Posts for Oct 20th: Evo Morales, Iranian universities, Taliban in South Korea, Saudi schoolgirls, Bomb in Pakistan, Hector Aleem, Indonesian Churches Attacked, Egyptian fundamentalism, Islam & Catalonia, Gadaffi in Europe

Latest posts on T&P:

1. Iran: Bolivian President Evo Morales on trade visit to "boost trade ties". Morales, who arrived on Sunday night, is to discuss an earlier agreement on projects worth 1.1 billion dollars over the next five years, and another 287-million-dollar investment by Iran in Bolivia.
   Morales’ second visit to Iran in two years was scheduled to last three days, the news network Press TV reported.
2. Iran: Govt forbids Universities from offering "Western subjects".“Expansion of 12 disciplines in the social sciences like law, women’s studies, human rights, management, sociology, philosophy….psychology and political sciences will be reviewed,” said Abolfazl Hassani, from the education ministry. These sciences’ contents are based on Western culture. The review will be the intention of making them compatible with Islamic teachings.”
3. South Korea: Govt fears Taliban are gaining foothold in the country. A man who was arrested when entering the country, said, during an interrogation that he was there to bomb US bases. But the problem is that the man had been entering 17 times during 5 years with a fake passport! They ask some pertinent questions, like if North Korea helped him in any stage of his endeavours.
4. Saudi Arabia: Schoolgirls warned against wearing "tight clothes". "”The schoolgirl’s dress must be in line with Islamic tenets…it must not be transparent or sticking to the body in a way that will highlight her organs…there should not be any resemblance to the boy’s dress as our prophet (peace be upon him) had cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men.”
5. Spain: Conference on "Islamic feminism". "There are currents within Islamic feminism. Moderate and radical, but they all flatly refused to talk about the veil, hijab-(and banning) because, they say, “is an excuse to distract from other substantive issues.” Some carry it always, some never, some “sometimes, because it is a symbol of submission,” argues Marie Laure. But most Muslims believe that Islamic feminism is “a threat” to their traditions and religion. Women as Masuma Assad (Union of Muslim Argentinian Women) for whom Islamic feminism “is aimed at the destruction of Islam to uphold the principles of secularism in Islamic societies".”
6. Pakistan: Bomb blast at Sufi shrine killls four. The actual death toll is 8. "Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, have increasingly been the target of bloody attacks by Islamist militants in Pakistan".
7. Hector Aleem's trial for blasphemy: Mullahs gather outside the court. Hector Aleem is being tried in Pakistan for blasphemy against Mohammed, Islam’s prophet. On October 21st and 25th, the days of the hearings, some Mullahs were assembled in the main entrance of the court at Rawalpindi to chant slogans calling for his death and against Christianity and to shout “Allah Akbar“. His family has made some videos from a mobile phone.
8. Indonesia: 700 churches attacked in past decade. "The violence also increases the indifference of the civil authorities and police, who shrug off the violence".
9. Egypt: Islamic fundamentalism rising, govt suspends 12 TV channels. They were promoting religious hatred, violence and quack medicine.
10. Spain: pro-independency Catalonian entity wants to show the "bonds that historically have existed between Islam and Catalonia". "Muslims should vote for pro-independency parties, as they rely on us to get votes. But what they do not know is that, when they let us vote, we’ll all vote for Islamic parties because we do not believe in left and right. This will make us win local councils and from there with the great powers of Catalan autonomy, Islam will begin to be implemented" (Abdelwahab Houzi, Salafist Imam, Lérida, Catalonia).
11. Europe should convert to Islam, Gadaffi says.MUAMMAR Gaddafi sparked a backlash yesterday after calling on Europeans to convert to Islam, and demanding billions of euros to stop migration leading to a “black Europe”.

And THEN what are you prepared to do?

South Korea: North responsible for torpedo attack on warship

WAPO

South Korea will formally blame North Korea on Thursday for launching a torpedo at one of its warships in March, causing an explosion that killed 46 sailors and heightened tensions in one of the world's most perilous regions, U.S. and East Asian officials said.

South Korea reached its conclusion that North Korea was responsible for the attack after investigators from Australia, Britain, Sweden and the United States pieced together portions of the ship at the port of Pyongtaek, 40 miles southwest of Seoul. The Cheonan sank on March 26, following an explosion that rocked the vessel as it sailed in the Yellow Sea off South Korea's west coast.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because South Korea has yet to disclose the findings of the investigation, said that subsequent analysis determined that the torpedo was identical to a North Korean torpedo that had previously been obtained by South Korea.

Related articles by Zemanta

• South Korea says torpedo 'likely' to have sunk naval ship (guardian.co.uk)
• Will South Korea blame the North for sinking warship? (cnn.com)
• Obama discusses sunk ship with SKorean leader (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• South Korea launches 'propaganda balloons' against Kim Jong-il (telegraph.co.uk)

Newsmax:

North Korea Torpedoed South Korean Ship: Report
Thursday, 22 Apr 2010 03:27 PM
SEOUL -- South Korea's military believes a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine sank its navy ship last month, based on intelligence gathered jointly with the United States, a news report said on Thursday.

The Yonhap news report appears to be the clearest sign yet that Seoul blames Pyongyang for what would be one of the deadliest incidents between the rivals since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. It puts more political pressure on President Lee Myung-bak, but analysts do not see it triggering a war.

The military's intelligence arm sent the report of "certain" North Korean involvement to the presidential Blue House soon after the incident, Yonhap quoted a high-ranking military source as saying.

Lee's government has come under criticism for what many see as its overly cautious handling of possible links to North Korea. It has called for a thorough investigation of the sinking, thought to have killed 46 sailors.

Market players have been calmed by the South's measured response, seeing Seoul as unlikely to take aggressive moves that would escalate into armed conflict and harm the export-driven economies of North Asia, responsible for about one-sixth of the global economy.

South Korea's defense ministry had no comment on the report.

"North Korean submarines are all armed with heavy torpedoes with 200 kilogram (441 pound) warheads," Yonhap quoted the military source as saying. "It is the military intelligence's assessment that the North attacked with a heavy torpedo.

"The military intelligence has made the report to the Blue House and to the Defense Ministry immediately after the sinking of the Cheonan that it is clearly the work of North Korea's military," the source was quoted as saying.

South Korea plans to soon raise the front half of the 1,200-tonne Cheonan, which went down near a disputed sea border with North Korea, and will issue its verdict on the cause of the explosion that sank the warship after that.

Analysts said there is little South Korea can do even if Pyongyang is found to be the culprit, because a military response was likely to hurt its own quickly recovering economy and bolster North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's standing at home.

Lee ended a decade of no-questions-asked aid to the destitute North and called for a hardline push for Pyongyang to disarm.

"The nuclear issue has still not been resolved. This and the Cheonan incident all serve to inflict a negative impact on the Lee administration," said Lee Nam-young, a political analyst at the Sejong University in Seoul.

The reclusive North has denied it had anything to do with the sinking near the disputed sea border off the west coast that has been the scene of two deadly naval battles in the past decade.

It accused Lee of using the incident for political gains ahead of crucial local elections in June.

South Korea has few economic options left to hurt the North. It has already suspended its unconditional handouts that once were worth more than $1 billion to the North, which has an estimated yearly GDP of $17 billion.

The greatest risk to the region is a brief armed conflict where North Korea fires tens of thousands of artillery shells into the Seoul area, home to about half of the South's 49 million people, and fires its hundreds of missiles at major cities in the South and Japan.

Yonhap said the South Korean and U.S. military suspected the North was stepping up drills to infiltrate a submarine south of the naval border, hidden among Chinese fishing boats, and wage a surprise attack against the South.

UH OH!

S.Korean ship sinking, North attack suspected-media

(Reuters) - A South Korean naval vessel with more than 100 aboard was sinking on Friday in waters near North Korea and Seoul was investigating whether it was hit in a torpedo attack by the North, South Korean media said.

Broadcaster SBS said many (perhaps 100, according to some sources) South Korean sailors on the stricken vessel were feared dead.

South Korea's YTN TV network said the government was investigating whether the sinking was due to a torpedo attack by the North, and Yonhap news agency said the Seoul government had convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers.

Yonhap also reported a South Korean navy ship firing towards an unidentified vessel to the north.

North Korea in recent weeks has said it was bolstering its defences in response to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills that were held this month.

Oops, Kim Jong-IL Did It Again!

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama on the phone at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on May 26, 2009. South Korea joined a US-led drive to curb trade in weapons of mass destruction following North Koreas second nuclear test -- a move which Pyongyang has said would be tantamount to a declaration of war. (Sky News-AFP/Getty Images)

Another North Korean Missile Test:

North Korea has launched its sixth missile since testing a nuclear weapon this week, a South Korean presidential official has said.

The short-range missile has been fired from North Korea's east coast into the Sea of Japan, the official told Yonhap news agency.

The communist state shot up three short-range ground-to-air missiles from locations near its east coast on Monday, the same day it conducted an underground nuclear test that shocked the world.

It launched two more off its east coast on Tuesday, Yonhap news agency reported.

The missiles fired in the last two days are said to have a range of 80 miles.

Several times in recent years, the North has test-fired short-range missiles into either the Yellow Sea or the Sea of Japan.

The exercises are often staged to coincide with periods of regional tension.

The United Nations Security Council has said it needs "some time" to finalise a resolution sanctioning North Korea for its latest nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

The announcement was made by US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice following the council's meeting between Britain, China, France, Russia, the US, Japan and South Korea.

On Monday, the council unanimously condemned North Korea for its nuclear test.

It said the nuclear and missile tests violated UN Resolution 1718 adopted in October 2006 after North Korea's first atomic test.

The resolution forbids the reclusive regime from conducting any future nuclear tests or missile launches.

Obama's N. Korea Strategy: KUMBAYA