Obama: 'No short cut' to Middle East peace

Obama: 'No short cut' to Middle East peace !

Palestinians rally in run-up to UN statehood bid

Mahmoud Abbas - Palestinian statehood - United Nations

Palestinians rally in run-up to UN statehood bid

21/09 16:05 CET

The mood was festive – but the cause is deeply felt.

Tens of thousands of people have been rallying across the West Bank to back the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition at the United Nations.

School children and civil servants were given the day off to attend events in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus and Hebron.

Some demonstrators in Ramallah demonstrated what they thought of Washington’s threat to wield a Security Council veto by burning a US flag.

“I am very happy because they are going to declare a Palestinian state. I hope that we will be free,” said one young woman in the crowd.

“A state fulfilling the aspirations of all the Palestinian people should be the culmination of our combat and our struggle,” a young man said.

“It is our right to dream. Our people have the right to self-determination,” another added.

But not all Palestinians are celebrating. There have been no mass rallies in Gaza whose rulers Hamas

have dismissed Friday’s UN bid as a waste of time.

2011 euronews / Bulgaria Today

England riots: Fightback under way says PM

England riots: Fightback under way says PM


England riots - Fightback under way says PM by timesbg

Police try to tackle masked youths in Manchester

Continue reading the main story

"We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way", the prime minister has said after four days of riots.

David Cameron said every action would be taken to restore order, with contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours' notice.

On Tuesday night, unrest spread to cities including Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham, with shops being looted and set alight.

Three men died when they were hit by a car in Birmingham.

Mr Cameron, speaking after a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee said police had the legal backing to use any tactics necessary to bring the situation under control, including using baton rounds.

He said: "This continued violence is simply not acceptable, and it will be stopped. We will not put up with this in our country. We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets.
Map of riots across England

"We have seen the worst of Britain, but I also believe we have seen some of the best of Britain - the million people who have signed up on Facebook to support the police, coming together in the clean-up operations."

The PM said more arrests would take place as police worked through CCTV evidence. "Picture by picture, the criminals are being identified and arrested," he said.

Mr Cameron, who has previously referred to "broken Britain", said: "There are pockets of our society that are not just broken, but are frankly sick.

"It is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society, people allowed to feel the world owes them something, that their rights outweigh their responsibilities and their actions do not have consequences. Well, they do have consequences."

Courts stayed open throughout the night to deal with the number of people charged.
'We have your face'

The prime minister said anyone convicted of violent disorder would be sent to prison.

Earlier, London Mayor Boris Johnson urged the government to reconsider its plans to cut police numbers, saying the argument had been "substantially weakened" by the riots.

At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said he had seen "the most sickening scenes" of his career, and said the force had been overwhelmed.

Some 113 people have been arrested so far over the trouble in Manchester and Salford, where hundreds of youths looted shops and set fire to cars and buildings.

He said the force was "absolutely intent" on bringing the rioters to justice and his officers were already studying CCTV.

"Hundreds and hundreds of people, we have your image, we have your face, we have your acts of wanton criminality on film. We are coming for you, from today and no matter how long it takes, we will arrest those people responsible," he said.

In the West Midlands, 109 have been arrested and 23 charged following scenes of disorder in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich - where vehicles were set on fire.

In other developments:

* Three men have been run over and killed as they protected property in Birmingham. A 32-year-old man is being questioned on suspicion of murder after the deaths of the men, who were aged 31, 30 and 20.
* Canning Circus police station in central Nottingham was firebombed by a male gang on Tuesday evening. Nottinghamshire Police said 90 people had been arrested
* In Liverpool, Merseyside Police have arrested 50 people in relation to disorder in the city
* Nine people have been arrested in Gloucester after police officers came under attack from youths throwing stones and bottles from 23:00 BST
* In Leicester, a group of up to 100 youths attacked shops and threw items at police, with 13 arrests
* In Bristol, police arrested 19 people following a second night of trouble
* Thames Valley Police made 15 arrests linked to trouble overnight
* Metropolitan Police have arrested 768 people and charged 105 in connection with the violence in the capital, including a 21-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life following a fire which took hold of the Reeves Furniture store in Croydon on Monday night
* Officers from all eight Scottish Police forces are being sent to help colleagues in the Midlands and North of England deal with rioting and looting
* A 26-year-old man found shot in a car in Croydon, amid rioting in the south London town, has died in hospital
* Government minister Michael Gove has praised the Met's response to the riots, saying bringing in an extra 10,000 officers helped to prevent further riots from taking place in London
* Meanwhile, two 18-year-olds in Folkestone, Kent, and a 19-year-old woman in Wakefield have been arrested. A 16-year-old boy in Glasgow was charged with breach of the peace while another man, aged 18, has been arrested. All relate to allegations of inciting violence through internet social networking sites
* The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said on Tuesday that ballistic tests presented "no evidence" that a handgun found at the scene where Mark Duggan, 29, was killed in Tottenham had been fired at officers

'Resilience and sustainability'

Scotland Yard drafted in special constables and community support officers in London to ensure five times the usual number of officers for a Tuesday - 16,000 - were on duty. They made 81 arrests.

Downing Street said the increased level of policing would remain in place "as long as necessary" to prevent a repeat of the violence.

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Asst Chief Constable Garry Shewan: "We have your image, we have your face ... we are coming for you"

It said while there was "no complacency," police tactics in London had "clearly worked".

The Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Stephen Kavanagh said London deserved "some resilience and sustainability from police".

Referring to proposed police cuts, London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "That case was pretty frail and it's been substantially weakened. This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."

But the Home Office said the reductions in the police budget were manageable.

The riots first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, by police.

BBC / Bulgaria Today

Riots spread to more UK towns and cities

Riots spread to more UK towns and cities


Riots spread to more UK towns and cities by timesbg

London quiet as police step up presence on the streets, but police station firebombed and shops looted elsewhere.

Last Modified: 09 Aug 2011 23:47

Riots flared overnight in some English cities and towns but London was mostly calm as thousands of police deployed on its streets following three nights of rioting and looting in the British capital.

David Cameron, the British prime minister, is due to host another meeting of the government's meeting of the government's crisis committee, COBRA, to address the violence on Wednesday.

Police have made 1,069 arrests across the country in response to the trouble, including 768 in London, 109 in the West Midlands and 90 in Nottingham. At least 167 people have been charged so far.

In Salford, part of greater Manchester in northwest England, rioters threw bricks at police and set fire to buildings on Tuesday night.
LIVE BLOG: UK RIOTS
Click here for our continuing coverage

Television pictures showed flames leaping from shops and cars in Salford and Manchester, and plumes of thick black smoke billowing across roads.

In central Manchester, police said a clothes shop was set alight. "I can confirm a shop is on fire and 200 youths that gathered in the city centre have been chased by riot police and dispersed. Seven arrests have been made so far," a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said.

Further south in West Bromwich and Wolverhampton, cars were burned and stores raided.

A gang of up to 40 men firebombed a police station in the central English city of Nottingham but no injuries were reported, police said. At least 90 arrests were made and 10 police cars damaged in the city.

"Canning Circus Police Station (in central Nottingham) fire bombed by a group of 30-40 males. No reports of injuries at this stage," said Nottinghamshire Police in a message on their official Twitter feed.

A message later said the fire had been extinguished and eight people had been arrested.

In Liverpool, a Reuters reporter saw police with riot shields pushing back youths hurling bricks. Police said four fire engines were attacked.

In the western city of Gloucester, police and firefighters tackled a blaze and disturbance in the city's Brunswick district.

London 'quiet'

London was mostly quiet after a huge boost in police numbers on Tuesday evening which saw 16,000 officers on the streets, compared to the 6,000 out on Monday night.

Commuters hurried home early, shops shut and many shopkeepers boarded their windows as the city prepared nervously for more of the violence that had erupted in its neighbourhoods.

Police arrested 81 people overnight, across London, for various offences, filling the city's cells to capacity four nights since the trouble started.

Also, many Londoners took to the streets in their hundreds to defend their communities.

Hundreds of Sikhs, many dressed in traditional outfits, gathered outside their gurdwara, or temple, in Southall, west London, after earlier rumours circulated it was next on the looters' hitlist.

Around 200 locals in Enfield, the north London borough at the heart of previous attacks, strode through the area to "protect their streets", an AFP correspondent said.

The group became involved in a "minor skirmish" with a group of youths which it accused of taking part in criminal activity, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Londoners counted the cost of the pillaging and tried
to clear up the mess on Tuesday [AFP]

Amateur video footage released on Wednesday showed a group of around 100 men running down an Enfield street chanting "England, England, England".

A similar number of people congregated in the south-east suburb of Eltham, also rumoured to be a likely hot spot.

"This is a white working class area and we are here to protect our community," one man told the Guardian .

"We are here to help the police. My mum is terrified after what she saw on the television in the last three days and we decided that it's not going to happen here," he said.

Sales of baseball bats and police batons shot up more than 5,000 per cent on Amazon's British website.

In the north London districts of Hackney and Kentish Town, mainly Turkish shopkeepers sat outside their shops into the early hours, many with makeshift weapons by their side.

Other Londoners tried to clear up the mess.

Hundreds of volunteers carrying brooms, dustpans, rubber gloves and black bags gathered on Tuesday morning in Clapham, south of the River Thames, to help clean up.

Parliament recalled

Cameron, who returned early from a holiday in Tuscany to deal with the crisis, told reporters: "This is criminality pure and simple and it has to be confronted and defeated. People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain's streets."

Cameron has also recalled parliament from its summer recess, a rare move.

"It's us versus them, the police, the system. They call it looting and criminality. It's not that. There's a real hatred against the system"

Hackney youth

The unrest poses a new challenge to Cameron as Britain's economy struggles to grow while his government slashes public spending and raises taxes to cut a yawning budget deficit - moves that some commentators say have aggravated the plight of young people in inner cities.

It also shows the world an ugly side of London less than a year before it hosts the 2012 Olympic Games, an event that officials hope will serve as a showcase for the city in the way that April's royal wedding did.

On Tuesday, London's police said they would consider using rubber or plastic bullets.

Local member of parliament David Lammy said he was asking Blackberry to suspend its messaging service.

Youth gangs were reported to be co-ordinating their movements though social networks - particularly secure-access Blackberry Messenger groups - and targeting shops.

Police 'under pressure'

The first riots broke out on Saturday in north London's Tottenham neighbourhood, when a peaceful protest over the fatal shooting by police of a 29-year-old man, Mark Duggan, two days earlier led to violence.

While the police have been accused of failing to bring the situation under control by going in softly to spare local sensibilities, they are likely to come under renewed pressure over the Duggan incident after a watchdog said on Tuesday there was no evidence that a handgun retrieved at the scene had been fired.

Reports initially suggested that Duggan had shot at police.
In video

Charlie Angela reports on the escalating violence in the UK [Al Jazeera]

"There are pretty tough questions confronting the politicians," said Tim Friend, Al Jazeera's correspondent in London. "It will be concerning police and politicians greatly whether what's happening outside London has anything to do with the shooting [of Mark Duggan], is doubtful at the moment."

Tottenham includes areas with the highest unemployment rates in London. It also has a history of racial tension with local young people, especially blacks, resenting police behaviour.

"It's us versus them, the police, the system," said one youth at a grim housing estate in the London district of Hackney, the epicentre of Monday night's rioting.

"They call it looting and criminality. It's not that. There's a real hatred against the system." His friends, some covering their faces with hoods, nodded in agreement.

The London 2012 Organising Committee hosted an International Olympic Committee visit "as planned" on Tuesday and said the violence would not hurt preparations for the Olympics.

However, other sporting events suffered. England cancelled Wednesday's international soccer friendly with the Netherlands and three club games were also called off.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies / Bulgaria Today

'Bin Ladan was killed years ago'

'Bin Ladan was killed years ago'

http://presstv.com/live

Mon May 2, 2011

VIDEO

A 2007 Benazir Bhutto interview in which she says the al-Qaeda leader was 'murdered' years ago contributes to the uncertainty surrounding US claims about Osama bin Laden's death.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama announced that the al-Qaeda leader was killed by US forces after he was found hiding in a compound in Pakistan.

This is while in an interview following a failed assassination attempt on Pakistan's former premier in October 2007, Bhutto says bin Laden has already been killed. In the interview, she identifies the man who killed the notorious al-Qaeda leader as one Omar Sheikh , excerpts of which was sent to Press TV's UReport.

In response to a question whether any of the assassins had links with the government, Bhutto said, "Yes but one of them is a very key figure in security, he is a former military officer … and had dealings with Omar Sheikh, the man who murdered Osama Bin Laden.

" Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in a bomb attack as she was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi when a gunman shot her in the neck and set off a bomb.

The announcement of bin Laden's death comes almost ten years after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Meanwhile, a US official says bin Laden's body has been buried at sea, alleging that his hasty burial was in accordance with Islamic law, which requires burial within 24 hours of death.

This is while burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not determine a timeframe for burial.

The official added that finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted man was difficult, so the US decided to bury him at sea.

Press TV / Bulgaria Today

More deaths as Afghans protest Quran burning

UN condemns Afghan Quran protest killings

Security Council denounces deaths of UN staff and demonstrators in a violent protest over Quran burning. ( 01-Apr-2011 )

Central & South Asia

More deaths as Afghans protest Quran burning

Eight people killed in Kandahar as thousands protest against a US pastor's burning of the Quran last month.
Last Modified: 02 Apr 2011 12:08

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Eight people have been killed in Afghanistan as protests continue against the burning of the Quran by a controversial US pastor.

Thousands of people took to the streets in Kandahar city on Saturday, a day after a deadly attack on UN staff.

Protesters attacked the police and set shops ablaze. About 70 people were injured.

Abdul Qayoum Pukhla, a senior doctor at Kandahar's Mirwais hospital, said victims suffering from bullet injuries and wounds caused by rocks had been admitted to the hospital.

The spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province said the protest was organised by the Taliban who used the Quran burning in Florida as an excuse to incite violence.

"The demonstration in Kandahar was planned by insurgents to take advantage of the situation and to create insecurity," Zalmay Ayoubi said.

UN office attacked

A day earlier, after Friday prayers ended, protesters overwhelmed security guards at the UN office in the usually peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. They burned parts of the compound and climbed blast walls to topple a guard tower.

Afghan officials said at least 11 people were killed, including seven UN staff. The throat of one of the dead foreigners was slit, the UN said.

Demonstrators had gathered to protest over reports that an evangelical pastor last month burned a copy of the Muslim holy book in the US.


The pastor's "Judge the Quran day" drew widespread international condemnation

The Taliban said they had no role in Friday's assault on the UN office, after both the provincial governor and a senior UN official suggested provocateurs among the crowd had sparked or led the vicious attack.

"The Taliban had nothing to do with this, it was a pure act of responsible Muslims," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Reuters news agency.

"The foreigners brought the wrath of the Afghans on themselves by burning the Quran."

President Karzai spoke with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday morning to convey his grief over the attack on the UN.

Karzai described the attack as "ruthless" and affirmed that the government of Afghanistan is committed to launching an all-out probe into the incident and bringing to justice those responsible.

Stressing the importance of promoting a peaceful co-existence and harmony among the religions, Karzai asked Ban to play his role in raising public awareness on the significance of resorting to non-violence and non-desecration of faith and dialogue among religions.

Kabul attack

Also on Saturday, fighters clad in burkas attacked a coalition base in Kabul with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but were killed either when they detonated their explosives or by Afghan or coalition fire outside the entrance, NATO and police said.

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Kabul, said the Taliban had claimed responsibility for that attack.

"They're saying the Americans, the Europeans and the United Nations have to take a very tough stance when it comes to the desecration of Islamic symbols and they haven't seen that, they haven't seen any statement issued by the UN or the American forces in Afghanistan," he said.

"This is why they're trying to converge in the main cities, in particular in areas where there are military bases and UN offices, to send a very strong signal that they are really angry about what's going on."

Terry Jones, an American pastor, created a storm of controversy after he announced that he would burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year. Under pressure from political leaders, Jones "suspended" the event.

However, on March 20, Jones oversaw the burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book by another pastor, Wayne Sapp.

Many Afghans only found out about it when Karzai condemned the desecration four days later.

Sapp called the deaths in Mazar-i-Sharif "tragic," but said he did not regret the actions of his church.

"I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened," he said.

Protests also broke out on Friday in Kabul and Herat in western Afghanistan.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies / Bulgaria Today

International forces bombard targets in Libya

Africa

International forces bombard targets in Libya

Coalition forces launch Libya assault, which Gaddafi calls "colonial, Crusader" aggression.

International forces fired more than 110 missiles on 20 radar and anti-aircraft sites along the coast [AFP/US Navy]

US and European military forces have bombarded Libya with cruise missiles and air attacks as part of a broad international effort to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone more than a month after the outbreak of an uprising against longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

French jets fired the first shots on Saturday in Operation Odyssey Dawn, the biggest international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles in eastern Libya.

Hours later, US and British warships and submarines launched more than 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles at more than 20 coastal targets to clear the way for air patrols to ground Libya's air force.

An unnamed US national security official said the air defences of Libya have been "severely crippled" by the barrage of missile strikes.

"Gaddafi's air defence systems have been severely disabled. It's too soon to predict what he and his ground forces may do in response to today's strikes," the military source said, on condition of anonymity.

Major-General John Lorimer, a British military spokesman, said British fighter jets also had been used to bombard the north African nation.

Anti-aircraft guns could be heard firing overnight in Tripoli. Libyan state television later said civilian areas of the capital and fuel-storage tanks that supplied Misurata had been hit.

It also claimed that 48 people had been killed and 150 others wounded in the attacks, but Al Jazeera could not independently verify that report.

In Tripoli, residents said they had heard an explosion near the eastern Tajoura district, while in Misurata they said strikes had targeted a regime airbase.

Several thousand people gathered at the Bab al-Azizia palace, a compound in the capital which was bombed by US warplanes in 1986.

Defiant Gaddafi

In response, Gaddafi vowed to arm civilians to defend the country from what he called "colonial, Crusader" aggression by Western forces.

"It is now necessary to open the stores and arm all the masses with all types of weapons to defend the independence, unity and honour of Libya," Gaddafi said in an audio message broadcast on state television hours after the strikes began.

He called the Mediterranean and north Africa a "battleground" and said Libya would exercise its right to self defence under article 51 of the United Nations charter.

"The interests of countries face danger from now on in the Mediterranean because of this aggressive and mad behaviour," he said.

"Unfortunately, due to this [action], marine and air targets, whether military or civilian, will be exposed to real danger in the Mediterranean, since the area of the Mediterranean and North Africa has become a battleground because of this blatant military aggression."

He said the UN Security Council and the international community were responsible for "stopping this unjust flagrant aggression against a sovereign country immediately".

He also called on Arab, Islamic, African, Latin American and Asian countries to "stand by the heroic Libyan people to confront this aggression, which will only increase the Libyan people's strength, firmness and unity".

Shortly after Gaddafi's speech, a message on state television said Libya had decided to end its efforts to stop illegal immigration to Europe, citing a security source.

'Not first choice'

Barack Obama, the US president, said it had not been his first choice to authorise US participation in military strikes against the Gaddafi regime.

"This is not an outcome the US or any of our partners sought," Obama said from Brazil, where he has just begun a five-day visit through Latin America.

"(But) we cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."
Thousands of Gaddafi supporters form a human shield outside the heavily-fortified al-Aziziya camp [Reuters]

He said US troops were acting in support of allies, who would lead the enforcement of a no-fly zone to stop Gaddafi's attacks on rebels.

"As I said yesterday, we will not, I repeat, we will not deploy any US troops on the ground," Obama said.

Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military's Joint Staff, said the missile raids were only the first phase.

'Necessary means'

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said after a meeting of world leaders in Paris that participants agreed to use "all necessary means, especially military" to enforce the Security Council's resolution.

"Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen," David Cameron, the UK prime minister, said after the meeting.

"We cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue."

Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, suggested that outside powers hoped their intervention would be enough to turn the tide against Gaddafi and allow Libyans to force him out.

"It is our belief that if Mr. Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be able to sustain his grip on the country."
Source:
Agencies

Al Jazeera TV / Bulgaria Today

Radiation-leak fears at Japan plant

Asia-Pacific
Radiation-leak fears at Japan plant
Third explosion hits Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex since earthquake and tsunami crippled its cooling systems.

Last Modified:14 Mar 2011 23:50 GMT

A radiation leak is feared after Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency reported a third explosion at Unit 2 of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant in the country's northeast.

Shinji Kinjo, an agency spokesman, said that "a leak of nuclear material is feared", after the explosion was heard at 6:10am local time (21:10 GMT) on Tuesday.

The troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began when a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast on Friday knocked out power, crippling cooling systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from melting down.

Radiation levels measured at the front gate of the plant jumped following the explosion, Kinjo said.

Naoto Kan, the Japan prime minister, warned people within 30km of the Fukushima plant to stay indoors.

Low-level radioactive wind from the reactor could reach Tokyo, the Japanese capital, within 10 hours, based on current winds, the French embassy said in a statement on its Japanese-language website on Tuesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the plant's operator, said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor's containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect.

TEPCO said some employees of the power plant were temporarily evacuated following Tuesday's explosion.

An agency spokesman, Shigekazu Omukai, said the nuclear core of Unit 2 was not damaged in the explosion. But the agency said it suspects the bottom of the container that surrounds the generator's nuclear core might have been damaged.

Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Ichinoseki, in northeast Japan, said: "People didn't know what was happening and they wonder what they can do. Some say that they can't get out due to lack of fuel.

"We know that there was a sound of explosion at Unit 2, where there are significant numbers of fuel rods submerged in water.

"The government is sticking to the line that radiation is within safety levels, but it is a fast-changing situation."

Second explosion

On Monday, a second explosion had rocked the same unit of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, sending a plume of smoke into the air.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that the reactor had not been damaged. The World Health Organisation said there was a minimal public heath risk.
LIVE BLOG

TEPCO said afterwards that fuel rods at one of the reactors had become fully exposed again, meaning the water being pumped in to cool the reactors is evaporating due to the heat.

Japanese nuclear officials worked to quell concerns and announced the distribution of 230,000 units of stable iodine. Iodine can be used to help protect against thyroid cancer in the case of radioactive exposure.

Yukio Edano, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, said that a large-scale radiation leak was unlikely. He said the reactor's inner containment vessel holding the nuclear fuel rods was intact, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment.

The accidents - injuring 15 workers and military personnel and exposing up to 190 people to elevated radiation - have compounded the challenges faced by the Japanese government as it struggles to help survivors of the quake-tsunami disaster that flattened entire communities.

Police revised on Tuesday the official death toll, putting it at 2,414 dead, with thousands more missing.

Spectre of Chernobyl

Koichiro Genba, Japan's national strategy minister, said there was "absolutely no possibility of a Chernobyl" - a reference to the 1986 explosion at a Soviet reactor which spread radiation over swathes of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and northern Europe and is estimated by UN agencies to have caused the deaths of thousands of people.

But some people in the affected area said they were worried at the prospects of nuclear radiation. Twenty people have tested positive for radiation exposure and that number looks likely to rise.

TEPCO said in a press release that the blast was believed to be a hydrogen explosion at the plant's No 3 reactor and that 11 workers were injured. The first explosion happened at the same plant on Saturday, at the reactor No 1.

It also said the impact of radioactive materials to the outside environment was under investigation.

Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi said the cooling system at reactor No 2 failed, leading to a build-up of pressure in the containment vessel - the same problem units one and three encountered before they exploded.

At the Fukushima plant, efforts have continued to cool the reactors with a mixture of seawater and boric acid - an untested method - as a last resort, and advising nearby residents to stay inside to avoid contamination.

Humanitarian crisis

Against this backdrop of continued safety concerns, foreign aid has begun to arrive for the tsunami-affected region of Japan. Up to 70 countries have offered assistance, with help coming not only from allies like the US but also countries with more strained relations like China.

Millions of people spent a third night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the devastated northeastern coast.

Search intensifies for Japan survivors [Al Jazeera]

In many areas there is no running water, no power and four- to five-hour waits for petrol. People are suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing with the loss of loved ones and homes.

“People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming,'' Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, said.

In another grim development, hundreds of bodies washed ashore on Monday along the northeastern coastline, the area worst hit by the tsunami.

A Japanese police official said 1,000 bodies were found scattered across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture.

Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, reported that 2,000 bodies washed up on two shorelines in Miyagi.

The US Geological Survey upgraded on Monday the earthquake to magnitude 9.0, from 8.9, making it the world's fourth most powerful since 1900.

Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist for Japan at Credit Suisse, has estimated the economic loss will probably be around $171-183bn just to the region hit by the twin disasters.

Al Jazeera TV / Bulgaria Today

Massive tsunami devastates Japan

Asia-Pacific
Massive tsunami devastates Japan
Coastline swamped and hundreds dead as biggest quake in centuries sends wave crashing ashore and puts Pacific on alert.
Last Modified: 11 Mar 2011 13:55 GMT

Hundreds of people are dead after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Japan, triggering a devastating 10-metre-high tsunami along parts of the country's northeastern coastline.

The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday afternoon local time, creating gigantic waves which swept away cars, boats, homes and people as the surging water overwhelmed coastal barriers.

Widespread fires burned out of control and Japan's nuclear industry was on alert as reactors shut down automatically as a safety precaution. Millions are reported to be without electricity, airports are closed and public transport in Tokyo and other cities has come to a halt as Japan reels amid the twin devastations.

Police said 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai where hundreds of buildings have collapsed. Japan's NHK television said the victims appeared to have drowned. Police said another 88 were confirmed killed and 349 were missing.

Thousands of people living near a nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture were ordered to evacuate after the reactor developing a cooling fault. Officials said the move was a precaution and there was no evidence of leaking radiation.

Meanwhile, countries around the Pacific basin are on tsunami alert amid warnings that a wall of water could completely wash over low-lying islands.

Ship swept away

Footage of the tragedy on NHK showed pictures of major tsunami damage in the north, with buildings being inundated by waves of water in Onahama city in Fukushima prefecture.

A ship carrying 100 people was swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo news agency reported.

The initial quake at 2:46pm was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, including a 7.4-magnitude one about 30 minutes later. On Honshu, Japan's main island, a warning was issued that another strong quake could be imminent.

Japan, which sits on the highly active "Ring of Fire," an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim, is one of the most earthquake-ready nations in the world.

Many of its buildings are considered quake-proof while emergency services, citizens and schoolchildren regularly participate in earthquake drills.

"Japan is very well equipped to deal both with the initial tremors caused by an earthquake: buildings are systematically built with allowances for sway so that they are less likely to fall down. Also coastal cities have long had tsunami protection measures in place," said Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett.

Japan's prime minister addressed the nation after the quake, saying major damage had been done but that help is on the way.

In a televised address, Naoto Kan said the government was making "every effort possible" to minimise damage.

"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," he said. "Some of the nuclear power plants in the region have automatically shut down, but there is no leakage of radioactive materials to the environment."

Shortly after the quake struck, the tsunami hit Sendai airport in the north-east. Television footage showed people standing on the roof of the terminal building.

The tsunami roared over embankments in Sendai city, sweeping away cars, houses and farm equipment inland before reversing direction and carrying them out to sea. Flames shot from some of the houses, probably because of burst gas pipes.

Unfolding disaster

A tsunami warning has been issued for the entire Pacific basin except mainland United States and Canada, the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the centre said in a statement.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned that developing island nations could be devastated by the disaster.

"Our biggest concern is the Asia and Pacific region, where developing countries are far more vulnerable to this type of
unfolding disaster. The tsunami is a major threat," Paul Conneally, spokesman for the federation, the world's biggest
disaster relief network, told the Reuters news agency in Geneva.

"At the moment, it is higher than some islands and could go right over them," he said.

Among the countries for which a tsunami warning is in effect are: Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.

High alert

Meanwhile, a huge fire engulfed an oil refinery in Iichihara near Tokyo, where four million homes were said to be without electricity. Plumes of smoke rose from at least 10 locations in the city.

Military airplanes were flying over the worst-affected areas to assess the need for rescue efforts and 30 international search and rescue teams were prepared to go to Japan to provide assistance following the quake, the United Nations said.

Tokyo's metro and suburban trains were halted and airports were closed for parts of the day.


The quake that struck at 2:46pm was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, including a 7.4-magnitude one about 30 minutes later. Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan, reporting from Beijing, said tremors were felt as far away as the Chinese capital.

Several earthquakes have hit the region in recent days, including a 7.2-magnitude quake on Wednesday. Friday's quake struck at a depth of 24km, about 125km off the eastern coast, the country's meteorological agency said.

The quake's magnitude surpasses the 7.9 Great Kanto quake of 1923, which killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Bularia Today

Deadly blast at Moscow airport

Europe
Deadly blast at Moscow airport
At least 35 people killed and scores injured in a suspected suicide blast at the Russian capital's busiest airport.

Last Modified:24 Jan 2011 21:11 GMT

The blast went off near the baggage area of the airport's international arrivals hall [Reuters]

At least 35 people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a blast at Moscow's busiest airport, health officials said.

The explosion at Domodedovo airport, in the southeast of the Russian capital, occured on Monday afternoon inside the airport's international arrivals hall near the baggage area.

"Today at 4.32 pm (13:32 GMT) an explosion went off in the international arrivals hall of Domodedovo airport," the Russian investigative committee said in a statement.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said that the blast, according to preliminary information, "was an act of terror" and that those behind it would be tracked down and punished.

He also called for a new security regime to be introduced in all airport and transport hubs across the country in the wake of the attack.

World leaders have condemned the attack, with Barack Obama, the US president, calling it "an outrageous act of terrorism against the Russian people".

Scenes of carnage

Eyewitnesses told Russian radio of a scene of carnage after the blast ripped through the baggage claims section of the airport.

"Burned people are running about ... they are carrying pieces of flesh on stretchers," a man called Andrei, who was standing near the information stand at the airport, told City FM radio.

"You can't tell the living from the dead. I was meeting someone. We are not protected in this country," another witness, Alexei, told the station.

A traveller named Viktor told the Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei radio station he heard a loud bang outside the airport.

"There was an explosion, a bang. Then I saw a policeman covered in fragments of flesh and all bloody. He was shouting 'I've survived! I've survived!'''

Neave Barker, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Moscow, said that Domodedovo airport is the busiest of the Moscow's three commercial airports, serving 22 million people last year.

"It's usually very, very busy in there ... This is a deadly target for this attack," he said.

"Many officials and journalists would have been flying out of Moscow to the Davos forum around this time. It's not clear whether this was timed to have the biggest international impact."

The Kremlin said that Medvedev was delaying his own trip to Davos as a result of the attack.

Security increased

Moscow police have stepped up security across the city following the blast.

But Russian media reports suggested that security services had received warning of a possible attack ahead of Monday's blast.

"The special services had received information that an act of terror would be carried out at one of the Moscow airports," the RIA Novosti news agency reported an unnamed security source as saying.

"Agents were seeking three suspects but they managed to access the territory of the airport, witness the explosion which their accomplice carried out and then leave the airport," the source said.

Separately, an airport security source told the Lifenews.ru website: "A tip-off with a warning that something was being prepared appeared one week before the explosion."

Russia's Interfax news agency later reported that investigators had found a head of "Arab appearance" that they presumed to have belonged to a suicide bomber.

The Russian capital is no stranger to attacks. In March last year 40 people were killed and 100 wounded when two female suicide bombers attacked the Moscow metro system.

That and previous attacks have been blamed on fighters from the Northern Caucasus, where separatists are fighting for an autonomous state.

Some commentators have already pointed towards separatists in the Caucasus as being behind Monday's attack.

"There is a very, very strong suspicion that insurgent fighters operating in the likes of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan are responsible for carrying out this latest bombing," Al Jazeera's correspondent said.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies / Bulgaria Today

45-годишен ватман беше нападнат тази нощ от трима непознати на спирка Павлово

Биха ватман тази нощ

09 януари 2011

София /КРОСС/ 45-годишен ватман беше нападнат тази нощ от трима непознати на спирка Павлово, съобщиха от "Пирогов". В 2.20 часа през нощта той е приет в Спешното консултативно отделение на УМБАЛСМ „Пирогов". Мъжът е получил сътресение на мозъка, хематом на лицето и счупен пръст на лявата ръка. След подробен преглед и медицинска помощ, пострадалият е отказал да остане на лечение в болницата.

BgTimes.Net

Two very different politicians, two very similar shootings

Two very different politicians, two very similar shootings

By Imran Khan in

* Americas

on January 9th, 2011.
picture from [EPA]

On the face of it there is nothing to link the death of the Pakistani governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, and the shooting of Democrat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. But there is.

In each case both politicians stood up for one thing: Debate. It’s too early to know the motivations of Giffords shooter, but Taseer's killer had already said he was defending Islam.

Both incidents have one thing in common. Taseer and Giffords put unpopular subjects on the table.

Taseer wanted a reasonable discourse on Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Giffords wanted immigration to be talked about in a reasoned manner.

Taseer faced incredible criticism for his words by Pakistan's religious right wing. He was rubbished by some TV anchors, one man offered a reward for his death, others demanded he be stripped of his post.

Giffords was also incredibly unpopular with the right wing in the United States. Sarah Palin, the most famous American republican on the planet drew up a map in 2010 with rifle targets on the States she wanted to change.

Arizona, which is represented by Giffords was one of them. Giffords was regularly rubbished by the right wing commentators for her views. Both Taseer and Giffords led some to believe they were legitimate targets.

Now, when the target is simple venom, not violence then you can quote the old nursery rhyme: sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.

But in the United States and in Pakistan words are turning into action. Sarah Palin has expressed sorrow to Giffords' family.

Those who called for Taseer’s death in Pakistan were shocked when it came. But it’s that climate of hatred that led to both these shootings.

Taseer was not an elected politician, but the post of governor is a political appointee, and he used his position to campaign for causes he believed, so in that respect he was a politician.

Politicians are many things. But they are the voice of electorate, right or wrong. If you think it’s wrong...Well, that what elections are for.

But in both countries opinion is now presented as fact and it’s easy to create a climate of hostility and fear.

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to… Well, tragically the events of the last few days have shown us where anger can lead to.

Both Taseer and Giffords’ shootings show that there are those for whom debate is pointless.

Like I said before, I don't know what was driving Giffords’ shooter, but I do know that the climate she was politicking in had stirred a lot of passion.

It was the same with Taseer. Two very different politicians, two very different countries, two very similar incidents.

When politicians stop speaking out for fear of death, then we all lose out.

Al Jazeera TV / Bulgaria Today

More:

:::

Jewish woman takes Arizona seat

By Debra Morton Gelbart

PHOENIX, Nov. 8 (JTA) — For the first time in Arizona history, a Jewish woman will be part of the state’s congressional delegation. Democrat Gabrielle Giffords cruised to victory Tuesday over Republican Randy Graf in the state’s 8th Congressional District, capturing approximately 54 percent of the vote to Graf’s 42 percent. Giffords succeeds retiring Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe. Nationally known political observers like Larry Sabato and Charlie Cook had predicted a Giffords win for weeks, and throughout the election season Giffords was confident that the seat would see a switch in party representation. “If you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it,” said Giffords, a former state senator. “Jewish women — by our tradition and by the way we were raised — have an ability to cut through all the reasons why something should, shouldn’t or can’t be done and pull people together to be successful.” She said one of her top priorities when she gets to Washington will be balancing the federal budget. “I also want to help fix the prescription drug bill, to allow Medicare to negotiate the cost of pharmaceuticals. And I want to focus on developing renewable energy sources. I believe that southern Arizona can be a haven for companies that want to invest in renewable energy technology.” Giffords was in a crowded primary election race. She ran against five other Democratic candidates, including Francine Shacter, who is Jewish, and former television news anchorwoman Patty Weiss, who raised her children Jewish. Giffords, who grew up in Tucson, is passionate about her responsibility to represent her district. “A ‘representative’ isn’t just a title, it’s a job description,” Giffords said. “Your job is to represent the people to the best of your ability, to listen and make yourself available and accessible. I can’t expect people to come to me. I have to go to them — on doorsteps, in their places of work and elsewhere to understand what they’re experiencing and whether government is helping or hurting them.” Giffords promised to be “an independent voice for my district, not beholden to my party leadership and corporate interests, but rather to what I believe is best for the people of southern Arizona.” Her Jewish identity will be key to her decision-making. “My Jewish heritage has really instilled in me the importance of education and caring for the community,” said Giffords, who has a Jewish father and a Protestant mother and said she grew up “with a mixture of my parents’ religions. After visiting Israel in 2001, I realized Judaism is a part of my life I hadn’t focused on before. I consider myself Jewish without any equivocation.”

http://www.jta.org / Bulgaria Today

Palestinian killed in Israeli raid

Palestinian killed in Israeli raid

Family says soldiers mistakenly shot dead sleeping man during hunt for a Hamas fighter released from Palestinian jail.

Last Modified:07 Jan 2011 10:14 GMT

Israeli troops shot dead al-Qawasmeh during a dawn raid on Friday to arrest suspected Hamas fighters [AFP]

Israeli troops have shot dead a sleeping Palestinian man during a dawn raid in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Family members found Suliman al-Qawasmeh, 66, in a pool of blood in the bedroom after soldiers broke into several homes in the city's al-Sheikh neighbourhood on Friday.

The raid came less than 24 hours after six Hamas fighters who had been on hunger strike in Palestinian jails were released on Thursday.

Five of them were from Hebron, and one of them, Wael Bitar, arrested by the Israelis, lived one storey below the victim, residents said.

"I was praying when they entered. I do not know how they opened the door. They put their hand to my mouth and a rifle to my head," al-Qawasmeh's wife told the Reuters news agency.

"I was shocked. They did not allow me to talk. I asked them, 'What did you do?' They asked me to shut up."

Later, the Israeli army issued a statement acknowedging that al-Qawasmeh's killing was unintended. It said he "was present in one of the terrorist's homes".

An Israeli military spokesman told the AFP news agency: "There is no indication that [al-Qawasmeh] was involved in any terror activity at any stage and therefore we regret the incident."

An immediate investigation has been ordered, with a report expected by next week, according to the Israeli army statement.

Shot at close range

Al Jazeera's Nisreen el-Shamayleh, reporting from Ramallah in the West Bank, said al-Qawasmeh was shot at close range with multiple bullets in the head and chest, and was already dead by the time he reached the hospital.

"According to the family, the soldiers appeared very flustered after killing al-Qawasmeh and asked one of the sons whether that was Bitar. When told he was not, they went to Bitar's apartment one floor below to arrest him and left the building," she said.

"The Palestinian Authority said they were very angry with this incident and called it the execution of an elderly Palestinian citizen. They consider it an incitement against the Palestinian Authority and an unjustified crime that will lead to instability in the region."

Separately, the Israeli army confirmed the arrest of Bitar, who it described as a "senior member of the Hamas armed infrastructure in the Hebron region".

The army said "Bitar was the assistant of Shehab Natshe, who planned the suicide bombing in Dimona of 2008".

In addition to Bitar, four "Hamas operatives who were working alongside [him]" were also arrested overnight.

"All five of the men were released from a Palestinian prison on Thursday", the Israeli army statement said.

Gaza targets hit

In other incidents, the Israeli military said fighter jets attacked two targets in Gaza overnight in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory, which is governed by Hamas.

One of the targets of the raid was a tunnel Hamas fighters dug into Israel under the border fence, the military statement.

Friday's raids come as tensions continue to rise in Gaza. Overnight, between Wednesday and Thursday, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians who they said were trying to get across the border fence into Israel.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Palestinian fighters fired seven projectiles, most of them mortar shells, across the border, Israeli sources said. No casualties or damage was reported.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies / Bulgaria Today

Plovdiv:Granada of the East,Abdal Hakim Murad

Plovdiv:Granada of the East

Abdal Hakim Murad

When the Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi passed through the Balkan city of Plovdiv in 1650, he pulled out all the organ stops of Ottoman panegyric to describe this ‘mighty city.’ He counted fifty-three mosques, seventy Qur’anic schools, nine madrasas, seven colleges for advanced Qur’anic recitation, eight public baths, and eleven Sufi lodges. Of the city’s neighbourhoods, thirty-three were Muslim, five were Christian, and one was Jewish. Nine caravansarays serviced the abundant trade which Muslim rule had brought to the city; in fact, it offered a picture of Islamic prosperity, a formerly insignificant town which had flowered under the aegis of the Sultan and the Islamic economic system.

Today, it is hard to make out even the outlines of this magnificent Muslim past. Attacked by Russia in 1878, amputated from Turkey and awarded to the new state of Bulgaria, most of its Muslim and Jewish population fled to what remained of the Ottoman lands. Horrific massacres claimed the lives of thousands, while many refugees who arrived in Istanbul bore signs of torture and mutilation, or carried harrowing tales of the slaughter of their families. The population dropped from 125,000 to less than 30,000. Today, the story of Plovdiv, or, as the Ottomans once called it, Filibe, evokes a shake of the head even among the most secularised Turks.

Approaching the modern city does little to dispel this dismal image. For mile after mile, the empty shells of Communist-era factories which crumbled along with the ideology that created them, line the pot-holed surfaces of Leningrad Avenue and Industriyalna Road. Men squat in the shade, smoking, watching the traffic go by. Unemployment in parts of Bulgaria stands at well over fifty percent, even in places where many young men have left to work abroad. European Union scientists are struggling to deal with the soil and water pollution bequeathed by Communist neglect. Crime is rife, with mafia-style gangs operating with impunity, and a new elite of dubious entrepreneurs is building garish villas on the city’s northern side. Pockets of Western-style rebuilding have replaced the grey Stalin-era tenements around the new Novotel and a few other landmarks; elsewhere, however, grim poverty is the norm.

In few countries did the dead hand of Communism fall more heavily than it did on Bulgaria. Under the thirty-five year rule of Theodor Zhivkov, parents whose children refused pork at school faced imprisonment or worse. Belief in God was considered a form of mental illness. Only Communist Party members could hope for a professional career, and membership was restricted to atheists alone. Christians, of course, faced numerous handicaps, but an enduring Islamophobia deeper than Communism ensured that it was the Muslim minority which felt the secularist yoke most heavily. During the Zhivkov years, most of the country’s remaining mosques were closed or demolished. Speaking Turkish in public incurred an automatic fine. All Muslim names were forcibly exchanged for Christian ones, while the circumcision of boys was criminalised. Over a thousand Muslim protesters died trying to resist this erasure of their identity, many of them perishing in the terrible conditions of Zhivkov’s forced labour camps.

In the end, the Bulgarian regime proved no more sturdy than the other Warsaw Pact dominoes that toppled in the wake of Gorbachev’s perestroika. The prayers of the suffering believers were dramatically answered when Zhivkov was forced out of office in 1989. Yet the scars of the Bulgarian Inquisition are still everywhere to be seen.

An effective, if sobering, means of surveying the damage is to sit at the summit of Plovdiv’s Bunarchik Hill. Like Istanbul, the city is built on seven hills (Taksim, Nebet, Janbaz, Sahat, Jendem, Bunarchik, and Markovo). During Ottoman times several of these were places of public recreation, and Eid picnics on Bunarchik were particularly popular. From the summit, over the plane and chestnut trees, one enjoys a panoramic view of the city, which extends beyond the great Meritch River, whose Ottoman bridge did much to galvanise the city’s prosperity. Nineteenth-century buildings are prominent in the city centre, and all around stand gaunt Soviet-style apartment blocks. Yet it is impossible to discern the Muslim city. Of the former forest of minarets, not one seems to have survived.

To track down signs of Muslim life, it is necessary to walk down to the river. Here one finds no sign of the creaking Turkish water-mills which once lined the Meritch, nor of the picturesque shuttered houses, cantilevered over the waters, which Victorian travellers admired. The riverfront is derelict, its potential entirely ignored. Yet after a mile of walking beside the Meritch, on an overgrown and rat-infested path, one comes across a miracle. The Imaret Mosque, dating from 1444, has somehow managed to survive, together with the tomb of its founder, Shihabeddin Pasha. The building is a jewel-like example of the Bursa school of Ottoman building. Unlike so many mosques in Bulgaria, it retains its minaret, which is decorated with a fine spiral pattern set into the brickwork. The cemetery is now only a garden, but the broken pieces of the gravestones, smashed in 1985, may still be seen, stacked forlornly to one side. There is no trace of the charitable building which gave the structure its name (an imaret is a public soup kitchen, where the poor of all religions could come for a free meal at Muslim expense). It stood, apparently, between the mosque and the river. The pasha’s madrasa, the Kara Shahin, was also close at hand. Here the focus was on hadith: one of the college’s most illustrious directors was the great Muhaddith Çelik Yahya Efendi (d.1567), who later taught at the Darul Hadith in Edirne, before going on to become the chief qadi of Baghdad.

Nearby is the public bath (hammam) built by the same pasha. One of only two which seem to have survived in the city, it is now an art gallery, housing conceptual art installations of indifferent quality. The mouldering rooms are suffused with the spirit the Turks call hüzün, a sense of loss and melancholy. It is hard to picture the scene as it would have been a hundred and thirty years ago: soft bodies, masseurs, the scent of Balkan tobacco, hammam picnics for idle ladies, and Sephardic Jewish visitors. Now only dust and peeling paint remain; a vibrant life of the flesh has vanished, to be replaced by echoes and a sense of mortality. Muslim Plovdiv here feels as distant and unretrievable as ancient Egypt.

One might try to escape the hüzün by visiting Da Lino’s Italian restaurant for lunch. Here, however, another tragedy oppresses the Muslim visitor. Occupying a prime spot on 6 September Boulevard, Da Lino’s was until twenty-five years ago the city’s much-loved Tashkˆpr¸ Mosque. The Mufti of Plovdiv, Hasan Ali, recalls how it was seized by the Communists in 1983. The cemetery was smashed, and the minaret torn down. Little use was made of the building until the fall of Communism, when, amid the usual chaotic processes of rushed privatisation, it came into private ownership. Six years ago, Da Lino opened its doors, to the anguish of the Muslim population. And as if to add a very deliberate insult to the injury, the restaurant is decorated with frankly obscene frescoes, scenes, perhaps, from Boccaccio. Nude women ride donkeys across the mosque ceiling; drunken priapic men seem on the point of vomiting on the diners; a wild, Bacchanalian riot is in progress. Above the mihrab, a Roman god waves his trident. To the left, where the wa’z chair and a shelf for Qur’ans would have been, stand a glass case of Parma ham and a cabinet of wine.

Christians in Plovdiv seem not to be bothered by Da Lino’s. But the extremity of the provocation has not gone unnoticed internationally. On a recent visit to Bulgaria, the Turkish prime minister Tayyib Erdogan seemed to refer to it when he listed the historic Bulgarian churches in Turkey, such as St George’s in Edirne, which his government has paid to be restored. It would be a splendid gesture of mutuality, he added, were Bulgaria to consider supporting the return to Muslim worship of some well-known historic mosques. His comments were met with suspicion by the Bulgarian press, and as yet, the government and municipalities still seem to continue with ancient Islamophobic policies. Perhaps they fear opening the floodgates? If Da Lino’s reopens as a mosque, then what about the neighbouring Shukur Mosque, also a licensed restaurant? What about the buildings constructed on the sites of the Kadi Seyfullah Mosque, the Yesiloglu Mosque, the Anber Kadi Mosque, the Karagoz Pasha Madrasa? Fully aware that most of its cities were once primarily Muslim, the Bulgarian government is perhaps reluctant to set a precedent.

So one pays one’s bill at Da Lino’s, and thanks the perfectly amiable couple who run it, and sets off in search of something less depressing. It is best not to pause by the site of the Mevlevihane, the lodge of the Whirling Dervishes, built originally by Muslim refugees from Hungary at the end of the seventeenth century, and lovingly restored in 1849. It has vanished without trace, together with its tombs and its library. The street where, in the nineteenth century, some of Plovdiv’s forty Turkish newspapers and magazines were published, offers a no less desolate and anonymous prospect. Rather different is the old district near the Hisar Kapi, which turns out, in fact, to be an excellently-preserved ensemble of Ottoman houses. To stroll these narrow streets, strongly reminiscent of the Albaicin district in old Granada, is to be reminded of the comfort and prosperity which Bulgarian Christians could achieve under the sultans. Plovdiv Christians controlled a trading web that included merchant outposts in far-off Dhaka and Jakarta. Once the threat of an anti-Orthodox Crusade by the Pope was removed by Turkish rule, Orthodoxy flourished here; with new churches and monasteries outclassing in size and beauty those present before the Ottoman period. As the art historian Machiel Kiel comments: ‘If we remember the tragic fate of some of the most brilliant Islamic civilisations of medieval Europe, such as those of Spain and Sicily, wilfully destroyed by an aggressive Christianity, the existence of Christian art in Muslim controlled South-East Europe is incomprehensible.’ Yet he records the flourishing of Christian culture under Ottoman rule, made possible by the tolerance of the ulema. ‘In the Ottoman Empire,’ he concludes,’ it was the high Muslim ‘clergy’ that stopped overzealous rulers. In Spain it was the exact opposite.’

There are several substantial Ottoman churches in the Hisar Kapi district, and yet the gem of the neighbourhood is neither a church nor a mosque, but a house. This was built in 1848 for a Muslim family, the Kurumjioglus, and is truly splendid: dignified and aristocratic, yet charming in the vernacular Ottoman way. Typically, the official guides call it ‘A Fine Example of the Bulgarian Baroque Architecture’, despite its quintessentially Ottoman quality. It now houses the Ethnographic Museum, which, despite the demographic preponderance of rich Muslim cultures in the region, manages entirely to ignore the existence of non-Christian communities.

The house of the unfortunate Kurumjioglus thus provides yet another reason to be annoyed, and one is not sorry to walk outside, and head down towards the city centre. Here it is worth pausing at the site of the bedestan, the old covered bazaar pointlessly destroyed by the Bulgarians, to talk to Demir, owner of one of the city’s only two Halal cafes. Demir is a splendid man, a true believer and a lover of the city, who is a mine of information about the current situation of Muslims in the region. There are sixty thousand Turks here, plus thirty thousand Tziganes (Muslim gypsies), forming around ten percent of Plovdiv’s population. Discrimination is rife, it seems, but Demir is fond of reminding everyone of how much worse everything was under Zhivkov, when Ramadan was a closely-guarded family secret, and prayers could only be held in private homes.

A few paces beyond Demir’s shop, one beholds the great wonder of Plovdiv, the Hüdavendigar Mosque. Despite its forlorn surroundings, this is without question one of the most important of all early Ottoman buildings. Completed in the early fifteenth century, it has long since been stripped of its annexes, including its madrasa, cemetery, and wudu fountain (shadirvan). The outside walls are used as a urinal by Bulgarian drunks, and generally the exterior of the mosque is nothing much to look at. Within, however, it is a different story.

The mosque is approached by a steep flight of stairs, something not uncommon in this city of hills. Reaching the top, one sees an indoor fountain, recalling the marvellous marble cascade which tinkles away inside the Great Mosque of Bursa, some of whose architects may, in fact, have worked here. It is said that when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent passed through the city, he ensured secrecy during discussions with his generals by sitting beside the fountain, whose sound would make eavesdropping impossible. The mosque has three great domes leading towards the mihrab, and apses provided by four immense central pilasters. As with the Bursa mosque, the walls are rich with calligraphy. Much of this is by the master-calligrapher Ulu Arif Mehmed Efendi, and dates from the restoration by Sultan Abdulhamit I in 1785. Following an earthquake, a further renovation in 1819 allowed the builders to add extravagant Baroque flourishes to the underside of the domes. Here and there may be seen fine calligraphy by the great Sayyid Naqshbandi Mustafa Çelebi of Edirne, mostly in the thuluth style. On the qibla wall, there is the famous prayer, ‘O Allah, Changer of Years and Conditions: Change our Condition to the Best of Conditions!’ A close inspection reveals that the strokes of the brush are in fact made up of tiny Qur’anic verses written in Jali Divani script. Another monumental piece to the right of the mihrab, in ta’liq script, is by the local calligrapher Ali Haydar, completed in the early nineteenth century.

In this mosque, great preachers once held forth to immense crowds. Here, for instance, Molla Khayali, the leading commentator on Khidr Bey’s Qasida Nuniyya would teach theology. Qadi Abdullah Efendi, the great Hanafi faqih taught here, when in the bitter winter weather great charcoal braziers would be carried in for the benefit of those students who could not afford to wear fur. It is said that Ibn Kemal, greatest of Ottoman theologians, repented here of his former military career and decided to dedicate himself to scholarship, a decision that would one day make him Shaykh al-Islam of the entire Ottoman world. Mehmet Izzati, the preacher who could make even slave-dealers cry, taught from the eastern preaching-platform of the mosque. So did Kör Hasan, the city’s much-loved qadi, who founded a madrasa in Istanbul before he died, blind but content, in 1580. The Plovdiv poets Rawnaq and Jefa’i declaimed their verse in the mosque, before going on to make names for themselves in the capital. The hadith scholar and Sufi Nureddin Muslihuddin (d.1573), the greatest student of Bali Efendi of Sofya, travelled from here to the Zeyrek Mosque in Istanbul, where he was greatly revered by Shaykh al-Islam Ebu-s-Suud. Late one night, he made his way to Topkapi Palace, where he insisted on waking the sultan. Suleiman the Magnificent duly appeared, and asked what had brought him. Nureddin told him that he had just seen the Blessed Prophet in a dream, who told him that the Sultan could not expect his intercession if he abandoned the Jihad. The Sultan wept, and took his army to Hungary to counter the Hapsburg threat. There he died, to be reckoned as a martyr.

The last great imam of the mosque, Filibeli Hajji Hafiz Tevfiq Efendi (d.1929), who led the prayers here for fifty years, emigrated to the still-Ottoman city of Mudurnu, where thousands repented at his hands; the mountain where he is buried bears the name Sheykhulimran Hill in his honour. The politician, playwright and theologian Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi worshipped here as a child. Ali Suavi, the turbulent defender of Islamic law, recruited students here in the mid-nineteenth century.

Sadly, the days when the Hüdavendigar was one of the great mosques of Islam are long gone. Today, only a thousand people attend Friday prayers here, despite the building’s immensity. There are two imams, one of whom, Nurettin, in his early twenties, has a superb voice, having trained in the maqam systems in Istanbul. He is working hard to bring life to this holy place, but he points out that not everyone is happy praying in a building where huge cracks are spreading over the ceiling. Some of these are several inches wide, and local engineers have been shaking their heads. Despite the end of the Communist inquisition, the future of this magnificent structure is not assured.

Nurettin is a native of Filibe, and intensely proud of his city. He recalls the desire of the Muslim minority to live in peace and respect with its Christian neighbours, despite all the difficulties which have damaged relationships in recent years. He is delighted that in the year 2002 permission was granted to open a madrasa again in the city. Located in the suburb of Ustina, this now has forty students, some of whom have formed a singing group which is famous throughout Muslim Bulgaria. Slowly, as he points out, the country is emerging from the Communist nightmare. An Islamic university staffed by Turkish scholars has opened in Sofia. Bulgarian ulema such as Ahmad Davudoglu, who was forced to work as a slave labourer under the Communists, are establishing cultural foundations that serve the Muslim communities. Scholars who have converted to Islam, most notably Professor Tsvetan Theophanov in Sofia, are helping the traditional ulema to reach out to the new generation. An older suspiciousness towards the Bulgarian language is now giving way to an acceptance of the idea that young Muslims can and should speak Bulgarian, and an increasing amount of material is being translated. Most effective has been the Sira book of Shaykh Osman Nuri Topbas, a work which has already had a very positive impact in Bulgarian, as it has in English and several other languages.

The Muslim community has one further asset, which is also a hazard. Bulgaria is experiencing a demographic crisis. Due to a negative birthrate, the national population halves every generation. Because of the poverty of the Muslim community, and its reluctance to send women to work, although only twelve percent of the population is Muslim, over sixty percent of babies are born to Muslim families. Both Muslim and non-Muslim communities recognise, now that Bulgaria is part of the European Union, that this reality will have to be accommodated through cast-iron constitutional guarantees, and a relationship based on mutual respect.

Sadly, many in Bulgarian society are frightened by the growing Muslim presence, reflecting insecurities over the identity of a Christian country created when most of its population was Muslim. A far-right party is increasingly popular. Last year, a Muslim cemetery was vandalised; only the tip of the iceberg, according to human rights activists. The Bulgarian Church, although weak on the ground, still harbours strongly anti-Muslim sentiments, and has sponsored the construction of churches in Muslim villages, even where these churches are locked and never used. It has even sponsored the construction of the world’s largest statue of the Virgin Mary, which stands on a hill overlooking Haskovo, the country’s main Muslim-majority town. The sites of destroyed mosques are often marked by large crucifixes, recalling the ‘blood shrines’ built by Croat radicals on former Muslim sites in Herzegovina.

A Serbian-style alliance of churchmen, ex-Communists and nationalists is, in the eyes of some Muslim observers, not impossible. Bulgaria’s peaceful Muslim minority points out that while monasteries and churches survived six centuries of Ottoman rule, and Christians lived as an often wealthy elite under the sultans, life has been less kind to Muslims in cities like Plovdiv following the carving-out of a Bulgarian national state from a former ethnic mosaic in 1878. Whether traditional Bulgarian Christian nationalism, or some more tolerant ideology, wins the day, is a matter which is likely to determine Plovdiv’s fate as either a flourishing centre of European Islam, or as the scene for yet another outbreak of Islamophobic violence and inquisition.

http://www.masud.co.uk / Bulgaria Today