“Despite luge death, opening ceremony goes on - Arizona Daily Star” plus 3 more |
- Despite luge death, opening ceremony goes on - Arizona Daily Star
- Texas Governor urges Texans to celebrate Chinese New year - Investors Business Daily
- Jihad and Islamism in the Maldive Islands - Jamestown Foundation
- Despite luger's death, foul weather, Olympic ceremonies open festively - Los Angeles Times
| Despite luge death, opening ceremony goes on - Arizona Daily Star Posted: 12 Feb 2010 08:42 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. In time-honored tradition, the show went on. Despite the training-run death earlier in the day of a luger from the country of Georgia, the Olympics' opening ceremonies were launched Friday night with a jubilant countdown by the crowd filling BC Place Stadium. The festive mood, and the opening act of a snowboarder's leap through giant Olympic rings, contrasted sharply with the grief that befell the games earlier in the day when luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a horrific crash on the sliding track at Whistler. The ceremonies were dedicated to Kumaritashvili, and the seven remaining members of the Georgian team, who decided to stay and compete, wore black armbands as they marched behind a black-trimmed flag. Most of the crowd rose to give respectful applause. There were also plans to lower the Olympic and Canadian flags to half staff. More than 50,000 ticketholders packed into the stadium for the evening extravaganza, the first Olympic opening or closing ceremony ever held indoors. The loudest ovation came midway through, when the red-clad Canadian team _ aiming for a first-place finish _ entered the stadium as the last contingent of the parade of nations. According to program, the ceremony was to climax with the Olympic cauldron being lit jointly by four Canadian sports heroes _ all-time hockey great Wayne Gretzky, skier Nancy Greene, speedskater Katrina LeMay Doan, and basketball All-Star Steve Nash. Later, a second, far larger cauldron was to be lit in a plaza along the downtown waterfront _ giving Vancouver a visible symbol for the rest of the games that the indoor stadium could not provide. Rain was forecast through the weekend in Vancouver, with high temperatures near 50 degrees, prompting some to dub these the Spring Olympics. Rain also has disrupted Alpine skiing events at Whistler. About 2,500 athletes from a record 82 countries are participating in the games, vying for medals in 86 events _ including the newly added ski-cross competition. First-time Winter Olympic participants include the Cayman Islands, Columbia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru and Serbia. The overall favorites include Germany and the United States _ which finished first and second four years ago in Turin _ and also Canada, a best-ever third in 2006 and now brashly proclaiming its intention to finish atop the medals table on its home turf. "We're still going to be nice, but we're going to be nice in winning," said Michael Chambers, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee. The Canadian team marched exultantly behind flagbearer Clara Hughes, defending gold medalist in the 5,000-meter speedskating race. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was among the thousands in the stadium rising to applaud. Just ahead in the parade were the Americans. Their flagbearer is Mark Grimmette, 39, of Muskegon, Mich., competing in his fifth Olympics as a doubles luge competitor. Kumaritashvili would have been one of his Olympic rivals. The cultural segment of ceremony featured many of Canada's best-known musical stars _ including Bryan Adams, Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan and k.d. lang. It also highlighted performers and traditions from Canada's aboriginal communities. And the highest-ranking official delegation at the ceremony _ amid dignitaries from around the world _ included the four chiefs of the First Nations whose traditional native territory overlaps the Olympic region. Special effects included a giant, sparkling polar bear rising from the stadium floor and hovering over some performers on a simulated ice flow. Several well-known Canadians received the honor of carrying the Olympic flag at a high-profile moment near the end of the ceremony. Among them were hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr, singer Anne Murray, race car driver Jacques Villeneuve and Betty Fox, mother of national hero Terry Fox. Terry Fox lost a leg to bone cancer as a youngster, then set off in 1980 on a fundraising trek across Canada. He had to give up after covering more than 3,000 miles, and died in 1981 at age 22, but remains revered by his compatriots as a symbol of courage and perseverance. The flame reached the stadium after a 106-day torch relay across Canada, passing through more than 1,000 communities in every province and territory. The relay was the occasional target for protesters, and Friday was no exception. Activists espousing a variety of causes prompted the relay to change course twice as it passed near Vancouver's skid-row neighborhood, the Downtown Eastside. "The Olympics have done more damage than good," protest leader Lauren Gill said. "But one positive is the world getting to see what Vancouver really is. Downtown Eastside is an international model of disaster." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Texas Governor urges Texans to celebrate Chinese New year - Investors Business Daily Posted: 12 Feb 2010 08:42 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Texas Governor urges Texans to celebrate Chinese New yearHOUSTON, Feb 12, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Rick Perry, Governor of the State of Texas, urged the citizens on Friday to take part in joyous festivities in celebration of the Chinese New Year. "I encourage all Texans to embrace our state's diversity and join you in celebration," Perry said in a message presented to Gao Yanping, Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Houston. He stressed that Texas has long been home to large communities of Chinese immigrants and Americans of Chinese descent. "These valued members of our communities have enriched the Lone Star State's cultural landscape and have made innumerable contributions in fields as diverse as business, academia, medicine and the arts," Perry said. The Spring Festival, or China's Lunar New Year which falls on Sunday this year, is China's most important annual event for family reunions. The governor wishes the Chinese people great happiness in the year of the Tiger. Copyright 2010 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Jihad and Islamism in the Maldive Islands - Jamestown Foundation Posted: 12 Feb 2010 08:35 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Jihad and Islamism in the Maldive Islands Footage of a Maldivian national Ali Jaleel who committed a suicide attack on Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed admitted in October, 2009 that hundreds of Maldivian Muslims had been recruited by Pakistan-based terrorist groups and are presently fighting against government forces in Pakistan. [1] The revelation by Nasheed was substantiated by video footage circulated by al-Qaeda's media wing in November 2009, which not only proved Maldivians' participation in the global jihad movement, but also demonstrated the impact of radical Islam on the psyche of Maldivian youth. Ali Jaleel (a.k.a. Musab Sayyid), a Maldivian national who had been fighting alongside pro-Taliban forces in Pakistan, was featured in that video. [2] Ali Jaleel died during the suicide attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in Lahore on May 27, 2009 (Haeveeru Online, November 8, 2009). Soon after, another video aimed at jihadi recruitment featured a previously unknown al-Qaeda cell operating in the Maldives. The short video flashed the message, "Your brothers in the Maldives are calling you." This brief internet footage was perhaps a declaration of sorts for the establishment of the first al-Qaeda cell in the Maldives. The image in the video shows three men sitting together on a beach while another man is standing in the foreground near a coconut tree (Adnkronos International, November 20, 2009). Later it was confirmed that the video teaser was posted by the media wing of the lesser-known Ansar al-Mujahideen. [3] In an earlier incident, Maldivian national Ibrahim Fauzee was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in May 2002 while living in a suspected al-Qaeda safe house. Fauzee, an Islamic cleric, was held in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp until his release and repatriation to the Maldives in March 2005 (al-Jazeera, October 7, 2009). These and other incidents have sparked concerns about the spread of radical Islam in the Indian Ocean archipelago. A Paradise for Radicalism The Maldives, a Sunni Muslim majority island nation, is sometimes described as a paradise for Islamic radicalism. The country witnessed a terrorist strike for the first time in September, 2007, when a bomb explosion in the capital Male wounded 12 foreigners, including British, Japanese and Chinese tourists (The Guardian, September 30, 2007). The blast in Sultan Park was targeted at the thriving tourism industry, which is by and large the economic lifeline of the Maldives. Despite the economic benefits, many radical Islamic groups active in the Maldives have denounced tourism's influence on the local Islamic culture. Following the Sultan Park bombing, security agencies rounded up over 50 suspects, including a couple of Bangladeshi nationals. Many more fled to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Two suspects wanted in the investigation, Abdul Latheef Ibrahim and Ali Shameem, had left the Maldives prior to the blast incident with the help of a sympathetic immigration official. Both suspects are believed to have traveled to Karachi via Sri Lanka. The bombing prompted the authorities to crack down on extremist elements holed up in the illegal Dhar-ul-Khair mosque on Himendu (or Himandhoo) Island in October 2007. The situation spiraled into a violent confrontation between the members of Dhar-ul-Khair mosque and security forces when the latter attempted to carry out a search and sweep operation. The Maldivian police and the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) successfully put down the radical rising and ended the hostage crisis in Dhar-ul-Khair in a scenario similar to the Lal Masjid standoff in Islamabad in July, 2007. Sixteen people were sentenced for the violent confrontation with police at Dhar-ul-Khair (Miadhu online, October 8, 2007; The Guardian, October 9, 2007). The Pakistan Factor There is growing evidence of Maldivian youths frequenting Pakistan for reasons unknown or suspicious in nature, though enrollment in various madrassas (Islamic seminaries) was usually cited as the prime reason for their travel. Intelligence agencies of the United States and India have noted this development with concern and believe that the growing religious extremism in Maldives is a Pakistani import. In the early weeks of February 2010, nine alleged Maldivian terrorists who were arrested in Pakistan's troubled South Waziristan tribal agency in March, 2009 were brought back to the Maldives. According to Maldivian police, these nine people have ties to the 2007 Sultan Park bombing and may have left the country for Pakistan via Sri Lanka for further training and indoctrination. The nine suspects, who were repatriated in two phases, included Yoosuf Izaadhy, Ahmed Ashraf, Abdullah Sameer, Ali Faiz, Moosa Yoosuf, Yoosuf Mohammed, Ali Shafeeq, Mohamed Zuhrey, and Ahmed Ali. (Haveruu Online, April 2, 2009; Minivan News, April 1, 2009; Miadhu Daily, February 8). The infiltration of Pakistani militants in the Malidives goes back to the post-tsunami period. The Pakistan-based Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq (IKK), a charitable front of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), reached the Maldives in the wake of the December, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami under the guise of providing humanitarian services. The JuD is the political face of the Kashmir-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group. According to intelligence sources, the IKK spearheaded LeT's activities in the Maldives, which focused on drawing youths into its fold (rediff.com, September 10, 2009). The IKK reported spending $282,000 in the Maldives, although the Maldivian government says the organization was never registered as a charitable group providing post-Tsunami relief (The Hindu, November 14, 2007). Worried India Neighboring India fears that the Maldives' territory will be used as a breeding ground for Islamist terrorists or as a launching pad for attacks against India. The Maldives are undoubtedly a fertile ground for jihadist recruitment, due to an already radicalized youth (the effect of schools and madrassas being taken over by Mullahs), the influence of the Islamist organization Jamiat Ahl e-Hadith and the persuasive power of Islamist propaganda urging Maldivians to fight to relieve the plight of fellow Muslims abroad. As such, the Maldives offer excellent prospects for global jihadi groups like the LeT and al-Qaeda. Even Maldivian President Mohammed Naseed believes that there is a Maldivian connection to LeT's November 2008 attack on Mumbai (Rediff.com, October 26, 2009). With increasing concern for the growing radicalization of Maldivian society, and as reports surfaced about the LeT's foray into the archipelago, the government announced in January that it would not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities against its neighbors, especially India (Press Trust of India, February 4). The LeT has been trying to set up bases in uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean since early 2005 under the guise of carrying out charitable operations. In mid-2009, India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) issued a warning that the next big attack on Indian soil would be launched from the Maldives and that this threat necessitated the establishment of a robust coastal security apparatus (Rediff.com, July 7, 2009). The IB has also cautioned that terrorist groups like LeT were trying to infiltrate India's porous coastline (Economic Times, June 30, 2009). Though this alert seemed routine, the actual threat emanating from places like Maldives is not totally unfounded. Again this year, the IB issued intelligence reports about LeT's aggressive strategy, which has seen the movement deploy nearly 1,000 operatives in the Maldives (Rediff.com, February 4; Minivan News, February 4). In April 2005, Kerala police arrested Maldivian national Asif Ibrahim, who had reportedly frequented the Indian state to procure arms and ammunition for the LeT's Maldives operations. Ibrahim confessed to having planned to blow up a government-run mosque and to assassinate then-Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Sabahuddin Ahmed, one the prime suspects in the Mumbai carnage, has disclosed details of the LeT's Maldives chapter and the organization's attempt to recruit youths there (Rediff.com, December 19, 2008). Salafi Jihad and Talibanization On an official level, the Maldivian government has become involved in promoting a deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government. A secret meeting in January between Afghan government officials and a delegation that included representatives of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-i-Islami, along with seven men "with close links to the Taliban and respected by Mullah Omar" raised fears among some Maldivians over a perceived trend towards Taliban-style governance in the Maldives (Minivan News, January 28). [5] The Ministry of Islamic Affairs of the Maldives claims to have developed de-radicalization methods and has been taking measures to curb the activities of the various transnational Islamic organizations that have arrived in the Maldives in recent years (Miadhu Daily, April 12, 2009). However, the radical branch of Islam and its call for jihad against non-believers has many more supporters in the Maldives now than in the past and threatens to continue inducing Muslim youths in that country to join global jihadi groups.
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| Despite luger's death, foul weather, Olympic ceremonies open festively - Los Angeles Times Posted: 12 Feb 2010 08:35 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Los Angeles Times, 202 West 1st Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012 | Copyright 2010 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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