{"id":665,"date":"2008-05-20T11:04:14","date_gmt":"2008-05-20T16:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=665"},"modified":"2008-05-20T11:04:14","modified_gmt":"2008-05-20T16:04:14","slug":"news-and-analysis-52008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"News and Analysis (5\/20\/08)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Drawdown of troops in Iraq reverts back to pre-\u00e2\u20ac\u0153surge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d number at which it is expected to remain until at least the end of Bush\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s term\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0in\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/05\/19\/AR2008051902174_pf.html\">New      Troops in Iraq Will Keep Number at 140,000<\/a> (Washington Post)<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6meanwhile US support for Sunni militias temporarily reduces overall violence, but also opens the door for armed criminal extortion of local residents:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0in\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-dons20-2008may20,0,7304489.story\">Sons      of Iraq? Or Baghdad&#8217;s Sopranos?<\/a> (Los Angeles Times)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Ahmedinejad continues his self-inflicted wounds as other senior clerics and politicians slam him for using religion to mask his failing political and economic policies:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0in\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/2008\/05\/18\/mideast\/iran.php\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/wiredispatch.com\/news\/?id=175571\">Senior      Iran Cleric Says President Spreads Poverty<\/a> (Reuters\/Wiredispatch)<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/2008\/05\/18\/mideast\/iran.php\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/2008\/05\/18\/mideast\/iran.php\">Clerics      Accuse Ahmadinejad of Hiding Political Failures Behind Religion<\/a>      (International Herald Tribune)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Mohammed Bazzi argues Lebanon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past and present internal conflicts are rooted in its outdated confessional system, while talks to resolve the current crisis remain deadlocked:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0in\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/2008\/0520\/p09s02-coop.htm\">The Heart of      Lebanon&#8217;s Strife<\/a> (Christian Science Monitor)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span class=\"manchettebig2\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailystar.com.lb\/article.asp?edition_id=1&#038;categ_id=2&#038;article_id=92206\">Doha:      No Breakthrough, but No Breakdown Either<\/a> (Daily Star Lebanon)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Xenophobic Danish party uses Islamophobia to move toward restricting religious liberties of Muslim judges:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0in\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/europe\/7409072.stm\">Row Over Denmark      Court Veil Ban<\/a> (BBC News) <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Bush seeks to expand government secrecy in policy memo that creates new designations for information classification:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0in\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/05\/18\/AR2008051801806_pf.html\">Keeping      Secrets: In Presidential Memo, A New Designation for Classifying      Information<\/a> (Washington Post)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Nigerian president Yar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Adua\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so-called commitment to the rule of law stops when it comes to probing into the alleged criminal activity of his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0in\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><a href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/200805200003.html\">Nigeria: I&#8217;ll Never      Probe Obasanjo &#8211; Yar&#8217;Adua<\/a> (Leadership Nigeria\/AllAfrica.com)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drawdown of troops in Iraq reverts back to pre-\u00e2\u20ac\u0153surge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d number at which it is expected to remain until at least the end of Bush\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s term\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 New Troops in Iraq Will Keep Number at 140,000 (Washington Post) \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6meanwhile US support for Sunni militias temporarily reduces overall violence, but also opens the door for armed criminal extortion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}