[color=blue][b]Back from the brink in Bangladesh[/b]

President Iajuddin Ahmed did not smile once as he was sworn in as the head of Bangladesh's temporary government.

Previously only titular head of state, a huge responsibility was falling onto his shoulders.

He must run the country for up to three months in the lead-up to an election, and hold the ring between warring political parties.

"Pray for me," he told reporters.

Mr Ahmed had spent the day before he took the oath trying to find someone else for the job - his critics say he should have tried harder.

He held meetings with the leaders of Bangladesh's four main parties, searching for a consensus over who should be chief adviser to the caretaker government. In moments of high drama it was announced from the president's palace that there had been no agreement, but a swearing-in ceremony would take place anyway.

It was not until minutes before the broadcast began on state-run television that it became clear that Iajuddin Ahmed had nominated himself.

He was sworn in by the bewigged chief justice in front of an audience of diplomats, former ministers and generals.

The Awami League, which was the biggest party in opposition, stayed away.

[b]Violent clashes[/b]

The post of chief adviser to the caretaker government had fallen vacant amid bloodshed in the streets.

The elected prime minister, Khaleda Zia, should have handed over to KM Hasan, the last chief justice to retire, after her mandate expired on Friday. Bangladesh's constitution establishes a supposedly neutral caretaker government that runs the country for up to 90 days before an election so that an outgoing ruling party cannot rig the polls.

But the opposition Awami League and its allies objected to Mr Hasan, saying he could not be in charge because he was too close to Khaleda Zia's party.

As the prime minister's final hours in power ticked away, the streets burst into violence. Huge crowds of supporters of rival political parties fought each other and the police.

There were gunshots and small explosions. People were killed and hundreds more injured.

After 24 hours Mr Hasan announced he would not take the job, for the good of the country.

[b]'Back from the brink'[/b]

Now that Mr Ahmed is in charge he faces many challenges, for which he has little experience.

Before he was chosen to be president, he had spent his life in academia. He was a professor of soil science at Dhaka University and made a special study of the effect of salinity on Bangladesh's low-lying paddy fields.

Although he is not a member of any party, he was known at the university to be a supporter of Khaleda Zia's BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party).

The Awami League has neither accepted nor rejected his rule, but says he must now prove he is neutral.

The party's leader, Sheikh Hasina, has handed him a list of demands.

They include replacing the chief election commissioner and his deputies - the Awami League says they are also biased towards the BNP - and updating the voter list with photographs.

For now Bangladesh seems to have stepped back from the brink.

Had the Awami League rejected outright Mr Ahmed's assumption of power, many in the country feared the only option he would have had left would have been to declare an emergency and call the army onto the streets to maintain order.

But the threat of more upheaval remains.

The Awami League has given Mr Ahmed until Friday to comply with their demands or full scale protests will resume.[/color]

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6102304.stm]BBC News[/url]
[color=magenta]
wht the hell is goin on in bdesh?so many people have been killed, families have been torn apart because they support opposite parties, madness and sadness[/color]

Shakira has swept a lot of Grammys.

Ripolli Shakira Mubarak is our Columbian born Lebanese muslim singer.

She is certainly pretty.

[url=http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/en/110306latingrammy/im:/061103/4...
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6112628.stm]BBC[/url]
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/en/110306latingrammy/im:/061103/i...
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/en/110306latingrammy/im:/061103/4...

ahhh Shakira

She's Greek Orthodox, her father's name is William Chadad or something to that effect, a lot of Lebanese Christians went to South America during the civil war.

She is muslim. She just doesn't tell her religion to people.

She's Greek Orthodox, so is her father.

[b][color=indigo]Does it really matter..?[/color][/b]

She is not Greek. She is a geek.

Cant you tell be her cheek bones.

[b][color=indigo]Omrow shut up.[/color][/b]

I was only talking about a sister.

[b][color=violet]omrow just stay quiet![/color][/b]

It seems that I am up against the whole cutlery department.

[b][color=indigo]Dont u ever get tired of being weird?[/color][/b]

Noor is from Sheffield.

Isn't that city famous for making knives?

I think I better behave near the light.

[color=magenta]Omrow bro leave it out[/color]

"Noor...*" wrote:

[b][color=indigo]Does it really matter..?[/color][/b]

of COURSE!!! its Shakira!!! shes like 10000000000000 bazillion degrees hot!!

Shakira is on our team. I'm very happy about that

"Omrow" wrote:

Noor is from Sheffield.

Isn't that city famous for making knives?

I think I better behave near the light.

[b][color=violet]oh you do that![/color][/b]

"Odysseus" wrote:

Shakira is on our team. I'm very happy about that

She is not on anyone yet.

Please, get in line.

:roll:

"Exquisite" wrote:

[color=magenta]Omrow bro leave it out[/color]

[b][color=violet]sis he cant its just in his nature to be wierd![/color][/b]

[size=18][color=blue][b]Tory Iraq vote 'absolutely crazy'[/b][/color][/size]

[color=indigo]Tory leader David Cameron's decision to vote for an immediate inquiry into the Iraq war was "absolutely crazy", a former party defence spokesman says.

Quentin Davies, who abstained from Tuesday's vote, said Tory credibility would be damaged if people thought the party had done a U-turn on the war.

Tory MPs were told at the last minute to back an unsuccessful SNP and Plaid Cymru motion for an immediate inquiry.

The Conservatives had been calling for an inquiry in about a year's time.

The SNP and Plaid motion called for a committee of seven senior MPs to review "the way in which the responsibilities of government were discharged in relation to Iraq".

The motion, which was backed by 12 Labour MPs, was defeated by 25 votes in the Commons.
[b]
'Incredulous'[/b]

Mr Davies was not the only Conservative to abstain, but he is the first to speak out publicly against Mr Cameron's decision.

He told BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster: "I was quite incredulous when I heard we were going to vote for that [SNP/Plaid] resolution." He said he could not understand why anyone, especially his party, would vote for it.

"I didn't vote for it but most of the party did. [That] left me really quite amazed and I'm very sorry about that as a matter of fact."

He said it would be unprecedented to hold an inquiry during a military campaign.

To have an open inquiry would be "signalling to the enemy all your plans and all your weaknesses", he said.

"That can't make any sense at all, and I think that soldiers serving out there in these very difficult conditions would have been just as amazed as I was."

He said the party should be careful to base its actions on "analysis of national interest" and not to give the "slightest sliver of suspicion" that it was playing "party politics with these serious issues".

[b]'Morally indefensible'[/b]

He added the credibility of the party as an alternative government would be seriously damaged if it gave the impression of "cynically" shifting with the prevailing party political wind.

Another senior Conservative who was absent from the crucial vote - but who declined to be named - described Mr Cameron's decision as "intellectually and morally indefensible".

The MP suggested a number of Tory MPs were deliberately absent.

The Tories supported the SNP/Plaid motion after the government said it would not support their own call for an inquiry within the next year.

The Conservatives favour an investigation similar to the Franks inquiry carried out after the Falklands war, involving former generals and civil servants rather than just MPs.

They said it should take place in about a year, by when ministers have said Iraqi security forces should be taking over responsibilities from UK troops.

There are suggestions of tensions within the shadow cabinet over the decision to back SNP/Plaid - with claims it was shadow foreign secretary William Hague who pushed for the new line. [/color]

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6114378.stm]BBC News[/url]

Quote:

[b]Fine over ban on guide dog[/b]

Disability campaigners welcomed a fine for a taxi driver who refused to carry a woman’s guide dog because he was a Muslim.

Abdul Rasheed Majekodunmi, 43, was fined £200 and ordered to pay just over £1,200 in costs by a court for refusing to take Jane Vernon in his cab.

Ms Vernon, a legal officer for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), was booked to be taken home by Majekod-unmi after an appearance on BBC News 24 in London in October last year.

But when he arrived she was refused entry because of her six-year-old black Labrador-retriever cross Innis, an offence under the Disability Discrimination Act. Ms Vernon said: "I was tired and cold and just wanted to get home.

"The driver made me feel like I was a second-class citizen, like I didn’t count at all."

The refusal angered the BBC which apologised to Mrs Vernon and reported the matter, leading to a prosecution by the licensing authority.

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said: "It is true that many Muslims do regard dogs as being unclean for religious reasons. However, guide dogs are quite a different matter because they are performing an essential role to help blind people."

[url=http://www.themuslimweekly.com/fullstoryview.aspx?NewsID=96DA083DB65E75E...

[b][color=indigo]I think thats going a lil OTT. There making a mountain outoff nothing.[/color][/b]

Muslims wife, Sanam Hafeez, and husband, Faisal Khan,
hit the dance floor straight after the their cleric is is out of the door.

New trend to modernise the "boring" muslim marriage:

She has the groom in her arms.

The couple dance after their Muslim ceremony.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/weddings/12vows.html?_r=1&oref...

see also:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/weddings/12radosh.html

so does grandpa omro frown upon legitimate husband and wives dancing at their own weddings?

are the youth nowadays far too liberal for their own good?

was is much more simpler in the olden days? :twisted:

Quote:

[b][size=18]World's fastest text messager[/size] [/b]

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singaporean student broke the Guinness World Record for the shortest time needed to type a 160-character SMS message on Sunday after whizzing through the task in less than 42 seconds in a competition.

Sixteen-year-old Ang Chuang Yang typed the SMS (short message service) message in 41.52 seconds, beating the previous record of 42.22 seconds set by American Ben Cook in July, according to Singapore Telecommunications, organizers of the competition.

"I'll try for 39 seconds next year," said Ang, adding that the trick to speedy text messaging was to use a mobile phone with larger keys on the dial pad.

SMS messaging competitions around the world use the same SMS text provided by the Guinness organization -- "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061112/tc_nm/singapore_sms_dc]Yahoo News[/url]

"MuslimSisLilSis" wrote:

so does grandpa omro frown upon legitimate husband and wives dancing at their own weddings?

If he does I'll have to agree with him.

Maybe once they got home and didn't have a hundred eyes watching them - then it would be OK.

[b][color=indigo]But it's their wedding, surely they can do what they like..[/color][/b]

OK.

And after being pronounced man and wife they can have a snog.

It's [i]their[/i] wedding...

[color=indigo][b]lol

Why not? It is THEIR wedding!!! They can do what they like when they like! If people have a problem with that, then tuff! They shouldnt come to the wedding...! [/b][/color]