Despite the recent truce in the Yemen capital of Sanaa , fighting rages on in the country, with hundreds of government soldiers firing on protesters in the southern city of Taiz today. A medical official and other witnesses tell the AP at least 20 were killed when the soldiers stormed a…
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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Egypt lifted a 4-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, greatly easing travel restrictions on the 1.5 million residents of the Palestinian territory in a move that bolstered the Hamas government while dealing a setback to Israel’s attempts to isolate the militant group. The sense of relief was palpable as buses piled high with luggage crossed the Rafah border terminal and hundreds of people traveled abroad for overdue medical appointments, business dealings and family affairs. In Israel, fears were heightened that militants and weapons will soon pour into the territory. “I was so happy to hear that the Egyptian border is opening so I can finally travel for treatment,” said Mohammad Zoarob, a 66-year-old suffering from chronic kidney disease. He said he had been waiting for a medical permit from the Palestinian health ministry for five years so he could go to Egypt for treatment. When Palestinian officials coincidentally approved the permit on Saturday, he kissed his family goodbye, rushed to the border and was quickly whisked across. “They put me in an ambulance and in five minutes I reached the Egyptian side of the crossing,” he said. Saturday’s expansion of the Rafah crossing was a tangible benefit of the popular unrest sweeping through the Arab world. The blockade, which has fueled an economic crisis in Gaza, is deeply unpopular among Arabs, and Egypt’s caretaker leaders had promised to end it since the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after the Islamic militant Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007. The closure aimed to weaken Hamas. But the Iranian-backed group remains firmly in power, operating the border crossing even at a time when it is supposed to be reconciling with the rival Fatah movement. Until Saturday, the Rafah border terminal had functioned at a limited capacity. Only certain classes of people, such as students, businessmen or medical patients, were eligible to travel and the crossing was often subject to closures, leading to huge backlogs that forced people to wait for months. Under the new system, virtually anyone can travel, and a much larger number of Palestinians are expected to be able to cross each day. Hundreds of Gazans gathered early Saturday as the first bus load of passengers crossed the border at 9 a.m. Two Egyptian officers stood guard next to a large Egyptian flag atop the border gate as the vehicle rumbled through. One after another buses crossed Rafah, pulling blue carts behind them with luggage piled high. “All we need is to travel like humans, be treated with dignity and feel like any other citizens of the world who can travel in and out freely,” said Rami Arafat, 52, who hoped to catch a flight out of Cairo on Sunday to attend his daughter’s wedding in Algeria. Nearby, 28-year-old Khaled Halaweh said he was headed to Egypt to study for a master’s degree in engineering at Alexandria University. “The closure did not affect only the travel of passengers or the flowing of goods. Our brains and our thoughts were under blockade,” said Halaweh, who said he hadn’t been out of Gaza for seven years. Inside the border terminal Saturday, the atmosphere was orderly, as Hamas police called passengers one by one to register their travel documents. By the close of operation at 5 p.m., 410 people had crossed into Egypt, said Salama Baraka, head of police at the Rafah terminal, well above the daily average of about 300 in recent months. Thirty-nine were turned back because they did not have the proper visas or travel documents, Baraka said. Israeli media quoted Egyptian officials as saying some were also on Egyptian “terror lists.” In the past, Egypt had rejected passengers found to be on “blacklists.” An additional 150 people crossed from Egypt into Gaza. With the crossing now operating six days a week, officials hope to raise the daily number of travelers to 1,000. Baraka said ten thousand people are registered to travel between June and August 25. “Today is a cornerstone for a new era that we hope will pave the road to ending the siege and blockade on Gaza,” said Hatem Awideh, director general of the Hamas border authority in Gaza. “We hope this facilitation by our Egyptian brothers will improve travel and will allow everyone to leave Gaza.” About 100 Hamas supporters marched with Palestinian and Egyptian flags outside the border terminal in a gesture of gratitude to Egypt. “This courageous step by Egypt reflects the deep historic relations between the Palestinian and Egyptian nations,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri. The new system will not resolve Gazans’ travel woes completely, though. Men between the ages of 18 and 40 still will have to obtain Egyptian visas, a process that can take months. Women, children and older men must get travel permits, which can be obtained in several days. Israel, which controls Gaza’s cargo crossings, allows most consumer goods into Gaza, but still restricts exports as well as the entry of much-needed construction materials, saying they could be used by militants. Israel also enforces a naval blockade aimed at weapons smuggling. Israeli and American officials have expressed concerns that Hamas will exploit the opening to bring weapons and fighters into Gaza. In January 2008, masked militants blew open the Rafah border wall, allowing thousands of people to pour in and out of Egypt. Egyptian officials say they have security measures in place to keep weapons from crossing through Rafah. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said the Rafah opening puts “additional responsibility on the Egyptians about what happens in Gaza.” “Both Israel and Egypt have mutual interests against global Jihad terror and against Hamas terror and I expect that cooperation will continue for the benefit of both sides,” Ayalon said on Channel 10 TV. Opposition lawmaker Nachman Shai blamed the Israeli government for failing to prevent the opening of Rafah. Israeli officials had lobbied Egypt to leave the restrictions in place. “Mubarak is gone, there is a new government and we already see how Israel-Egypt relations are substantially deteriorating,” he said. “A significant security breach was created today under our noses. Hamas has long used tunnels to get arms into Gaza. Gaza militants now have military-grade rockets that have hit cities in southern Israel. Israeli military officials believe that Iranian experts are already in Gaza training Hamas. The fear is that it will now become even easier for them to get into the territory. “One trainer who tells them how to set up the rockets and how to use them is equal to a large quantity of weapons,” Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official who works closely with Egypt, told Channel 2 TV. The border opening comes on the heels of an Egyptian-mediated unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. Hamas has governed Gaza since routing Fatah forces in 2007, leaving the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in control only of the West Bank. Earlier this month, the sides signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo. But details are still being worked out, and Hamas will be in charge of the Palestinian side of Rafah. Both Egypt and Fatah officials played down any significance, describing the expanded operations of Rafah a victory for all Palestinians. Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah official, said he considered the border opening a fruit of the unity deal. (This version CORRECTS Corrects that crossing is open six days a week. AP Video.)
Continue reading …A former French foreign minister says he will represent the Libyan victims of NATO bombings, and that he would defend Moammar Gadhafi in the International Criminal Court if asked. “If he asked me, yes, of course,” says Roland Dumas. “(But) I don’t think it is going to happen.” Dumas was…
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Blatter insists only ‘Fifa family’ can stop him winning re-election on day of high drama in the wake of corruption allegations Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, has faced down a barrage of criticism over corruption within football’s governing body and vowed that only “the Fifa family” could prevent him being re-elected unopposed on Wednesday . After a day of high drama in which Qatar threatened legal action against Fifa’s secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, for implying it had bought the right to host the 2022 World Cup, Blatter defiantly insisted there was nothing for Fifa to investigate. “Crisis? What is a crisis?” asked Blatter, the day after a presidential election candidate and a Fifa vice-president became the third and fourth of Fifa’s 24 most senior politicians to have been suspended from football over corruption allegations in the past six months. Blatter’s stubbornness has been reinforced by the knowledge that he will be elected unopposed for another term on Wednesday. The same congress of national federations will now be his judge, he claimed. “They will decide if I am a valid or a non-valid candidate, or if I am a valid or non-valid president.” There were some references to reforms Blatter intends to take up. One is for Fifa’s ethics committee to be strengthened. Blatter, alone on the press conference podium at Fifa headquarters, spoke of “all the devils who are in this game”. It is not a criticism that is likely to shake the support of his member organisations. But the lack of support among football fans for his 13-year stewardship of the world game was clear as “Blatter out” became the second most popular international trend on Twitter . Fans were responding to a day of extraordinary revelations at Fifa’s $100m (£61m) Zurich headquarters. An email leaked by the suspended Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, had earlier apparently raised the most damaging allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid. In it, Valcke, Blatter’s closest aide as secretary general of Fifa, stated that Qatar had “bought the World Cup”. Qatar quickly denied the allegations. Hours later, Valcke issued his own clarification. “When I refer to the 2022 World Cup in that email, what I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support,” he said. “I have at no time made, or was intending to make, any reference to any purchase of votes or similar unethical behaviour.” Blatter, who as president has a statutory responsibility for the line management of Fifa’s secretary general, refused to express any view about Valcke’s explanation. “I don’t answer that question and I ask for your understanding,” he said. “You have received the Fifa general secretary statement. I am the president; I am only here to talk about the president.” Fifa’s reputation suffered a further blow with the emergence of photographic evidence of neat bundles of cash allegedly paid to the Bahamas Football Association by the Qatari former Fifa presidential candidate and president of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohamed Bin Hammam, in an effort to garner support for his election campaign. In an almost satirical touch, the money had been delivered in a brown envelope. Chuck Blazer, the American Fifa official who is the chief accuser of the two senior figures to have been suspended this week, stated when asked if he thought Fifa was corrupt: “I think individuals are.” Like Warner, however, Bin Hammam continues to attack the process that has led to his “temporary exclusion” from all football activity. Bin Hammam has stated his intention to appeal against the decision by the Fifa-appointed ethics committee to force him out of football while investigators carry out their own inquiries into the alleged activities of Warner and Bin Hammam. Blatter’s refusal to brook any criticism of his oversight of Fifa was put in relief by the public comments of Coca-Cola, a major sponsor. “The current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport,” said Coca-Cola, adding its weight to the concerns raised by Adidas last week. “We have every expectation that Fifa will resolve this situation in an expedient and thorough manner.” Though those words may seem lightweight, they are a significant departure from the usual steadfast support Fifa sponsors demonstrate for the organisation. Usually, they separate their partnership with the World Cup from any controversy at Fifa House. Now, in a potentially strong coalition of interest forming against Fifa, world governments are joining the sponsors. In addition to the UK parliamentary inquiry into football governance, the Australian government – whose 2022 World Cup bid failed against Qatar’s – has also begun to express grave concerns. Newspapers in the Middle East even likened the situation in Fifa to the Arab spring that has unseated a number of governments in the region. “If governments try to intervene in our organisation then something is wrong,” Blatter conceded. Then he added: “I think Fifa is strong enough to deal with the problems inside Fifa. I am sure that the day after tomorrow at the congress we will prove we can solve the problems – if there are any – inside the congress.” Blatter made one apparently extraordinary admission. Under his presidency the annual revenues of football’s world governing body have grown to $1.3bn as it feasts on sponsors’ and broadcasters’ appetite for the World Cup. That presidency began in 1998, making his remark revelatory. “I have to say we had no problems until 1998; this was a modest Fifa – now we are a comfortable Fifa,” he said. Although ultimately he angrily left the press conference amid journalists’ heckles, nothing appears set to discomfit Blatter. Fifa Sepp Blatter Jack Warner Jérôme Valcke Mohamed bin Hammam Qatar Matt Scott David Conn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sarah Palin And The ‘Fire In Her Belly’ Is About Installing Theocratic Government In America
May 30, 2011 No CommentSarah Jones at PoliticusUSA points out that Sarah Palin uses terms that sound vaguely religious but have very specific meanings to the dangerous cult of Dominionists (her use of the term “Restoration” for her bus tour is a good example): I’ve been saying for a while now that the mainstream media doesn’t “get” Sarah Palin. Last week, when the astute Lawrence O’Donnell equated her with Trump, I understood his reasoning, but disagreed with the premise. Sarah Palin isn’t Donald Trump, and when she speaks of a “fire in her belly” she’s not using that term politically, but religiously. She means she has a fire of God in her belly to lead the country to Jesus. She means she is anointed to lead us. She has a fire in her belly alright, but it’s not the fire of politics as the pundits know it. Leah Burton, of “ God’s Own Party ” made the following Fire in the Belly video: And it’s not just Sarah Palin. As Leah explains, “She is joined by many who share her biblical “call to service in the name of Jesus Christ” such as Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, and a whole host of frightening – albeit not as recognizable – theocratic politicians who are aggressively working to re-write our Constitution and anchor it in Old Testament Mosaic Law.” The Dominionist politicians might use words that remind you of your own church, or your friends’ churches, but these are not mainline Christians. They seek Dominion over the government, and indeed over what they term the “seven mountains” of culture. Their goal is to return it to the earth to Jesus, and the US to biblical law. Welcome to the new game of politics, where religion plays the role the founders sought to protect us from, a state sponsored religion or an official state religion. The next time you laugh at Sarah Palin because you think she’s dumb, remember that it isn’t that she doesn’t believe in science, it’s that she doesn’t CARE about science. It is irrelevant to her, because the sooner the planet explodes, the sooner Jesus comes back. And when you’re done laughing at her, realize that there are many more, less charismatic Sarah Palins out there, like Governor Scott Walker, whose ability to inflict harm via his beliefs is quite real. And some of them will run for President as moderate Republicans. Haven’t we seen this show before?
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Once you have made the most important step in the transformation journey — choosing to change — it is time to map the course. If you have been reading my blogs, you understand the importance of commitments in the transformation process. I am going to lay out several commitments in each successive blog and highlight tips, tricks and shortcuts along the way! Step 1: Set Your Goal To begin any journey, we need a clear-cut path to where we are going. This process is about creating results by design, not by coincidence. So get out the pad and pencil, because it is time to make some important commitments to yourself. Proper goal setting goes far and beyond just saying “I want to lose weight,” or “I want to fit into my high school jeans.” First and foremost, we need to set a SMART goal. By following this simple acronym for goal setting, you will create the parameters and rules for your journey. Your SMART goal must be: Specific — you must state exactly what your goal is. Be as specific as possible and use the word “will” instead of “want.” For example, “I will lose 46 pounds” or “I will weigh 120 pounds” or “I will fit into a size six.” Measurable — it must be quantifiable and measurable. for example: a number on the scale, clothing size or circumference measurements in inches or centimeters. Attainable — you must be able to achieve the goal within your daily time and financial constraints. If you are a single mother working two jobs, keep your time commitments to exercise at an attainable level! Even if it is just 10 minutes a day, it is better than what you are doing now, and it will eventually grow. Realistic — Keep your goals realistic! If you want to lose 60 pounds, don’t expect it to happen in two weeks. Don’t expect more than you are willing to commit to this process. A good rule of thumb for expected weekly weight loss is to divide your weight by 100. For example, a 200-pound individual can lose around two per week. A 150-pound individual can lose around 1.5 lbs per week. Get it? But let’s get real … you can definitely lose more than this number starting out, but expect the number to get smaller as you get closer to your goal weight. Time Sensitive — Give yourself a specific time and date upon which you will reach your goal. NOTE: Now take the paper with your SMART goal and hang it where you will see it every day — the refrigerator, bathroom mirror or desktop … maybe even all three of these places. Keep the commitment in front of you! Step 2: Nutrition The next step is to begin cleaning up your nutrition. The first three nutrition commitments on the weight loss journey are: 1: Eat breakfast every day. This “most important meal” seems to be a thing of the past these days. Unfortunately, skipping breakfast triggers a hormonal response in the body to store the majority of your later meals as body fat. In addition, skipping breakfast has also been proven to increase appetite, leading to overeating later in the day. This combination is a one-two punch for packing on the pounds. 2: Remove or at least reduce sugar, flour and fried foods. Our food has changed more in the past 50 years than in the past 5,000, and these three foods are some of the main culprits in the obesity epidemic we are facing today. Removing them from your diet may seem difficult since they are in the majority of our processed foods. Make the switch to foods with natural sweeteners like stevia or xylitol, whole grain breads and pastas, and baked, grilled or steamed foods. By feeding your body real, whole, natural foods, you will see an instantaneous drop on the scale … and an even greater rise in your energy levels! NOTE: if you are a sugar-addict you may go through one to three days of withdrawals. Hang in there, it will be worth it! 3: Drink at least a half-gallon of water daily. When you have this down, build up to one full gallon daily. The rule has typically been to drink half your bodyweight in ounces daily, but when coupled with daily exercise, our hydration needs skyrocket. We need a yardstick … something to make SURE we get all of our water in daily. That is why I recommend carrying a gallon of water with you daily. You can break it into smaller one-quart or liter containers, but by the end of the day, finish off the gallon. Here’s why: The majority of Americans are dehydrated. Our brain has a weak mechanism for detecting thirst and often mistakes it for hunger. The more water you drink, the less you eat. The fewer calories you eat, the more you lose. Pretty simple. NOTE: Make your water taste good! Use different water flavorings, from teas to calorie-free, naturally sweetened mixes. It will make your daily gallon that much more fun Step 3: Exercise The final step is to begin daily exercise. The three things to focus on are: 1: Set a daily appointment with yourself to exercise. It can be as small as 10 minutes, but be sure to schedule this time for your health and happiness, because otherwise it won’t happen. 2: Walk as much as possible. From parking in the farthest parking spot to taking the stairs over the escalator, make your legs move as much as possible … they are your calorie-burning engines!! 3: Begin to explore activities that you want to do every day and will enjoy doing for a lifetime (dancing, tennis, kickboxing, hiking, basketball, weightlifting, etc). By selecting activities that you enjoy and have fun with, you are setting up a foundation for lifetime success! Enjoy the journey and stay tuned … so much more to come! Chris
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Both read the bible day and night; but you read black where I read white. –William Blake No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. –George Bernard Shaw More than 20 centuries after the Bible’s production, people still bring it to bear on practically every important social and political issue in the Western world (and much of the Eastern world). In the 18th and 19th centuries, both proponents and opponents of African slavery quoted chapters and verses to support their positions. In the 20th and 21st centuries, all sides of every hot issue, from stem cell research to homosexual marriage, include Bible interpretation to back up their stance. How is it possible that those who are pro-choice and those who are anti-abortion can both point to the same text to support their arguments? How can some Jews and Christians use the Bible to justify the subordination of women while other Jews and Christians base feminist reforms and the emancipation — and even ordination — of women on the very same Scripture? Sometimes the Bible says what people think it does. Often it does not. Sometimes it presents multiple perspectives on the same issue. And on some issues it says nothing at all. The Bible is frequently mistranslated, misquoted and misunderstood. Why? For one thing, people usually read it in translations, and without knowledge of its original literary or historical context. And they rarely read it in its entirety, so they end up pulling out small pieces: quotations and passages that seem to say what they want them to. Sometimes they are well-meaning. Sometimes their motives are not so pure. But this does not mean that we can’t use the Bible. It doesn’t mean that we can’t find what it has to say about the big issues. The Bible’s value, above all, is as a guide to lives. And we mean to all of our lives, whether one is religious or not, whether one is Christian, Jewish, or from another religion or no religion. Some people think of fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews as the ones who connect their decisions to the words of the Bible. But that is not correct. One finds scholars, clergy and just folks, from all across the religious spectrum, who read, study and care about what the Bible says on things that matter to them. And one finds many who have never read or studied the Bible who still share a cultural sense of its importance as a foundation for morality and virtue. The Bible is a source of human experience and of wisdom, and wisdom is something we need. We can argue about which biblical passages are historically accurate, but, still, it is the first history writing on earth.The Bible’s oldest prose was written when Herodotus’s great-grandmother was not yet in preschool. We can question the morality of any given story or law, but still the Bible is an extraordinary repository of remarkable stories, exquisite writing and revolutionary laws. Indeed, when we argue about these things, we are participating in a 2,000-year-old process that the Bible itself started us doing. You may say, “But there have been times in history (and the present) when people used the Bible for harm: burning ‘witches,’ attacking ‘infidels,’ defending slavery.” True, but that, precisely, proves that we cannot ignore it. The fact that it has both inspired people to do great good and been used by people to do great harm means that it is really important for us to pay attention to it — and to get it right. So we wrote a book (“The Bible Now,” Oxford University Press, 2011) designed to help people understand the Bible’s place on five major issues of our time: homosexuality, abortion, women, the death penalty and the earth. We use historical-critical methods, philological and literary analyses, text criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism, anthropological perspectives, archaeology and ancient languages (Hebrew, Greek, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Aramaic) — the variety of tools of our trade — to address these questions. We are not doing this out of some antiquarian curiosity with ancient things. As much as the Bible is an ancient artifact, it is also a present one. The Bible matters to people. Biblical scholars are thus in the position of treating a classical text with tools and skills like those of a scholar of Homer or Aristotle but at the same time dealing with immediate, relevant issues like those in each morning’s news. We were both trained in critical biblical scholarship, but that does not mean that we cannot write for orthodox and fundamentalist readers with courtesy and respect. And as long as we keep to the facts and to honest method, what we have to share from our research should be useful to both traditional and critical, religious and not-religious, readers. We’re using this post (and future posts) on HuffPost Religion to help us reach an audience that is engaged with these issues. We want you to see how the Bible actually treats them, so we’ll be raising issues from our book here over the next several weeks. We also want to learn from you; to get your feedback on these and other issues. You may be surprised by what the Bible actually says — or doesn’t say. Our job is only to present the information, not to persuade you to be for or against abortion, for example. But whatever position you take on abortion, you should be better informed of the evidence. And you should be able to explain your position to yourself and others. And you should be able to defend your position in arguments better. You may change your mind. You may not. But our goal is to give you as much good information as possible. You can do with it what you will. We’ll start in our next post with a point on the topic of abortion.
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There’s a saying ’round the webOS world… something to the effect of “it’s impossible to brick a webOS device.” Turns out, that’s hardly the case these days — the newfangled Touch to Share technology that’s tucked into the latest round of HP devices is mighty fickle, and one Rob Whitby has somehow managed to turn his Veer 4G into a bantam paperweight. Rather than using it as a projectile with a mind to make his security deposit vanish, he did the only remaining intelligent thing to do: rip it open, while taking pleasure in refusing it an epidural. There’s no video of the presumably gut-wrenching procedure, but there’s a shockingly detailed account of the teardown linked below. Eye candy’s just a click away, and yes, donations for a replacement are being accepted. The funeral date, however, remains undetermined. HP Veer gets bricked, disassembled after checking ‘Organ Donor’ box originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 May 2011 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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BRUSSELS – Europeans traded blame Monday over the source of a mysterious bacterial outbreak that has killed 14 people and sickened hundreds across the continent and forced Russia to ban imports of some fresh vegetables from Spain and Germany out of fear they could be contaminated. Austrian authorities sent inspectors to supermarkets Monday to make sure Spanish vegetables suspected of contamination have been taken off shelves, while in Italy the country’s paramilitary Carabinieri has been on the lookout since Saturday for suspected contaminated imports from Spain, the Netherlands and other European countries. Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, a European Union spokeswoman, said German authorities had…
Continue reading …A power struggle in Iran between president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei appears to be resolving, as the country’s supreme leader publicly backed Ahmadinejad yesterday, reports the Los Angeles Times . “While there are weaknesses and problems, the composition of the executive branch is good and appropriate, and the government is…
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