Off Beat News

US 'wants British Pakistanis to have entry visas'

Matt Weaver
Wednesday May 2, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The American government wants to impose travel restrictions on British citizens of Pakistani origin because of concerns about terrorism, according to a report today.

In talks with the British government, the US homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, called for British Pakistanis to apply for a visa before travelling to the US, according to the New York Times.

The newspaper claimed that US officials were concerned about the number of terrorist plots in Britain involving citizens with ties to Pakistan.

It is understood that the British government is resisting any attempts to single out particular ethnic groups for travel restrictions. The Foreign Office has yet to comment on the report.

Mohammad Sarwar, the Labour MP for Glasgow Central, described the proposal as "unbelievable and shocking. Every British citizen must have the same rights. I don't think America has any right to interfere in this way."

Mr Sarwar, who was born in Pakistan and became Britain's first Muslim MP in 1997, urged ministers to reject the idea.

The report of America's concerns follows the conviction earlier this week of five British men for planning a series of attacks across the UK. Four of them were of Pakistani origin. But according to the New York Times, talks on travel restrictions for British Pakistanis have been taking place for some "months".

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2070680,00.html

I doubt they will manage to implement this proposal. However, if they do, then it has extremely grave tidings for the future, and it won't be long before all Musims will have similar restricions on travel. Then after that, who knows where it could end up, some sort of USSR-esque ban on mosques and copies of the Qu'ran?

I blame the stupid 'wannabe terroists' for harming everone else's rights and freedoms, however this still doesn't excuse rascism[/b]

Ya'qub

I blame the stupid 'wannabe terroists' for harming everone else's rights and freedoms, however this still doesn't excuse rascism

I blame stupid ignorant Americans for blaming all of us for crimes of few.
Would they like it if we blame all Americans for what their soldiers fo in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib tortures, sex and abuses and everything else. They are Great Satan.

malik
Would they like it if we blame all Americans for what their soldiers fo in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib tortures, sex and abuses and everything else.

malikThey are Great Satan.

:?:

Ya'qubI doubt they will manage to implement this proposal. However, if they do, then it has extremely grave tidings for the future, and it won't be long before all Musims will have similar restricions on travel. Then after that, who knows where it could end up, some sort of USSR-esque ban on mosques and copies of the Qu'ran?

I blame the stupid 'wannabe terroists' for harming everone else's rights and freedoms, however this still doesn't excuse rascism[/b]

I suspect there is actually very little Britain can do about it, I suppose they could put restrictions on American citizens entering Britain as a protest - like Brazil did.

The fact of the matter is due to Britain's loose security on who they let into their country terrorists and other enemies of the United States have a window of opportunity to sneak through to the United States.

This isn't racism, it's reality - in all its bleakness. "Brits" like Malik proove it. It wasn't racism when the USA limited entrance from the nation of Pakistan, and it's not racism when the USA limits entrance from the nation of Pakistan via proxy. And let's get serious here, this is a limitation not an outright ban. We'd like to have Pakistanis visit the United States, we'd just not like the bad guys to exploit that desire. Consequently we have a solution which delays incoming visitors just a little while for a background check.

What's wrong with that?

Don't blow this out of proportion banning mosques and copies of the Qur'an are strict violations of the First Amendment, which we do not joke around with. That's why I always get a kick out of Tex freaking out about the United States banning the hijab. Wrong country - that's France. Hijab bans have already been ruled unconstitutional.

The US can already access passenger records.

The new deal will allow US law enforcement agencies access to 34 pieces of information on each passenger arriving from the European Union - including details on credit cards, passports, telephone numbers and even meal preferences.

BBC News

And about the Ya'qub's above article. It doesn't cost much to apply for a visa does it?... and obviously there is a little inconvenience but if you really wanna go to the US, applying for a visa won't stop you will it. I thought British citizens had to apply for a visa if they wanted to visit any country outside the EU.

The article mentions people of Pakistani origin, I am assuming it doesn't include people from Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, ect.

MuslimSisLilSis

irfan

You can't ban everything you don't agree with.

That's silly.

If i was an Admin here and everyone had a serious issue with someone yet I didnt bann him/her

this would mean that i dont have an issue with him/her

the Azhar lots JOB is to ban/approve literature

anyway that link says

"But the government-run Al-Ahram daily said it had APPROVED the book's publication"

hola

i am sorry to interrupt... but is the Azhar where the ayatollah is... like his Holy See?

gracias

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2069214,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2071139,00.html

Independent - 03 May 2007

Robert Fisk: Olmert undone by the militia he said he could destroy

So it has come to this. All those bodies, all those photographs of dead children - more than 1,400 cadavers (we are not including the 230 or so Hizbollah fighters and the Israeli soldiers who died) - are to be commemorated with the possible resignation of an Israeli prime minister who knew, and who cared, many Israelis suspect, little about war. Yes, Hizbollah provoked last summer's folly by capturing two Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese-Israel border, but Israel's response - so totally out of proportion to the sin - produced another debacle for the Israeli army and, presumably now, for its Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.

Looking back at this terrifying, futile war, with its grotesque ambitions to "destroy" the Iranian-supported Hizbollah militia, it is incredible Mr Olmert did not realise within days that his grandiose demands would founder. Insisting the two captured Israeli soldiers should be released and the militarily powerless Lebanese government should be held responsible for their capture was never going to produce political or military results favourable to Israel. One would have to add that Tzipi Livni's demand for the Prime Mnister's resignation sits oddly with her support for this preposterous war.

A close reading of the interim report of Judge Eliahou Winograd's report on the summer war - to which Mr Olmert himself only granted the title the "Second Lebanon War" a month after it had happened - shows clearly that it was the Israeli army which ran the military, strategic and political campaign. Again and again in Winograd's report it is clear that Mr Olmert and his Defence Minister failed to challenge "in a competent way" (in the commission's devastating phrase) the plans of the Israeli army.

Day after day, for 34 days after 12 July, the Israeli air force systematically destroyed the major infrastructure of Lebanon, repeatedly claiming it was trying to avoid civilian casualties while the world's press watched its aircraft blasting men, women and children to pieces in Lebanon. Israelis, too, were savagely killed in this war by Hizbollah's Iranian-provided missiles. But it only proved the Israeli army, famous in legend and song but not in reality, could not protect their own people. Hizbollah fighters were told by their own leadership that if they would just withstand the air attacks, they could bite the Israeli land forces when they invaded.

And bite they did. In the final 24 hours of the war, 30 Israeli soldiers were killed by Hizbollah fighters and their land offensive, so loudly trumpeted by Mr Olmert, came to an end. During the conflict, a Hizbollah missile almost sank an Israeli corvette - it burnt for 24 hours and was towed back to Haifa before it was able to sink - and struck Israel's top secret military air traffic control centre at Miron. The soldiers captured on the border were never returned - pictures of them, still alive, are flaunted across the border at Israeli troops to this day - and Hizbollah, far from being destroyed, remain as powerful as ever;

And so one of Washington's last "pro-American" cabinets in the Middle East is now threatened by the very militia which Mr Olmert claimed he could destroy.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2504638.ece

US denies curb on UK Pakistanis

The American embassy has dismissed reports that the US government wants to tighten visa restrictions for British citizens of Pakistani origin.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had discussed the plan with London, the New York Times said.

But John Caulfield, the consul general at the embassy in London, told the BBC that the report was wrong.

It follows the conviction of five men, four of them of Pakistani origin, for a UK bomb plot linked to al-Qaeda.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6618299.stm

Snowbunny

MuslimSisLilSis

irfan

You can't ban everything you don't agree with.

That's silly.

If i was an Admin here and everyone had a serious issue with someone yet I didnt bann him/her

this would mean that i dont have an issue with him/her

the Azhar lots JOB is to ban/approve literature

anyway that link says

"But the government-run Al-Ahram daily said it had APPROVED the book's publication"

hola

i am sorry to interrupt... but is the Azhar where the ayatollah is... like his Holy See?

gracias

Al Azhar is a University in Cairo, Egypt. One of the oldest in the world. (I think there is atleast one other which is older...)

It has a well respected Islamic department.

@malik: this topic is for OFFBEAT news. You story would fit better in the Lebanon/Israel topic.

(Maybe we need a general news category?)

This topic is more for something light, hopefully funny. Such as this:

The Boeing 737 stuck in city road

Residents of the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) are wondering how long it will take to remove a disused Boeing 737 that has been abandoned in a busy road.

The decommissioned aircraft was being driven through the city at the weekend when the driver got lost and then abandoned the plane.

The Boeing used to belong to the private company Air Sahara.

Some locals are angry that no action is being taken to move the plane. Others say it is a tourist attraction.

It appears that after taking a wrong turn, the driver found himself facing a flyover that was too low for him to take the plane under.

The driver has not been seen since and no-one is assuming responsibility for the 737.

Sunday surprise

Restaurant owner Ramji Thapar is one of the puzzled residents of the Chembur area of the city.

He woke up Sunday morning to find the aircraft on a giant trailer abandoned on the road.

"Saturday night I shut shop and go home and everything is fine," he told the BBC news website.

"Sunday morning when I get here, this aircraft is here near my restaurant!"

The fuselage of the decommissioned aircraft, with the engine, wings and tail removed, was being taken by road to the capital Delhi late on Saturday night.

Reports say it was supposed to be used at a flight training academy.

The plane has become the centre of attraction with people coming from all over the city to take a look.

"I've been fascinated with planes and never seen one so closely," engineering student Vamsi Shastri said. "It's huge!"

His friend Ankur Rane said, "It's fascinating to see an airplane on the roads when one is only used to seeing cars and auto rickshaws."

No joke

However, for Pradeep Malhotra, who runs a catering service in the area, the plane has become a huge problem because it is parked right in front of his shop.

"My work is suffering because the food cannot be loaded in the big vehicles," he said.

"I have to load it in the smaller vans and then carry them to the bigger ones parked at the back.

"I don't know how they are going to take it out because you can't reverse it, its too big, and you can't go further down the road."

Some residents said they had not complained simply because they assumed that the authorities would be making it a priority to get the plane out of the city.

Five days on, it is still not clear who is responsible for the aircraft and its transfer to Delhi.

BBC News

Snowbunnyhola

i am sorry to interrupt... but is the Azhar where the ayatollah is... like his Holy See?

gracias

Azhar is a Sunni Islamic university.

Ayatollah is a title confered on Shia scholars.

Azhar would be a contender for closest Islamic equivalent to the Papacy.

hola

gracias i am so happy you have said this... that makes things much easier for me to understand. i do not mean to trouble you but is the wikipedia entry accurate?

gracias

ßeast

Snowbunnyhola

i am sorry to interrupt... but is the Azhar where the ayatollah is... like his Holy See?

gracias

Azhar is a Sunni Islamic university.

Ayatollah is a title confered on Shia scholars.

Azhar would be a contender for closest Islamic equivalent to the Papacy.

It was built by the Shia - but it later reoriented to Sunni Islam.

It has a grand Imam - but not in the Shia sense.

Imam just means leader.

The grand Imam is held in high regard by many - but is not thought in any way to be above sinning or mistakes.

[list]

[url=http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3171415&versi…][list]Mom Indicted for Selling Daughter

A 37 year old woman was indicted Monday on charges that she sold her teenage daughter for $3000. Tina Valdez is accused of selling the 15 year old girl to a man last August. At first, Valdez told authorities in Archer County that her daughter had run away. She even gave police a note that she said her 15 year old daughter had written about going to look for her father.

[list][/list:u]
But investigators say Valdez admitted last month that she sold the girl to 35 year old Jason Carlile who took her to Mexico. Carlile was already facing charges of indecency with a child and possession of child pornography. He was also indicted Monday.

Valdez and Carlile are being held on $150,000 bond each. The girl is back in Texas and has been placed in foster care.[/list:u]

[/list:u]

[list]

[list]

Chandler Jarrel: You sold her?

Biker: Yeah, for a carton of cigarettes and a quart of pork fried rice.

Jarrel punches the biker, hard.[/list:u]

[/list:u]

Villa searched in Madeleine hunt

A detailed search is under way at a villa 150 yards from the Portuguese apartment where Madeleine McCann went missing from 11 days ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6655907.stm

I am absolutely shocked at the stupidity of the parents, how can you even think of leaving your children ALONE while you bloody eat out! I understand couples need time out but not the expense of THAT happening! They should have left their children with adult supervision,

I pray to Allah (swt) that she is returned safely, such a small angel on her own. May Allah (swt) protect her.

AngelI pray to Allah (swt) that she is returned safely, such a small angel on her own. May Allah (swt) protect her.

Ameen.

The girl who was stoned to death for falling in love

A teenage girl lies dead on the ground in a pool of her own blood.

Her once groomed hair is cast across her face like a rag doll's, her skirt pulled up to complete her humiliation.

In another image, she is seen lying on her side, her face battered and bloodied, barely recognisable.

The concrete block used to smash in her face lies next to her.

Du'a Khalil Aswad was beaten, kicked and stoned for 30 minutes at the hands of a lynch mob before one of her attackers launched a carefully aimed fatal blow.

Link to article

A horrible episode. The following week a bunch of Yezidis were herded off a bus and shot. I don't know if that was the end of it.

Admin has started a Serious News thread and requested this one be kept light.

[list]

[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070516/wr_nm/security_britain_internet_dc]…]"Web site" baffles Internet terrorism trial judge

LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet.

Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals.

"The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison briefly set aside his questioning to explain the terms "Web site" and "forum." An exchange followed in which the 59-year-old judge acknowledged: "I haven't quite grasped the concepts."

Violent Islamist material posted on the Internet, including beheadings of Western hostages, is central to the case.

Concluding Wednesday's session and looking ahead to testimony on Thursday by a computer expert, the judge told Ellison: "Will you ask him to keep it simple, we've got to start from basics."

[/list:u]

Passengers push stalled train in India

Las Vegas is becoming like Mecca

Coin toss decides Philippine poll

Two candidates in the Philippines who got the same number of votes in a local election have settled the issue of who won by tossing a coin.

Bryan Byrd Bellang and Benjamin Ngeteg tied for the last of eight council seats in Bontoc, a resort town some 280km (175 miles) north of Manila.

They agreed to the coin toss, set down in local election rules. Mr Bellang called heads and won the seat.

Crowds in the town hall clapped as the two men shook hands after the result.

"I asked them if they wanted to break the tie by tossing a coin or drawing lots, and somebody in the crowd wondered if I was cracking a joke," election supervisor Mary Umaming told the Associated Press news agency.

"I said those options were in the rules, and they agreed to flip a coin."

Provincial elections supervisor Dennis Dimalnat said that the two candidates had set a refreshing example.

"I hope others would see the beauty of this kind of peaceful resolution," he told AP...

More @ BBC News

Gulls 'axe boss after 10 minutes'

Leroy Rosenior has broken the record for the shortest ever tenure by a manager at an English club, BBC Five Live understands.

The former Brentford boss was sacked just 10 minutes after being introduced as Torquay's new manager on Thursday.

Rosenior, 43, was first-team coach at Plainmoor and was appointed as Keith Curle's successor.

The Gulls were relegated from the Football League two weeks ago and were put up for sale on Sunday.

BBC News

Snowbunnyhola

i do not mean to trouble you but is the wikipedia entry accurate?

Dont ever trust wiki, anyone can go on to that website and edit/change stuff on it regardless of whether its right or wrong. If you want to look up anything on the net then say clear of that website.

Wikipedia is a useful resource. Being open to public editing it isn't authoritative, except to some extent in the case of locked articles, but even so it is a mine of comprehensive information and links on pretty much any subject. For contentious issues it may well be unreliable, but in those instances problems are usually signalled at the top of the page and very often the debate can itself be reviewed in the discussion page, a facility not available in other research documents. So I agree it isn't the bible and is rife with users' biases but I give it a cautious thumbs-up. Perhaps articles should be rated for accuracy, comprehensiveness and neutrality by academic experts but in the meantime Wikipedia is still very useful.

Not always accurate, but apparently more accurate than the encyclopaedia Brittanica on certain subjects.

It can suffer from vandalism, but it is also possible for people to go and correct any mistakes they find.

I trust it to give me a good foundation on a subject.

As always one should form their own opinions instead of regurgitating others'. Unhealthsome gig that is.

'Insulting' song case in Pakistan

One of Pakistan's leading pop singers has appeared in court over an allegedly insulting song.

Ibrarul Haq was summoned to the Supreme Court in Islamabad over his song that apparently contained words "Parveen you are so salty".

The move came after a girl called Parveen had claimed that the lyrics embarrassed her and her family.

But Mr Haq said the song did not use the name Parveen but Parmeen - which is not a recognised name in Pakistan.

Parveen is a common name in Pakistan, and a number of girls are reported to have been teased about the song's words.

The song has proved to be a hit in Pakistan, with roadside stalls and cafes playing it repeatedly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6678769.stm

Bird poops on George W Bush.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x-QRvn6O_Q4

Smart bird.

Tony Blair says he wants the "voice of moderation" among Muslims to be heard, as £1m funding was announced to boost Islamic studies at UK universities.
Ministers hope the money, announced as a report criticised teaching quality, will help train more imams in the UK.

At a conference on Islam, Mr Blair also called for closer links between Islamic schools and mainstream state schools.

Critics said the London conference had excluded Muslim groups opposed to government policies.

In a speech at the conference, hosted by Cambridge University, Mr Blair said British politicians must listen harder to the "calm voice of moderation and reason" of the majority of the country's Muslims.

BBC

Moroccan family barred from toilet

A family living in a public toilet in Morocco have spent seven years requesting more hygienic accommodation.

Their pleas fell on deaf ears, and Aze Adine Ould Baja has had to endure the ignominy of having "Sidi toilets" as the official address on his identity papers.

A truck tipped over in London today which caused most of the east side traffic to come to a standstill for hours cos they had to close one road.

No one was hurt, although the bright red road covered in tomatoe puree was fascinating to watch.

[list]

A 21-year-old man was taken down
a highway outside of Paw Paw, Mich.
at about 50 mph when his wheelchair
became attached to a semi-truck.[/list:u]