(uns) A report on Corruption in Afghanistan, released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that the Afghan people regard corruption as their biggest problem. An overwhelming 59 per cent of the population said that their daily experience of public dishonesty is a bigger concern than insecurity (54 per cent) or unemployment (52 per cent). "The Afghans say that it is impossible to obtain a public service without paying a bribe," says UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa. more ...
(gm). In the noughties, we had to get used to many things. The claim that Osama and the 19 hijackers planned the September 11th attacks in a cave in the Hindu Kush unleashed the perpetual war in Afghanistan. Anthrax n.b: from a US-military laboratory was used to justify the Patriot Act, which has until now been the most disastrous attack on civil liberties. The UN agreed to the invasion of Iraq based Colin Powell's Rocky Horror PowerPoint show on Saddam's biological weapons. more ...
MOSCOW (Russia Today). Russia's religious life is a multi-confessional one and Islam is a faith with a vast influence. So President Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with leaders of Russian Muslim organizations. The statement was made as Medvedev was paying a visit to the country's central Mosque in Moscow to see ongoing reconstruction work. After being shown around the historical part of the mosque and a section under construction, Medvedev met with muftis. Medvedev stressed the importance of Islam in the country's internal affairs. more ...
(gm). During the reinstatement campaign of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry of Pakistan’s Supreme Court after being dismissed by President Musharraf amid allegations that he had misused his office, an impression has been created by politicians and lawyer leaders - those who were leading the campaign of his restoration, that Pakistan’s justice system will stand revolutionized with his return. more ...
Dear Mr. President
(gm). The recent incident in Davos World Economic Forum panel discussion at the end which the prime Minister of Turkey Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan demonstratively walked off the stage after a fierce exchange with both the Israeli president Shimon Peres and panel moderator David Ignatius, is a clear indicator of the widening gap in the relations between Muslims and the West. "Mr. Peres, you are older than me… Your voice comes out in a very high tone. And the high tone of your voice has to do with a guilty conscience. My voice, however, will not come out in the same tone. more ...
(Russia Today). Iraqi authorities have announced they would not renew a license for the notorious Blackwater Worldwide private security firm to continue operating in the country. The banning of Blackwater follows the signing of a November 2008 agreement between the Iraqi government and U.S. occupation forces allowing the government to exclusively select security companies operating in Iraq. The American embassy in Iraq has already confirmed that U.S. diplomats are now without their principal protection organization due to this Iraqi decision. more ...
(gm). The founders of the post-World War II U.S. “containment” strategy, George Kennan and Paul Nitze, had both opposed NATO enlargement into central and eastern Europe following the Soviet collapse.[1] In 1997, George Kennan wrote that NATO enlargement “would be the most fatal of U.S. policy in the entire post-Cold War era[2]”. Two years earlier, in 1995, the late ambassador Paul Nitze, wrote that in the face of a new confrontation with Moscow as a result if NATO expansion, “Our long term objective should be to promote the engagement not the exclusion of Russia in Europe[3]”. more ...
(gm). The split within Islamic community in Serbia, especially in its Sandzak province, is creating a lot of turbulence in this already unstable part of Europe, and even leading to violence that for the first time in the latest history of the region is not over ethnical lines. It seems that conflict is not driven by pure animosity between religious leaders and their struggle for leadership of Slavic Muslims, mostly Bosniaks and other Muslim minorities living in this former Yugoslav republic. more ...
