council demands to halt its production of enriched uranium, which it has said will be used to fuel nuclear power plants. The United States has accused Tehran of concealing efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency said it has failed to resolve questions about the aim of Iranian program.

Hijacked US crew 'retake vessel'

US crew members have retaken their hijacked ship but their captain is still being held by Somali pirates on a lifeboat, reports say.Pentagon sources and relatives of the Maersk Alabama's 20 crew were earlier quoted as saying the ship was back under control after a struggle.But later reports emerged that the captain was still in the hands of the hijackers, adrift in the lifeboat.It was the sixth ship seized off Somalia in recent days.It is reportedly the first time in 200 years that a US-flagged vessel has been seized by pirates.The Associated Press reported that they had spoken to a sailor on board the Maersk Alabama who said the crew had retaken the vessel and one pirate had been captured.But the unnamed sailor told AP that three of the pirates were now holding the captain hostage in a lifeboat.The ship's owners later confirmed that the pirates were off the ship but holding the captain.More than 130 attacks, including nearly 50 which were successful, were reported in 2008. Most were in the Gulf of Aden, where 16,000 ships enter and exit the Red Sea each year on one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.At least 18 ships and more than 250 hostages are now in pirate hands.Despite the recent upsurge in hijackings, the number of attacks and their success rate has declined slightly since the start of the year, which is due to unfavourable sea conditions and an increased foreign naval presence in the Gulf.

Give us the drones; we’ll take out the militants: Zardari

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari

ISLAMABAD President Asif Ali Zardari in an interview with The Independent has called on the United States to provide Pakistan with missiles and drone technology to target militants as opposed to conducting independent operations that violate the country’s sovereignty.Pakistan had made it clear that it was willing to ‘take out high-value targets on our own, and we welcome the technology and intelligence assistance that will give us the ability to succeed.’ Zardari said, adding that ‘I cannot condone violations of our sovereignty even when they are done by allies and friends. We would much prefer that the US share its intelligence and give us the drones and missiles that will allow us to take care of this problem on our own.’During the interview, President Zardari for the first time conceded that more than one of the 10 militants who carried out the Mumbai attacks may be Pakistani.It is generally believed that despite public denials Pakistan co-operates with the US drone strikes. However, such tactics are increasingly unpopular among the Pakistani people.‘President Obama once said that he would act if we weren’t willing and able. We certainly are willing and with international support we will become even more able,’ The Independent quoted Zardari as saying.He also acknowledged that more than a year after elections, many Pakistanis are growing frustrated with an apparent lack of progress. ‘After a decade of dictatorship the people had enormous expectations of rapid improvement in their lives. That is still very much our priority but the enormity of the economic crisis both within Pakistan and internationally, compounded by the war that we fight within and along our borders, has made progress much slower than we hoped.’

Moldova accuses Romania over riots

Vladimir Voronin, Moldova's president, has accused neighbouring Romania of being behind violent anti-government protests in Chisinau, the capital, which have seen 193 people arrested over the past two days. "Romania is involved in the events," Voronin, quoted by RIA-Novosti, a Russian news agency, said on Wednesday. "Patience has its limits. The influence of Romania is very serious and strong work by security services is tangible."Moldova's foreign ministry also ordered the Romanian ambassador to leave the country within 24 hours.The demonstrations have been aimed at the ruling Communist party, who have been accused of violating voting regulations to win a parliamentary poll over the weekend.