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الأربعاء، 4 يناير 2012

Lincoln Tribune

New York Firebombing Prompts Solidarity with Muslims
Romney, Paul, Santorum Tied in Iowa Caucuses
Sri Lanka repatriates 35 Indian fishermen after cyclone
Myanmar commutes sentences ahead of Independence Day
Indonesia: 13 mentally ill persons found chained, isolated at homes

New York Firebombing Prompts Solidarity with Muslims

Posted: 03 Jan 2012 07:19 PM PST

Authorities suspect that a man arrested in connection with a series of firebombings against Muslim and Hindu targets in New York may have acted out of revenge after being thrown out of a neighborhood convenience store for alleged petty theft. Our correspondent reports the incident and its aftermath highlight both suspicion of and solidarity with New York's Muslim community.

A surveillance camera captured one of five attacks Sunday in Queens and nearby Nassau County.

Among the targets: a home used for Hindu worship...

A family home...

The Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens.

On Monday, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly quoted witnesses as saying the suspect was ejected from a convenience store on December 27th.

"That individual tried to steal a container of milk and a bottle of Frappuccino," said Kelly. "When they were pushing him out of the store, he said words to the effect that 'we're going to get even; we're going to get back at you.'"

While it was not immediately clear if the attacks were based on religion, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to the Islamic center Tuesday to lend his support to the Muslim community.

"I think we all know that we are in this together," said Bloomberg. "Discrimination against anybody is discrimination against everyone."

At his annual interfaith breakfast prayer on Friday, Bloomberg used that very phrase, which he attributed to his father. More than a dozen Muslim clergy and civic leaders boycotted the breakfast to protest alleged police surveillance of the New York Muslim community.

On Tuesday, the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Cyrus McGoldrick, said the allegations of police surveillance are a sore point with many U.S. Muslims.

"Fear-mongering about Islam and other American minorities have ripped this country apart," said McGoldrick. "Warmongering politicians and willing media confirm this narrative. The warrantless and comprehensive surveillance of the Muslim community by the NYPD confirms this narrative."

Although no one was injured, the fire bombings brought many politicians, civic leaders and clergy of other faiths to express solidarity with their Muslim neighbors. Gregory Meeks represents Queens in the U.S. Congress.

"The message is to the rest of the world that the United States of America, that New York City, will not stand for intolerance anywhere," said Meeks. "And we will join together because we are together as one to make sure that we combat anyone who tried to separate us."

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the fire bombings, whether they were bias attacks or not, will be vigorously prosecuted and severely punished.

Romney, Paul, Santorum Tied in Iowa Caucuses

Posted: 03 Jan 2012 06:28 PM PST

Social conservative Rick Santorum, anti-war advocate Ron Paul, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are virtually tied in early vote counting in the U.S. state of Iowa, in the first nominating contest of the 2012 presidential election.

With 22 percent of the votes counted, the race is going as expected so far. But nearly half of Iowa voters said before the caucuses that they were still making up their minds, so the final outcome is impossible to predict.

Candidates have been furiously campaigning in Iowa, where residents braved the winter cold to cast their votes at party caucus meetings across the state Tuesday evening.

The Democratic Party also holds its caucuses. President Barack Obama is unopposed for the party nomination but hosted a live web chat with supporters in Iowa Tuesday night. He faces a difficult test to win another term in the November election. The nation's economy has recovered sluggishly from the 2007-2009 recession, leaving many voters questioning his leadership.

Campaigning for the Republican nomination, Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas, promoted his anti-war stance at a high school outside the state capital, Des Moines.

"There is no reason in the world that we cannot be strict constitutionalists, strong national defense and say that we should not send young people off to war unless it's absolutely necessary and necessary for our national security," he said.

At that same "Rock the Caucus" event, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum encouraged students to hold their president and presidential candidates accountable.

"Every decision that's going to be made during the next few years, whether 'Obamacare' is repealed or whether it's kept in place, whether taxes are going to grow, whether this deficit that is now crushing the economy and will crush your pocketbooks in the future is going to be dealt with so you won't have a lower standard of living. Those are the issues," he said.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said she is the one true core conservative in the race. "Of all the candidates, I am the complete package, the one that's most in the image and likeness of a Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. That's what our country needs right now. That's what our candidate needs to be to take on Barack Obama, to beat him and make him a one-term president," she said.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich told reporters that President Obama's health care reform is all wrong, and that the Massachusetts health care plan Romney supported as governor was a model for the policy.

"It's real easy. I said, we looked at it, we studied it, we concluded it was wrong. Unlike Romney, I've concluded it was wrong. He's still defending it. Nobody at the White House has said they relied on Gingrichcare to design Obamacare. They have said very clearly they relied on Romneycare. They actually had Romney staff in the White House helping design Obamacare," he said.

Voters in Iowa often do not pick the eventual presidential nominees for either the Republicans or Democrats. But the state's caucuses can push weak contenders out of the race, or propel stronger candidates to success in other states during the next several weeks.

Of the seven Republican contenders, one, the former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, has not campaigned in Iowa. He is pinning his hopes on a good showing in the New Hampshire state primary January 10.

Sri Lanka repatriates 35 Indian fishermen after cyclone

Posted: 03 Jan 2012 06:14 PM PST

CHENNAI, INDIA (BNO NEWS) -- Thirty-five Indian fishermen who drifted into Sri Lankan waters late last month were taken back to the state of Tamil Nadu by the Indian Coast Guard on Tuesday, the Press Trust of India reported.

A total of 40 fishermen on 10 boats became distressed in rough seas between December 18 and December 29 as a result of poor weather and heavy winds. They had ventured into the seas from different coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and were pushed into Sri Lankan waters.

Of the fishermen, 36 were rescued but later detained by Sri Lankan authorities. Following the intervention of the Tamil Nadu government and the Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka, the rescued fishermen were released by a local court "without being made to undergo any procedures."

Four fishermen remain missing and are feared to have drowned.

The repatriation on Tuesday had earlier been delayed after Cyclone Thane struck India's southeastern coast last week, killing 46 people. Thane was the strongest cyclone of the 2011 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, which runs throughout the year although most cyclones tend to form between April and December, with notable peaks in May and November.

Myanmar commutes sentences ahead of Independence Day

Posted: 03 Jan 2012 05:39 PM PST

YANGON (BNO NEWS) -- Burmese President Thein Sein has decided to commute prisoners' sentences ahead of the country's Independence Day, a Burmese news organization in exile reported on Tuesday.

Under the order, death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment while those serving sentences of more than 30 years will be commuted to 30 years. In addition, sentences between 20 and 30 years will be reduced to 20 years, and sentences under 20 years will be cut by one-fourth.

The order reportedly covers all prisoners who committed crimes before Tuesday. However, many prominent political prisoners who are serving long sentences will not benefit from the order, according to the Mizzima news organization.

A spokesman for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party said the move falls short of achieving national reconciliation. "Many political prisoners will remain in detention," NLD party spokesman Han Thar Myint said. "It is not satisfactory."

Most recently, Burma, ruled by military regimes since 1962, has been trying to move cautiously toward democracy. Western governments have been pressuring the government to release political prisoners and embark on democratic reforms, but progress has been slow.

Under the new government, two amnesty releases were ordered on May 16 and October 12 of 2011, affecting 14,758 and 6,359 prisoners respectively. The amnesty order in October included only about 200 political prisoners.

Estimates of the number of political prisoners in jail range from around 600 to more than 1,500. Aung San Suu Ky said in November that there were still about 600 political prisoners, according to a survey conducted by NLD.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, there are at least 1,998 political prisoners in 42 prisons and 109 labor camps across Burma, which is formally known as Myanmar. Late last year, authorities released pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi after years under house arrest.

Indonesia: 13 mentally ill persons found chained, isolated at homes

Posted: 03 Jan 2012 05:24 PM PST

PADANG ARO, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- Social services in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra are investigating the cases of more than a dozen mentally ill people who were kept isolated and chained by their families for years, officials said on Tuesday.

Suwirman, a social services officer in the province, told the Antara news agency on Tuesday that at least 13 people who are mentally ill were found to have been shackled and isolated. They had been kept by their families because they had no money to seek help.

Some of the victims had been kept isolated, with no medical treatment or supervision, for as long as three years. The local government had previously told the families they were unable to offer assistance with medical treatment or hospital bills, although Suwirman's office has been providing families with food packages which contain rice, canned foods, noodles, and milk.

Of the 13 cases, seven were found in the Sangir subdistrict, three in Pauh Duo, two in Sangir Jujuan, and one in Koto Parik Gadang Diateh. The victims are aged between 18 and 39 years old, Antara reported.

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الأربعاء، 4 يناير 2012

Lincoln Tribune

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