Following two weeks of demonstrations in various cities across Jordan against high commodity prices and government policies, the country's ruler King Abdullah II said on Wednesday that it's time to bring about more political and economic reforms in the desert kingdom.
"Abdullah II insisted on the need to move forward with clear and transparent programmes of political and economic reform, which will allow the kingdom to overcome the economic challenges, and assure Jordan and Jordanians the decent future they deserve," the royal palace reportedly cited the king as saying in an apparent bid to connect with disgruntled Jordanians.
Webmaster's Commentary: It will be interesting, with this tidal wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa, where they will ultimately lead, and how the US will have to realign its policies accordingly. But one thing is certain: change (and very probably regime change) is coming to a number of countries, and most probably very soon.
Israel expects the Egyptian government to weather the protests roiling the country and to remain in power, an Israeli Cabinet minister said Thursday, providing Israel's first official assessment of the crisis affecting its powerful southern neighbor.
The minister said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, backed by his powerful security forces, was strong enough to overcome the unrest, though he did not rule out the possibility of further violence.
Webmaster's Commentary: Notice that this isn't sourced.
But were I a betting woman, I wouldn't bet on Mubarak's power to hold the country together.
“Yemen is not like Tunisia,” Interior Minister Motahar Rashad al-Masri insisted today. But who exactly is he trying to convince? Surely it is not the tens of thousands of angry protesters on the streets of the capital today, demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Things appear to be moving surprisingly fast, particularly in Yemen, where the first protests on Sunday sparked arrests and even bigger protests, and led President Saleh to promise that he wouldn’t run for an addition term in office, just as Tunisian President Ben Ali did shortly before being chased into exile.
Webmaster's Commentary: It appears to be a matter of time before there is regime change in both Yemen and Egypt. And what those in the bowels of US government pathologically refuse to consider is this; when peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is almost always inevitable, at some point.
The US government ultimately cannot provide enough guns, rockets, and aircraft to suppress a popular uprising when it is virtually all of the people of a country demanding change.
And our problem of consistently supporting various tinpot thugs, just because they are "our thugs", like Batista in Cuba; King Abdullah in Jordan; the Shah in Iran; Pinochet in Chile; and Mubarak in Egypt, is that there comes a point where the people of those countries are going to rise up, and tell these guys to "get the heck out of Dodge".
And the following government, after an overthrow, is almost inevitably anti-American, because we have consistently supported some of the most repressive regimes on the planet.
The US government, consistently, appears to be amazingly incapable of learning from history, and therefore has only itself to blame when these events happen because we consistently back people who do not care about the welfare of their people, but only their own personal gain.
Britons' confidence in the economy and their finances has suffered its biggest drop in close to 20 years, raising fears that the Government's austerity onslaught will set off a self-feeding downward spiral.
The increasing rate of obesity in the US has turned into a national security issue amid growing concerns about a shortage of fit youths capable of serving the military.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Not that I support the wars, but there is an easy answer to the obesity epidemic and that is to stop adding chemicals to food that make people gain weight, such as MSG, Aspartame, and SBGH.
As a father, I may not always agree with the opinions of my children, but I respect and honor their right to have them and I am proud when they have the courage to express them, even if those opinions are unpopular. How else can any of us continue to learn?
The United States and Japan received sharp warnings from the IMF and ratings agencies Thursday that they must tackle their huge budget deficits to avoid investors dumping their bonds, which would create a sovereign debt crisis and push up their borrowing costs.
Webmaster's Commentary: The US government may come crashing down, choking in its insolvency and inability to pay its bills. The people of this country are tapped out economically, underemployed, and overtaxed: there is no money left for any increase in taxes.
The mere printing of more money (cutely characterized by the Fed as "quantitative easing" just devalues the worth of existing currency, and is manifesting as rampant inflation.
For me two things come out clearly from these painful documents (some of them have parallel data in the US embassy cables on Wikileaks). First it is not that the Palestinian officials are traitors but merely (and this is bad
"Because we will order the American schmucks to go kill them all otherwise!" -- Tel Aviv
(Ahem)
It seems that Egypt has become the litmus test for Democracy in our time. Clearly the Egyptian people are tired of the thirty year corrupt rule of Mubarak. Clearly the Egyptian people want a change. Thus, everyone who stands up to defend Mubarak is in effect proclaiming their opposition to the principles of Democracy. It does not matter what the Egyptian people want. They will have Mubarak as their ruler. It does not matter what the Palestinian people want. They will have Abbas as their ruler. And on and on and on. You cannot have it both ways. If you support Democratic principles, than Mubarak must go.
CNBC contributor Erin Burnett said Friday that oil prices would skyrocket if countries in the Middle East broke out from under the rule of brutal dictators. Appearing on a Friday broadcast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Burnett said that the ongoing revolution in Egypt could threaten US interests in the region due to Egypt's history as an ally on matters pertaining to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Webmaster's Commentary: If we would have spent as much developing alternative energy as we have pursuing these immoral and illegal wars to obtain oil and natural gas, we wouldn't need the oil from the Middle East any more.
But historically, Burnett is correct in that the US has made a habit of supporting tinpot dictators to make sure that the oil flows, and at a reasonable price. Two examples of this are the US government's support of Ali Saleh in Yemen, and the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia. Yemen is now experiencing massive demonstrations; one has to wonder if Saudi Arabia will be next?!?
Alright people, if you can’t see it you’re not looking very closely. The dominoes are starting to tumble. All around the world, that unrest we have been expecting is rearing its revolutionary head. What will the outcome be? It’s going to be something different than the corpse feeding bankers, making bets on the sidelines, anticipate. For the moment it would be a good idea, for everyone with money that they need to put somewhere, to put it in a Muslim bank. It makes all kinds of good sense from all kinds of angles, or you could take it out of the bank altogether, just to show yourself how much you've been depending on them.
"You. House Boy. Barry. Barack. Whateveryournameis. You send a bunch of your kids to kill the Egyptians and keep our puppet in place. Right now! Or else!"
Anyone would be able to get a copy of President Barack Obama's birth records for a $100 fee under a bill introduced in the state Legislature that backers hope will finally dispel claims he was born elsewhere.
A multiple trillion dollar loss emanates from Wall Street and no crimes are committed? Will any form of real justice ever be served? Will those who facilitated and enabled this crisis to unfold ever be singled out? Are there individuals on both Wall Street and in Washington who just exhaled thinking, “We got away with it.”
Webmaster's Commentary:
I am sure they are watching Egypt (Syria, Jordan, Albania, Tunisia) right now and realizing that the American people have a far greater reason to be angry with their government than the people of those other nations.
They have not gotten away with it yet. Only in their graves will they be assured of being beyond the reach of the people.
With Egypt pretty a done deal, many are wondering who is next. Al Arabiya provides the answer: Syria has just shut down its internet service. And as one glance at the map below suggests, should this indeed be the case, and if Jordan promptly follows suit, Israel will be surrounded by revolutions. Which is surely a reason for WTI to plunge another 20%.
The truth is that the "establishment" is constantly trying to divide us and get us fighting with one another. They pit the Republicans against the Democrats (even as though control both sides). They pit one race against another. They pit one gender against another. We are told that the rich are against the poor, the north is against the south, urban is against rural and that there are even "generational battles" going on. Frustration and hate are rapidly growing in the United States today, and a lot of that frustration and hate is unfortunately aimed at the targets that the mainstream media has programmed all of us to hate.
As is the case with all the socio-political developments across the globe, social media emerged as a potent tool for the anti-government protestors in Egypt. Despite the blockade imposed on internet and mobile communication services by the authorities, photos and videos as well as responses to the Egypt unrest flood social media.Threatened by the possibility of what could follow if access to internet and other modes of communication continued, the authorities quickly turned to blockades.
As the Egyptian government suspends internet communications and bans protest, massive demonstrations manifest. Following in the steps of Tunisia, Egyptian protesters hope to exile President Mubarak, now in office for over 30 years.
Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters poured into the streets of Egypt Friday, stoning and confronting police who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas in the most violent and chaotic scenes yet in the challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. One protester was killed and even a Nobel Peace laureate was placed under house arrest after joining demonstrations.
We must tell congressman Peter King that making people who call in tips immune a nightmare waiting to happen on the people. Under the Bill of Rights. Americans have a right to confront there accusers and to bring forth witnesses for their defense. Making people who turn in their neighbors immune from any prosecution and being confronted by the accused is unconstitutional. The accusers credibility to be challenged and the validity of accusations is part of the accused right of due process.
Media in the Arab world are generally reporting cautiously on the protests rocking Egypt following the shakeup in Tunisia, but those in Iran are giving the turmoil prominent, almost gleeful, coverage. Sunni Egypt, viewed as the leader of the Arab world, and Shi’ite Iran are longstanding rivals.
Iranian outlets, especially those linked to the government and establishment, are using terms like “revolution” and “uprising” to describe the protests, painting the demonstrators as heroic and giving headline treatment to voices predicting the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak...
Michael T. Klare warns us to, “Get ready for a rocky year. From now on, rising prices, powerful storms, severe droughts and floods, and other unexpected events are likely to play havoc with the fabric of global society, producing chaos and political unrest.
It’s not surprising then that food and energy experts are beginning to warn that 2011 could be the year of living dangerously — and so could 2012, 2013, and on into the future.” Just weeks into the New Year things are not looking so good with rising prices already threatening to devastate a great part of humanity...
Thousands of protesters gathered across Cairo and other cities on Friday including the eastern Egyptian hotspot of Suez and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura and Sharqiya, calling for an end to "corruption" and "dictatorship," Al Arabiya TV reported.
Protesters gathered near the presidential palace in Nasr City, outside of Cairo’s city center, according to Al Arabiya TV. Police fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who had gathered outside the prominent al-Azhar mosque in central Cairo after Friday prayers, a Reuters witness said.A number of police members removed their suits and joined protests against the regime, according to Al Arabiya.
On October 2, 2009, the UN Human Rights Council was widely expected to pass a resolution supporting the Goldstone Report, the UN’s probe of war crimes committed during Israel’s war in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.
The Council instead agreed to delay a vote on the report until March 2010, following major reservations expressed by the Palestinian Authority, the United States and Israel. A UNHRC endorsement of the report would have brought Israeli officials one step closer to prosecution before a war crimes tribunal, an event many Palestinians were anxious to see.
The government has admitted that the Army and UK civil servants helped market so-called "bomb detectors", which did not work, around the world. Export of the "magic wand" detectors to Iraq and Afghanistan was banned on 27 January 2010 because of the threat they posed to British and allied troops. The move followed a BBC Newsnight investigation showing they could not detect explosives - or anything else. Now Newsnight has learned that they are still being sold around the globe.
Thousands of protesters gathered across Cairo and other cities on Friday including the eastern Egyptian hotspot of Suez and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura and Sharqiya, calling for an end to "corruption" and "dictatorship," Al Arabiya TV reported.
Protesters gathered near the presidential palace in Nasr City, outside of Cairo’s city center, according to Al Arabiya TV.
Police fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who had gathered outside the prominent al-Azhar mosque in central Cairo after Friday prayers, a Reuters witness said...
Phone giants have charged customers millions of pounds extra by bringing forward the January VAT rise by up to three months. The Post Office increased the sales tax for its 500,000 telephone customers to 20 per cent from early October, the Daily Mail has discovered. And Orange, T-Mobile, Three and Virgin Media chose to bring forward the increase to the beginning of December. The move will infuriate the millions of customers caught in the tax trap, but it is perfectly legal under Government rules.
A soaking wet ElBaradei was trapped inside a mosque while hundreds of riot police laid siege to it, firing tear gas in the streets around so no one could leave. Tear gas canisters set several cars ablaze outside the mosque and several people fainted and suffered burns.
The number of climate change sceptics has almost doubled in four years, official research showed yesterday. A quarter of Britons are unconvinced that the world is warming following successive freezing winters and a series of scandals over the credibility of climate science.
The figures suggest that a growing proportion of the public do not share the belief of all three major political parties and Whitehall – that climate change is a major and urgent challenge requiring radical and expensive policies.
Thousands of protesters gathered across Cairo and other cities on Friday including the eastern Egyptian hotspot of Suez and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura and Sharqiya, calling for an end to "corruption" and "dictatorship," Al Arabiya TV reported.
Protesters gathered near the presidential palace in Nasr City, outside of Cairo’s city center, according to Al Arabiya TV. Police fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who had gathered outside the prominent al-Azhar mosque in central Cairo after Friday prayers, a Reuters witness said. An Egyptian protester flashes Egypt flag as anti-riot policemen use water canon against protesters An Egyptian protester flashes Egypt flag as anti-riot policemen use water canon against protesters
Britons' confidence in the economy and their finances has suffered its biggest drop in close to 20 years, raising fears that the Government's austerity onslaught will set off a self-feeding downward spiral.
Emma Rowley Telegraph The most closely-watched barometer of consumer confidence revealed an "astonishing collapse" in January as the VAT rise took effect, according to market research group GfK NOP...
Further questions have been raised over the death of Dr David Kelly after police admitted that two personal items found with his body – his mobile phone and a watch – did not have any fingerprints on them. The news brings the number of objects without fingerprints at the site where the weapons inspector’s body was discovered to five – the other three being the knife he allegedly used to slash his wrist, the packs of pills he is said to have overdosed on, and a water bottle.
It had been suggested that the lack of fingerprints on the knife might be due to the presence of gaffer tape on it. But Thames Valley Police have now confirmed that the knife had no tape on its handle.
BUCHAREST, Jan 27, 2011 (IPS) - The Albanian opposition is set to hold another mass rally on Friday, even though three people were killed during an anti-government demonstration last week, allegedly by armed forces of the Ministry of Interior.
On Jan. 21, over 20,000 people demonstrated in capital Tirana against the conservative government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha (opposition estimates go as high as 200,000). Three people were shot dead after hundreds of demonstrators attempted to escalate the police barricade protecting the prime minister’s office.
BAGHDAD — Anger at Iraq’s security forces boiled over Thursday after a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb beside an outdoor funeral service, killing dozens and sending residents storming into the street, some firing warning shots at the police they said had failed to protect them. The bomb killed at least 48 people and wounded 120 in the predominately Shiite neighborhood, adding to a recent spate of attacks that have taken nearly 200 lives in the past 10 days.
Iraqi Army troops rushed to the scene on Thursday to support the police, leading to a lull in the violence. But the crowd erupted again shortly afterward, with more people flooding the street, throwing rocks and bottles at the security forces.
Researchers have discovered that contrary to popular belief half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of the mountains are actually growing rather than shrinking.
The discovery adds a new twist to the row over whether global warming is causing the world's highest mountain range to lose its ice cover. It further challenges claims made in a 2007 report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the glaciers would be gone by 2035.
Mr ElBaradei was among thousands of protesters who have poured on to the streets of Egypt's towns and cities at the end of noon prayers on Friday, in are expected to be the biggest demonstrations yet in the attempted revolution against Mr Mubarak
Egypt's authorities responded to the growing threat to the regime by shutting down access to the internet and launching a fresh wave of arrests.
Their focus this time was the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, after it threw its support behind the protest movement. Leaders of the group, as well as ordinary supporters, were rounded up on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday morning. But, despite a ban on all forms of political protest, there was little to suggest that the crackdown was working.
Leaked internal FBI documents reveal dozens of employee transgressions ranging from sex-related misconduct to felonies involving the abuse of power and classified information...
AMMAN, Jordan — Thousands of Jordanian opposition supporters have taken the streets in the country’s capital demanding the prime minister step down and venting their anger at rising prices, inflation and unemployment. About 3,500 opposition activists from the main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organizations have gathered in Amman.
Activists geared up for the biggest protests yet on Friday to end Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule, while demonstrators fought security forces into the early morning hours in the eastern city of Suez.
Emboldened by this month's revolt that toppled the leader of Tunisia, Egyptians have staged mass protests since Tuesday in an unprecedented outburst of anger against Mubarak's rule.
'This is a revolution,' one 16-year-old protester said in Suez late on Thursday. 'Every day we're coming back here.'
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, who returned to Egypt from Vienna on Thursday, has called for Mubarak to resign and said he would join the protests on Friday.
Police also used water cannons against Egypt's pro-democracy leader Mohamed ElBaradei and his supporters as they joined the latest wave of protests after noon prayers. Police also used batons to beat some of ElBaradei's supporters, who surrounded him to protect him.
A soaking wet ElBaradei was trapped inside a mosque nearly an hour after him and his supporters were water cannoned. Hundreds of riot police laid siege to the mosque, firing tear gas in the streets surrounding it so no one could leave. The tear gas canisters set several cars ablaze outside the mosque. Several people fainted and suffered burns.
Protests have erupted in across cities in Egypt following Friday prayers, with angry demonstrators seeking a change in government.
Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from the port city of Alexandria, said protesters streamed out of mosques to chant slogans against Hosni Mubarak, the country's president for 30 years.
Police reponded by firing tear gas in a bid to disperse the angry crowd. Protests were also reported from Suez and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura and Sharqiya, the Reuters news agency said quoting witnesses. Clashes between protesters and police erupted outside a mosque in the capital, Cairo. Protesters reportedly threw stones and dirt at the police after security forces confronted them.
Activist Post Clashes between protesters and authorities in the world's most populous Arab nation have reached even higher levels with reports that the servers of Egypt's main Internet provider were down...
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