Tag Archives: tsi
Qatari Amir set to hand over power to son
Qatari Amir set to hand over power to son (Reuters) / 25 June 2013 The Amir of Qatar, His Highness Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, 61, informed members of the ruling family on Monday of his decision to hand over power to Crown Prince Shaikh Tamim after a meeting in Doha, the Qatari-owned television channel Al Jazeera said. A Gulf official said the announcement of the transfer of power would be made later on Monday. The royal court said in a statement that the Amir would make a speech later and Tuesday would be a national holiday. Qatari political analyst Mohammed Al Misfer told Al Jazeera that he did not expect major changes in the event of a handover, adding that Shaikh Tamim was already involved in running the country under his father’s direction. Diplomats said earlier this month that he Amir was considering an orderly transfer of power that would probably begin with the departure of the powerful Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani. Arab and Western diplomats said they understood the motive was the Amir’s desire to have a smooth transition to a younger generation. The Amir has elevated Qatar’s international profile in recent years through the launch and development of the Al Jazeera television network, as well as its successful bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup tournament. Qatar has played a substantial role in promoting Arab Spring protests, lending significant support to rebels who toppled and killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and to a continuing uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. It has also played host to a delegation of the Afghan Taleban, which opened an office in Doha last week in preparation for expected talks with the United States about how to end a 12-year-old conflict in Afghanistan. Eman Ebed Alkadi of the Eurasia Group consultants wrote that she did not expect Qatari domestic priorities or its foreign policies to change significantly with a change of ruler. “Tamim has controlled key policies in Qatar for some time, and shares his father’s views on political development in Qatar and economic diversification,” Alkadi wrote. National budgets had been agreed up until 2016-2017, Alkadi said, and with preparations for the World Cup in full swing, much change in domestic momentum was unlikely. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, an achievement that set the country on a track to achieve double-digit economic growth for several consecutive years, during a time when many Western nations were mired in recession. This spurred a population boom, with inhabitants surging from 500,000 to 1.9 million in the last decade. Continue reading
Angelina Jolie urges world to end rape in war
Angelina Jolie urges world to end rape in war (AP) / 25 June 2013 Angelina Jolie made her debut before the UN’s most powerful body as a special envoy for refugees on Monday and urged the world’s nations to make the fight against rape in war a top priority. The actress told the Security Council that “hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of women, children and men have been raped in conflicts in our lifetimes.” Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN high commissioner for refugees, said the Security Council has witnessed 67 years of wars and conflict since it was established “but the world has yet to take up warzone rape as a serious priority.” “You set the bar,” she told the council. “If the … council sets rape and sexual violence in conflict as a priority it will become one and progress will be made. If you do not, this horror will continue.” British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who presided over the meeting, stressed that “in conflicts in nearly every corner of the globe, rape is used systematically and ruthlessly, in the almost certain knowledge that there will be no consequences for the perpetrators.” Soon after Jolie spoke, the council adopted a legally-binding resolution demanding the complete and immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence by all parties to armed conflict. It noted that sexual violence can constitute a crime against humanity and a contributing act to genocide, called for improved monitoring of sexual violence in conflict, and urged the UN and donors to assist survivors. It was the broadest resolution adopted by the council on the sexual violence in conflict. Hague said Britain plans to follow-up by convening a global gathering during the annual General Assembly meeting of world leaders in September to keep up the pressure for action. Hague said at a discussion later at the Ford Foundation that his prime motivation for pressing for global action against sexual violence was the 1990s war in Bosnia, partly because of an adviser but also because of Jolie’s 2011 film, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” about former lovers who end up on the opposite sides of the conflict. He said he arranged the film’s British premiere at the Foreign Office and has been campaigning with Jolie since then, including a visit to Congo in March, “to move the stigma and the shame from the victim to the perpetrator.” “The time has come for the world to take a strong and determined stand to make clear that the systematic use of rape as a weapon is not acceptable in the modern world and our objective is to change the entire global attitude to these issues,” Hague said. Getting the whole world talking about sexual violence in conflict and the need to punish perpetrators not victims “will shift attitudes — maybe over a period of years, but we have begun,” he said. Jolie, who has traveled extensively in her role as goodwill ambassador, recalled several of the survivors she had met — the mother of a five-year-old girl raped outside a police station in Goma in eastern Congo, and a Syrian woman she spoke to in Jordan last week who asked to hide her name and face “because she knew that if she spoke out about the crimes against her she would be attacked again, and possibly killed.” “Let us be clear what we are speaking of: Young girls raped and impregnated before their bodies are able to carry a child, causing fistula,” Jolie said, referring to an injury caused by violent rapes that tear apart the flesh separating the bladder and rectum from the vagina, leaving the girls unable to control their bowels or bladder. She continued: “Boys held at gunpoint and forced to sexually assault their mothers and sisters. Women raped with bottles, wood branches and knives to cause as much damage as possible. Toddlers and even babies dragged from their homes, and violated.” Zainab Hawa Bangura, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, told the council that two weeks ago she visited Bosnia where an estimated 50,000 women were victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence during the war, but only a handful of perpetrators have been prosecuted. Later, at the Ford Foundation, she said that on an African trip with Hague, she visited the village of Mambasa in eastern Congo’s Ituri district where 11 babies aged 6 to 12 months had been raped, 59 children aged 1 to 3 years old had been raped and 182 girls aged 5 to 15 years old had been raped. “Who will rape a baby?,” Bangura asked. “It means you want to wipe the community away. That’s the only explanation you can have.” Jolie pleaded with the Security Council — and all countries — to implement the resolution and not let the issue drop. “Meet your commitments, debate this issue in your parliaments, mobilize people in your countries, and build it into all your foreign policy efforts,” she urged. “Together, you can turn the tide of global opinion, shatter impunity and finally put an end to this abhorrence.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute to Jolie for being the voice of millions forced to flee their homes “and now for the many survivors of wartime rape whose bodies have been used as battlegrounds.” He called on all leaders to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators “and be part of a global coalition of champions determined to break this evil.” Continue reading
A taste of UAE tradition
A taste of UAE tradition Lily B. Libo-on / 24 June 2013 Arab expatriates and their families in the UAE have been looking forward to joining Hag Al Leila celebrations, observed midway through the month of Shaaban, to feel in their hearts the tradition that only the UAE in the GCC religiously and traditionally celebrates. Egyptian Khalid Shaaban and wife Lamiya, who have been in the UAE for five years, are among those expatriates, who are excited to participate in the celebrations. “Preparations for Ramadan actually begin with this night-time celebration ‘Hag Al Leila’, but we do not practice it in Egypt. We observe Ramadan only. When I and my family first came here, I was amazed to see how the UAE celebrates the occasion with fervor and excitement,” Shaaban said. He said he never missed bringing their children to the Hag Al Leila celebrations so they could learn by experience how Emiratis celebrate this tradition. “I want my children to see for themselves how Hag Al Leila is being celebrated so that they will grow up with this experience in their heart. Then, they will appreciate completely the observance of Ramadan from the first day of its preparation,” he added. Shaaban came to the Hag Al Leila celebration, organised by the Sharjah Museums on Saturday, in cooperation with other government and private entities at the Sharjah Heritage Museum, with his twin daughters, 14, five-year-old son and six-month-old baby that his wife patiently held in her arms all throughout the four-hour celebration. Wahiba Al Alawi, a Bahraini student, said that she found joy in witnessing and in becoming part of the celebration. “This is one tradition we miss at home. But, here in the UAE it is very much alive with students, teachers, families and visitors enjoying and preparing before the start of Ramadan. I have learnt a lot and, of course, I am queuing up to go around and fill my traditional bag with sweets, dates, and nuts. I am excited, for this is my first time to join with my teacher and classmates,” she said. A Kuwaiti national, Wathiqa Al Nafisi, is filled with the same excitement. “I am here for holidays, and reading in the newspaper about the upcoming event, I became curious to see what it is, and how it will be celebrated, for we do not have it. It is heart-warming to see all these girls in traditional dresses singing traditional songs and boys dancing their traditional dances. I am glad I have decided to come at this time of the year,” she said. Syrian couple, Ashur and Yalda Al Halbi, came with their two sons, aged nine and five. Ashur said, “Hag Al Leila is always in the family calendar yearly. We welcome it, and my boys are looking forward to it when they can participate and come home with the traditional bag full of candies, nuts, and others.” “Today, they have the special “Halwan” with the Arabic bread as a surprise. So cute,” said Yalda. Before the start of the celebration, Ashur said that their sons joined in the free educational workshop of making a traditional bag supervised by the staff of the Sharjah Maritime Museum. “It is not only fun. My kids have learnt something new today,” he said. An Emirati traditional celebration, Hag Al Leila is an annual occasion in the middle of Shaaban — the eighth month in the Islamic Hijri calendar — where families in the UAE exchange sweets and nuts in preparation for the arrival of Ramadan, something they are proud to share with the expatriates in the UAE, particularly Muslims who have not experienced it in their own homeland. lily@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
