Pan-Arab narrative a myth in Lebanon An apparently racially motivated attack on Sudanese immigrants in Beirut exposes the subtleties of intra-Arab discrimination Nesrine Malik guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 June 2010 15.30 BST Article history Anger towards Lebanon is brewing in Sudan and in Sudanese online forums. According to reports in the Arab media, a fundraising party held by Sudanese immigrants and asylum seekers in Beirut in aid of a child with cancer, was raided by Lebanese security apparently on the hunt for illegal residents. Eyewitnesses report that although most of those attending produced valid residency cards, this did not spare them … Continue reading Racism in Lebanon?

Facebook and the Big Society? No thanks If the government thinks Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook can play a useful role in policymaking, it misunderstands digital culture Andrew Brown guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 June 2010 17.37 BST Article history Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently met the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/APThe culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, seems to think that Facebook will help to build David Cameron’s Big Society: he tweeted yesterday that he had met Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, who “had good ideas on improvement [sic] digital culture in policy making”. This makes the Big Society look an idea even … Continue reading Facebook and the Big Society?

Pakistan ranks 10th among ‘failed states’ dawn.com Pakistan has more than once been described as the world’s most dangerous country. — Photo by AFP WASHINGTON: Pakistan was ranked the 10th most failed state in the world, just three places below Afghanistan, in a US survey released on Monday. Somalia tops the 2010 Failed States Index followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Chad. The index issued by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, a Washington-NGO, ranks India 87th in a list of 177 countries. Burma has been placed at 13. Sri Lanka is ranked 22 and Nepal 25. … Continue reading Failed States – Top Ten!

By Robert Tait It is the friendship Western policymakers wish they could have prevented: Turkey – secular, Western-leaning, and a key member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – drawing close to a resurgent theocratic Iran whose nuclear program and geopolitical ambitions present a full-frontal challenge to the established international order. Suspicions that Turkey is abandoning the Western orbit for a closer alignment with its Muslim Middle Eastern neighbors were reinforced last month when Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Tehran to sign a nuclear fuel-swap deal – brokered along with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva … Continue reading Iran, Turkey: Friends today, rivals tomorrow?

Pamela Geller Supports Another Fascist Group Posted on 21 June 2010 by Emperor LOONWATCH.com It isn’t surprising that Pamela Geller, who runs a hate group herself (SIOA) would support fascist groups. Charles Johnson rips her a new one, Pamela Geller Supports Yet Another Fascist Group by Charles Johnson Here’s popular right wing blogger (and writer for Newsmax, World Net Daily, and Andrew Breitbart’s websites) Pamela “Shrieking Harpy” Geller, expressing her unqualified support for antisemites, Holocaust deniers, and extreme right wing European fascist groups again — because they hate Muslims as much as she does: Hundreds attend Paris sausage, Wine fest … Continue reading American fanatic supports throwing bacon on Jews!

GOP Senate Candidate Waging “Stealth Jihad” against the US Government Posted on 19 June 2010 by Inconnu LOONWATCH.com Sharron Angle calls for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government and a “return” to Biblical Law. Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle has made some very interesting statements about what could happen if the ballot box fails: “You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. In fact Thomas Jefferson said it’s good for a country to have a revolution every … Continue reading American Mullah calls for violent overthrow of US Government!

What stands in the way of Bosnia reconciliation When will those involved in Srebrenica – including the UN – admit their responsibility and atone for the 1995 genocide? Heather McRobie guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 June 2010 14.30 BST Article history An UN investigator removes earth from bodies in a mass grave outside the village of Cerska, near Srebrenica, Bosnia on July 15, 1996. Photograph: Odd Andersen/Getty Images.The admissions of the Saville report last week, and the government’s apology for Bloody Sunday, remind us of the imperative to acknowledge responsibility for state crimes against civilians, however too little or too late. But … Continue reading The UN and EU stands in the way of Bosnia reconciliation

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles: a casualty of Afghan policy war The British special envoy’s scepticism about the US-led surge meant he had to go. Being proved right will be cold comfort Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 June 2010 19.16 BST Article history Britain’s special envoy Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles (centre), with then foreign secretary David Miliband, sharing a pleasantry with Afghan minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta in Kabul, 2009. Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters The sudden departure of Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain’s special envoy to Afghanistan, represents another body blow for a US-led policy that is already shredding at the edges. Cowper-Coles brought a wealth … Continue reading The British special envoy’s scepticism about the US-led surge meant he had to go.

dawn.com Pakistani fans of the Brazilian football team watch the World Cup 2010 Brazil and Ivory Coast match on a big screen in the southern Lyari neighbourhood of Karachi. — AFP KARACHI: Brazilian flags flutter from homes across one battle-scarred Pakistani suburb, as gang warfare is set aside for the World Cup and fans, painted in the Brazil colours, vow allegiance to the South Americans. The Karachi suburb of Lyari is known for two things: unremitting gang violence and for producing Pakistan’s best football players. Pakistan may not be playing in the Cup, but hundreds of fans stayed up late … Continue reading Pakistani gang-war zone basks in Brazil glory

By Imran Ayub A police officer shows the images of suspected militants, who escaped from court after a shootout, at his office in Karachi, June 19, 2010. — AP Photo dawn.com KARACHI: Police investigating the escape of four suspected militants, who got freed from police custody by their aides following an armed attack on the City Courts premises, have found a 9mm pistol, a hand grenade and two cellphones believed to be in possession of the undertrial prisoners, it emerged on Sunday. While the investigators have not yet achieved any breakthrough in finding the whereabouts of the suspected militants, they … Continue reading Suspicion falls on police connivance in militants’ escape