Violence continues to rage in Middle-East
From Fazle Rashid | Sunday, 20 March 2011
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Mar 19: Rajib Karim, a British citizen of Bangladesh origin, who was employed by the British Airways as a computer specialist was convicted to serve a 30-year jail term for plotting with the US-born cleric Anwar to blow up a US bound aircraft. Meanwhile, violence continued to rage against corrupt and autocrats in the Middle-East. Army and government gangsters killed more 45 pro-democracy protesters in Yemen. The bloodshed failed to quiten the protesters. President Ali Abdullah Saleh has declared a state of emergency. Syria which has so long been free from agitation saw people gathering in thousands to demand reforms. Thousands of Shiite in Iraq after Jumma prayers on Friday demonstrated condemning military actions against Shias in Bahrain. Hundreds of Shiites in Saudi Arabia also held peaceful protest in support of Shias in Bahrain. King Abdullah announced a plan of $93 billion to beef up his security forces. The United Nations Human Rights Council warned that torture against political opponents by governments will no longer be tolerated. Human rights violation will not go unpunished, it said. In a separate development in the USA, International Business Machine, more famous by its acronym IBM, agreed yesterday to pay $10 million to settle claims that it gave gifts and cash to Chinese and South Korean officials in lieu of lucrative government governments contracts of $54 million. IBM neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. This would only show that corruption, scams and grafts are not peculiar to third world countries alone. They have spread their wings everywhere.
NEW YORK, Mar 19: Rajib Karim, a British citizen of Bangladesh origin, who was employed by the British Airways as a computer specialist was convicted to serve a 30-year jail term for plotting with the US-born cleric Anwar to blow up a US bound aircraft. Meanwhile, violence continued to rage against corrupt and autocrats in the Middle-East. Army and government gangsters killed more 45 pro-democracy protesters in Yemen. The bloodshed failed to quiten the protesters. President Ali Abdullah Saleh has declared a state of emergency. Syria which has so long been free from agitation saw people gathering in thousands to demand reforms. Thousands of Shiite in Iraq after Jumma prayers on Friday demonstrated condemning military actions against Shias in Bahrain. Hundreds of Shiites in Saudi Arabia also held peaceful protest in support of Shias in Bahrain. King Abdullah announced a plan of $93 billion to beef up his security forces. The United Nations Human Rights Council warned that torture against political opponents by governments will no longer be tolerated. Human rights violation will not go unpunished, it said. In a separate development in the USA, International Business Machine, more famous by its acronym IBM, agreed yesterday to pay $10 million to settle claims that it gave gifts and cash to Chinese and South Korean officials in lieu of lucrative government governments contracts of $54 million. IBM neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. This would only show that corruption, scams and grafts are not peculiar to third world countries alone. They have spread their wings everywhere.