A judge ordered one of Chicago’s most politically powerful labor unions to suspend picketing against 16 funeral homes last week after receiving reports that striking Teamsters had, among other things, disturbed a child’s funeral.
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The Death Of Trayvon Martin Has Unleashed A Wave Of Demogoguery That Must Be Answered
ALEXANDRIA, VA — The death of Trayvon Martin is, of course, a devastating event for his family. That a 17-year-old boy returning from a visit to a nearby store for a snack should have his life taken is difficult to understand and accept. On many levels, the incident was, as President Obama has said, “tragic.”
Still, this event has provoked demagoguery that ignores the complex facts of the case itself and has provided an opportunity for provocateurs to proclaim that race relations in America are similar to those of the segregated Old South, as if the notable progress we have made in recent years had never happened.
The Deceptions
Consider some of the things we have heard.
* Jesse Jackson referred to the trial as “Old South Justice.” NAACP President Benjamin Jealous declared, “This will confirm for many that the only problem with the New South is it occupies the same time and space as the Old South.” He invoked the memory of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was killed in 1955 after supposedly whistling at a white woman “and whose murderers were acquitted.” An article in The Washington Post drew parallels between this case and that of Emmett Till, as well as the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, and the 1933 case of the Scottsboro Boys, nine young black men accused of raping two white girls.
* “Trayvon Benjamin Martin is dead because he and other black boys and men like him are seen not as a person but a problem,” the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnick, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, told a congregation once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
* In Sanford, Florida, the Rev. Valerie J. Houston drew shouts of support and outrage at Allen Chapel A.M.E. as she denounced, “the racism and the injustice that pollute the air in America. Lord, I thank you for sending Trayvon to reveal the injustice, God, that lives in Sanford.”
* One of those who organized demonstrations against the verdict and promoted the idea that our society is little better than it was in the years of segregation is the Rev. Al Sharpton, always ready to pour fuel on a fire, and now provided by MSNBC with a nationwide pulpit. How many today remember Sharpton’s history of stirring racial strife? In 1987, he created a media frenzy in the case of Tawana Brawley, a black teenager who claimed she was raped by a group of white police officers. A grand jury found that Brawley had lied about the event in Wappingers Falls, New York, and the case was dropped. The event that Sharpton used to indict our society for widespread racism never happened.
* In 1991, Sharpton exacerbated tensions between blacks and Orthodox Jews in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. A three-day riot, fueled by Sharpton’s inflammatory statements, erupted when a Guyanese boy died after being struck by a car driven by a Jewish man. At the boy’s funeral, Sharpton complained …read more
A Time Of Reflection
By Tim Powers
Upon the recent passing of my father and the convergence of his seven sons into one place for his funeral, we were able to reflect on the times when life was so much easier. As we were all taught to work hard and be respectful to others, it hit me that even these two simple principles have disappeared in American society.
We were raised in a time when my father could actually support a family of nine on one paycheck; my mom did not have to work (and could stay home and raise us children); and welfare (which we never needed) was comprised of a book of food stamps, a large jar of peanut butter, and a block of government-provided cheese.
These were times when all of the children in the neighborhood bounced from house to house, played baseball, basketball, football, rode bicycles, and built forts in the woods. Everything was great…as long as we all came running home for dinner when my mom rang the dinner bell (yes, we had one.)
My older brothers would watch the demonstrations of the late sixties and early seventies on the evening news on a tube TV with rabbit ears and mock the hippies and beatnicks for what they were doing. These indeed were simpler times when wrong was still wrong and misdeeds in our family were still addressed with a good old-fashioned spanking.
Unfortunately, now that society has “progressed”, the hippies and beatnicks are now running things in this country, welfare is at an all time high and seen as a way of life, children seldom even play outside as video games (and cell phones have taken them over), social skills are all but dead, it now takes both parents working in order to support just themselves, and the groups being mocked now are the tea party and Constitution-loving Patriots who simply want to preserve the times when America was a moral and mighty nation. My father was blessed to live in such a time, and it is my sincere hope that I can be instrumental in restoring the simpler time that he enjoyed while he was on this earth. John J. Powers Jr., may God rest your soul; and I, your son, will make you proud! As always, stay safe and be aware of your surroundings.
Italy prepares mass funeral for 38 killed in coach crash
Prime Minister Enrico Letta will join bereaved relatives at a mass funeral Tuesday for the 38 people killed in Italy when a coach plunged off a viaduct near Naples. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Flap over mistaken embalming still simmering in Colorado
BRIGHTON, Colo., July 23 (UPI) — A Colorado coroner said this week one of her employees was fired for sending the wrong body to a funeral home to be embalmed. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UPI Odd News
Police find evidence of explosion near mosque
Counter-terrorism police said Friday they had found evidence of a three-week-old explosion outside a mosque in the West Midlands, one of a spate of similar attacks in recent months.
The Wolverhampton Central Mosque was evacuated on Thursday night following the arrest of two Ukrainian men suspected of involvement in explosions at two other mosques in the area.
Police said debris from an explosion was found on a roundabout, and early indications suggested it had blown up on June 28.
“The debris… has been declared safe and further detailed forensic enquiries will be conducted at the scene throughout the day,” the force said in a statement.
Friday prayers were expected to proceed at lunchtime as normal at the mosque.
The find comes after two Ukrainian men aged 22 and 25 were arrested on Thursday as part of an investigation into explosions near mosques in the nearby towns of Tipton and Walsall.
They were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.
“We recognise the impact news of the latest find will have on the communities of Wolverhampton and further afield,” said police Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale.
“We’re working hard to complete our enquiries so that the area can be returned to normality.”
There has been a rise in anti-Muslim incidents in Britain since May, when a soldier was hacked to death on a London street in a suspected Islamist attack.
The explosion at the mosque in Tipton on July 12 coincided with the funeral of 25-year-old Lee Rigby, who was murdered in broad daylight near his barracks in Woolwich, southeast London.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Lima: Where the pallbearers are black
Elegant in tuxedos and white gloves, the six black pallbearers silently and gracefully remove the mahogany coffin bearing a Lima tire magnate from his mansion. They slide it into the Cadillac hearse that will parade Jorge Reyna’s body through the Chorrillos district where he was once mayor.
The pallbearers are in the job precisely because of the color of their skin, a phenomenon unique to this South American capital that was the regional seat of Spain’s colonial empire for more than three centuries. In fact, prominent citizens such as Reyna, a widely respected, charitable man of indigenous origin who died at age 82, request black pallbearers for their funerals.
“He planned his funeral and wanted it to be elegant,” said Reyna’s widow, Clarisa Velarde.
Blacks routinely bear the caskets of ex-presidents, mining magnates and bankers to their tombs in Lima. The peculiar tradition exists neither in provincial Peruvian cities nor in other Latin American countries with significant black populations such as Brazil, Panama and Colombia.
It is not a profession chosen by Lima’s blacks but is rather thrust upon them by a lack of opportunity, say Afro-Peruvian scholars. And racism remains so deeply ingrained in Peru that many don’t consider the practice discriminatory.
“Beyond the question of racism or prejudice, I think it is simply a question of employment,” said Jose Campos, a leading Peruvian black studies scholar and vice rector of the National Education University.
For 61-year-old Armando Arguedas, who like his fellow pallbearers never finished elementary school, it’s simply a job.
“Some people are friendly,” he said of those who employ him. “Some don’t even say thank you.”
Black pallbearers were even used for the recent funeral of the wife of former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
“We were never treated better,” said Arguedas. “The family members thanked us and paid us triple.”
Blacks are all but absent from Peru’s business and political elite and although slavery was abolished in 1854, only 2 percent of Peru’s blacks go to college. Afro-Peruvians are consigned largely to manual labor including as field hands in sugar cane plantations along the nation’s Pacific coast.
Census-takers don’t even register …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Suspect in soldier murder 'attacked' in jail
British police are investigating claims that one of the two chief suspects in a brutal suspected Islamist attack, against a British soldier on a London street, was assaulted in prison.
British media reported that Michael Adebolajo, 28, had his two front teeth knocked out during Wednesday’s alleged fracas.
“The police are investigating an incident that took place at HMP Belmarsh on 17 July,” said a Prison Service spokesman.
“It would be inappropriate to comment while the investigation was ongoing.”
Adebolajo and co-accused, Michael Adebowale, 22, are due to face trial in November over the horrific knife attack that claimed the life of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich on May 22.
Rigby was hacked to death in broad daylight before Adebolajo delivered an Islamist tirade to passers-by.
British Prime Minister David Cameron joined thousands of mourners last week at the soldier’s funeral.
Cameron gathered with some 800 of Rigby’s family members and colleagues for the private military funeral at a church in Bury, near Manchester in northwest England.
Thousands of members of the public lined the surrounding streets.
The killing stunned Britain and sparked a rise in community tensions. Several mosques have been attacked while the far-right British National Party and English Defence league have held a string of anti-Islamic rallies.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
With Zetas arrest, Mexico deals blow to vicious cartel
With the daring nighttime capture of the Zetas drug cartel leader, the Mexican government has delivered a major blow to the country’s most vicious gang, known for beheadings and massacres of migrants.
Capturing Miguel Angel Trevino was the biggest anti-cartel victory for the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto since he took office in December with his pledge to reduce a wave of drug-related murders that has left 70,000 people dead since 2006.
With this high-profile catch, Pena Nieto provides a rebuttal to fears that his new security strategy focused too much on crime prevention instead of putting kingpins in handcuffs.
But the arrest of Trevino, a drug kingpin who authorities say would “stew” his victims in burning oil, could set off an internal war of succession marked by more strife in the cartel’s northeastern territories, analyst say.
Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, whose dominion covers the Pacific coast, could also see Trevino’s demise as the perfect opportunity to raid the regions dominated by the Zetas.
Interior ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said authorities were on “alert” for any rise in violence following Trevino’s arrest.
“There are two scenarios,” Raul Benitez Manaut, security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told AFP. “The positive one is that the cartel is weakening, and the negative is that there could be a war between subordinates and much violence.”
Trevino, alias “Z-40,” was intercepted by marines before dawn on Monday after a helicopter swooped down in front of his pick-up truck as he traveled with two associates on a dirt road near Nuevo Laredo, a northeastern city in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas.
The Mexican and US governments have not said whether the United States helped catch Trevino. His arrest came days after the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) visited Mexico and amid a visit by the Mexican military chiefs in the United States.
Trevino’s arrest came eight months after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano, in a gunfight in the northern state of Coahuila, only for the capo’s body to be stolen by gunmen hours later in a funeral home.
Lazcano’s death was not followed by internal bloodshed for his job, but analysts say it remains to be seen if Trevino’s capture will lead to an orderly succession or a fight.
His brother Omar “Z-42” Trevino is considered a potential heir, but it is unclear how high up he ranks within the organization. The Zetas were formed by former elite soldiers and its leaders had been ex-troops until Trevino, a civilian, took over last year.
“Omar could step in and take power relatively quickly. Or someone within the Zetas could see this as an opportunity to step in and there could be infighting,” said Sylvia Longmire, a former US Air Force special agent and author of “Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico’s Drug Wars.”
But she said Trevino’s arrest may not affect the cartel’s day-to-day operations because the Zetas work like a franchise, with each cell overseeing its own turf. At the same time, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Westboro Baptist Church Promises Protest of 'Glee' Star Cory Monteith's Funeral
A Kansas-based extremist group known for protesting funerals has announced that they intend to protest at the funeral of a recently deceased cast member of the hit TV-series “Glee.” …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Top Mexican drug cartel captures or killings
Top Mexican drug cartel captures or killings:
— July 15, 2013: Authorities in northern Mexico capture Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias “Z-40,” leader of the brutal Zetas cartel.
— Oct. 7, 2012: Mexican marines kill Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, alias “El Lazca,” a founder and top leader of the Zetas. His body is later stolen from a funeral home. Trevino Morales takes over the Zetas.
— Oct. 6, 2012: Marines arrest alleged Zetas regional leader Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo, suspected of involvement in massacres and the killing of U.S. citizen David Hartley in 2010 on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.
— Sept. 12, 2012: Marines capture purported top Gulf cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, alias “El Coss.” U.S. authorities had offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.
— Dec. 9, 2010: Mexican federal police kill Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, leader of the La Familia Michoacana cartel, during a gunfight in the village of El Alcalde. His body was never recovered, and rumors have persisted that Moreno, known as “the Craziest One,” is still alive.
— July 29, 2010: Mexican army raids a house in the town of Zapopan and kills Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, one of the top leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
— Dec. 16, 2009: Mexican marines kill Arturo Beltran Leyva, leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel, in a shootout in Cuernavaca.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Mexico captures Zetas cartel leader
Mexican marines captured the head of the ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino, an official from the federal attorney general’s office told AFP.
“They carried out an important arrest, of Miguel Angel Trevino, in the early hours of Monday,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The Zetas are considered one of the most powerful and feared organized crime groups in Mexico, founded by former soldiers and known for their brutality.
Originally, the Zetas acted as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, but the two groups split in recent years, sparking brutal turf wars in the north of the country.
Trevino’s capture comes eight months after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano, in a gunfight in the northern state of Coahuila, only to lose Lazcano’s body hours later.
Last October, gunmen burst into a funeral home and stole his body, which has never been recovered.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
How To Shop For A Funeral
By Carolyn McClanahan, Contributor
Lucky people have very little experience in funeral shopping. However, it is likely you will have to think about planning a funeral at some point when a loved one dies. Funeral directors are usually wonderful people, and their natural tendency is to offer the best for the deceased individual. How do you plan a funeral for your loved one without breaking the bank? …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
13 killed in bomb blast at Sunni mosque in Baghdad
A bomb exploded outside a Sunni mosque in Baghdad late Saturday, killing at least 13 people leaving prayers and extending a daily wave of violence rippling across Iraq since the holy month of Ramadan began.
A separate attack at a funeral northeast of Baghdad killed another three people.
Police said the Baghdad blast went off around 10 p.m. near the gate of the Khalid bin al-Walid mosque in the capital’s southern Dora neighborhood, a largely Sunni Muslim area. It struck just after special late-evening prayers held during Ramadan ended.
At least 35 people were wounded in addition to those killed, police said. A hospital official confirmed the casualty toll.
Iraq is weathering its worst eruption of violence in half a decade, raising fears the country is heading back toward widespread sectarian fighting that peaked in 2006 and 2007. More than 2,600 people have been killed since the start of April.
The pace of the bloodshed has picked up since Ramadan began Wednesday, including a suicide bombing at a coffee shop in the northern city of Kirkuk late Friday that killed dozens.
In another attack Saturday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral in the town of al-Abbara, near the city of Baqouba, which is about 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Police and hospital officials said that attack killed three and wounded 10.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information to journalists.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the recent wave of attacks.
Sunni extremists, including al-Qaida’s Iraq branch, frequently target Shiites, security forces and civil servants in an effort to undermine the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
They also could be behind Saturday’s attack on the Sunni mosque, hoping that the bombing could spark a sectarian backlash against Shiites. But Shiite militias that have kept a low profile in recent years also could be to blame.
Attacks on Sunni places of worship have spiked in recent months as security has deteriorated and sectarian tensions grow.
Iraq’s minority Sunnis have been protesting for months against the Shiite-led government, alleging they receive second-class treatment. Sunni militant groups have tried to tap into that anger by linking their cause to that of the demonstrators.
Earlier in the day, authorities in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, ordered all cafes in that city to be temporarily shut down a day after a suicide attack there killed at least 39 people.
Kirkuk police chief Maj. Gen. Jamal Tahir said his officers could not guarantee the security of patrons at the dozens of teahouses and coffee shops scattered across the city. It is unclear when the shops will be allowed to reopen.
Kirkuk is a flashpoint for ethnic tensions, with its mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen holding competing claims to control of the oil-rich area. The Kurds want to incorporate it into their self-ruled region in Iraq’s north, but Arabs and Turkomen are opposed.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Suicide bomber targets mourners as 11 killed in Iraq
A suicide bombing ripped through a Shiite funeral tent in Iraq on Saturday, the second such attack in days, killing five mourners and six others died in violence elsewhere, police and medics said.
The bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a funeral tent in the village of Zahra, north of Baghdad, where family members of a deceased Shiite man were receiving condolences.
Five people were killed and 10 wounded, two days after a copycat attack in nearby Muqdadiyah killed 10 mourners.
Sunni militants including those linked to Al-Qaeda frequently target members of the Shiite majority, whom they regard as apostates.
Iraq has been hit by a surge in violence that has killed more than 2,500 people have been killed this year, including over 310 this month alone.
Analysts point to widespread discontent among Iraq’s minority Sunni community, and the Shiite authorities’ failure to address their grievances, as the main factors driving the increase in violence.
Also on Saturday, a roadside bomb in a Shiite area of Muqdadiyah killed two people and wounded five, while another exploded when people gathered at the scene, wounding four more.
In Baquba, north of the capital, gunmen killed a shop owner, while others shot dead an army officer in the northern city of Mosul.
And gunmen killed a soldier and wounded another in Kirkuk, also in northern Iraq.
Gunmen also crossed into western Iraq from Syria on Saturday and clashed with border police, leaving one dead and five wounded.
Iraq has sought to publicly avoid taking sides in the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and rebels seeking his ouster, but the conflict has spilled over the border on several occasions.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Beloved Bollywood villain Pran cremated
Veteran Indian actor Pran, who played villains and character roles in more than 400 movies, was cremated on Saturday in the western city of Mumbai following his death at the age of 93.
Pran Sikand, dubbed the “godfather of Indian villains” and best known by his first name, was one of Bollywood’s most beloved actors for nearly six decades.
Pran, who died late Friday after a bout of ill health, ruled the industry with his baritone voice and his ability to bring charm to his villainy.
In a condolence message, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “Pran entertained several generations of Indians with his riveting performances in hundreds of celluloid roles.
“He worked with doyens of film industry among which he was an icon.”
Family, fans, friends and Bollywood celebrities attended his funeral in Mumbai.
Pran’s roles had an enormous impact on Indian audiences and parents stopped naming their children ‘Pran’ (life) at the height of his fame because of his role as a “Bollywood baddie”.
Born into a wealthy family in New Delhi, Pran grew up in Lahore where he pursued a course in photography before landing his first film role.
After British rule over the subcontinent ended with its split into mainly Hindu India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Pran moved to the entertainment capital of Mumbai and worked his way into more film roles.
Pran appeared in over 400 films and played the villain opposite all the top cinema heroes of his era — from Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor to Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.
“Truly the end of a magnificent and glorious era. He was a gentleman superstar,” tweeted leading Bollywood director Karan Johar.
In his private life, Pran was renowned as a gentleman — far removed from the dark characters he played on screen.
The actor is survived by his wife Shukla, daughter Pinky, sons Arvind and Sunil as well as grandchildren.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Bomb kills 19 in northern Iraqi city, officials say
A bomb struck a crowded coffee shop late Friday in the ethnically disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least 19 and wounding more than two dozen in the latest in a string of bloody attacks pounding Iraq since the start of the holy month of Ramadan this week.
Iraq is being rocked by its deadliest and most sustained wave of bloodshed in half a decade. More than 2,600 people have been killed since the start of April, raising fears that the country is once again edging toward the brink of civil war a decade after Saddam Hussein was toppled in the U.S.-led invasion.
The blast exploded in the Classico Cafe in southern Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, as patrons were enjoying tea and water pipes hours after the sunset meal that breaks the daylong Ramadan fast, police said.
Kirkuk is home to a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen — all with competing claims to the oil-rich area. The Kurds want to incorporate it into their self-ruled region in Iraq’s north, but Arabs and Turkomen are opposed. Sunni Arab extremists, aiming to exacerbate ethnic tensions in the region, are believed to be behind frequent attacks in the area that pose a challenge to Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government.
In addition to those killed, the attack wounded 26, a police officer and a hospital official said. It brought to 24 the number of people killed in attacks in the country on Friday.
Hours before the Kirkuk attack, Sunni cleric Salah al-Nuaimi urged calm among Iraqis during a joint Sunni-Shiite sermon Friday in Baghdad aimed at easing sectarian tensions.
“Enough is enough,” al-Nuaimi told worshippers at a Baghdad mosque. “We all love Iraq, we are all Iraqis and we want to be united. We want to stop the bloodletting, and develop and build Iraq.”
Earlier in the day, a suicide car bomber struck a police patrol outside the northern city of Mosul, killing four policemen, a police officer and a medical official said. Mosul is 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital.
And outside the northern city of Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, drive-by shooters armed with pistols fitted with silencers killed a senior police officer. The attack took place in the town Shirqat, a police officer said.
Officials also provided details of new attacks on Iraqi Shiites late the previous night.
In one of the attacks on Shiites, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a funeral tent for a Shiite family in the town of in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, officials said. The late Thursday evening explosion killed 13 people and wounded 24, the officials said.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to journalists.
In the northern town of Dujail, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Baghdad, a parked car bomb went off outside a Shiite mosque late on Thursday. As people gathered around the blast site, another bomb went off. That twin bombing killed at least 11 people and …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Officials: Blast hits northern Iraqi city; 19 dead
Iraqi officials say a bomb has exploded inside a crowded coffee shop in the ethnically disputed northern city of Kirkuk, killing 19 and wounding 26.
A police official who provided the casualty toll says the blast happened around 10 p.m. Friday in the Classico Cafe in the south of the city as patrons were enjoying tea and water pipes hours after the sunset meal that breaks the daylong Ramadan fast.
A hospital official confirmed the casualty toll. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information to reporters.
It is the latest in a string of attacks that has left more than 2,600 Iraqis dead since the start of April.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
New attacks on Iraqi Shiites killed at least 24 people while assaults Friday against policemen killed five, officials said, as insurgents press their campaign to exacerbate the country’s renewed sectarian tensions.
In one of the attacks on Shiites, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a funeral tent for a Shiite family in the town of in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, officials said.
The late Thursday evening explosion killed 13 people and wounded 24, the officials said.
In the northern town of Dujail, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Baghdad, a parked car bomb went off outside a Shiite mosque late on Thursday. As people gathered around the blast site, another bomb went off.
The twin bombing killed at least 11 people and wounded 25, said the town mayor, Nayif al-Khazrachi. Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.
The two attacks raised the overall death toll Thursday from a series of attacks, which included assaults on police stations in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah west of Baghdad, to 40.
Sunni cleric Salah al-Nuaimi urged calm among Iraqis during a joint Sunni-Shiite Friday sermon in Baghdad aimed at easing sectarian tensions.
“Enough is enough,” al-Nuaimi told worshippers at a Baghdad mosque. “We all love Iraq, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Iraq revokes licenses of Al-Jazeera and other TV channels, alleges sectarian agenda
Iraqi authorities announced Sunday that they had revoked the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and nine other satellite TV channels, alleging that they are promoting a sectarian agenda as the country grapples with a wave of violence.
The move, effective immediately, comes as Baghdad tries to quell rising unrest in the country following clashes at a protest camp last week.
More than 180 people have been killed in gunbattles with security forces and other attacks since the unrest began Tuesday. The violence follows more than four months of largely peaceful protests by Iraq‘s Sunni Muslim minority against the Shiite-dominated government.
Al-Jazeera, based in the small, energy-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, said it was “astonished” by the move.
“We cover all sides of the stories in Iraq, and have done for many years. The fact that so many channels have been hit all at once though suggests this is an indiscriminate decision,” it said in an emailed statement.
“We urge the authorities to uphold freedom for the media to report the important stories taking place in Iraq,” it added.
The channel has aggressively covered the “Arab Spring” uprisings across the region, and has broadcast extensively on the civil war in neighboring Syria. Qatar itself is a harsh critic of the Syrian regime and a leading backer of the rebels, and is accused by many supporters of Iraq‘s Shiite-led government of backing protests in Iraq too.
Iraq and other governments across the Middle East have temporarily shut down Al-Jazeera’s offices in the past because they were disgruntled by its coverage.
The other nine channels whose licenses were suspended by Iraq‘s Communications and Media Commission are al-Sharqiya and al-Sharqiya News, which frequently criticize the government, and seven smaller local channels — Salahuddin, Fallujah, Taghyeer, Baghdad, Babiliya, Anwar 2 and al-Gharbiya.
In a statement posted on its website, the commission blamed the banned stations for the escalation of a sectarian backdrop that is fueling the violence that followed the deadly clashes at the Hawija camp on Tuesday.
Iraq‘s media commission accused the stations of misleading and exaggerated reports, as well as of airing “clear calls for disorder and for launching retaliatory criminal attacks against security forces.” It also blamed the stations for promoting “banned terrorist organizations who committed crimes against Iraqi people.”
The decree states that if the 10 stations try to work on Iraqi territory, they will face legal action from security forces.
Signals of their broadcasts, however, remained available to Iraqi viewers Sunday.
The decision came as Iraq‘s embattled Shiite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, made a rare appearance at an official funeral for five soldiers killed by gunmen in Iraq‘s Sunni-dominated Anbar province Saturday. Local police in the province said the soldiers were killed in a gunbattle after their vehicle was stopped.
The United States Embassy condemned the killing, and described the soldiers as unarmed.
“There is no justification for this crime, and we welcome the calls by local and national leaders in Anbar Province to bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible,” it said in a statement Thursday evening.
The Embassy last week raised
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Maggie's Critics Each Owe her $3,000
By Paul Roderick Gregory, Contributor England yesterday laid to rest former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with pomp and circumstances not seen since the Queen Mom’s funeral of 2002. Thatcher’s detractors turned their backs to her passing coffin, held signs “Rest in Shame,” and pushed the song “Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead” to the top of the charts. Margaret Thatcher’s enemies will never forgive her for breaking the unions’ stranglehold, for her support of budgetary discipline, her privatization of England’s decaying state companies, and for deregulation. Her detractors will not forgive her alliance with Ronald Reagan against the USSR’s evil empire. They will not forgive her support of the first war against Saddam Hussein. Thatcher’s detractors will never concede that she reversed England’s fifty years decline as the “sick man of Europe” and restored her country to the top ranks of world economic powers. When I began teaching comparative economics in 1970, I showed students that it was rare for countries to undergo dramatic changes in their relative economic position. The rise of Japan starting in the 1870s was one of the few exceptions of a rising economic power. England – at the turn of the 20th century the world’s richest economy — was the rare exception of a country in an economic tailspin relative to its neighbors. I taught a whole chapter about the “British disease” plagued by runaway unions, ineffective demand management, decaying state enterprises, and overregulation. The British disease was evident in the many anecdotes of British economic inefficiency, but it was even more apparent in the collapse of England’s relative economic position in Europe: In 1950, Germany and France’s per capita GDPs were between two third and three quarters of England’s. When Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, Germany and France were between ten and fifteen percent richer than England. In 1950, England was twice as affluent as Italy. By 1979, the two had essentially the same per capita income. The mighty England was reduced to being Italy! Notably, the Thatcher Revolution did not end with Thatcher. Thatcherism convinced the Labor Party to become New Labor. New Labor, unlike Old Labor, could win elections, and it continued the policies of Thatcher. After forty years of Thatcher and New Labor policies, England is again more affluent than rivals France and Germany, and it has left Italy behind in the dust. Over England’s half century of “British Disease,” various labor and Tory governments sought cures. None succeeded until Thatcher. I would challenge any economist to come up with an answer for the cure of the British disease other than the Thatcher reforms. Unless those who hate Mrs. Thatcher can come up with another reason for England’s recovery, they should admit that her policies have made them on average $3,000 better off each year based on the following calculation: In 1979, Germany and France’s combined GDP per capita was 14 percent higher than the UK. Under the favorable assumption that a UK without Thatcher could have maintained that deficit, its current GDP
From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2013/04/18/maggies-critics-each-owe-her-3000/