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Sunday, November 27, 2011
[OOC] Ben-to
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Truce quiets Cairo streets, army says no delay to vote (Reuters)
CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egyptian riot police and protesters observed a truce Thursday after violence that has killed 39 people in five days and the army said parliamentary elections would start on time next week.
Demonstrations by thousands of Egyptians furious at the slow transfer of power by military leadership to civilian rule have led to violent clashes with police, in scenes similar to the popular uprising that toppled leader Hosni Mubarak in February.
Protesters have vowed not to leave Cairo's central Tahrir Square, which once again has become the cradle of public protest in the most populous Arab country, until army rule ends.
The demonstrations appear to have polarized Egyptians, many of whom worry that unrest will prolong economic stagnation.
In new blows to confidence, the Egyptian pound weakened to more than 6 to the dollar for the first time since January 2005, and Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on Egypt.
The agency cut Egypt's long-term, foreign- and local-currency sovereign credit ratings to B+ from BB-, saying a "weak political and economic profile" had worsened further.
Egypt's ruling army council said it was doing all it could to prevent more violence. In a statement, it apologized, offered condolences and compensation to families of the dead, and promised a swift investigation into who was behind the unrest.
NO ELECTION DELAY
A ruling council member, General Mamdouh Shaheen, told a news conference the parliamentary vote, whose first stage is due to begin Monday, would go ahead on time. "We will not delay elections. This is the final word," he said.
Another council member, Major-General Mokhtar al-Mullah, took a swipe at the demonstrators. "If we look at those in Tahrir, regardless of their number, they do not represent the Egyptian people, but we must respect their opinion," he said.
Mullah said the army hoped to form a new government before Monday to replace Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet, which resigned during this week's violence without giving a reason.
Demonstrators in Tahrir said the truce had taken hold from midnight. Cranes hauled concrete barriers, later reinforced with barbed wire, across streets leading to the nearby Interior Ministry, flashpoint for much of the recent violence.
"Since about midnight or 1 a.m. there were no more clashes. We are standing here to ensure no one goes inside the cordon," said Mohamed Mustafa, 50, among a group barring a street nearby.
They were guarding a barricade made of a broken metal fence, a telephone booth laid on its side and part of a lamp post.
At the other end of the street, littered with shattered glass, lumps of concrete and heaps of rubbish, at least two army armored personnel carriers blocked the route. Mustafa's group said police were on the front line, and behind them the army.
Lines of Tahrir protesters manned similar barriers to block access to Mohamed Mahmoud Street, scene of repeated fighting.
"We have created a space separating us from the police. We are standing here to make sure no one violates it," said Mahmoud Adly, 42, part of a human cordon four ranks deep.
The protests in Cairo and elsewhere pose the gravest challenge to Egypt's army rulers since they took over from Mubarak, overthrown on February 11 after an 18-day uprising.
The thousands who thronged Tahrir Square were undeterred in their determination to rid Egypt of army rule. "He goes, we won't," declared a banner referring to the army commander, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
The United States and European nations, alarmed at the violence of the past few days, have urged Egypt to proceed with what has been billed as its first free vote in decades.
LACK OF TRUST
The army and the Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to do well in the polls, say it must go ahead, but many protesters do not trust the military to oversee a clean vote. Some scorn the Brotherhood for its focus on gaining seats in parliament.
The military council originally promised to return to barracks within six months, but then set a timetable for elections and drawing up a new constitution that would have left it in power until late next year or early 2013.
Tantawi pledged this week to hold a presidential vote in June that could pave the way for a transfer to civilian rule, but the demonstrators, angered by army attempts to shield itself legally from future civilian control, are unconvinced.
"The military council must leave and hand power to civilians. They don't want to leave so that their corruption isn't exposed," said 23-year-old student Ahmed Essam.
Before the truce, protesters had fought running battles with security forces around the Interior Ministry. The bloody chaos there contrasted with normal life in streets nearby.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Tom Perry and Tamim Elyan; Writing by Alistair Lyon)
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Memo casualty
The critical step came after Mr Haqqani held a prolonged meeting with President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani, Army Chief Gen Kayani and ISI chief Gen Pasha, at which he was asked questions about the memo he had allegedly sent to Admiral Mike Mullen through businessman Mansoor Ijaz, an American citizen of Pakistani origin.
After Haqqani?s briefing, the top civil and military leadership agreed to an inquiry into so-called memogate scandal. A spokesman for the prime minister?s office said Haqqani was asked to resign and there would be an investigation into the memo. The state television reported acceptance of envoy?s resignation by the PM.
Sources said the envoy pleaded not guilty in his briefing to the leadership and handed over his blackberry telephone and relevant documents. He said he had nothing to do with the memo and was ready to face any inquiry.
Haqqani also said, on his Twitter account, that he had sent his resignation to the prime minister. ?I have much to contribute to building a new Pakistan free of bigotry & intolerance,? Haqqani wrote on Twitter. ?Will focus energies on that.?
After Haqqani?s resignation, Iffat Gardezi has been made acting ambassador to the US and speculations have already started about the likely successor of Mr Haqqani. According to official sources PM Gilani ordered a ?detailed investigation at an appropriate level?. Well-placed sources told The Nation that prime minister issued the directives after consolations with ISI DG Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Sources further said that the briefing and resignation of Husain Haqqani was followed by a high level meeting at Aiwan-e-Sadr among the President Zardari, PM Gilani, Army Chief Gen Kiyani and DG ISI Pasha.
Although there was no official word about this meeting, the sources claimed that issues relating to investigation as well as next appointment of new ambassador to the US came were discussed. The sources said that the meeting discussed certain names including those of Ambassador to UN Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Former ISI chief Gen (r) Ehsanul Haq. But the names of President?s General Secretary Salman Farooqi, Former army chief and ex-ambassador to the US Gen (r) Jehangir Karamat and former US ambassador Dr Maleeha Lodhi are said to be under consideration.
?The matter would be decided soon after more consolations?, the sources said, adding that the government would appoint the most appropriate person as envoy to US to help normalise the strained Pak-US relations.
The sources also said that the meeting discussed whether government should appoint a judicial commission, order a parliamentary probe or go for an official investigation by senior officials drawn from intelligence agencies and police. The meeting agreed to continue more consultations over the scope and terms of reference of the investigation, they said.
PM House spokesman said that all concerned would be afforded sufficient and fair opportunity to present their views and the investigation shall be carried out fairly, objectively and without bias. He further said: ?As result of controversy generated by the alleged memo which had been drafted, formulated and further admitted to have been received by a US authority, it has become necessary in the national interest to formally arrive at the actual and true facts.?
Observers say the development has opened the doors for some more high level changes. The expected changes, it is said, may alter the political landscape of the country. Now, a detailed inquiry will be conducted to ascertain who had played what role in conveying the said memo to Adm Mullen, which many say was an attempt to drag in the Americans to control the Pakistan army. The modalities of the inquiry are yet to be decided. However, informed sources say that some questions may be referred even to the president and the prime minister.
Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar had said a couple of days ago that in case Ambassador Haqqani was found involved in what has now come to be known as memogate, the prime minister will not be able to escape responsibility.
Ambassador Haqqani was called back from the US a few days ago on the insistence of the military leadership. Before taking the decision, DG ISI flew to London to meet with Mansoor Ijaz and get evidence about the memo.
On returning home, Gen Pasha presented his report to Gen Kayani. It was after Kayani-Pasha meeting that it was decided that Ambassador Haqqani should face the inquiry.
Mr Haqqani was a journalist before he jumped into politics. He was adviser to Mian Nawaz Sharif, who was the Punjab chief minister from 1988 to 1990. He played an important role in stoking confrontation between Benazir Bhutto, the then prime minister, and Mr Sharif. The then governor Gen Tikka Khan was given a very tough time. Whenever he tried to play the role of a watchdog, he was told to remain within limits.
In 1990, when the government of Ms Benazir Bhutto was dismissed on various charges, Mr Haqqani managed to become Special Assistant to caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. After the 1990 elections, Mian Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, appointed Mr Haqqani as his special assistant.
He was then appointed Pakistan?s ambassador to the Sri Lanka, a position he held from 1992 to 93.
At the time of the 1993 elections, he got closer to Ms Benazir Bhutto, against whom he had earlier been involved in a smear campaign during the Nawaz Sharif period.
And when the PPP was voted to power in 1993, Haqqani was appointed as Federal Information Secretary, an important position in the government. He worked in this position till 1995.
Thereafter, he was appointed Chairman of the House Building Finance Corporation.
During the Musharraf rule, he stayed out of the country. However, when the PPP returned to power as a result of the 2008 elections, he tried to become National Security Adviser. But, the prime minister appointed him ambassador to the United States, a position he abdicated on Tuesday.
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sound of Music comes to Salzburg
SALZBURG, Austria?? Move over Mozart. Toes in Salzburg are tapping to a new beat as residents finally embrace the Hollywood musical that put them on the map nearly half a century ago.
Playing for the first time in this haughty town of opera lovers, "The Sound of Music," has been met with surprisingly positive reactions in what is commonly considered a last bulwark of resistance to the iconic show.
"A wonderful performance," enthused Johann Fink as he waited at the coat check at the end of a recent performance at the ornate Salzburg State Theater.
Such a reception in Salzburg is hardly a given despite the global popularity of the musical that was based on a true story and immortalized by the 1965 multiple Academy Award winning movie.
Fans around the world may know every word of every song performed by Julie Andrews as the governess of seven children who charms ? then weds ? their widowed father Baron von Trapp, before the singing family flees the Nazis.
But this city resonates to another sound of music ? the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms.
And it has a different concept of culture.
While residents earn millions each year from the tourists who come for sing-along tours of sites featured in the film, they traditionally view the visitors with benign disdain ? and occasionally as pests.
Residents of the upscale Salzburg neighborhood where the von Trapp home is located tried ? and failed ? to block attempts to turn the edifice into a hotel, fearing tourists would tie up traffic and make a nuisance of themselves. A museum dedicated to the film is still looking for a home after more than 600 residents in another neighborhood signed a petition three years ago against it, telling the city council they feared that local streets would be jammed with tour buses.
Resistance persists even though the city would literally be poorer without the musical's magnet effect.
Peter Proetzner, who guides daily buses full of tourists on pilgrimages of the sites immortalized by the film, cites a poll showing the Sound of Music as the city's second biggest draw ? right after the dozens of classical music events that resonate through its cobblestoned alleys.
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"The Sound of Music is better known than Mozart worldwide," he asserts.
South Koreans learn the songs as part of their English lessons. Some foreigners think "Edelweiss" ? composed for the musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein ? is Austria's national anthem. And Austrian tourism surveys show that three out of four American visitors to Salzburg come because of the musical.
Australian Dianne Cole says she knows "absolutely nothing" about Austria ? and will probably go home still ignorant of the country's cultural, scenic and culinary delights.
"This is why I came to Austria," she said recently, as her Sound of Music tour bus set out for its first stop ? Leopoldskron Lake (where Maria and the children capsized their boat). "The sole reason is to do this tour."
In contrast, most Salzburgers don't even know the musical. In a city that traditionally raps American culture as trashy, residents prefer to be associated with Mozart, Salzburg's favorite son, instead of a film many write off as Hollywood kitsch.
And then there is the troubling Nazi component of The Sound of Music ? a reminder, reinforced by the Swastika flag and storm troopers on stage, that not only Mozart, but Hitler, too, was Austrian.
Austria has long shed its self-fabricated myth that it was a victim of Nazi atrocities instead of one of its most fervent supporters. Restitution panels have returned homes and precious artworks. Millions of euros (dollars) have been doled out to Holocaust victims and their descendants, and schoolbooks now deal in depth with this nation's complicity in the crimes of the Nazi dictator, born just 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Salzburg.
"I think that this is truly the right moment in time, when Austrians are actually ready to deal with their past," says Andreas Gergen, who directed the German-language production.
Still, anti-Semitic sentiment remains. A survey of 1,070 Austrians conducted earlier this year showed that 12 percent want their country "free of Jews." Backed by the country's neo-Nazi fringe, the country's rightist FPO party is the second-strongest in the country ? although it now exploits Islamophobia instead of anti-Jewish sentiment.
And the sight of Nazis on stage may remind some older audience members of uncomfortable historical facts. Over 99 percent of Austrians voted in favor of their country becoming part of the Third Reich in 1938; proportionally more Austrians than Germans were Nazi party members, and many of Hitler's closest henchmen were Austrians.
Like the Salzburg version, the first full Austrian showing in Vienna in 2005 featured actors dressed as Nazi storm troopers standing guard at exits and a theater box filled with mock Nazi dignitaries ? clearly too painful for some. Back then, some elderly audience members who last witnessed brown-shirted men wearing swastika arm bands as children were so troubled they hastily left the theater without watching the performance.
Six years later, reactions to the Nazi theme are mixed.
"Of course it's not so pleasant for us Salzburgers to be confronted with it," said Judith Herbst. But the smartly dressed woman in her mid 60s said that as far as she was concerned the role of Austria in Hitler's crimes was no longer debatable.
For others, though, the sight of men in forbidden Nazi garb entering the theater remains traumatic.
"It was horrible for a moment ? almost unbelievable," said theatergoer Fink. "Thank God this era is in the past!"
But there were no gasps of dismay regarding the rest of the show.
Some hummed its ear-candy melodies at the coat check after the performance.
"Kitsch? I was afraid that would be the case," said Helmi Popeter. "But once you see it, you realize that's not so."
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George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45400066/ns/travel-destination_travel/
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