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THE ONLY BI-LINGUAL AND BI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
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| Volume 8 Issue 208 Jamadi-ul-Thani 15, 1429 AH / June 20, 2008 |
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We will have thse last ten issues online.
H T M L : : E D I T I O N S |
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| :: International News |
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| Canada will be out of Kandahar in 2011: Natynczyk |
| On his first day as the head of the Canadian military, Gen. Walter Natynczyk says he expects Canada will be out of Kandahar in 2011 as scheduled. "2011 is when our mission is up," he told CTV Newsnet Wednesday. Despite a bloody month, and a dour U.S. military report on the state of the Afghanistan mission, Natynczyk took special care to praise Afghan's national army. He described the Afghan military leadership as "mature" and said he hoped to see "exponential improvement" for the country's army in the future. The Afghan army and civilian police have
 significantly improved since this time last year, he added. The comments came shortly after the ceremony where Natynczyk formally took over the job as Canada 's chief of defence staff from the retiring Gen. Rick Hillier. Natynczyk will have a tough job ahead of him, taking over for the extremely popular "soldier's soldier." Whereas as Hiller was known for being an outspoken leader, a straight-talking Newfoundlander who would refer to Taliban fighters as "scumbags" -- Natynczyk is considered less of an exciting speaker but rather a strategic thinker. Natynczyk downplayed the differences between himself and his predecessor. He pointed towards the shared experiences that he had with Hillier and said "our skill sets are very much the same." He joked that main difference between himself and Hillier was mostly in their hockey team affiliations. Natynczyk, who has been promoted from his role as vice-chief of defence staff, has been referred to as a "gentleman's soldier" by Defence Minister Peter MacKay. He has acknowledged that Hillier will be a tough act to follow, but said he expects to put his own stamp on the military. Hillier announced in April that he would be moving on after more than three years at the head of Canada 's military. The charismatic general will become the chancellor of Memorial University in St. John's , N.L. as of July 3. Hillier said the most difficult part of leaving the military will be losing his status as a soldier. "I've been a soldier all my life, really," Hillier said. "I joined the army as a boy, my wife and I were married quite young, we grew up in the army, and so leaving as a soldier, my goodness, this is an earth-shaking moment for us." During his time in the post, Hillier oversaw Canada 's role in Afghanistan and was seen as having a major role in securing new money and new equipment for the military. (Source and Image: CTV)
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Mugabe tells the West to “Go Hang” |
Embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told Western countries to "go hang" over rejection of the results of the African country's presidential election. "They can go and hang a thousand times," Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). "They have no basis; they have no claim on Zimbabwe politics at all." Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a sixth term after being declared the winner of Friday's election runoff with more than 85 percent of the vote. The vote, which the West denounced as "illegitimate", was boycotted by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over violence against supporters. Charamba said criticism of violence during the election was simply "a Weste rn perspective." Mugabe's right to be president "derives from the Zimbabwe people as expressed through this June election," said the spokesman. "Anything else is immaterial and we don't give a damn." The 53-member African Union was holding closed door talks on the final day of a summit in Egypt amid intensifying pressure for the continent's leaders to act to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis. The US announced on Monday that it was preparing to present a draft sanctions resolution to the UN Security Council, calling on African leaders to take an action on Mugabe's regime. But the summit is unlikely to back a US push. With no consensus among the summit has focused on pushing for a power-sharing arrangement between Mugabe's party and the Tsvangirai's MDC. Mugabe's spokesman rejected the idea of a Kenya-style power-sharing solution floated by several summit leaders to end a crisis. " Kenya is Kenya . Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe ," said Charamba. "We have our own history of evolving dialogue and resolving political impasses the Zimbabwean way. The Zimbabwean way, not the Kenyan way. Not at all." Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed in February a power-sharing deal to end a bloody two-month political crisis that has split the nation along ethnic lines Prime Minister Odinga has called for Mugabe's suspension from the African Union until he allows a free and fair election. But Charamba dismissed Odinga's criticism, saying his "hands drip with blood, raw African blood, and that blood is not going to be cleansed by any amount of abuse of Zimbabwe ." Any solution to the crisis will be "defined by the Zimbabwean people, free from outside interference and that is exactly what will resolve this matter," he said. But the Zimbabwean opposition number two, MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti, said that Mugabe's holding of a one-man election killed off any prospect of a negotiated political settlement. "While the MDC has pursued dialogue in a bid to establish a government of national healing before June 4, the sham election on June 27, 2008 , totally and completely exterminated any prospect of a negotiated settlement." Source: BBC News
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Iran warns about attack amid mixed signals on nuclear crisis |
Iran warned Wednesday of a fierce response and radically higher oil prices if the country was attacked, but also signalled possible progress in its five-year nuclear standoff with the West. " Iran , if there were any kind of activity of any sort, is not going to be quiet and would react fiercely," Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said here when asked what Tehran would do in the event of an attack. He added that oil prices, which have been driven to record levels partly because of fear about the loss of Iran 's 4.0-million-barrel-a-day output, would rise radically if Israel or the US launched a military strike. His comments on the sidelines of an oil conference in Madrid came as Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking to US media, said that a "new process" was underway in the dispute about the country's nuclear programme. The news was greeted with skepticism by Washington but more positively in Brussels where EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana described it as "interesting." Six world powers last month came up with a solution for ending the crisis, offering technological incentives in exchange for Tehran suspending uranium enrichment, which the West fears could be used to make an atomic bomb. Iran has unveiled its own package, which is a more all-embracing effort to solve global problems and notably suggests the setting up of a consortium in Iran for enriching uranium. "A process is underway and it started with the package delivered by Iran ," Mottaki said in an interview with US media in New York , according to the state-run IRNA news agency. "This package tackled important questions and then on the other side the world powers offered their own package," he said. There has been a surge in speculation recently that Israel might be planning a military strike against Iran 's nuclear sites after it emerged that Israel fighter planes had carried out practice runs. But recent reports in Western media have also suggested that Tehran is ready to adopt a softer line in the standoff and may be prepared to offer concessions to break the deadlock. The foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday it would be in Iran 's interest to accept the package and warned against provocative remarks that could destabilise the situation. (Source: AFP)
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| :: Other Features |
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President of “Parents for Democracy in Education Society” at Surrey Masjid
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