Fun News Roundup

Italy just returned a statue head to Libya.  It's about 2,000 years old and was stolen in the 1960s.

Karbala, Iraq is asking Guiness World Records to visit during the next Arbaeen to verify the high number of Shi'ite pilgrims.

A British company is in trouble for trying to sell a piece of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad.  Apparently they have a 2-foot piece of buttock.

Quick News Roundup

A lot of stuff has happened over the past few days:

Big earthquake in Turkey.  Magnitude 7.2  It's been a while since the last one.

The Saudi crown prince died.  So far all the kings have been the sons of Abdul Aziz, the founder of the Kingdom.  Call me crazy, but maybe they should try having a ruler who isn't over 80 years old?  Or maybe even less than 60?

Qaddafi is dead and Libya is "officially" free now.

The United States is leaving Iraq.

Kurds Protest Corruption

Yes, the Kurds in Iraq are protesting too.  Not in the way of Libya or anything like that, but some people are making comparisons to 1991 (protests against Saddam).  They're protesting corruption in Sulaimaniyah.  Apparently, as often happens, some government officials or political parties are getting too much control over business matters and making a fortune off of it, and the people are sick of it.

Incoming Iraqi Government

Check out the new government of Iraq, courtesy of Yahoo!.

• Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
• President Jalal Talabani
• Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi
• Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq
• Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani
• Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
• Chairman of the National Council for Strategic Policies Ayad Allawi
• Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi

Iraqi Christians Leaving

The number of Christians in Iraq has been dropping since the US "freed" Iraq from Saddam Hussein.  The Church siege killed several priests and about 70 other Christians.  Now the UN is reporting that thousands are leaving central Iraq for Kurdish areas which are considered safer.  The UN High Commission for Refugees is also worried because some Iraqi Christians who are trying to get asylum in Europe are being sent back to Iraq to areas that simply aren't safe for them.  One of these countries is Sweden. 

Iraqi Church Siege Over: Upate III

Twelve terrorists were arrested in Iraq for their role in the church siege last month.  They appear to belong to a group called the Islamic State of Iraq.  And Al-Qa'eda in Iraq also belongs to that group.

Iraqi Church Siege Over: Upate II

The Christians in Iraq have had a rough time since the war started.  Now a bunch of them are dead because of the church siege.  According to recent reports, 41 Christians died (2 of them were priests) and 78 may have been wounded.  The monsignor of the church says only 25 were wounded, and another government official says 60.  At this point, I have no idea who is correct.  What we do know is that the Christian population of Iraq is rapidly shrinking.

Iraqi Church Siege Over: Upate I

Wow.  It's amazing how things can change over night.  The news this morning says that 52 people died during the siege, and most of the deaths occurred when the security forces stormed the church.  They're not sure right now exactly who shot the hostages, but there are a lot of people dead and injured.  And Iraqi Christians are very concerned about their safety.

Iraqi Church Siege Over

Last night gunmen attacked the Iraqi stock exchange, then took over a church after running from security forces.  One hundred people were held hostage for about 4 hours.  One or two policemen were killed, and about a dozen people were wounded.  One of the hostages may also have been killed (reports are conflicting).

Iraq has really become a dangerous place.  In general, I was all for the US troops getting out of Iraq.  But at the same time, I am worried that the Iraqi military and police forces may not yet be up to the job of securing Iraq.  It would be horrible if this turned into something like the civil war in Lebanon.  There are already problems between the Sunni and Shi'ites, with Iran right next door, and Syria has even gotten involved.  And the Kurds in the north would be happy to break away.  Throw in some al-Qa'eda militants and opportunistic criminals and mix vigorously.  It could take another decade for everything to settle down into some kind of stability.

Discoveries Galore!

Panorama (a BBC investigative show) says that $23 billion (yes billion!) is missing in Iraq. Stolen, lost, missing, etc. $23 BILLION. But we can't discuss it, because of a gag order in the US. How dare we discuss that missing money and who may have absconded with it! It probably breaks national security or something.

A cave in Jordan may be the oldest Christian church ever found. They're still discussing the issue.

And some Iraqi antiquities, confiscated in the US, are on their way home to Baghdad. The looting of antiquities was a big problem. Loss of life is the worst tragedy, but after the big stuff like that, the loss of history in Iraq is really appalling.

News Round-up Again

Gee, I take a few days off for Spring Break and hordes of things happen.

Remember that guy in Morocco who pretended to be a prince (link and update) on Facebook? Well, he's been freed.

The Foreign Minister for Switzerland, who happens to be female, caused a scandal because she dared to wear a headscarf when she visited Ahmadinejad in Iran. Gasp! Wait a minute, isn't that the law in Iran? And if she hadn't worn it, she probably wouldn't have been able to move around or even see Ahmadinejad? But I suppose it's better to condemn her because headscarves are cruel and oppressive.

Saudi Arabia has decided to "retrain" about 40,000 prayer leaders, in an effort to fight radical Islam. We'll see how that goes. And if I can find the link, Saudi Arabia has also just opened up the first all-female hotel, for women.

And in more Gulf news, Air Emirates will now allow you to use your mobile phone to make calls in flight.

Canada is having a battle over free speech. Personally, I'm kind of split over the issue. On the one hand, you have a major newspaper columnist spouting hate speech, which is his right (but should it be printed?). On the other hand, you have Muslims who are tired of hearing the hate speech. What do you do? One thing I like to do is to change the wording to focus on other groups. Sometimes words may not seem racist or prejudiced, but if you change the target group, then you can see the bigotry. If you want a good example, see this case (YouTube clip), which involves a state representative in Oklahoma saying that gays are ruining the country and are a threat worse than terrorism or Islam, and then claiming that's not prejudiced (bashing gays, not bashing Muslims). A blogger from her state switched the word "homosexuals" for the word "Jews" to show how bigoted her statement was.

Last, but not least, the BBC has video interviews with 5 Iraqis.

Poisoning Children in Iraq

This is so reprehensible it amazes me. Somebody made 2 cakes with thallium, a major poison, in it. And then several families ate the cakes. Several children died, and the British government flew in some antidote. Hopefully the rest will recover.

Immolated Kurdish Women

Things aren't all rosy in Kurdistan. There are a number of women trying to commit suicide by burning themselves to death. Read the BBC article here.

Where to begin?

I had intended to leave up the Free Fouad II post all week, but there is so much going on I feel the need to post about it. Please read the post about Fouad al-Farhan, though, and sign the petition. I would also like to address the dearth of postings on Iraq. I haven't been ignoring Iraq, but there is so much information in the mainstream media that I only post when something extra interesting happens.

News Roundup: Women

Iraq
This is from October, but I thought it was interesting. The BBC asked some women in Iraq to do photo diaries about their life. Here's the main link. From there you can access the photo journals of 2 Iraqi women.

Iran
This is a good article about women voting in Iran (yes, those women in chadors actually have voting rights). It has some good analysis about how women have affected the elections in the past.

Gaza
The BBC also has a diary by a Save the Children worker in Gaza. This is her account of events during the crisis.
Diary 1, Diary 2, Diary 3, Diary 4

Un-debaathification

I saw Bush on tv last night and he was touting the wonderful debaathification that the Iraqi government just passed. Which, quite frankly, confused me. Today I read articles and apparently what Bush meant was un-debaathification (yes, I made that up). Debaathification is when the Baath party members were taken out of offices and jobs because they were Baath party members. That law has now been changed. See Juan Cole's post from today for some interesting comments about the law - especially since some of the Baathists opposed it.

Brits in Basra

Two articles from the BBC: Basra resident blame UK troops and Basra's new era brings new fears.

Analysis: The Brits have slowly been pulling out of Basra, in southeast Iraq. And in September they moved out of the city and into an army base. They're getting ready to downsize even more. It will be interesting to see what happens. Will the violence decrease if the "insurgents" have fewer "invaders" to fight? Will "sectarian violence" increase as they fight each other? Southeast Iraq is mostly Shi'ite and contains the holiest Shi'ite shrines. And Basra has historically been an important city. It's ironic that during World War I, the British invaded Iraq and started by taking over Basra. After WWI, they did not have an easy time in Iraq. It's a pity we didn't learn more from that.

I'm back!

I'm back, and it's none too soon! There's a lot happening all over the Middle East. We've got the situation with Turkey and the Kurds; the US is turning Karbala over to the Iraqis; there's a kid's circus in Israel composed of Muslims and Jews that is bringing people together; Combatants for Peace is made up of Palestinians and Israelis who want peace; Alan Johnston speaks about being held captive in Gaza for three months; and a lot more. I'll try to get up-to-date on what's going on.

The Stupidity is Painful

Let me state right up front that this is a rant. The stupidity of the Bush regime is really driving me nuts. First of all, there's the whole "Al-Qa'eda - Iraq link." Yes, al-Qaeda is in Iraq. . . now. They were not affiliated with Saddam Hussein though. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were enemies. I am sick and tired of hearing "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" from Republicans trying to link Bin Laden and Saddam. Saddam Hussein was SECULAR, Bin Laden is RELIGIOUS. Bin Laden wanted to destroy Saddam. And if you still think bin Laden would join up with his enemy, would he really join up with one in his own backyard? If he wanted help he would not turn to Saddam, he'd turn to people in Saudi Arabia [hmmm: weren't most of the 9-11 hijackers from there?].
Number Two: What is up with building a new US Embassy in south Beirut in Hizballah territory? Even the US ambassador there thinks it's stupid. So why do it? Well, the paranoid crazy side of my brain says it's a good excuse to start some shit. You know - a sort of "if you build it, they will bomb." [I like that - I should trademark it.] If the US builds this embassy, it's in the perfect place to get hit, and that would be a good excuse to bomb the shit out of the area or even invite the Israelis to help out. Color me cynical and paranoid, but I live in Bush's America.

Ghettoization of Baghdad

ABC News is reporting that the US Army is putting up concrete walls in Baghdad, separating Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods. What the hell kind of solution is that? People aren't getting along, so we'll put a wall between them - "good fences make good neighbors?" So now we can separate all neighborhoods into only Sunni or only Shiite, so that if anyone of the other religious sect goes into the wrong neighborhood they can get beat up. So that if anyone of the other religious sect wants to bomb someone, they know this neighborhood is all one sect. Yee-haw! Why bother trying to get people to live together and cooperate, when we can divide them along sectarian lines.