News and Anaysis (2/19/13)

“As many as 4,000 women began a sit-in in Quetta, in south-west Pakistan, on Sunday evening. The blocked a road and refused to carry out the traditional ritual of burying the Hazara dead until action was taken against the bombers”:

• Quetta: Shia Hazaras Refuse to Bury Pakistan Bomb Dead (BBC)

An AP photographer at the scene says at least 15 tunnels filled with wastewater. Yousef Rizka, an adviser to Hamas’ prime minister, urged Egypt to halt “any acts against the tunnels” until official ground crossings are opened. Egypt had no comment”:

• Hamas Accuses Egypt of Flooding Gaza Tunnels (AP / Miami Herald)

Once the tool of the secularists, the state news agency is now the tool of the Islamists. Solution? Separation of pres and state; no state media outlets:

• Egyptian Editor Says He Was Forced Out by Muslim Brotherhood (Guardian)

“The report by the constitutional court on the electoral law reveals the level of professional weakness of the Shura council and the haste in which the new constitution was drawn up” — former parliament member Mostafa Naggar:

• Egypt Court Rejects Election Law, May Delay Poll (Reuters)

Only one of the five Muslim MPs voted against the controversial bill:

• Pro-Gay Marriage Muslim MPs Get Threats (Scoop)

“Malian authorities are investigating claims of torture, killings and reprisals by its own soldiers against minority civilians with alleged links to Islamist militants — accusations that threaten to jeopardize international support for fighting terrorism in the Sahara”:

• Mali Probes Claims of Atrocities (AP / NPR)

“Buddha statues have joined Barbie dolls and characters from The Simpsons as banned items in Iran”:

• Iran Confiscates Buddha Statues in Crackdown on ‘Cultural Invasion’ (Guardian)

“[T]he encroachment of Western colonial powers, followed by the emergence of the Philippines and Malaysia as independent nation states, steadily eroded the sultanate’s power” and [i]t became “a sultanate without a kingdom” but “some people in the southern Philippines and [Malaysian] Sabah … still identify themselves with it” …

• Filipinos’ Standoff in Borneo Linked to Peace Deal with Muslim Rebels (CNN)

… while in Thailand, formerly known as Siam, which in 1909 annexed and divided into five provinces the former Sultanate of Pattani, ” resistance to Buddhist-centric rule from Bangkok went on for decades, only waning in the 1990s. As the century turned, however, the convergence of several factors served to reignite the conflict”:

• In Southern Thailand, 16 Dead and No Peace in Sight (Time)

“Yesterday, as the European Union voted  against easing an arms embargo on Syria, Syrian regime troops reportedly launched a missile at rebels in Aleppo” highlighting “increasing doubts about a diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year-old conflict”:

• Has the Door Shut on a Diplomatic Solution to Syria’s Conflict?  (Christian Science Monitor)

ImadadDean