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[1] SRI LANKAN CHRISTIANS FACING ‘DRAMATIC’ INCREASE IN VIOLENCE Sources: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Voice of the Martyrs, Assist News Service Christians in Sri Lanka have seen a “dramatic” increase in violence within the last month, according to reports from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL). A gunman shot and killed Christian pastor Neil Edirisinghe, Sunday, Feb. 17, outside his home in Sri Lanka. His wife also received a critical injury from the attack. She was holding their baby son at the time she was shot, but the child escaped serious injury. Elsewhere on the same day a mob of approximately 50 people armed with rods attacked members of The King's Revival Church in the district of Mathugama, Kaluthara while they were returning from a Sunday worship service. Four believers were assaulted, including a child. The assailants also threatened the believers who belonged to the Tamil ethnic community that they would be imprisoned if they returned to the church. A week later, on Sunday, Feb. 24, group of individuals armed with gardening tools gathered on the road near the church building. They threatened the believers with violence and prevented them from attending the scheduled worship service. On Sunday, March 2, ten students were beaten by a group of masked men on motorcycles while they were walking from the Lunuwila Railway to their school, the Believers' Church Bible College in Putlam District. Then more attackers arrived in a van and dragged a student inside the vehicle and severely beat him. When one of the students ran to the college for help, he was followed by a motorcyclist who attacked the college security guard and fled. On 3 March the Zion Mount Prayer House in Mulaitivu District was set on fire. The pastor, his wife, child and two other people were inside at the time, although it is believed they were able to escape. --------- [2] From: "Sukla Sen" <sukla.sen@gmail.com Date: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:43 am Subject: Attacks on CPIM Offices Condemned People's Movements condemn fascist violence Demand stern action against the political organisations that attacked CPI-M office in Delhi and other cities People's movements that have come together under the banner of Sangharsh (since 2007) along with its major constituents, the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and National Forum of Forest Peoples and Forest Dwellers (NFFPFW) along with supporters, condemn the dastardly attack on the headquarters and national office of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday, 9th March 2008. We are shocked by the fact that the attack was carried out in a planned manner by parliamentary parties and their senior leadership, who claim to be working within the democratic fabric of India . It is all the more shocking that the attack on a parliamentary party like the CPI-M was allowed to happen in broad daylight, when the party's National Executive was meeting inside the office. While upholding the democratic right to dissent and protest, we denounce and condemn this effort by BJP and RSS to intimidate political rivals by use of violence and muscle power. We denounce use of violence by all political parties that believe in democracy and demand that election commission take action against those found breaching the moral code of conduct for political parties by indulging in violence and murders. We also reiterate that no government in power should use political and money power to suppress political dissent and opposition. We demand that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) immediately stop the attacks on CPI-M in Delhi and other states wherever it has happened. We demand the Central Government and the respective state governments in Delhi , Uttarakand, Andhra Pradesh, etc to take stern criminal action against the political hooligans of BJP and RSS who have dared to attack India 's democratic decorum. We demand the Kerala Government to take strong action against all the political activists and parties that have indulged in violence in Thalasserry, Kannoore (District), where violence and political murders have unfortunately become synonymous with politics. We hope that the state government and all political parties involved will take necessary measures to step-up the peace process and bring back normalcy in the region. We appeal to all political forces to show restraint and mutual respect. We also appeal to all political parties to respect ideological dialogue, dissent and right to democratic protest. Medha Patkar Ashok Chowdhury Aruna Roy Thomas Kocherry Sandeep Pandey Gautam Bandopadhyay Sandhya Devi Gabriela Dietrich Anil Chaudhary Bhupendra Rawat Simpreet Singh Anuradha Talwar Arun Khote Ashish Mondoloi Vimalbhai Johnson PJ CR Neelakandan Bijay Panda Manju Gardia Ulka Mahajan Roma Rajendra Ravi Prafulla Samantra Swapan Ganguly Mukta Srivastava Prashant Bhushan Joe Athyali Bijulal MV Vijayan MJ Sridevi Panikkar -------------- [3] From: yogi sikand <ysikand@yahoo.com Date: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:42 am Subject: Deoband's Anti-Terrorism Convention: Some Reflections Deoband's Anti-Terrorism Convention: Some Reflections Submitted by Tarique on Tue, 03/11/2008 - 18:37. * Indian Muslim * Articles By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles. net The mammoth 'Anti-Terrorism Convention' organised at Deoband late last month, which brought together ulema from all over the country, has received wide media coverage. While smaller conventions of this sort have been organized by other ulema bodies in recent years, this one, unlike others, caught the attention of the media particularly because it was organized by the Dar ul-Ulum Deoband, probably the largest traditional madrasa in the world, which large sections of the media have been unfairly berating as the 'hub' of 'terrorism'. The speeches delivered at the convention have been considerably commented on in the press. By and large, the non-Muslim press has focused almost wholly on the resolutions that were passed that labeled 'terrorism' as 'anti-Islamic', leaving out other crucial issues that were raised by numerous ulema who spoke on the occasion, particularly about Western Imperialism and Zionism as major factors behind global 'terrorism', and the hounding of Muslim youth and mounting Islamophobic offensives across the world, including India, in the name of countering 'terror'. Muslim papers have dealt with these issues fairly extensively, but, following most of the speakers at the convention, they have placed the blame for 'terrorism' almost entirely on what they identify as 'enemies of Islam', thus presenting a very one-sided picture. In short, media reporting about the convention, by both the Muslim and non-Muslim media, has been inadequate and somewhat imbalanced. The same can be said of several of the speeches made at the convention. The presidential address to the convention, which was also circulated as a printed document, was delivered by the conference's organizer and rector of the Deoband madrasa, Maulana Marghubur Rahman. 'We condemn all forms of terrorism', he insisted, 'and in this we make no distinction. Terrorism is completely wrong, no matter who engages in it, and no matter what religion he follows or community he belongs to'. 'Islam', he announced, 'is a religion of mercy and peace'. Hence, terrorism or the killing of innocent people 'is totally opposed to Islam'. He evoked the Quran to argue that Islam exhorts Muslims to behave well with people of other faiths if they do not oppress them, to abide by their treaties and agreements with non-Muslims and not to let the injustice of any community cause them to deviate from the path of justice. ------------ [4] From: "Sukla Sen" <sukla.sen@gmail.com Date: Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:45 pm Subject: NPT, Nuclear Proliferation, US and Iran *DISUNITED NATIONS: A NUCLEAR FALLING OUT** * *By Bob Rigg* *Former senior editor, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons* *Former chair, NZ National Consultative Committee on Disarmament* Our world does not remotely resemble that of 1945. But the antediluvian decision??‘making structure of the UN, which locates almost all real power in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and its five permanent members ??“ China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States ??“ is unchanged. At the height of the Cold War President Eisenhower established the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. One principal purpose was to assist its member states to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Until now this has meant a fuel cycle including uranium enrichment. The other purpose was to ensure, through a technical, non-political process of inspection and verification, that no nuclear materials are "diverted" from the peaceful process to military purposes. Just before President George Bush took office in January 2001, neoconservative ideologues published a blueprint for global US hegemony, at the heart of which was the reimposition of US control over the oil-rich Middle East. This would be achieved through military and political support for Israel and regime change in Iraq and Iran. Israel, which went nuclear four decades ago, now possesses about 200 nuclear warheads, more than India and Pakistan combined. Regional Arab states have for decades been whistling into the wind for Israel to ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and to subject its illegally acquired nuclear capability to the IAEA's inspection and verification regime. The nuclear club simply looked the other way, as it has done recently with India and Pakistan, which are also outside the NPT. One rule applies to the political friends of the US, while another applies to its perceived enemies, such as North Korea and Iran. This major political inconsistency is tearing a gaping hole in the fabric of the treaty. The established nuclear club also undertook to move towards nuclear disarmament, and even "general and complete disarmament" ??“ undertakings that have been dishonoured. To be fair to the US, it must be admitted that the other four members of the established nuclear club, alarmed at the prospect of a surge in the number of nuclear possessors, now also want to slam the stable door before too many nuclear horses have bolted. One problem with all of this is that, as the UK House of Commons foreign affairs committee declared recently, Iran will not be nuclear capable until 2015 at the earliest, and will not be in a position to be a nuclear threat to anyone for at least seven years. Undeterred by this, the US and Israel have stepped up their virulent attacks on Iran in proportion to its growing self-assertiveness. This has been fuelled by the disintegration of US policy in the Middle East and the resultant political vacuum, as well as by an almost fivefold increase in Iran's oil and gas income. The US initially focused its attention on pressuring Iran through the IAEA. However, frustrated with the exactitude of IAEA inspections and the non-political character of its discussions, it had the matter reported to the UNSC, an eminently political body unconstrained by the limited mandate of the IAEA. It was accordingly the UNSC that adopted a political resolution requiring Iran not to enrich uranium, although other IAEA member states have until now, subject to IAEA oversight, been able to do so as a normal part of their nuclear fuel cycle. In the midst of the present furore over Iran, Brazil and Argentina's declaration that they are considering a joint uranium enrichment project has gone almost unnoticed. Business as usual. The five permanent members of the UNSC have been continuously moving the NPT goalposts, with Russia even offering to enrich Iran's uranium. Russia's motive is twofold: it wants to keep nuclear weapons within the present nuclear club by denying some, but not all, new players access to uranium enrichment. By supplying ever more of the world's enriched uranium, it also hopes to monopolise a lucrative new energy industry. It wants to place itself in a position of absolute power vis-? -vis those it is supplying, as the EU recently discovered when Russia threatened to cut off its supplies of natural gas. This is why Iran has continued to insist on its right, under the NPT, to enrich uranium, and will continue to do so. In this Iran has attracted widespread support from other developing states, which correctly see the nuclear club as subverting one of the two original justifications for the treaty by depriving them of their right to enrich uranium. Each allegation against Iran has been carefully examined by the IAEA, with not one being confirmed as true until now. In successive reports, the IAEA has verified that Iran has not diverted nuclear materials from its peaceful programme. Towards the end of last year Iran stepped up its cooperation with the IAEA, even involving its Supreme Leader in direct talks with Mohamed El Baradei, the IAEA Director General, to settle all outstanding issues. At the same time the US government was releasing its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which found that Iran was not nuclear capable, and probably had no intention of heading down that path. The world was still reeling from this unexpected finding when the same Director of National Intelligence who had submitted the NIE expressed an opposite point of view in his National Threat Assessment, in February of this year. The duplicity and mendacity of the US government have continued to engrave themselves into international consciousness since the Iraq war. During the first two months of this year the US, alarmed by the effective Iranian push to close its IAEA file, suddenly dropped onto the table known and largely discredited evidence of allegedly questionable nuclear activity on Iran's part. All of these 1000 pages of "technical" evidence derive from a laptop computer, first mentioned by Colin Powell in 2004, which various US and European experts have dismissed as unreliable. A senior European diplomat told the New York Times in 2005: "I can fabricate that data. It looks beautiful, but is open to doubt." At the same time Russia, like China, wants to take advantage of US trade sanctions to engage in lucrative and strategically important trade in Iran's oil and gas, while the US and its sanctions supporters look on covetously. During the most recent UNSC sanctions negotiations, China openly advocated the novel concept of trade sanctions that will not adversely affect bilateral trade. Other UNSC members, including some EU supporters of the US, were only too happy to ride on the coat-tails of the Russians and the Chinese by voting for even more watered-down sanctions. In the meantime five non-permanent members of the UNSC from the developing world were flexing their muscles, partly by challenging the veracity of the case against Iran, and partly by insisting that UNSC attempts to prevent an IAEA member from enriching uranium are eroding the fragile foundations of the NPT regime. They also supported Iran's argument that its case should be a matter for the IAEA alone. Some Western delegates have already said that the Iran sanctions question will not be revisited by the UNSC. The matter has become too hot for it to handle. No one except for the US really wants effective sanctions anyway. Now Israel is once again hinting that it may attack Iran, if someone else does not do so first. Only if the world commits itself to the complete abolition and destruction of all nuclear weapons will real or imagined nuclear proliferation cease to cast a dark shadow over international discussion, with institutions such as the UNSC and the IAEA, originally established to prevent war, being misused to provide political cover for the dubious military adventures of their most powerful members. ---------- [5] From: "Dr.Y. C.Zala" <yczala@yahoo.co.in Date: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:47 pm Subject: What is marketing? What is marketing? 1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: "I am very rich.”Marry me!" “That's Direct Marketing" 2. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: "He's very rich.”Marry him." “That's Advertising" 3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and say: "Hi, I'm very rich. "Marry me “ That's Telemarketing" 4. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door (of the car) for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and then say:” By the way, I'm rich. Will you "Marry Me?" That's Public Relations" 5. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says:” You are very rich! "Can you marry me?" “That's Brand Recognition" 6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. - "That's Customer Feedback" 7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" And she introduces you to her husband. - "That's demand and supply gap" 8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person come and tell her: "I'm rich. Will you marry me?" and she goes with him - "That's competition eating into your market share" 9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say: "I'm rich, Marry me!" your wife arrives. - "That's restriction for entering new markets" Yours, Y. C. Zala |
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| << March10, 2008 - [India Thinkers Net]Noorani article .tourist in Goa ,terrorist in Kerala etc |
March14, 2008 - [India Thinkers Net]Supreme Court on SCs,Pak news,women's day >> |
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