Steel On Steel Persecution Update

April 1, 2010

Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org

Top Stories: 

1. Sheikh Incites Muslims to Attack Christians in Egypt

2. Pakistani Muslims Accused of Rape Allegedly Attack Sisters

3. Lao Officials Visit Expelled Christians, Give Assurances

4. Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India

5. Muslims Murder Pakistani Christian with Axe Blows

6. Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home

7. Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws

8. Construction of Two Churches Stopped in Indonesia

1. Sheikh Incites Muslims to Attack Christians in Egypt

Assault on community center, church, homes leaves 24 Copts wounded. 

By Damaris Kremida

ISTANBUL, March 17 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of enraged Muslims attacked a Coptic Christian community in a coastal town in northern Egypt last weekend, wreaking havoc for hours and injuring 24 Copts before security forces contained them. The violence erupted on Friday (March 12) afternoon after the sheikh of a neighborhood mosque incited Muslims over a loudspeaker, proclaiming jihad against Christians in Marsa Matrouh, in Reefiya district, 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Alexandria, according to reports. The angry crowd hurled rocks at the district church, Christians and their properties, looted homes and set fires that evening. The mob was reportedly infuriated over the building of a wall around newly-bought land adjacent to the Reefiya Church building. The building also houses a clinic and community center. “I was very surprised by the degree of hatred that people had toward Christians,” said a reporter for online Coptic news source Theban Legion, who visited Reefiya after the attack. “The hate and the disgust were obvious.” Following afternoon mosque prayers, Sheikh Khamis rallied neighborhood Muslims, gathering more than 300 people. The mob broke into groups, attacking the church and nearby houses of the Coptic Christian community. 

2. Pakistani Muslims Accused of Rape Allegedly Attack Sisters

Fearing conviction, five suspects are said to have tried beating 15- and 21-year-old into dropping charges.

By Jawad Mazhar 

LAHORE, Pakistan, March 18 (Compass Direct News) – Five Muslims allegedly ransacked the house of an impoverished Christian in this capital city of Punjab Province last month and angrily beat his daughters in an effort to get the family to withdraw rape charges. Muhammad Sajjid wielding a pistol, Muhammad Sharif brandishing a dagger and Muhammad Wajjad and two unidentified accomplices carrying bamboo clubs arrived at the Lahore home of Piyara Masih the afternoon of Feb. 26, Christian leaders said. The Muslims allegedly ransacked the house and began thrashing his two daughters, a 15-year-old and her 21-year-old sister, Muniran Bibi, according to attorney Azra Shujaat, head of Global Evangelical Ministries, and Khalid Gill, president of the Christian Liberation Front. Muniran said Sharif stabbed her four times with the dagger. “They ripped apart my clothes, as well as my sister’s,” she said. “In the meantime, Muhammad Sajjid kept firing into the air to terrorize us.” The family accuses the men of raping her then-13-year-old sister in 2008. The alleged attacks on the family were predicated in part on the assumption that, as Christians, they will get little help from a justice system biased against non-Muslims and easily swayed by threats, bribes or other means of persuasion from Muslims, Christian leaders said. When the family approached Nishtar Colony police for help, officers refused to register a case. Attorney Shujaat said that only after a Lahore High Court order for police to file a First Information Report and strenuous efforts by him, Christian politicians and clergymen did the Nishtar Colony police register one against the Muslim gang. The Christian family said they were still receiving death threats. 

3. Lao Officials Visit Expelled Christians, Give Assurances

Officials led by provincial governor explain law providing for right to believe.

By Sarah Page

DUBLIN, March 19 (Compass Direct News) – Officials in Laos’ Saravan Province yesterday visited 48 Christians expelled from Katin village and assured them that they had the legal right to embrace the faith of their choice, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom. The delegation, led by provincial Gov. Khamboon Duangpanya, read out June 2002’s Decree 92 on the Management and Protections of Religious Activity in Laos and explained its religious freedom provisions to the group, assuring them that they could freely believe in Christianity “if their faith was genuine.” They also said they had the right to live anywhere in the district. Ta-Oyl district officials had expelled the Christians from Katin village at gunpoint on Jan. 18 when they refused to give up their faith. Having lost access to their homes, fields and livestock, the Christians then built temporary shelters at the edge of the jungle, about six kilometers (nearly four miles) away from the village. The district head, identified only as Bounma, on Monday (March 15) summoned seven of the believers to his office and declared that he would not tolerate the existence of Christianity in areas under his control. The group must either recant their faith or move elsewhere, he’d said. 

4. Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India

Investigation concludes Hindu nationalist state government is responsible.

By Vishal Arora

NEW DELHI, March 22 (Compass Direct News) – Minority Christians in southern Karnataka state are under an unprecedented wave of Christian persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court. The spate began on Sept. 14, 2008, when at least 12 churches were attacked in one day in Karnataka’s Mangalore city, in Dakshina Kannada district, said Justice Michael Saldanha, former judge of the Karnataka High Court. “On Jan. 26 – the day we celebrated India’s Republic Day – Karnataka’s 1,000th attack took place in Mysore city,” Saldanha told Compass, saying the figure was based on reports from faith-based organizations. 

“Attacks are taking place every day,” said Saldanha. The latest attack took place on Wednesday (March 17), when a mob of around 150 people led by the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, stormed the funeral of a 50-year-old Christian identified only as Isaac, reported the Karnataka-based Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). The mob pulled the coffin apart, threw the body into a tractor and dumped it outside, saying his burial would have contaminated Indian soil, added the GCIC. Blaming the state government for the attacks, Saldanha said the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party had “outdone Orissa.” Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharya denied the results of the inquiry. “The allegation of Karnataka having faced 1,000 attacks is absolutely false,” Acharya told Compass. “Karnataka is the most peaceful state in India, and the people are law-abiding.”

5. Muslims Murder Pakistani Christian with Axe Blows 

Rival merchants threatened to kill potato seller if refused to convert to Islam. 

By Jawad Mazhar

MIAN CHANNU, Pakistan, March 22 (Compass Direct News) – Six Muslims in Khanewal district, southern Punjab Province, killed a Christian with multiple axe blows for refusing to convert to Islam this month, according to family and police sources. The six men had threatened to kill 36-year-old Rasheed Masih unless he converted to Islam when they grew resentful of his potato business succeeding beyond their own, according to Masih’s younger brother Munir Asi and a local clergyman. The rival merchants allegedly killed him after luring him to their farmhouse on March 9, leaving him on a roadside near Kothi Nand Singh village in the wee hours of the next day. The Rev. Iqbal Masih of the Mian Channu Parish of the Church of Pakistan said Rasheed Masih was a devoted Christian, and that both he and his brother Asi had refused the Muslims’ pressure to convert to Islam. Mian Channu police have registered a case against the six men and an investigation is underway, but the suspects are still at large, police officers told Compass. Police said the suspects were Ghulam Rasool, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Amjad, one identified only as Kashif and two other unidentified Muslims; they were charged with torture and murder. Masih’s family lives in Babo John Colony, Mian Channu of Khanewal district. “Our continuous denial to recant our faith and convert gradually turned into enmity,” Asi told Compass. The FIR states, “Both the Muslim men were not only inviting them to Islam but hurling threats of dire consequences and death on them for the last six months in case they refused to convert.”

6. Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home

Al Shabaab militants execute pastor; government-aligned Islamists burn house containing Bible.

By Simba Tian

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 23 (Compass Direct News) – Islamic militants in Somalia tracked down an underground church leader who had previously escaped a kidnapping attempt and killed him last week, Christian sources said. Islamic extremist al Shabaab rebels shot Madobe Abdi to death on March 15 at 9:30 a.m. in Mahaday village, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Johwar. He had escaped an al Shabaab attempt to kidnap him on March 2. Abdi’s death adds to a growing number of Christians murdered by Islamic militants, but his was distinctive in that he was not a convert from Islam. An orphan, Abdi was raised as a Christian. Earlier, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, alleged members of the government-aligned Islamic Courts Union last month set fire to the house of an underground church member they suspected of having left Islam. Having learned that there was a Bible and Christian pamphlets inside, the angry militants stormed the house in Hamarwien district of Mogadishu on Feb. 17 at 1:15 p.m. as a warning to those who dare possess any Christian literature, sources said. The assailants looted the home before setting it afire. Area residents tried to extinguish the blaze, which left the house uninhabitable. “I saw smoke coming out of the house, then I ran outside and I saw two men coming out of the house with a bucket of gasoline,” said a neighbor who sought anonymity. “One of the men was shouting, ‘Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar ,’ then they entered a waiting car and drove off.” 

7. Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws

Radical Muslim relative of accuser uses statute to exact revenge, Christian leader says.

By Jawad Mazhar

GUJRANWALA, Pakistan, March 24 (Compass Direct News) – Police in Alipur have arrested a Christian woman on a baseless accusation of “blaspheming” the prophet of Islam and tried to keep rights groups from discovering the detention, a Christian leader said. Alipur police in Punjab Province denied that they had detained Rubina Bibi when Khalid Gill, Lahore regional coordinator of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) and organizer of the Christian Liberation Front, inquired about her detention after a Muslim woman accused her of blasphemy, Gill told Compass. “The Muslim woman’s name was kept secret by the police and Muslim people, and we were not allowed to see the Christian woman,” Gill said. “The Alipur police said they had not arrested her yet, contrary to the fact that they had arrested and tortured her at Alipur police station.” A reliable police source told Compass on condition of anonymity that a First Information Report (No. 194/2010) dated March 20 identified Rubina Bibi of Alipur, wife of Amjad Masih, as accused of making a derogatory remark about the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The charge comes under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which have gained international notoriety for their misuse by Muslims to settle personal grudges. Police told Compass that the FIR was now sealed and no further information would be released to any person or news outlet. Inspector Asif Nadeem, Station House Officer of Alipur police, declined to speak to Compass in spite of repeated efforts to contact him. APMA’s Gill said the charge against Rubina Bibi grew out of a quarrel with her Muslim accuser over a minor domestic dispute. He said a radical Muslim relative of the accuser, Sabir Munir Qadri, had turned the quarrel into a religious issue in which the Christian could be sentenced to death or life imprisonment with a large fine. 

8. Construction of Two Churches Stopped in Indonesia

Government unduly seals shut one church building, Islamic mob forces halt to another. 

By Samuel Rionaldo

JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 25 (Compass Direct News) – An Islamic mob stopped construction of Santa Maria Immaculata Catholic Church in Citra Garden, West Jakarta earlier this month even as government officials in Yasmin Park, Bogor, West Java halted work on an Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) building. On March 12, the same day GKI faced closure from government officials, protestors led by the United Islam Forum (FUIB) blockaded the entrance to Citra Garden, demanding that construction of the Catholic church building there cease. They based their demand on the claim that it did not have the approval of the local citizens, but the church had official permission and therefore has been under construction for several weeks. The building permit was posted in plain view, but the Islamic protestors said they felt that not all citizens had agreed to allow the building. Church leader Albertus Suriata said the congregation never has had problems with local people. “We have had good relations,” Suriata told Compass. “I don’t think that anyone near the church had objections. We suspect outsiders.” In West Java, Bogor city police sealed the construction site of the Yasmin Park Indonesian Christian Church. Previously the Bogor city government had revoked the church building permit, claiming that the congregation created “uneasiness” among local people. The claim that the church caused “uneasiness” is false, said a source who requested anonymity. The source said the Bogor city government came under pressure from several Muslim organizations to revoke the building permit, and that in fact Yasmin Park residents had no objection to a church in their midst. “Relations between the church and the residents were always good,” the source said.

Stevenage

Clarke and Littlejohn -a breath of fresh air

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Last broadcast today, 22:35 on BBC One.

SYNOPSIS

David Dimbleby chairs the topical debate in Stevenage. The panel includes the Home Secretary Alan Johnson, the shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke, the Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Sarah Teather, and the broadcasters Richard Littlejohn and Victoria Coren.

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1. Thu 1 Apr 2010
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No. 2438| April 1, 2010

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad: "The State of 'Neither War Nor Peace' Is Temporary"   To view full clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2438.htm Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, which aired on Al-Manar TV on March 24, 2010: Bashar Al-Assad: War is the worst possible solution. Nobody wants war. Even the resistance movement, anywhere in the Arab world, wants peace, not war. But the resistance emerged due to the absence of peace. We should continue to strive for peace as long as there is hope. You might ask if we place any hope in the Israeli government – no, we don't, but we believe that Israel today – from what we hear from its supporters – has no option other than peace. The Israeli deterrence has declined over time. Even though Israel has strengthened militarily, the deterrence of the Arab masses and their notion of resistance have increased. So Israel has, in fact, grown weaker, and its military strength no longer guarantees its existence. Many of Israel's supporters – especially among the Zionist organizations, and the extreme pro-Israel Jews – say: "We used to believe in war, and we used to support every Israeli war, but now we believe that Israel has no option but peace." [...] It is well-known that Syria is developing its army, even according to what Israel itself says. I am not quoting statements by pro-Syrian circles. Even the enemy acknowledges Syria's efforts to develop [its military]. This means that the state of "neither war nor peace" is temporary. Either it will end in peace – the signing of a peace accord – or it will end in war. There is no other option. But you turn to war only when you have lost all hope of peace.

Nigel Farage of UKIP

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so after all that money-printing .....not working?? of course not! its been deliberately organised!

Breaking News from Moneynews.com ECB Official: World on Edge of Double Dip Recession The world economy could fall back into recession, says European Central Bank Governing Council Member Nout Wellink, who also heads the Dutch central bank. In both Europe and the United States, production is coming back and financial markets are rising. But consumer spending lags. And that’s leaving unemployment at high levels – 9.7 percent in the United States.  Read the Entire Article — Go Here Now. ECB Official:  World on Edge of Double Dip Recession Thursday, 01 Apr 2010 11:33 AM By: Dan Weil The world economy could fall back into recession, says European Central Bank Governing Council Member Nout Wellink, who also heads the Dutch central bank. “Domestic dynamics leave much to be desired, especially in Japan and most European countries, where private consumption and investments are declining or stagnating,” he wrote in the bank’s annual report. “This poses the risk that the economic recovery makes a false start and will be W-shaped,”  the report said, according to Bloomberg.  In both Europe and the United States, production is coming back and financial markets are rising. But consumer spending lags. And that’s leaving unemployment at high levels – 9.7 percent in the United States. In addition, government debt is mushrooming in the United States, Europe and Japan. “Notwithstanding the return of a certain euphoria on the stock exchanges, most risks are still downward,” Wellink wrote. “Also, we can’t expect any new impulses from monetary policy.”  Indeed, the easy monetary policy already in force could spark a major bout of inflation.  “The very loose monetary policies at the moment sow the seeds for new instabilities,” Wellink wrote.  Low interest rates are pushing investors to emerging markets, which will force asset prices higher there, he says. Star economist Nouriel Roubini also says another recession may be in store for the U.S. “A slew of poor economic data over the past two weeks suggests that the U.S. economy is headed for — at best — a U-shaped recovery,” he wrote in a report.

Visit our News page The Jihadists Next Door Dear Harold, Homegrown terrorism continues to increase—as we predicted a year ago. (See the Investors Business Daily editorial below). The next-to-last paragraph is especially worth highlighting:   Muslims see what's going on in their community. So why the conspiracy of silence? Why aren't self-proclaimed "moderate" Muslim groups and mosque leaders standing up  and condemning this rampant jihadism in their midst? The problem is, our government and the media keep going to the wrong leaders and groups, like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. They should be talking to Muslims like Dr. Tawfik Hamid, whose recent commentary, “A Message to the Muslim World,” is a courageous and candid exhortation to the Muslim World to take  a long, hard look at its supremacist ideology.  IBD EDITORIALS The Jihadists Next Door Posted 03/15/2010 06:42 PM ET Security: The arrests of three new homegrown terrorists, including two "Jihad Janes" and an al-Qaida suspect who infiltrated nuclear plants, confirm a rise in homegrown jihadist activity. Sharif Mobley is one of the latest jihadists next door. Before he was rounded up in a sweep of suspected al-Qaida terrorists in Yemen, Mobley worked at five nuclear plants in New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania. He shot two guards, killing one, before his capture. Mobley grew up in New Jersey before converting to Islam. His militancy shocked an old high school friend, who ran into him after returning from an Army tour in Iraq. Mobley told him: "Get the hell away from me, you  Muslim killer!" Then there's Colleen LaRose, aka Jihad Jane, who was arrested in Philadelphia for allegedly plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist who'd "offended" Muslims. Jamie Paulin-Ramirez of Denver was also arrested in connection with the assassination plot. All three suspects are U.S. citizens from different parts of the country. One is black, one white and one formerly married to a Hispanic immigrant. Two, shockingly, are women. While each suspect has a different background, all three are Muslim converts radicalized over the Internet — a dangerous trend. American converts are al-Qaida's prime recruits right now, because they have a better  chance of slipping through security checkpoints. Many such as Mobley are flocking to Yemen, where another American turncoat, Anwar Awlaki, recruits Westerners via the Web. Awlaki allegedly recruited the crotch bomber from  London, then trained him for his  suicide mission in Yemen. He also advised the Fort Hood terrorist online. LaRose is said to have recruited others online to kill the cartoonist. Her accomplice  Paulin-Ramirez married an  Algerian whom she met online. A straight-A nursing student, the 31-year-old mother of one spent much of her  time surfing jihadist Web sites. Both women said they'd be willing to blow themselves up for Islam. While the essential ingredient in these cases is militant Islam, we have to wonder if the left  isn't making otherwise normal Americans vulnerable to such treasonous seductions. After all,  the hate-America lobby — led by the American Civil Liberties Union and often cheered by the media — has comforted even the  most guilty in the war on terror, including the 9/11 mastermind and other Gitmo detainees. Take Omar Hammami. A smart American college kid who grew up Baptist in the Alabama  suburbs, he's now an  al-Qaida field commander in Somalia wanted by the FBI. What happened? He became consumed with events in Iraq and Afghanistan and began subscribing to conspiracy theories about 9/11. He learned to hate his country, which he calls a legitimate "target" for attack. Islamic apologists in academia and the media keep trying to dismiss the radicalization trend, but they're whistling past the graveyard. A new Duke University study claims that "only" 139 Muslim Americans have been involved in terrorism since 9/11 (including 41, or 30%, in 2009 alone). But the report, which got a big splash in the media, is laughably incomplete. It omits some of  the feds' most celebrated terrorist convictions. It also excludes any U.S. Muslims convicted of financing terror. And these are just the homegrown terrorists who got caught. How many others are out there? New Mexico-born Awlaki has 4,800 Facebook friends. He has thousands of followers in America. At mosques and Islamic bookstores across the country, they buy his sermons extolling jihad and "martyrdom." They're even sold as CD box sets. Homegrown terror is a signal event threatening homeland security, yet it seems to have  caught Homeland Security  chief Janet Napolitano napping.  She still sees white militia groups and anti-government extremists as the top threat. Nothing could be more wrong. Muslims see what's going on in their community. So why the conspiracy of silence? Why aren't self-proclaimed "moderate" Muslim groups and mosque leaders standing up and condemning this rampant jihadism in their midst? After five young Virginia jihadists last year were caught training in Pakistan, Muslim  leaders promised to speak out  in a big way against such radicalization. It's been months. We're still waiting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make sure you receive all of your messages from ACT for America. Add actforamerica@donationnet.net to your address book as an approved email sender. 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Featured Stories

U. of Calif. addresses campus hate, but some draw line on Oren case

A student is escorted from a University of California, Irvine auditorium by campus police after heckling Israeli U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren, Feb. 8, 2010.

The University of California announced measures designed to prevent hate violence and racism on campus, but some speakers at a meeting devoted to the issue said the recent heckling of Israel's ambassador at UC Irvine was a display of free speech, not a hate crime. Read more »

Student outreach at AIPAC

Wonder why AIPAC is so influential? Those folks know how to mobilize. Watch a video report from Ben Harris on the pro-Israel lobby's extensive campus outreach operation. Read more » Featured Stories U. of Calif. addresses campus hate, but some draw line on Oren case A student is escorted from a University of California, Irvine auditorium by campus police after heckling Israeli U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren, Feb. 8, 2010. The University of California announced measures designed to prevent hate violence and racism on campus, but some speakers at a meeting devoted to the issue said the recent heckling of Israel's ambassador at UC Irvine was a display of free speech, not a hate crime. Read more » Student outreach at AIPAC Wonder why AIPAC is so influential? Those folks know how to mobilize. Watch a video report from Ben Harris on the pro-Israel lobby's extensive campus outreach operation. Read more » AIPAC, Congress members seek to add enforcement teeth to Iran sanctions In the wake of revelations of lack of U.S. enforcement of Iran sanctions, AIPAC and its supporters on Capitol Hill are pushing to legislate tougher enforcement. Read more » Rise of Conservative right alarming Hungary's Jews Hungary's main Conservative party is expected to win an overwhelming victory in upcoming elections in which a far-right party is also expected to score significant gains. Hungary's Jews, who traditionally vote center-left, are concerned about the shifting political winds. Read more » Editors' Picks The Passover Blog Sandra Bernhard's Pesach tweets. Healthy eating. A new source of Passover protein. JDub, The Macaroons and kids' songs. Passover politics. Scripting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (L.A. Times) It's been called a gay Middle Eastern version of "Romeo and Juliet," but "Salam Shalom" has been reworked so many times by its author that the script itself has become a microcosm of the very conflict that serves as its backdrop. The kibbutz in Israeli culture (Haaretz) On the 100th anniversary of the kibbutz movement, an editorial suggests that while little remains of its original collectivist spirit, the kibbutz has had an enduring impact on Israeli culture. Breaking News President Obama predicted that the U.N. Security Council would pass a new round of sanctions against Iran within weeks. Sandra Bullock's estranged husband is seen posing as Adolf Hitler, wearing a German soldier's cap and giving a Heil Hitler salute in a US Weekly photo. U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor said he has received threats partly because he is Jewish. A person can be guilty of a hate crime even if his victim is a building and not a person, a New York court found. Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a performance in London by the acclaimed Jerusalem Quartet. Two British lawmakers accused supporters of Israel of “buying” influence in the Conservative Party. A Chabad house in Budapest was stoned during a Passover seder. Thousands of Jewish worshipers gathered at the Western Wall for the priestly blessing. Israeli security services clashed with Palestinians and activists outside of a prison near Ramallah. A large arms cache allegedly intended to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip was discovered in the Sinai Desert.

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NEWNATIONS BULLETIN 1ST APRIL 2010

Sleepwalking into disaster

We tell how close the world came to a nuclear war on March 27th (last week)!

Who knew? Who would have thought it? Who predicted it? But the possibility was always there.

NATO seeks a new doctrine 

We look to our own defences and to Europe’s disarray. An alliance that sixty one years ago had its primary purpose to “Keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down,” now seeks a new doctrine. 

We examine NATO as it is and ask again, as we did in 2006 : What is Nato for?

We look at an outrage against democracy. Where? In the United States.

Introducing the dread “Keep America Safe” movement.

Britain’s two scandals 

One is about lawmakers expenses which everybody knows about. The story runs and runs.

The other is about the Tabloids caught pirating e-mail, hacking computers and bugging mobile phones. Since they were the villains, the tabloids didn’t print the story. Many of their readers don’t even know about it.

Watchdogs with no bark

After collapsing giants Enron and now Lehman Bros Bank showed very dubious accounting the question is, why didn’t the auditors blow the whistle?

Why are the Somali Pirates still in business? 

200 years ago the Barbary pirates were cleaned out by the United States Marines. (recall their anthem: “..to the shores of Tripoli..”) How is it that after years of their arrogant high-seas robbery, the Somali pirates are still thriving?

Iran - tough but not too tough

We look at the Iranian situation which looks slowly to be ‘coming to the boil’.We look at the sanctions already in place and the psychological war that has already started.

Iraq - Winners and losers, but no clear victor

No certain outcome as to the next government but we explain the results of the election – who did well and what happens next.

Pakistan: The strains with the US 

It has a lot to do with money. US military audits have improved since the wild, early days of IRAQ. 

But Pakistan is conscious that one day the US and the NATO countries will go home - yet they will still be there, next door to Afghanistan. That’s why they will always look out for their own interests.

Corruption in Afghanistan

We give some insights into the scale of corruption - starting with an estimated $10 million a day leaving Kabul airport.

Libya on the warpath

Libya seeks to destroy ….Switzerland (you would never have guessed)!. We give the reasons why.

Russia, the US and the elephant in the room

Hallelujah. The cut in nuclear stockpiles has been agreed, but nearly came unstuck. We explain.

Al Qaida, the Yemen and Saudi Arabia

100 or so al Qaida suspects arrested in Saudi, most of them not Saudis, but the threat is resurrected.

Syria from pariah to ally

Syria’s status has changed and there are many implications for several nations. If Israel through calculated inertia, blocks the emergence of a Palestinian state, then Syria’s importance will grow.

Taiwan: The people speak - and it sounds good.

We survey the political situation where the president has moved too far too fast for the citizens. They may one day agree to re-joining the mainland, but they will not be bounced into it.

Ukraine: out with the Old

The elections were decisive but the feisty loser, Yulia Timoshenko battles on – within the constitution, which has taken on a new significance for both sides. Meanwhile, NATO is off the wish list for the new government.

India’s secret ‘green’ weapon

We unveil a new stun grenade designed for the anti-terrorist campaign, now passed for service.

Philippines lethal elections

We give a run-down of what to expect in the upcoming elections.

Conspiracy and Paranoia in Turkey

An important survey of an important country. There is a deep chasm between contending forces, both civil and military. Fears exist of a religious slide into a similar situation as next door IRAN governed by priests, with democracy out of the window. But some contenders of the Deep State, the secular old guard, are not too keen on democracy itself.

More Updated Reports

On Central Asia : KAZAKHSTAN, UZBEKISTAN, TURKMENISTAN

 

On the Caucasus : GEORGIA, AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA

 

On the Balkans : SERBIA, CROATIA, BOSNIA, BULGARIA, ALBANIA

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