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UK Boat Crew Held By Iranian Navy
Andrea Egypt of MECAWI at the No War on Iran demonstration in downtown Detroit on Aug. 1, 2008. The action coincided with protests in 87 cities throughout the United States. (Photo: Alan Pollock).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
UK boat crew held by Iranian navy
Five Britons have been detained by the Iranian navy while sailing a racing yacht from Bahrain to Dubai, the Foreign Office (FCO) has said.
They were on a Volvo 60 yacht belonging to Sail Bahrain stopped on 25 November.
The FCO said the crew - Luke Porter, Oliver Smith, David Bloomer, Oliver Young and Sam Usher - may have “strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters”.
Organisers of the Muscat Offshore race said the crew may have been “drifting” after experiencing propeller problems.
Louay Habib, from the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club, told the BBC the shore crew for the crew’s boat the Kingdom of Bahrain had said “there was no wind at the time, and they told us that they were organising for a tow to come and get them”.
He added: “It’s purely speculation but they would have probably been drifting… in 10 hours they could well have strayed into Iranian waters.”
Nuclear row
The five, who are still in Iran, are understood to be safe and well and their families have been told.
Mr Smith, 31, an engineer, from Southampton. His teammate Mr Bloomer is said to work as a sports broadcaster in Bahrain.
â Either Tehran can decide to play the incident down and let the sailors go, or it could turn this into a full blown diplomatic crisis. â
It is not known where the sailors are being held nor which club they had come from, but the FCO did confirm they were on their way to take part in the Dubai-Muscat race.
The British Embassy in Tehran is demanding the immediate release of the five but has so far only had indirect contact with the crew members.
It is thought the Eid holiday could have delayed proceedings in Iran.
FCO officials have spoken with Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs and the Iranian embassy in the UK, while Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he hoped the issue would be resolved “soon” and has asked for a phone conversation with his opposite number in Tehran.
The BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall said the FCO had wanted to keep the matter “private” in order to increase the chance of a resolution.
But after five days the details emerged and they had no option but to confirm the story.
Our correspondent said the timing was awkward, coming after the UK condemned Iran’s plan to extend its nuclear programme.
The government feared Iran might see the detention as an opportunity for “extra leverage” in relation to the nuclear dispute, she added.
Mr Miliband said: “FCO officials immediately contacted the Iranian authorities in London and in Tehran on the evening of 25 November, both to seek clarification and to try and resolve the matter swiftly.
“Our ambassador in Tehran has raised the issue with the Iranian foreign ministry and we have discussed the matter with the Iranian embassy in London,” he said.
Stand-off
The 360-nautical mile Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race began on 26 November and ended two days later in the Omani capital’s Bandar Al-Rawdah marina.
Sail Bahrain was recently launched by yachting company Team Pindar.
In a statement, the firm confirmed Kingdom of Bahrain was stopped by Iranian navy vessels, as it headed to the start of the race.
It added: “The boat may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters. The five crew members, all British nationals, are still in Iran.”
Mr Smith took a degree in Ocean Science and Marine Navigation at the University of Plymouth.
He sailed on the university’s 1st Team was later part of a team which came third in the Racing Division of the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers).
In March 2007 there was a prolonged stand-off between the UK and Iran after a 15-strong Royal Navy crew was detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The Iranians accused the crew of straying into its waters, but the British said they were in Iraqi territory.
They were pardoned and released nearly two weeks later by President Ahmadinejad.
In 2004, eight British servicemen were held in Iran after being seized in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where they were training the Iraqi river patrol service.
In both instances, the crews were paraded on television by the Iranian authorities and Bridget Kendall said British diplomats are worried it might happen again in the latest case.
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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/8387469.stm
Published: 2009/11/30 23:49:57 GMT
UN uses speeches, photo exhibit and concert to voice solidarity with Palestinians
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is being observed today at United Nations Headquarters in New York with a special commemorative meeting, a new photographic exhibition and a concert by Maqamat, an orchestra of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.
Saving Africa’s Precious Written Heritage
Timbuktu Ancient Islamic Manuscripts Are The Subject of Intensive Study and Interpretation
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire Photo File
Saving Africa’s precious written heritage
By Andrew Harding
BBC News, Timbuktu
A drizzle of dust and sand falls over Ahmed Saloum Boularaf’s fingers as he gently lifts the ancient, camel-skin bound manuscripts from a wooden box and puts them on a desk in his makeshift library in a mud-brick house close to the centre of Timbuktu.
“Termites, rain and mice,” he said in an accusing voice, brushing a few flecks of 15th Century parchment from his jacket.
“This was my grandfather’s collection. It covers topics from science to medicine, history, theology, grammar, geography - a little of everything.”
Threatened
Across Timbuktu, in cupboards, rusting chests, private collections and libraries, tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of manuscripts bear witness to this legendary city’s remarkable intellectual history, and by extension, to Africa’s much overlooked pre-colonial heritage.
“This is the proof,” said Mr Boularaf.
“Africa was not wild before the white man came. In fact, if you will excuse the expression, it was the colonising that was wild.”
But this unique literary evidence is under threat, as time, the elements, and a simple lack of resources take their toll in northern Mali.
“We are losing manuscripts every day. We lack the financial means to catalogue and protect them,” said Mr Boularaf, who recently rescued his collection from the rubble of a mud building next door that collapsed after a rainstorm.
Now a giant, new, state of the art library has landed - rather like a spaceship - in the dilapidated centre of Timbuktu, offering the best hope of preserving and analysing the town’s literary treasures.
After several years of building and delays, the doors are finally about to open at the Ahmed Baba Institute’s new home - a 200 million rand (£16,428,265) project paid for by the South African government.
“It’s a dream come true,” said South African curator Alexio Motsi, exploring the underground, climate-controlled storage rooms that will soon house some 30,000 manuscripts.
On the ground floor, behind elegant colonnades and fountains, rows of empty desks are ready for newly trained workers to begin repairing and digitizing the documents.
‘African renaissance’
“I feel proud⦠and nervous,” Mr Motsi said as his team prepared to hand over the keys of the institute to the Malian authorities.
The struggle to save Timbuktu’s manuscripts has been gaining momentum for many years.
When South Africa’s former President, Thabo Mbeki, visited the town in 2001 he declared the documents to be among the continent’s “most important cultural treasures”, and promised to help conserve them as part of his vision of an “African renaissance”.
Most of the manuscripts are in Arabic script, but contain many local languages.
They provide unique insights into Timbuktu’s emergence as a trading post, and by the 1500s as a famous university town, full of students and scribes.
They also help refute the notion that sub-Saharan Africa produced only oral histories, with little or no written records.
Some of the documents discuss social and political problems, usually in an Islamic context, while others offer medicinal advice, including one 13th Century herbal remedy to help treat women in labour.
“I think pre-colonial Africa had its own civilisation going on, which matches what was going on in the west,” said Mr Motsi.
“There’s a lot to be uncovered here. It’s time we started relooking at the history we were taught in school about Africa.”
The new institute plans to hold exhibitions, and open a souvenir and coffee shop in order to translate interest in the manuscripts into tourist revenue for one of the world’s poorest countries.
But those ambitions will not have been helped by new travel advisories issued by the UK and US governments, which are warning tourists to steer clear of the town altogether because of the threat of kidnapping by militants with links to al-Qaeda, who are now using the Sahara as a hiding place.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8386866.stm
Published: 2009/11/30 16:35:51 GMT
UN renovation on schedule and moving back from the red towards its budget limit
The renovation of United Nations Headquarters in New York is now only $90 million over its $1.876 billion budget compared with $219 million two years ago, with a good chance of returning to the black, while being on schedule for completion by late 2013, the official in charge of the overhaul said today.
Secretary-General mourns victims of Russian train bombing
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced the hope today that investigations will shed more light on the circumstances behind the bombing of a Russian train that killed 25 people on Friday night, and injured scores more.
UN agency launches assessment of oil-contaminated region in Nigeria
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today launched an assessment of the impact of contamination from oil across the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, which has been plagued by local unrest and ecological damage in recent years.
UN peacekeepers plant trees in Côte d’Ivoire to fight climate change
United Nations peacekeepers planted nearly 600 trees in a botanical garden in Côte d’Ivoire over the weekend, a small but symbolic step in a project to combat climate change that has already surpassed its target of 7 billion trees - one for every person in the world.
Staff abductions and regional stability in Darfur concern senior UN official
A senior United Nations peacekeeping official today voiced “extreme” concern over the fate of two abducted staff members of the joint UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID), warning that the security situation on the war-ravaged western flank of Sudan continues to be unstable.
Somalia: Security Council mandates action against pirates for another year
The Security Council today renewed for another 12 months the authorization for States and regional organizations fighting piracy off the Somali coast to enter the strife-torn country’s territorial waters and “undertake all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia” provided they have the transitional government’s consent.
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Iran eyes badges for Jews,
Christians and Zoroastrans
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By National PostMay 19, 2006
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Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.
"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."
Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."
The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.
Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.
"There's no reason to believe they won't pass this," said Rabbi Hier. "It will certainly pass unless there's some sort of international outcry over this."
Bernie Farber, the chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said he was "stunned" by the measure. "We thought this had gone the way of the dodo bird, but clearly in Iran everything old and bad is new again," he said. "It's state-sponsored religious discrimination."
Ali Behroozian, an Iranian exile living in Toronto, said the law could come into force as early as next year.
It would make religious minorities immediately identifiable and allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims.
Mr. Behroozian said it will make life even more difficult for Iran's small pockets of Jewish, Christian and other religious minorities — the country is overwhelmingly Shi'ite Muslim. "They have all been persecuted for a while, but these new dress rules are going to make things worse for them," he said.
The new law was drafted two years ago, but was stuck in the Iranian parliament until recently when it was revived at the behest of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment on the measures. "This is nothing to do with anything here," said a press secretary who identified himself as Mr. Gharmani.
"We are not here to answer such questions."
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has written to Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, protesting the Iranian law and calling on the international community to bring pressure on Iran to drop the measure.
"The world should not ignore this," said Rabbi Hier. "The world ignored Hitler for many years — he was dismissed as a demagogue, they said he'd never come to power — and we were all wrong."
Mr. Farber said Canada and other nations should take action to isolate Mr. Ahmadinejad in light of the new law, which he called "chilling," and his previous string of anti-Semitic statements.
"There are some very frightening parallels here," he said. "It's time to start considering how we're going to deal with this person."
Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly described the Holocaust as a myth and earlier this year announced Iran would host a conference to re-examine the history of the Nazis' "Final Solution."
He has caused international outrage by publicly calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons, but Teheran believed by Western nations to be developing its own nuclear military capability, in defiance of international protocols and peace treaties.
The United States, France and Israel accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear program to secretly build a weapon. Iran denies this, saying its program is confined to generating electricity.
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