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| Palestinian lesbians draw fire | |||||||||
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At the top of the list of those decrying the planned gathering is Israel’s Islamic Movement, who says that the conference, set to held in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, should be stopped since "We must not let this fatal cancer spread in our community," according to Haaretz.
The group has organized support groups for lesbians in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Asawat has been credited with its Human Rights achievements when Rawda Morcos received the 2006 Felipa de Souza award. Morcos helped found Asawat, and created a website that links Palestinian lesbians who live in Israel and Palestine.
Head of the Islamic Movement, MKs Ibrahim Sarsur and Abas Zakoor published a statement which called on "all respectable people from all communities and streams to stand up against preaching sexual deviance among our women and girls." Homosexuality is strictly forbidden by Islam.
Ironically, the Islamic Movement has teamed up with its rivals in Israel’s Orthodox communities for similar reasons in the past. A recent Gay Pride parade, held in Jerusalem, drew the ire of both religious Jewish and Muslim communities, when the Islamic Movement’s southern branch aligned itself with the Jewish Orthodox community in protest of the planned event.
Other Muslim and Arab groups in Israel, however, including the Arabic-language newspaper Al Ittihad, and Hadash, have criticized the Islamic Movement’s stand.
Israel is generally tolerant of homosexuality, however Israel's Arabs, who make up one-fifth of the population, live mostly in communities where homosexuality is still considered unacceptable.
In neighboring Lebanon, gay people have held news conferences and run a magazine called Barra, meaning "out," the only publication of its kind. But nearly everywhere in the Arab world, individuals face persecution if they come out openly.
Asawat has yet to respond to the outcry, and said that it would respond when it saw fit. © 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) | |||||||||
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who’s a manager in Bershka, one of the many shops now open in the Avenues. He told me the avenues has officially opened today at 10am and that its amazing. The opening hours are from 10am till 10pm. I can’t wait to pass by tonight with Mark and finally check it out.
update: yo_ghurt took pictures of the inside and you can check them [Here]
Picture above taken by yo_ghurt
16 Mar 2007
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Of all the pundits that tried to call the console race before Christmas, few predicted the Nintendo Wii, with its modest hardware and oddball control system, would still be lining up the punters in March. 436,000 Wiis sold in January, beating the Xbox 360 and PS3 handily, and there's no sign of the pace slackening. The handheld DS is doing nearly as well, tightening Nintendo's 18-year stranglehold on the portable market and capitalizing on its first-rate software selection. A total of 635,000 new Nintendo systems made their way home with eager U.S. purchasers in the supposedly quiet post-holiday period.
Even with that quantity of systems moving through the retail system, both the Wii and the DS remain hard to find in stores nationwide, while the other two consoles are lining the shelves. If you're unfortunate enough to still be looking, your best bet is to keep your eyes on online trackers like ours or resort to the usual auction sites.
Wii games are shifting well, too. Although Wii heavy-hitter The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess sold well in January, it was actually beaten to the top spot by quirky minigame-fest Warioware: Smooth Moves, despite the latter not actually coming out until the 15th. Rayman: Raving Rabbids came third, with under half of Zelda's sales. Unsurprisingly, Wii owners have vast appetites for games that take advantage of the machine's uniqueness.
Nintendo's fast pace of impressive releases continued in March with the surprise appearance of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the N64 smash hit that's remembered as one of the best Zelda games -- if not the best -- of all time. Coming up in the next few months, fans of classic Nintendo systems can expect to see Super Metroid, Excitebike, Mario Kart 64, and Duck Hunt hitting the service.
 Nintendo classics...  ...coming to the Wii |
So even when the release calendar is quiet, as it was throughout February, Nintendo still provided Wii owners with a compelling collection of re-releases and old favorites. 12 of the 20 all-time best-selling video games are Nintendo products (and, incidentally, seven of them feature Mario in some form or other). With all these great titles to draw on, they can keep up this pace for years.
16 Mar 2007
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No video game publisher, developer or hardware manufacturer commands the adulation of as many dedicated fans as Nintendo. Started in 1889 by a Japanese businessman, the company initially made its name by producing "hanafua" -- Japanese playing cards. It struggled through much of the 20th century, until the company's visionary third president Hiroshi Yamauchi (now the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners) hired a 25-year-old artist from Kyoto named Shigeru Miyamoto.
Miyamoto, along with Game and Watch designer Gunpei Yokoi, set about laying the foundations of Nintendo's current success with games like Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Yokoi's story ends sadly: he resigned from Nintendo in 1996 after falling from grace (he was responsible for the failed Virtual Boy handheld) and died in a car accident a year later. Miyamoto's story, in contrast, mirrors Nintendo's: he was instrumental in the development of both the Zelda and Mario series, and ranks as one of the most recognized and successful game designers of all time. Miyamoto currently heads Nintendo's Tokyo development team.
Among its home console innovations Nintendo counts the first joypad, the first use of force feedback and the first analog stick -- and now the first fully featured motion control system in a major console. It's famously innovative in its strategy, too, dodging the race for more and more powerful hardware in favor of trying to expand its consoles' audiences beyond tech-heads, geeks, and video game addicts.
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And it seems to be working. The Wii has been a big hit in an Illinois retirement home, where the inmates are organizing Wii Bowling tournaments and showing up their grandkids. The Mayo Clinic and the International Sports Science Association are already studying the potential health benefits of Wii games. You can't buy that sort of word of mouth.
With the release of the Wii, Nintendo is adopting tactics we more often associate with its competitors, Microsoft and Sony. With the Channel updates that have rolled out in the last couple of months, the Wii is now the only full-size console with a usable web browser, an online news and weather service, and even its own email address. These are functions we would normally associate with those Internet set-top boxes that were all the rage back in 1997. Could the Wii, with its unique mouse-like pointer control system, be making a play for the "convergent device" Holy Grail, delivering multiple diverse functions straight to your TV?
Contrast that with the Wii's attitude to online gaming. Or perhaps that should be "lack of attitude." While Microsoft and Sony both invest much into their single-login, integrated systems that pack online functions into every game, Nintendo's content, for the time being, limits its gamers to one-console multiplayer. The phenomenal success of the system so far indicates, however, that either this just isn't an issue for most buyers or, and perhaps more convincingly, that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are already sating our appetite for online multiplayer entertainment.
16 Mar 2007
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It's coming, though. June 25 is the scheduled release date for Pokemon Battle Revolution, which will use the console's Internet connection to enable head-to-head online battles between trainers. It'll also be the first to link the DS and Wii together, enabling players to transfer their Pokemon from handheld titles to the Wii, and use the DS as a Wii controller. Given the continued popularity of the Pokemon games, both among its intended demographic and older RPG fans, it's sure to be a big seller.
Nintendo's other guaranteed hit, Mario, isn't coming to the Wii until later this year, although his debut appearance in the Miyamoto-designed Super Mario Galaxy is looking to be yet another stunner. Another fan favorite, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is also expected before 2008, and for the first time includes a non-Nintendo character: Snake, from the Metal Gear series.
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Of course, none of that will console you if you're still hunting for your Wii. Nintendo tells us they're making continuous shipments to feed the "huge demand around the country." At some point they're sure to get ahead of the demand, but with the next few weeks seeing the release of anticipated Wii titles like Super Paper Mario, Prince of Persia: Rival Swords, and The Godfather: Black Hand Edition, we're not holding our breath.
Are you slightly annoyed by people always looking over your shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of whatever is playing on your iPod video or smartphone? I am, and I think it was about time somebody brought privacy filters for mobile devices to the U.S.
Back in November, I wrote about LG's clamshell Chocolate phone, the VX8600, packed with a 1.3-megapixel digital camera, Bluetooth, microSD slot, and V-Cast capability. I agree that calling this a Chocolate phone is just confusing, besides it looks nothing like its big brother. The original Chocolate phone (VX8500) has been offered in many colors, including pink, mint, and red, while the VX8600 had only been available in glossy black through Verizon Wireless.
Wait, what? Your Fridays are far from being laid back? Well your boss must be a demanding little micro-managing dweeb who probably monitors everything you do online and off. I bet he walks past your cubicle every half hour hoping to catch a glimpse of you web surfing just so he can call you out in front of your co-workers. Being the boss is not easy, but being managed by a terrible boss will certainly have you contemplating that job offer you got from a LinkedIn recruiter. I've had my fair share of bad bosses, and I would usually end up venting all my frustrations to my husband, or to other frustrated co-workers.
Wow, our tech-addicted brethren just can't seem to get out of the headlines lately. We've talked about the Internet addicts, Blackberry addicts, email addicts, and now the focus is back on game addicts after a 26-year old gamer died following a online gaming marathon.
I've been doing some research, looking for the most ergonomic set up for my body. I just purchased a new desk, an awesome Humanscale keyboard tray (I'll review this one soon), and a new mouse. But the most challenging task for me has been finding a good chair.
I don't know many people who wear headbands—as a matter of fact, I've never even met one—but it appears headbands might still be a popular item at least in other parts of the world. Thanko is a Japanese store known to carry some strange gadgets, and a sure place to find the Vonia BT Sports bone conduction headband.
Today's social Web 2.0 hipsters want their entertainment, and they want it fast. Looks like Sony Ericsson will not be ignoring their needs, but instead introducing a phone that's all about meeting social needs online and off.
Star Wars will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this summer (May 24-May 28), and rumor has it the United States Postal Service (USPS) is revamping 300 of its old-school blue boxes by dressing them up in R2D2 graphics. While nothing is official yet, it's hard to argue with these pictures of R2D2 mailboxes in formations awaiting their marching orders.
Simply put, a web hosting company is able to store your web site's contents on a server to make the web page accessible to others on the World Wide Web. Most web hosting companies want you to register your domain name first in order to set up your account, but if you haven't, they will offer to do it for you. So here's a tip: Never let anybody else register your domain name, no exceptions. Don't be tempted by the host's free registration offer; doing so will only create problems for you in the future.
Sick of iPod accessories yet? The iPod accessory overload is far from being over, and Viewsonic's iPod projector is going to make a lot of iPod owners very happy. Remember when we thought how great it was to finally be able to download videos to the iPod? That feeling soon faded after watching hour-long TV shows on the tiny 2.5 inch screen. Then we spotted the ViewSonic ViewDock, and thought, "Aha! now we can watch those videos on a bigger screen." Unfortunately, that didn't work either because videos couldn't be played straight from the iPod; and yes, we're all still wondering what the whole point of an integrated iPod dock on an LCD screen was all about.
One of the top headlines of the day is about rising gas prices throughout the nation. An AP report says that prices have gone up an average of 20 cents per gallon nationwide in the past two weeks. San Francisco has the highest average price of $3.10 per gallon, while Alaska has the lowest.
One reason instructional videos are so popular is because they teach us how to accomplish a task in very short period of time, as opposed to reading a whole book that covers far too many details. If you're a visual learner like me, then you might enjoy a British site called Video Jug full of short clips explaining how to do just about anything in three minutes or less.
I started reading this article by NewsFactor on Yahoo! News regarding the new Sony DSC-G1 wireless digital camera, and I couldn't help but imagine the possibilities the future holds. First, let me tell you more about this digital camera. As a member of the Cyber-shot line, the DSC-G1 is slightly thicker than newer models, yet it does what no other Cybershot camera has been able to do. It can send photos wirelessly to a computer or up to four other digital cameras simultaneously as long as they are Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) capable. This 6-megapixel digital camera can store up to 7,500 VGA quality or 600 full-resolution photographs in its 2GB of built-in memory! That's insane.
We're all guilty of spending a good chunk of company time sitting in our cubicle catching up on our blog reading, updating our social network profiles, or scanning the latest headlines on the RSS reader, among other things. This month alone has employers worried that hoops fans will be spending more time on ESPN.com than on the projects at hand due to March Madness. It can get really uncomfortable when the boss pops in to see how a project is coming along, and instead he finds you watching a basketball game on CBS Sports. Yikes! Talk about embarrassing.
I live in sunny California, but even I tend to get depressed when I'm too busy to go outside during the day. Some people even develop a disorder called S.A.D (seasonal affective disorder), which comes from the lack of exposure to natural sunlight. This disorder causes you sleep more, and/or turn to sweets when depression sets in. So until you head to the beach for spring break, let me introduce you a sunshiny alternative that will alter your mood year round.
Ricky Montalvo, who coined the phrase technosexual a few years ago, says a "technosexual is a geek in need of style, and the stylish in need of geek." In other words, the edgy, chic-geeks of today who carry several designer gadgets in their messenger bags, and are all about the Web 2.0 lifestyle. The New York Times says yet another corporation is going after the web-savvy, technosexual crowd more interested in electronics, and less impressed with current fashion or celebrity fragrances. Calvin Klein wants to revive its once popular unisex fragrance by passing it off as the fragrance for thumb-texting technosexuals "whose romantic lives are defined in part by the casual hookup."
We've all heard how most keyboards harbor more bacteria than a toilet, and the fact that we don't clean them as often has a lot do with it. Most Fridays are pretty slow at the office, and probably the best time to schedule in a quick keyboard cleaning. But before you put on your rubber gloves check out my tips on how to clean a keyboard. They're all pretty simple, unless you decide to do some deep cleaning.
Lifehacker always has some great tips, and thanks to their ingenious, resourceful blog, I was able to find a few tips that will help you conserve some energy year round and save money in the end. When I shared an office with my husband, we'd notice how hot the room would get compared to the rest of the house. This was because we both had dual monitors, desktops, laptops, a television, printers, and other electrical devices crammed into a small space with one window. I'd also like to mention that, in addition to running all those electronics in one room, we also lived in Texas where summers are unbearable.
As if getting your pooch his own iPod-ready pet carrier wasn't enough, the guys over at Takara Tomy think your Yorkie should also have his own digital camera, perhaps even his own Flickr stream. Oh stop it, that's just too cute! Not to mention possible with the Wonderful Shot Dog Camera (the name says it all) that attaches to the dog's collar to take photos at the press of a button.
Citizen journalism is a powerful thing, and it's here to stay. Anyone with a camera, a blog, and a passion for reporting can eventually ditch the day job, and even become one of the most important people on the web. Just ask Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos (#23), Robert Scoble of Podtech.net (#25)or Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch (#30) all influential, full-time bloggers who beat out Tim O'Reilly and Kevin Rose on the list. That's pretty influential.
We all dread tax season, so I thought I'd point you to an excellent resource that could help you search for any unclaimed assests you may not even know about. I recently came across MissingMoney.com, and was surprised to discover someone out there owes me a little bit of cash. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) launched a site a few years ago that's been helping people recover unclaimed or lost assets, which could include stocks, savings accounts, uncashed pay checks, royalty payments, utility deposits, and even money you may have inherited.
I hope you remember the FlashWear T-Equalizer Tom mentioned last month, because it's quickly becoming a fashion trend among young club-goers. Reminds me of that LED belt buckle idea we thought we'd never see outside the pages of the Web, until we witnessed geeksters actually wearing them with our own eyes. The sound-sensitive shirt that once had dancing bars lighting up across the chest, now features psychedelic Go-Go dancers shaking their thing to the beat of any music.
It's one thing to clean your own peripherals, but I draw the line when it comes to cleaning the gunk out of someone else's keyboard. I've been handed some nasty keyboards on my first day on the job, which always lead to me request a new one. Knowing what I know, there's no way I'm going to clean out nostril hair, soda, food, and any other junk lurking inside a filthy keyboard. I'd rather bring my own before doing that.
My current L-shaped glass desk may look wonderful in my office, but it defies the rules of ergonomics. In my search for a new desk, I came across the futuristic iGo workstation. Again, this desk looks beautiful, but I'm not exactly what you would call a minimalist either. iGo definitely complements the simplistic, clean design of the Mac like no other desk I've seen. This is one of those pieces that would set the theme for any room, because you just want to decorate around it.
Here are a few sites where you can give away unwanted items, as well as find a few free ones for yourself:
Japanese drivers worried about falling asleep at the wheel now have a couple of options to keep them awake. Dory mentioned the MyDo Bururu vibrating glasses, which come with a little motor that kicks in when the head drops below a certain angle. These vibrating spectacles may be ideal for students cramming the night before a big exam, but will the vibrations be powerful enough to keep a driver awake at night? I hope so. Then again, I agree with Dory, in that a good night sleep is probably a wiser choice.
I'd say Sony is a little behind on the video music player front these days, but still glad it's arrived. Sony's first digital video Walkman, the NW-A800, will soon be released in Europe in four colors: white, black, blue and pink. These players vary in capacity starting with an 8GB (NW-A808), 4GB (NW-A806) and 2GB (NW-A805) model, which appears to be the major difference between the players. They all have a 2-inch LCD screen that plays MPEG4 videos in landscape mode.
We have seen what the Internet can do for musicians, such as Ok-Go who went on to perform at the VMA's, and won a Grammy shortly after their low-budget video captured the masses on YouTube. The future for independent artists is looking bright, thanks to these and other new services such as CD Baby and Amie St., both helping new artists promote their music on a broader level.
On the stranger than fiction note, this panel of hi-tech experts also speculates that the soldiers of 2015 will be wearing bulletproof and waterproof fatigues that will camouflage to their surroundings. And by 2018, they think micro-bots will be able to swim through a person's bloodstream to find and heal health problems they encounter. Now that's a scary possibility since researchers in Japan have already developed a mini-robot that is able to perform surgery inside the body, as well as capture images and even tissue samples of the affected area. It's been tested on animals, so it's only a matter of time before it gets tested on humans too. Not looking forward to that.
This young generation is really plugged into trends online and off. Helio first connected young trendsetters to MySpace, and is now adding a few more choices to the Helio WAP deck. Helio's new slider-phone, dubbed The Heat, promises to bring Boing Boing, Digg, Metroblogging, and Wikipedia to the phone's WAP deck for easy access. I personally think they should've added Yahoo! Tech into the mix, but maybe next time, right?
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We've given you the 4-1-1 on free directory assistance, and now I want to give Bay Area residents the 5-1-1 on a program that rewards its residents for carpooling. The program is called Rideshare, and the objective is to connect drivers willing to share a ride a few times a week. The program launched last summer, and is resuming again this month. Not only does Rideshare find matches between people willing to carpool, but it also rewards new carpoolers with up to $100 in gift cards for gas or groceries as an incentive. California has some of the highest gas prices in the country, and carpoolers will appreciate being able to save some money each week.
My camera's delayed flash tricks people into thinking that by the time the first flash goes off, their pictures have been taken. But in reality, it is until after the second flash that the picture is actually captured. Yes, it's as confusing as it sounds, which is why my impromptu shots are always ruined by awkward smiles, closed eyes, or blurry faces. In order to get a decent picture, I have to remind them to stay still until after the second flash. Frustrating.
Every year is a good year to go be more eco-friendly, something most of us gadget hounds should practice when replacing those old gizmos. Spring cleaning is around the corner, so what will you be doing with those old electronics sitting in the basement? Give them away!
Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:13AM EDT
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The Nintendo Wii was released on November 19, 2006, nearly four months ago. Got one yet? Of course you don't. And don't go looking for one, either. Unless you've got an insider at a gaming store or the tenacity to call one every day to inquire about their next shipment, you're not going to get one soon.
Yet the Wii is a gaming phenomenon and, unlike the Playstation 3, includes no technology of note that hasn't been around for many years.
So why aren't we soaking in Wiis? Nintendo said it would have 17 million of them released by the end of March! Have a look at some of the conspiracy theories on the Internet, strictly for your amusement:
First there's the obvious, that Nintendo is artificially keeping supply low in order to keep demand high throughout 2007. That would make sense if Nintendo was charging higher prices now. But it isn't, and so it's losing out on millions every week by failing to fulfill demand and possibly losing sales to other consoles.
Also popular: Big box retailers are hoarding them for big sale days. The idea is that if they advertise Wiis on the weekend, they'll get big traffic on those days and sell lots of paper towels and Pokemon junk (specifically mentioned are Target and Toys R Us). I can't speak to this, but it sounds plausible at least.
On the more absurd side: A variety of lawsuits have stopped Nintendo from producing more consoles. Ok, except it is still producing consoles, just not enough for everyone.
A game store employee offered this to one Yahoo! Tech shopper: "Nintendo is at the end of its fiscal year so they aren't sending them out." Well, he said "physical year," but we know what he meant. And unfortunately, that argument is inane. When companies get near the end of a fiscal year, they invariably try to sell more, not less, as it makes the numbers look better.
And of course, A-list NBA players have all the consoles. Even B-list players can't get them.
And here's an interesting twist: Independent Wii developers can't even get hardware, as Wii publishers have taken all the consoles.
What's the truth? Well, it should be obvious, if you've ever bought a game console in the past: Gaming companies are notorious for mismanaging their launches by not having enough product on hand for release, and being unable to fulfill demand for months at a time. The Xbox 360 was tough to get for close to a year, if you'll recall, and like the Wii it doesn't feature any outrageously next-gen technology.
What can you do to get one? Be patient. Shop on eBay or Craigslist if you're desperate. And make friends with someone at a store that sells Wii hardware so you can get in line early the day they come in. Or just do what I do: Enjoy your PS2 and 360 for the time being.
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Elizabeth Millard, newsfactor.com Fri Mar 16, 12:03 PM ET
A research firm has reported that Nintendo sold as many Wii game consoles in February as both of its rivals put together. The NPD Group's latest report found that Nintendo sold 355,000 units during the month, with Microsoft selling 228,000 of its Xbox 360 units, and Sony coming in third place with just 127,000 of its PlayStation 3 consoles.
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But Nintendo is not the overall winner for next-generation consoles at this point; the report stated that Microsoft has sold 5.1 million of its consoles, while both Nintendo and Sony have not yet reached the two-million mark for either of their gaming machines.
It is likely that the trio will continue to duke it out for market dominance in the coming years, adding more games and services to capture larger pieces of the $13 billion U.S. video game market.
Building Buzz
Part of Nintendo's February success stems from a strong start in the early days of the recent console race, said Forrester Research analyst Paul Jackson.
The company sold a significant number of consoles thanks to the strength of its games, and development houses have been quick to work on new titles for Nintendo since it is less expensive to create games for that platform than for Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's Xbox 360, Jackson noted.
"One of Nintendo's advantages is that it's slightly less expensive for development houses because the hardware is less powerful and a bit older," he said. "Nintendo is not in the arms race for the most advanced, most innovative hardware that is going on between the Xbox and the PS3."
Another reason that Nintendo has garnered attention, and subsequent consumer dollars, is the company's unique controller, called the Wiimote, which gets players off the couch and moving to emulate game characters in titles like bowling, tennis, and boxing.
"There's a very popular blog that chronicles a Wii exercise program," said Jackson. "It's a bit of a joke, but the fellow has lost some weight, and it's building buzz around the product."
Online Worlds
As consumers continue to decide between big game makers, the large game companies will keep adding services that appeal to broader audiences, noted Jackson.
Sony recently released details of its online meeting place, called PlayStation Home, where users can communicate, play online games, swap content, and outfit their personal digital living spaces.
Microsoft, meanwhile, just announced that it is extending its Live online service to PC users, extending its reach beyond the Xbox 360 and uniting console players with PC gamers for titles like the very popular "Halo 2."
Gamers can expect to see more efforts along these lines, Jackson said, particularly in tying console gaming to multiplayer, online worlds.
( What's this? )
Dubai airport shut after accident | ||
The details of the accident were not clear, but it involved a Biman Bangladesh Airlines aeroplane carrying 236 passengers and crew. Flight BG006 from Dubai to Dhaka "had a minor accident during take-off," the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority said. It said all the passengers and crew had been evacuated from the plane. An official said there was no indication that terrorism had played any part in the incident. The aviation authority said the airport would be closed for at least eight hours to run through safety procedures to make sure the runway was safe for other planes. Incoming flights are being diverted elsewhere. | ||
By JAMES CALDERWOOD, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 22, 2:59 PM ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A human rights group said Thursday that Saudi Arabia violated international law when it ordered the beheadings earlier this week of four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh.
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Human Rights Watch said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights. The group called on Saudi Arabia to halt all pending executions and retry those remaining on death row.
"The execution of these four migrants, who had been badly beaten and locked up for years without access to lawyers, is a travesty of justice," Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report.
"International law only allows states to use the death penalty for the most serious crimes and in the most stringent of circumstances — and neither condition was met in this case," Whitson said.
Saudi officials did not respond to a request for comment on the Human Rights Watch report.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam that calls for people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery to be executed in public with a sword. Beheaded bodies are only displayed when there is a specific court order in cases considered particularly offensive.
The four Sri Lankans were convicted of forming a gang that robbed several companies, threatened accountants and workers with weapons and shot one of them and stole his car, said the Saudi Interior Ministry.
Earlier in February, investigators from the New York-based Human Rights Watch had met and spoken to one of the four, Ranjith Silva. According to the group's report, Silva was apparently unaware of his imminent execution and was hopeful for clemency.
Silva said he and Victor Corea, Sanath Pushpakumara, and Sharmila Sangeeth Kumara, took up armed robberies in early 2004 because their Saudi employer was paying them each only $67 of the $107 a month agreed in their contract — money that barely covered lodgings.
Silva also told the Human Rights Watch he was never advised he could see a lawyer, or that he could face the death penalty. The four were not notified of proceedings ahead of time and had no consular assistance.
Silva also said he was not told how to appeal the verdict and never received a copy of the verdict.
"Defendants sentenced to death must, under international law, have a meaningful right to appeal their verdicts, but these men didn't get the most basic safeguards," Whitson said.
According to an Amnesty International report earlier this week, two of the four may even have been unaware that they had been sentenced to death. The group reported that Sharmila Sangeeth Kumara believed he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
After the trial, the Sri Lankans managed to contact their embassy from prison, but were told it was too late to appoint a lawyer. The Sri Lankan government said it had appealed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for clemency twice and was now trying to retrieve the bodies.
Saudi officials would not confirm that the body had been displayed but did confirm the four were executed Monday. They also confirmed the court order for the men's bodies to be displayed after the execution.
Amnesty International has said that besides the four Sri Lankans, six foreigners have been executed this year. They include three Pakistanis, two Iraqis and one Nigerian. Seven Saudi Arabians, including one woman, have also been executed. In 2006, 86 men and two women were executed, half of them foreign nationals, the report said.
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On the Net:
Riyadh-based blogger Zeina passes along news that Saudi Arabian authorities have banned Valentine's Day. Evidently this means both public celebrations and even selling items that might relate to the holiday:
“It is a pagan Christian holiday and Muslims who believe in God and Judgment Day should not celebrate or acknowledge it or congratulate people on it,” an edict issued by the Fatwa Committee said.
“There are only two holidays in Islam — Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha — and any other holidays, whether to celebrate an individual, group or event, are inventions which Muslims are banned from,” said the committee, headed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh...
“Celebrating such an event will create an identity crisis in the minds of our youngsters,” said one religious leader...
Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith, president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has also issued a warning against celebrating Valentine’s Day or the ‘feast of love.’ Al-Ghaith has instructed his officials all over the Kingdom to keep a watch on shops selling roses and other gift items to celebrate the occasion.“You should also enlighten Saudi citizens on the danger of this custom, which is alien to our society, and make them aware of its negative effect,” Al-Madinah daily quoted the religious police chief as saying.
...Waleed Al-Anazi attributed the spread of such un-Islamic attitudes to the information age such as the Internet and satellite television.
| Despite ban, Saudis celebrate Saint Valentine | |||||||||
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According to florists, the demand for red roses is so high that prices leapt from five to 12 Saudi riyals in only a few days. Al Watan newspaper reported that it was almost impossible to find red roses in cities across the kingdom. This growing demand came despite the fact that special anti-Valentine patrols have been organized by the religious police to prevent Saudi youth from celebrating what they consider self-indulgent Western customs.
However, despite the restrictions, Valentine's Day has become more popular due to satellite TV, where holiday events are worked into television programming. Sharp-eyed Saudi shoppers can find plenty of Valentine gifts: hearts that make kissing sounds and say "I love you" when squeezed, white teddy bears sitting on a red heart, lips touching, elaborate gift arrangements with "beating" hearts fitted with blinking lights and baskets of plastic red fruits. According to press reports, on the night before Valentine's Day men and women stroll up and down the Tahliya upscale shopping avenue in the city of Jeddah, browsing at chocolate boxes and lingerie shop windows. According to Mohammed Nabil, a 25 year old Saudi shop owner, it is not uncommon to see a veiled woman in a traditional black robe dashing out of a gift shop with 150 blown-up red balloons, stuffing them in two cars and speeding away. He said, "I have customers that spend more than one thousand riyals (265 dollars), but they come in like burglars and we have to whisper to them that our Valentine's section is at the back to avoid being overheard by someone that would go and report us to the religious police." © 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) | |||||||||
| Israeli historian confirms Jewish blood libel claims | |||||||||
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Tauf, who until one year ago served as the department head of the Israel Studies department at the Bar-Ilan University, is considered an international expert on the Jewish community in Italy during the Middle Ages. His father, Eliyahu Tauf, was the head rabbi of Rome and one of the top figures of the Jewish leadership in Europe who had a central role in managing relations between the Catholic Church, Israel, and the Jewish people, according to Haaretz.
As a result of blood libel in the 15th century, Simonino was named a saint by the Catholic Church. Simonino held the position until the second Vatican Congress in 1965, when the church absolved the Jewish people of the crime of the crucifixion of Jesus.
According to the new book, trials against sacrificial murder of Christian children in Italy occurred almost exclusively in the northern region of the peninsula, in which Jews of "Ashkenazi" decent (Jews who had migrated to Germany and Western Europe, as opposed to those who remained in or near their place of origin, the Middle East). The book describes itself as a "renewed look, devoid of prejudice, at ancient documentation of trials against Jews accused of killing Semonino and others, within the larger context of Europe using detailed Jewish texts. The collection sheds light on documents related to healing and medicine in which Jews used blood for healing purposes, and concludes that blood libel was not always fabricated, especially when "Ashkenazi Jews were in question."
Tauf describes the centrality of blood during Passover. According to him, several Jewish communities attributed healing powers to the blood of animals and humans, which played a role in Kabbalistic ceremonies, for such purposes as increasing libido and curbing blood loss during circumcision.
Severe criticism resulted in the publishing of the work, including criticism by senior Jewish rabbis in Italy-Tauf's father included. Tauf senior stated that he intends to read the work and study its documents, but adds that Jewish law strictly forbids the consumption of any blood. Professor Tauf expressed that he had tried to reach his father to speak to him, but had been unsuccessful. "I hope that I will be able to find a way to speak to him," he said.
Tauf responds to criticism by saying that in his book, which is some 400 pages long, "I attempted to reveal whether or not claims that Christian blood was used for baking matzas by Jews was false or not. My research reveals that during the Middle Ages, a small group of fundamentalist Jews did not honor the Jewish prohibition of the consumption of blood, and used it for healing purposes. The community I speak of is a singular group that was part of a larger Jewish community who suffered severely from anti-Semitism and violence against Jews at the time. From their trauma from such experiences rose the desire for revenge, which in isolated cases was the use of ceremonial blood."
© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) | |||||||||
A conference scheduled for the end of March by a group of Palestinian Lesbians has drawn fire from a number of Islamic groups for the conference’s supposed impropriety. 
"Lesbians...need treatment—they don't need to spread their strange ideas in the Arab community," said Mohammed Zbidat, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement. 
Young Saudis have been buying red roses for Wednesday, February 14th Saint Valentine's day, exemplifying the younger generation's disregard for the official ban of the kingdom's religious authorities. 
At least some part of the blood-libel against Jews in Europe was based on actual ceremonies in which Jews reportedly used Christian blood, maintains a new historical research report recently published in Italy by an Israeli historian. "Passover of Blood," a report by Professor Ariel Tuaf of Israel's Bar-Ilan University, has already drawn fire from academic researchers discounting the study. However, such criticism was quickly snuffed by Tauf, who had also received several threats for publishing his work, in recent interviews with the Italian media.
eshda3wa | 18-Mar-07 at 2:48 pm | Permalink
cant wait to go there when i get home
looks beautiful
i hope they have new stores and not just a replica of every other shopping mall in Q8
yo_ghurt | 18-Mar-07 at 2:55 pm | Permalink
The old favourites, plus I saw Carrefour, Gap, Banana Republic, another H&M. I’m sure there are more.
Stinni | 18-Mar-07 at 4:02 pm | Permalink
Was Carrefour open?
yo_ghurt | 18-Mar-07 at 4:27 pm | Permalink
Not yet. Looks fairly close though, from what I could see.
The Avenues Finally Open! at 2:48AM [The B-Sides] | 18-Mar-07 at 5:17 pm | Permalink
[…] I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who’s a manager in Bershka, one of the many shops now open in the Avenues. He told me the avenues has officially opened today at 10am and that its amazing. The opening hours are from 10am till 10pm. I can’t wait to pass by tonight with Mark and finally check it out. update: yo_ghurt took pictures of the inside and you can check them [Here] Filed under: Interesting, Kuwait, Personal, Shopping, Information, Events Posted by Nat on 03.18.07 | Related Entries […]
Intlxpatr | 18-Mar-07 at 6:29 pm | Permalink
Banana Republic open? Gap? Thanks for the great photos!
TanGo | 18-Mar-07 at 9:43 pm | Permalink
damn, my office is just opposite and had no idea… thanks laban
yo_ghurt | 18-Mar-07 at 9:50 pm | Permalink
:) LOL TanGo!