Thursday, February 24, 2011
Back posting on Bahrain.
A blogger freed by the king of Bahrain along with dozens of other prisoners has told the BBC World Service he was insulted and tortured in prison.
Ali Abdulemam was arrested in September and charged with being a member of a terrorist cell and spreading false information about the authorities.
He denied wrongdoing, saying he had no sectarian or party political loyalties.
If the government had heeded calls for reform earlier, he said, it might have avoided today’s popular upheaval.
“Our demand was to reform the constitution but it just ignored us,” he told the BBC on Wednesday.
What to do? Especially when we’ve admitted that multiculturalism doesn’t work.
Although initially wrong-footed by the uprisings across the Arab world, European nations eventually collected themselves, welcomed the new eras in Tunisia and Egypt, and blessed the yearning for democracy that is spreading across the region. But the European Union’s delicate diplomatic dance has been tainted by a conflicting message of hostility: while throwing their support behind the Arab protests, officials are simultaneously shrieking at the prospect of Arab migrants seeking refuge in Europe.
Protests in Jordan.
ordan’s Cabinet has approved laws making it easier to organize protests and will revive a government body that works to ensure basic commodities remain affordable to the poor.
A government official said the reforms had been passed late Tuesday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the government official said organizers would need only to inform authorities 48 hours in advance of protests so public protection is assured.
Reforms came hours after the country’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, vowed to resume demonstrations pushing for change.
Jordan’s powerful Islamist opposition said it plans to stage a “day of anger” demonstration with other parties Friday to demand reforms, in what they hope will be the largest protest since January.
“Around 10,000 members of the Islamist movement as well as supporters of 19 political parties will take part in the march to call for reforms,” Zaki Bani Rsheid of the Islamic Action Front executive committee said Wednesday.
President Marc asking for help.
Madagascar’s ousted leader Marc Ravalomanana has met with a regional mediator to discuss his predicament after being prevented from leaving South Africa, he said on Wednesday in a statement.
Ravalomanana, who has been in exile in South Africa since 2009, met former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, to ask for his support after authorities in Madagascar barred the deposed leader’s return to the Indian Ocean island.
“It is important for me to be there to negotiate with the genuine political parties so we can get together for genuine Malagasy-Malagasy talks.”
UN drops the ball ... again ... on their foot.
U.N. investigators say police recruits were beaten to death, sexually assaulted and forced to stand for hours in the heat as part of a training program funded by international donors, demonstrating the challenges ahead for what will soon be the world’s newest nation.
Some of the 6,000 recruits who took part in a yearlong program to train new officers to promote stability in the war-torn region say they were raped and were beaten with sticks. U.N. investigators found that at least two trainees died from injuries.
The academy had received more than $1 million from the U.N. Development Program with promises of more aid. Now, international donors have suspended their support to the Rajaf police academy pending further investigation. Plans for the next class of recruits are on hold.
Should Congress Be Exempt From a Government Shutdown?
If Congress fails to pass a government funding bill before March 4th and we enter shutdown mode, hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed without pay or asked to continue working in a non-pay status. But guess who will continue to get paid as if nothing happened? That’s right, Members of Congress and the President.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Just when you thought it was save to re-enter the market.
It’s easy to define which mortgage lenders will be affected by the wind-down and replacement of Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB): All of them. ...
... It’s harder to figure out which ones will be affected the most - and nearly impossible to tell whether the effect will be a good one or bad one until Congress decides how it will overhaul the entire housing-finance system. ...
Entering the history books.
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is fighting to hold on to power as Egypt- and Tunisia-inspired anti-government demonstrations continue to spread throughout Libya, with reports of several hundred dead. In a media address today, Gaddafi called those who oppose him “rats” and “agents.” He also vowed to stay in power and “die a martyr.”
The 68-year-old, who has controlled Libya since he came to power in a bloodless 1969 military coup, has never been one to shy away from controversy. We’ve rounded up some of his biggest scandals throughout the years:
Executions in China.
The four were accused of killing nine people in three separate incidents between August and November of last year, the Xinjiang-based wlmqwb.com website reported Wednesday.
In the most serious act, six men detonated a bomb near where a security patrol was organizing Aug. 19. The website said three patrol members, three civilians and two of the attackers were killed and 15 people were injured.
Two of the accused were sentenced to death and two more given suspended death sentences that are usually commuted to life in prison with good behavior, the site said. It did not give a date when the court decided.
In the second case, a single shooter killed two men with a homemade gun Sept. 29. In the third case, a man stabbed one person to death and injured two others in an altercation Nov. 2 after the accused refused to stop his vehicle for a police inspection.
Why was he still in power?
As the Libyan regime comes under pressure, so too do the country’s northern partners. Both the French and Italian governments share lucrative economic ties with Libya.
The two European Union members have come out against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s use of force to crush protests, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling for an “immediate halt” to the violence.
Yet questions remain in both countries as to how unrest - and a potential toppling of Gadhafi’s regime - could affect national interests.
Housing looking even worse.
No double dip here. There’s nothing to see. Just move along.
Somedays you just want to throw a snowball at a lobbyist.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Hmmmm. Change in status.
The arrest last month of 36-year-old Raymond Allen Davis has caused an international diplomatic crisis. The U.S. has repeatedly asserted that Davis had diplomatic immunity and should have been released immediately.
But former and current U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the incident, told the AP that Davis had been working as a CIA security contractor for the U.S. consulate in Lahore.
Davis, a former Special Forces soldier who left the military in 2003, shot the men in what he described as an attempted armed robbery in the eastern city of Lahore.
Boulder Time
