• Activista dos direitos da Mulher, ataca os clérigos muçulmanos do Bahrain, por estes terem emitido fatwas que permitem o abuso sexual de meninas: (vídeo com legendas em inglês, aqui)
  

Ghada Jamshir: Does the Islamic Shari'a authorize mut'ah marriages? Does the Islamic Shari'a authorize mut'ah according to the following classification: "Pleasure from sexual contact with her thighs." They have: "Pleasure from sexual touching." "pleasure from sexual contact with her breasts." "Pleasure from a little girl." Do you know what "pleasure from a little girl" means? It means that they derive sexual pleasure from a girl aged two, three, or four.

Interviewer: Let's not go into details...

Ghada Jamshir: This is a violation of children's rights! This constitutes sexual assault of the girl. What does "pleasure from sexual contact with her thighs" mean? It means deriving sexual pleasure from an infant. How old is an infant? One year, a year and a half, a few months?

Is it conceivable for a grown man to have sex with an infant girl? And you people tell me that the Islamic Sharia authorizes this? Forget about the mut'ah. Let's talk about misyar. What do misyar marriages mean? You said that I'm a Sunni and that's why I'm attacking the Shiites. No!

• Reformista aponta sinais de mudança na Arábia Saudita:
  

Shobokshi said restrictions have eased since King Abdullah, seen as a supporter of cautious reform in Saudi Arabia, ascended the throne earlier this year.

He said: "There's definitely an improved atmosphere. The situation is far from being open and benign. But there is tolerance in the press and in the media across the board."

After a "national dialogue" forum in which Shobokshi took part, he said: "The comments I said on air I could not even dare to think about 10 years ago ... it was unbelievable - like tolerance ... school textbooks."

The government has taken steps to stop the demonisation of non-Muslims in schools, but a violent campaign against the US-allied authorities and Westerners by al-Qaida sympathisers has shown the extent of the challenge.

• Intelectual Saudita critica a sociedade árabe: a grandiosidade de uma nação será recordada não pela riqueza que possui mas pela sua contribuição para a Civilização.

"Our scientific community is in deep hibernation. Not since the pre-Renaissance era has there been such a dearth of medical research. There is a malaise that seems to afflict Arab academic output and it has reached epidemic proportions. And the situation is only getting worse. There is now a pressing need for this issue to be addressed before we become the victims of our own neglect."

"For far too long we have rested on the laurels of past achievements. The Arab contribution to civilization is perpetually held hostage by thousand-year old achievements like the innovation of algebra by Al-Khwarizmi; the articulation of the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina; the extensive study in astronomy by Al-Farghani, or by the mathematical and astronomical genius of Omar Al-Khayyam. And since then our contribution to science has decayed and produced almost next to nothing."

"The problem is not all individualistic - the state is equally to blame. Collectively, Arab nations spend only 0.15 percent of their GDP on research and development, which is well below the world average of 1.4 percent. This bestows us with the lowest ranking amongst all the 10 regions of UNESCO, embarrassingly lower than the considerably poorer Sub-Saharan Africa.

Doadores internacionais vão suspender ajuda à Etiópia

Os doadores internacionais da Etiópia anunciaram hoje a suspensão da ajuda ao país, orçada em 316 milhões de euros, na sequência da ofensiva lançada pelo Governo etíope contra a oposição política, jornalistas, líderes sindicais e activistas dos direitos humanos.

• FMI aprova inédita linha de crédito para o Iraque

• Iraq economy looks positive in 2006

Experts predict that the formation of a new Iraqi government, following a year of political reforms, will help stabilize the country, revive its stagnant economy and pave the way for contentious measures such as privatization.

The Financial Times says its two-month investigation showed the money appears to have been spent on administration, staff and related costs. The $590 million was part of the United Nation's $1.1 billion disaster flash appeal.

The newspaper also found several U.N. agencies continue to refuse to disclose details of their relief expenditure in spite of earlier pledges of transparency by senior officials.

• O número de abortos em Espanha cresceu 72% nos últimos dez anos (em 2004 foram feitos 84,985 abortos). De acordo com um relatório, 95.7% dos abortos foram feitos porque a gravidez representava uma ameaça à saúde mental da mulher.
  

• A notícia que passou despercebida:

O desembargador Carlos Almeida, do Tribunal da Relação de Lisboa, voltou a pôr em causa a credibilidade de uma vítima de abusos sexuais da Casa Pia. Depois de ter arrasado os jovens que acusaram Paulo Pedroso, o juiz que tirou da prisão o político do PS (Outubro de 2003) questionou a idoneidade de "Joaquim" (nome fictício), deficiente mental, que levou à condenação a seis anos de cadeia de João Beselga, ex-professor de Religião e Moral da Casa Pia.

Os juízes Rodrigues Simão e Carlos Almeida, da 3.ª Secção do Tribunal da Relação de Lisboa, tomaram sempre decisões favoráveis aos arguidos do processo Casa Pia. Carlos Almeida foi o relator do acórdão que libertou Paulo Pedroso, no dia 8 de Outubro de 2003. Esteve acompanhado por Telo Lucas e Moraes Rocha. Este último discordou da decisão e, no voto de vencido, escreveu que tendo em conta os indícios que havia contra o político do PS (acusado pelo Ministério Público da prática de 23 crimes de abuso sexual) a melhor solução seria a prisão domiciliária. CM.

But if we must engage in a national debate on half-measures: After 9-11, any president who was not spying on people calling phone numbers associated with terrorists should be impeached for being an inept commander in chief.

(...)

It's one or the other: Either we take the politically correct, scattershot approach and violate everyone's civil liberties, or we focus on the group threatening us and - in the worst-case scenario - run the risk of briefly violating the civil liberties of 1,000 people in a country of 300 million.

Politics, like theater, is one of those things where you've got to be wise enough to know when to leave.
Richard Lamm

• A popularidade de Bush subiu:

The latest opinion poll shows his approval rating on Iraq has risen by 10% since early November to 46%. On the economy, his rating has jumped 11 points, to 47%, the Washington Post reports.

His overall approval rating has risen to 47%, from 39% in early November. Some 52% say they disapprove of how he is handling his job.

The poll found that approval over Mr Bush's handling of the fight against terrorism had risen to 56%, from 48% last month.

• 27 milhões de iraquianos contra 10 000 terroristas:

Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an early presidential candidate for the Democrats in last year's election, recently reported on his latest trip to Iraq in the Wall Street Journal. He says: "The Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood." The progress in Iraq is "visible and practical". In the largely Kurdish north, security and prosperity are increasing. The primarily Shiite south remains largely free of terrorism and is experiencing greater economic activity. Even in the Sunni triangle, between Baghdad, Tikrit and Ramadi, where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur, progress is being made: Despite the daily examples of brutal violence, Sunni candidates were able to carry out energetic election campaigns.

"It is a war between 27 million and 10,000" Lieberman wrote. "Twenty-seven million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam "revengists," Iraqi Islamic extremists, or al-Qaida foreign fighters."

(é uma guerra entre 27 milhões de iraquianos e 10 000 terroristas. 27 milhões de iraquianos que querem uma vida com liberdade, oportunidades e prosperidade, e apenas 10 000 terroristas que, ou querem vingar Saddam, ou são extremistas islâmicos iraquianos ou são combatentes estrangeiros da Al Qaeda)

Khaled Meshaal also praised Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, for his "courage" in having dismissed the Holocaust as a myth and calling for Israel to be moved out of the Middle East to Europe or North America.

"Just as Islamic Iran defends the rights of the Palestinians, we defend the rights of Islamic Iran," Meshaal told reporters in Tehran on Thursday. "We are part of a united front against the enemies of Islam.

Whether Iran's clerics are powerful enough to use the power of this popular fanatic to further their own ends is questionable. The country's highest-ranking religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has already warned his protégé that he was "elected to solve the country's social problems, not to go to war with Israel." At the same time, Khamenei upgraded the powers of the Expediency Council, which is charged with oversight over the government.

There are even rumors floating around in Tehran that Ahmadinejad's days could be numbered, and that pragmatic forces within the regime are preparing for a coup. Apparently, Iran's political elite wants to prevent this president from turning the country into even more of a pariah on the international stage.

Cox and Forkum

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday defended President Bush's decision to secretly authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without seeking warrants, saying the program was carefully controlled and necessary to close gaps in the nation's counterterrorism efforts.

In Sunday talk show appearances, Ms. Rice said the program was intended to eliminate the "seam" between American intelligence operations overseas and law enforcement agencies at home.

"One of the most compelling outcomes of the 9/11 commission was that a seam had developed," Ms. Rice said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "Our intelligence agencies looked out; our law enforcement agencies looked in. And people could - terrorists could - exploit the seam between them."

• O que já sabíamos (tendo em conta o tempo de antena do Anacleto e do Berloque nos media):

Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."

"Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left," said co?author Jeffrey Milyo, University of Missouri economist and public policy scholar.

• The Truth On the Ground (ou aquilo que os media não mostram)
  

For every vividly portrayed suicide bombing, there are hundreds of thousands of people living quiet, if often uncertain, lives. For every depressing story of unrest and instability there is an untold story of potential and hope. The impression of Iraq as an unfathomable quagmire is false and dangerously misleading.
(...)

Anyone who has spent even a day in the Middle East should know that the Arab street would not thank us for abandoning Iraq. The blame for civil war would fall squarely on our shoulders. It is unlikely that the tentative experiments in democracy we have seen in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere would survive the fallout. There would be no dividend of goodwill from heartbroken intellectuals or emboldened Islamic extremists. American troops might be home in the short run, but the experienced professionals know that in the long run, quitting Iraq would mean more deployments, more desperate battles and more death.

Fonte da imagem

"As welcome as this broad support is, I am sad to say that the international community has barely done anything to help Iraq prosecute Saddam Hussein," she said.

"All who express their devotion to human rights and the rule of law have a special obligation to help the Iraqis bring to justice one of the world's most murderous tyrants."

She did not name names, nor say just what other nations could do to help. Although the former president's trial is being carried out in an Iraqi court, with an Iraqi judge, the United States underwrote and helped organize the criminal investigation and prosecution effort.

Saddam and seven others went on trial Oct. 19 in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims who were executed in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader. If convicted, they could be executed. Fonte.

With voters lining up in large numbers, polling stations stayed open until 6pm (1500GMT). As voting ended, celebratory gunfire rang out in Baghdad, as much in jubilation as it was in relief for the day having passed off in relative peace.

The decision to extend the closing time was the clearest indication that there was a large turnout at the country's more than 33,000 polling stations.

"This is a historic day for the Iraqi people, the Middle East and the world, a historic day for the advance of freedom"

O pai da bebé tem um passado de violência e prática de furtos e foi referenciado por abuso sexual de menores em 1999, 2000 e 2005. A mãe é intelectualmente débil. Fonte.

• não faz planos;
• fala demasiado sobre uma ex;
• não fala sobre o futuro;
• não faz planos para dias especiais (ex. S. Valentim);
• não te apresenta como namorada a amigos e família;
• protege demasiado o telemóvel e os emails;
• não se interessa pela tua família e pelos teus amigos;
• cancela frequentemente os planos contigo;

• uma desculpa é uma rejeição educada. Os homens não têm medo de arruinar uma amizade;
• não o convides para sair. Se ele gostar de ti, ele convida-te;
• os homens não esquecem o quanto gostam de ti, por isso desliga o telefone.
• se pensas demasiado na tua relação, se estás mesmo obcecada, é porque ele não está assim tão interessado.

• Um aborto pode provocar sentimentos de angústia, ansiedade, culpa e até vergonha, durante cinco anos, segundo um estudo recente:

The researchers said their work underlined the importance of giving women information about the psychological effects of losing a baby - either through miscarriage or abortion.

The Oslo team found that, after 10 days, 47.5% of women who had miscarried suffered from some degree of mental distress compared with 30% of the abortion group.

The proportion of women who had a miscarriage suffering distress decreased during the study period, to 22.5% at six months and to just 2.6% at two years and five years.

But among the abortion group 25.7% were still experiencing distress after six months, and 20% at five years.

The researchers also said that women who had an abortion had to make an effort to avoid thinking about the event.

• Michelle Malkin revela as estatísticas das mortes devido ao furacão Katrina em Nova Orleães, de acordo com a raça:

The surprisingly low death rate for black Katrina victims comes despite the fact that New Orleans itself was more than two-thirds black [67 percent] when the storm hit. White residents made up less than a third [28 percent] of the city's population, according to U.S. Census bureau numbers. Fonte.

Aqui podem ver um gráfico com o número de vítimas de acordo com os vários grupos etários. A negligência grosseira em relação aos idosos é mais do que evidente.

A teoria do racismo vai assim por água abaixo...

• Podem ler aqui as razões que levaram Schwarzenegger a não conceder o perdão a Stanley "Tookie" Williams:

Stanley Williams insists he is innocent, and that he will not and should not apologize or otherwise atone for the murders of the four victims in this case. Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption. In this case, the one thing that would be the clearest indication of complete remorse and full redemption is the one thing Williams will not do.

It's not clear if Ahmadinejad poses a serious threat to Khamenei's authority, but the new president certainly aims to install a more rigid Islamic government. He's been sweeping away moderates and, in many cases, replacing them with incompetent, ideological cronies. On November 16, at a congress on Friday prayers, he again struck his mystical theme. "We should define our economic, cultural and political policies based on Imam Mahdi's return," he declared. "We should avoid copying the West." Ahmadinejad has sacked 40 of Iran's most experienced foreign diplomats, seven state bank directors and numerous other public officials. He's thrice nominated individuals for the position of Oil minister whose qualifications for the job were light or nonexistent. All have been rejected by Parliament.

• Al Qaeda rejeita as eleições de quinta-feira porque contrariam a vontade de Allah;

• Zarqawi, Mao Tse Tung e a Guerra do Povo;

• Um estudo do exército norte-americano revela que o anúncio da retirada das tropas do Iraque pode ter consequências desastrosas :

The study warns that such an announcement would bolster the Sunni insurgency and increase the prospect of civil war in Iraq. The report by the Army War College ? which stressed that the document did not necessarily represent the views of the military or Defense Department ? also dismissed hopes that Iraq would soon be ready to assume major security responsibilities.

"From the moment a timetable is announced, all Iraqis working with the U.S.-led coalition will calculate that U.S. protection is a declining asset, and they correspondingly will have to make a decision about how to safeguard themselves and their property," the report said. "Some may choose to establish links to the insurgents, while others may seek the protection of a militia."

But despite all the fears of civil war and terrorism, it seems Iraqis have come to terms with the chaos. As in Germany in the years after World War II, where there was an overriding sense of "having got through it all", people in Iraq are looking beyond the destruction, suffering and crises to the future. Their motto: progress.

At any rate, Iraqi incomes have more than doubled in the past two years, to an average of $236 a month, and the range of consumer durables on offer has improved markedly. Almost every household now possesses a television set, and 86 percent of TV viewers also have a satellite dish.

Mobile telephones, luxury items owned by just five percent of the population two years ago, are now mass market goods possessed by 62 per cent of households. The number of people owning cars (55 percent) and washing machines (54 percent) has risen along similar lines.

Reason enough for Iraqis to display an almost inexplicable confidence. Across the country, almost 70 percent of the population believe that within a year, the situation in Iraq will be either "somewhat better" or "a lot better".

PARIS, Dec 11 (AFP) - Only one percent of French people want President Jacques Chirac to stand for a third term at the Elysee palace in elections due in May 2007, according to an opinion poll Sunday.
Asked which candidate they would like to see representing Chirac's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, 36 percent of the public chose Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and 19 percent chose Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, according to the IFOP survey for Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

Afghanistan's efforts to revive its economy have prompted praise from the International Monetary Fund, although it warned the success could be threatened by the drugs trade, insecurity and slow reform.

In a report issued after a fact-finding mission last month, the IMF said that four years after the removal of the Taliban from government, Afghanistan could see gross domestic product (GDP) growth of "about 14%" between 2005 and 2006 and saluted the "commendable" economic performance of the country.

As political and security tensions rise before the parliamentary elections, fighters in the Western al-Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from those loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Despite the continuing hostility, this shift in attitude is encouraging for the US, which hopes to engage Sunni Arabs in a policy of peaceful politics in order to defuse the fighting.

But Saddam loyalists have turned against al-Zarqawi, originally from Jordan, whose fighters travel to Iraq from across the Arab world.

A youth wing affiliated with Indonesia's largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, 40 million strong, told Reuters on Friday that its members would guard churches for the coming Christmas festivities and it had persuaded youths from other religions to join the project.

Tatang Hidayat, national coordinator of NU's Banser group, said: "We have an annual programme to set up posts to secure Christmas. For this year, I have contacted groups from other religions like the Hindus and Buddhists and they have responded positively."

This is war, and mistakes will be made. If the facts end up that all of the allegations the ACLU are making is true, then this man should get some kind of apology. But there is more to it than one mistake made by the CIA. I still have serious questions. In a time of war, how can a foreigner be represented by the American Civil Liberties Union? Shouldn?t this incident be worked out between the American and German governments first? And its more than a mistake the ACLU are going after, they are going after the entire practice of secret prisons. I hate to break it to all the terrorist sympathizers, but these thugs are trained well on misinformation, and it takes more than ?understanding? to get a straight answer out of people who are crazy enough to strap on a bomb belt and blow their self to smithereens for Allah.
Obviously this man was not one of those crazies, as the CIA has admitted to making a mistake. Let it be known that the ACLU are certainly correct, if the evidence stacks up, that holding this man for six months after they knew he was innocent deserves investigation, and that this man deserves some kind of apology and restitution. I do, however, question that it is the ACLU?s job to do this. I would love to see them go to court over one of our own innocent people being captured and abused by the terrorists. But then, our enemy isn?t in the practice of admitting mistakes and releasing any of their captives are they? Aqui.