829-ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? | View Thread

OKKAN, Myanmar (AP) — They slept terrified in the fields, watching their homes burn through the night. And when they returned on Wednesday, nothing was left but smoldering ash and debris.

One day after hundreds of Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a clutch of Muslim villages in the closest explosion of sectarian violence yet to Myanmar's main city, Yangon, newly displaced Muslims combed through the wasteland of their wrecked lives. Unable to go home, they faced an uncertain future — too fearful of more attacks even to leave.

"We ran into the fields and didn't carry anything with us," Hla Myint, a 47-year-old father of eight, said after the mobs overran his village.

Tears welling in his eyes, he added, "Now, we have nothing left."

Thet Lwin, a deputy commissioner of police for the region, put the casualty toll from Tuesday's assaults at one dead and nine injured. He said police have detained 18 attackers who destroyed 157 homes and shops and at least two mosques in the town of Okkan, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Yangon, and three outlying villages.

The unrest was the first reported since late March, when similar Buddhist-led violence swept the town of Meikthila, further north in central Myanmar, killing at least 43 people. It underscored the failure of reformist President Thein Sein's government to curb increasing attacks on minority Muslims in a nation struggling to emerge from half a century of oppressive military rule.

Muslim residents said a mixture of local villagers and people from nearby areas were responsible for the attacks around Okkan. Police gave no details on who was behind the assaults. But a local politician from the pro-government National Union party, Myint Thein, said members of a Buddhist campaign called "969" were involved.

The movement, which urges Buddhists to shop only at Buddhist stores and avoid marrying, hiring or selling their homes or land to Muslims, is small but has spread rapidly in recent months, and human rights activists say it has helped fuel anti-Muslim violence.

Stickers and signs bearing the 969 emblem — each digit enumerates virtues of the Lord Buddha, his teachings and the community of monks — have been popping up on shops, taxis, and buses in numerous towns and cities, including Yangon.

Hla Myint said that after the March violence, residents of Okkan began conducting informal security patrols to protect the village. But nothing happened for weeks and authorities told them not to worry.

"Things happened unexpectedly," he told The Associated Press. "When the crowds came, they shouted things like 'Don't defend yourselves, we will only destroy the mosque, not your homes, we won't harm you.'"

They burned his village's mosque, whose corrugated iron roof lay crumpled on the ground between the building's charred walls, and "they destroyed our houses" anyway, he said.

Around 300 police stood guard Wednesday in the area, which was quiet. Debris from trashed shops in Okkan spilled into dirt roadsides. The town's market was crowded, but Muslims were absent.

It was not immediately clear what would happen to the newly displaced in Okkan. Some were taking refuge in the few houses that were not razed; others simply sat in the open, under the shade of trees.

Several Muslims said they didn't feel safe, but would not leave because they feared more attacks elsewhere. They wondered how they would survive and get food.

Hla Aung, a 39-year-old Muslim who lost his home in the violence, said police did nothing to protect him — echoing reports of idle security forces in Meikhtila and elsewhere. "They didn't help us. They did not do anything. That's why it's really difficult to trust them."

Aung Myint, 46, who lives in a predominantly Buddhist area nearby that was undamaged, said several men from his village were beaten after they tried to convince the attackers to stop. "We didn't dare to help them because we were worried for our own security," he said.

Stopping the spread of sectarian violence has proven a major challenge for Thein Sein's government since it erupted in western Rakhine state last year. Human rights groups have recently accused his administration of failing to crack down on Buddhist extremists as violence has spread closer to Yangon, at times overwhelming riot police who have stood by as machete-wielding crowds attacked Muslims and their property.

Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused authorities in Rakhine state — including Buddhist monks, local politicians and government officials, and state security forces — of fomenting an organized campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against a Muslim minority known as the Rohingya. Hundreds of people were killed there, and some 125,000 people, mostly Muslims, remain displaced with large swathes of the state effectively segregated along sectarian lines.

On Monday, a government-appointed commission investigating the Rakhine violence issued proposals to ease tensions there — including doubling the number of security forces in the volatile region and introducing family planning programs to stem population growth among minority Muslims.

Muslims account for about 4 percent of the nation's roughly 60 million people. About one third of the nation's population consists of ethnic minority groups, and most have waged wars against the government for autonomy.

___

Pitman reported from Bangkok. Associated Press video journalist Raul Gallego Abellan in Okkan contributed to this report.

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/2/2013 10:06:46 AM
	Myanmar Muslims face uncertain future after attack By YADANA HTUN and TODD PITMAN \| Associated Press – 19 hrs ago RELATED CONTENT Play Video Buddhist Mobs Set Fire to Myanmar Villages View Photo Muslims people remove debris from a damaged mosque following fresh anti-Muslim violence broke out in Okkan, 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of Yangon, Myanmar, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Hundreds of rampaging Buddhists armed with bricks on Tuesday, stormed a clutch of Muslim villages in the country's latest outbreak of anti-Muslim violence. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win) OKKAN, Myanmar (AP) — They slept terrified in the fields, watching their homes burn through the night. And when they returned on Wednesday, nothing was left but smoldering ash and debris. One day after hundreds of Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a clutch of Muslim villages in the closest explosion of sectarian violence yet to Myanmar's main city, Yangon, newly displaced Muslims combed through the wasteland of their wrecked lives. Unable to go home, they faced an uncertain future — too fearful of more attacks even to leave. "We ran into the fields and didn't carry anything with us," Hla Myint, a 47-year-old father of eight, said after the mobs overran his village. Tears welling in his eyes, he added, "Now, we have nothing left." Thet Lwin, a deputy commissioner of police for the region, put the casualty toll from Tuesday's assaults at one dead and nine injured. He said police have detained 18 attackers who destroyed 157 homes and shops and at least two mosques in the town of Okkan, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Yangon, and three outlying villages. The unrest was the first reported since late March, when similar Buddhist-led violence swept the town of Meikthila, further north in central Myanmar, killing at least 43 people. It underscored the failure of reformist President Thein Sein's government to curb increasing attacks on minority Muslims in a nation struggling to emerge from half a century of oppressive military rule. Muslim residents said a mixture of local villagers and people from nearby areas were responsible for the attacks around Okkan. Police gave no details on who was behind the assaults. But a local politician from the pro-government National Union party, Myint Thein, said members of a Buddhist campaign called "969" were involved. The movement, which urges Buddhists to shop only at Buddhist stores and avoid marrying, hiring or selling their homes or land to Muslims, is small but has spread rapidly in recent months, and human rights activists say it has helped fuel anti-Muslim violence. Stickers and signs bearing the 969 emblem — each digit enumerates virtues of the Lord Buddha, his teachings and the community of monks — have been popping up on shops, taxis, and buses in numerous towns and cities, including Yangon. Hla Myint said that after the March violence, residents of Okkan began conducting informal security patrols to protect the village. But nothing happened for weeks and authorities told them not to worry. "Things happened unexpectedly," he told The Associated Press. "When the crowds came, they shouted things like 'Don't defend yourselves, we will only destroy the mosque, not your homes, we won't harm you.'" They burned his village's mosque, whose corrugated iron roof lay crumpled on the ground between the building's charred walls, and "they destroyed our houses" anyway, he said. Around 300 police stood guard Wednesday in the area, which was quiet. Debris from trashed shops in Okkan spilled into dirt roadsides. The town's market was crowded, but Muslims were absent. It was not immediately clear what would happen to the newly displaced in Okkan. Some were taking refuge in the few houses that were not razed; others simply sat in the open, under the shade of trees. Several Muslims said they didn't feel safe, but would not leave because they feared more attacks elsewhere. They wondered how they would survive and get food. Hla Aung, a 39-year-old Muslim who lost his home in the violence, said police did nothing to protect him — echoing reports of idle security forces in Meikhtila and elsewhere. "They didn't help us. They did not do anything. That's why it's really difficult to trust them." Aung Myint, 46, who lives in a predominantly Buddhist area nearby that was undamaged, said several men from his village were beaten after they tried to convince the attackers to stop. "We didn't dare to help them because we were worried for our own security," he said. Stopping the spread of sectarian violence has proven a major challenge for Thein Sein's government since it erupted in western Rakhine state last year. Human rights groups have recently accused his administration of failing to crack down on Buddhist extremists as violence has spread closer to Yangon, at times overwhelming riot police who have stood by as machete-wielding crowds attacked Muslims and their property. Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused authorities in Rakhine state — including Buddhist monks, local politicians and government officials, and state security forces — of fomenting an organized campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against a Muslim minority known as the Rohingya. Hundreds of people were killed there, and some 125,000 people, mostly Muslims, remain displaced with large swathes of the state effectively segregated along sectarian lines. On Monday, a government-appointed commission investigating the Rakhine violence issued proposals to ease tensions there — including doubling the number of security forces in the volatile region and introducing family planning programs to stem population growth among minority Muslims. Muslims account for about 4 percent of the nation's roughly 60 million people. About one third of the nation's population consists of ethnic minority groups, and most have waged wars against the government for autonomy. ___ Pitman reported from Bangkok. Associated Press video journalist Raul Gallego Abellan in Okkan contributed to this report.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/2/2013 10:13:34 AM
	Official: Arrested student entered US without visa By ALICIA A. CALDWELL \| Associated Press – 10 hrs ago Associated Press/Charles Krupa - A Department of Homeland Security police officer patrols with his dog outside the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, Mass., Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Three suspects were taken into custody in the Boston Marathon bombing case including two college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarneav, according to officials. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) WASHINGTON (AP) — One of three college students arrested Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombings case was allowed to return to the United States from Kazakhstan in January despite not having a valid student visa, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Authorities charged the student — a friend and classmate of one of the men accused of setting off the deadly explosions — with helping after the attacks to remove a laptop and backpack from the bombing suspect's dormitory room before the FBI searched it. The government acknowledged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was unaware that the student was no longer in school when he was let back into the United States. The disclosure was another instance of possible lapses by the federal government in the months before the Boston bombings. The Obama administration earlier this week announced an internal review of how U.S. intelligence agencies shared sensitive information and whether the government could have disrupted the attack. Republicans in Congress have promised oversight hearings starting next week. Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a bombing suspect, including Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend and classmate of Tsarnaev's at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Tazhayakov left the U.S. in December and returned Jan. 20. But in early January, his student-visa status was terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university, the official told the AP. The law enforcement official said information about Tazhayakov's status was in the Homeland Security Department's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, called SEVIS, when Tazhayakov arrived in New York in January. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss details of Tazhayakov's immigration history. DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said when Tazhayakov arrived on Jan. 20, Customs and Border Protection officials had not been notified that he was no longer a student. Boogaard said in an emailed statement that DHS had recently reformed the student visa system to ensure that CBP would have access to all relevant student visa information. Later, however, he clarified the statement to say that the reform was ongoing. "At the time of re-entry there was no derogatory information that suggested this individual posed a national security or public safety threat," he said. Tazhayakov and another student from Kazakhstan, Dias Kadyrbayev, were detained last month on immigration charges. They were arrested on federal criminal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Robel Phillipos, 19, was also arrested and charged with willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation. Questions about Tazhayakov's immigration status came up Wednesday during an immigration hearing in Boston when a judge questioned how he was able to return to the U.S. in January. A lawyer for Tazhayakov said he had re-enrolled in the university with a different major after returning to the country. International students who aren't enrolled or are dismissed from a college or university generally have 30 days to rectify their status and re-enroll as long as they are already in the United States. Lawmakers have questioned information sharing among U.S. law enforcement before the bombings. In 2011, Russian officials notified the FBI and CIA that they were concerned about now-deceased bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In early 2012 Homeland security was alerted of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's travel to and from Russia — information that was shared with Boston's joint terrorism task force. But the FBI investigation into him had closed and therefore he didn't warrant additional scrutiny, officials have said. ___ Associated Press writer Mark Pratt in Boston contributed to this report.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/2/2013 10:15:48 AM
	Ireland publishes bill on life-saving abortions Ireland publishes bill on life-saving abortions, seeks to close decades-old confusion in law By Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press \| Associated Press – 14 hrs ago Associated Press - FILE - This Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 file photo shows abortion rights protesters holding pictures of Savita Halappanavar as they march through central Dublin, demanding that Ireland's government ensures that abortions can be performed to save a woman's life. Ireland's government has published a long-awaited bill, Wednesday May 1, 2013, explaining the law on when life-saving abortions can be performed in a country that officially bans the practice. (AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik, File) DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland unveiled a long-awaited bill Wednesday that lays down new rules governing when life-saving abortions can be performed, a point of potentially lethal confusion for women in a country that outlaws terminations. Prime Minister Enda Kenny, speaking to reporters after his government published the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, said he hoped the coming weeks of debate would not turn bitter. But he warned Catholic conservatives within his own party to back the bill or be expelled. "I do hope that we can bring everybody with us, on an issue that I know is sensitive," said Kenny, who said his government was seeking only "a clarification of rights within existing law." Kenny said the bill would set a maximum 14-year prison sentence for anyone involved in an illegalabortion, whether doctor or patient. The current law, dating to 1861, sets the maximum penalty at life. Kenny's government took action following the death of a woman last year from blood poisoning after she was refused a termination because her dying fetus still had a heartbeat. The bill, if passed, would change nothing for the vast majority of an estimated 4,000 Irish women who travel annually for abortions in England, nor the growing number who order miscarriage-inducing drugs over the Internet. Anti-abortion activists, including many in Kenny's own Fine Gael party, protest that the proposed law could become a platform for eventual wider access to abortion in Ireland. Malta is the only other European Union country that bans it. Activists particularly oppose the bill's provisions for women who threaten to kill themselves if they are denied a termination. The bill specifies that three doctors — the woman's obstetrician and two psychologists — must determine that the suicide risk is substantial. If denied, the woman would have a right of appeal to a panel of three other doctors. Most other life-saving abortion cases would require certification by two doctors, or just one in emergencies requiring an immediate decision. The bill, published after weeks of government infighting on its terms, faces lengthy debate and likely amendments. Kenny wants it passed by July. During parliamentary debate, left-wing opposition lawmakers who want broader access to abortionaccused Kenny of hypocrisy. "What you've presented is the absolute minimum," lawmaker Clare Daly told Kenny. "The clear intention is to make it so restrictive that most women will not even bother. Instead they'll continue to make the journey to Britain so that you can continue to pretend that there's no Irish abortion." Countering government claims that Ireland had one of the world's lowest rates of maternal death, Daly said more pregnant women would have died from complications or killed themselves if not forIreland's "proximity to Britain." Ireland's abortion law has been muddled since 1992, when the Supreme Court ruled that abortions should be legal when doctors deem it necessary to save the woman's life. The judges defined a credible suicide threat as one reasonable ground. That ruling was made in the case of a 14-year-old girl who had been raped by a family friend, a crime that her parents reported to police. The government ordered the girl not to travel to England for an abortion, and she threatened to kill herself if forced to give birth. The Supreme Court ruled that she should receive an abortion in Ireland, given her suicide threats. The girl then miscarried. While the ruling had the power of law, a series of governments refused to enact supporting legislation, fearful of a voter backlash in a country that is more than 80 percent Catholic. Obstetricians long have complained they need clearly defined abortion regulations to avoid lawsuits or even criminal murder charges. "We're pleased to see legislators doing the job they're paid to do. After 21 years," said Peter Boylan, a prominent obstetrician who ran a Dublin maternity hospital. Boylan said dozens of life-saving abortions had been performed annually in Irish hospitals, but only involving the most clear-cut emergencies. Too often, he said, doctors advised patients to go to England. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that women's lives were being unnecessarily endangered by a system that forced seriously ill women to travel while pregnant. The government took action after a 31-year-old woman, Savita Halappanavar, died in an Irish hospital in October. Halappanavar, who was 17 weeks pregnant, died from blood poisoning one week after being admitted at the start of a miscarriage. As her condition worsened, doctors rejected pleas to abort the fetus because its heart was still beating. Subsequent investigations determined that by the time the fetus died, it was too late to save the woman. Some of Ireland's approximately 350 psychiatrists have formed rival lobbying groups. Those opposed argue that abortion is never an acceptable treatment for someone contemplating suicide. Anthony McCarthy, one of only three psychologists in Ireland who specializes in counseling pregnant women, welcomed the bill — but forecast its provisions would affect only "a tiny number" of patients. Over the past 16 years, McCarthy said he'd helped women suffering from self-destructive delusions or hallucinations, who may have stabbed themselves in the stomach or taken drug overdoses in attempts to kill themselves, their fetuses or both. However, he believed that only one of those patients was really serious about suicide. "The vast majority do not want termination of their pregnancy. They want help with their depression and suicidal thinking," McCarthy said.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/2/2013 10:17:56 AM
	Syria's Assad in rare visit as rockets hit capital By JAMAL HALABY \| Associated Press – 15 hrs ago Associated Press/SANA - In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, President Bashar Assad, center, visits the Umayyad Electrical Station on May Day, a day after a powerful bomb hit the capital. in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA) AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad made a rare public appearance at a Damascus power station on Wednesday, while two bombs exploded near the city center, killing one and wounding over two dozen people, Syria's state news agency reported. Footage of the visit broadcast on state television showed Assad chatting casually with a group of employees, two days after his prime minister narrowly escaped assassination by an explosion and a day after another major bombing in the capital took the lives of at least 14. SANA said a 10-year-old boy was killed and 28 people wounded, some seriously, in Wednesday's attack, when bombs went off inKhaled Bin Walid street and the nearby Bab Mesalla square. It said the bombs were planted by "terrorists," a term the government uses to describe rebels fighting to topple the Syrian leader. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said theBab Mesalla explosion was near a police station and came from rocket fire. It said the blast left casualties but did not have figures on dead or wounded. It also said that several people, including children, were wounded in the explosion in Khaled Bin Walid street. Police had sealed off Bab Mesalla, which has restaurants, shops and a main public transportation station linking Damascus with the southern provinces of Daraa and Sweida, the Observatory added. In the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, two people were killed when a bomb attached to a bicycle went off, SANA said. On Monday, a bomb exploded as Prime Minister Wael Halqi's convoy drove by in the same neighborhood. Assad's visit to the Umayyad Electrical Station in the Tishrin Park district came on International Workers Day, or May Day. State TV showed the Syrian leader, confident and wearing a dark business suit, addressing the station's staff and later shaking their hands. Similar still images also appeared on a page used by the Syrian presidency on the popular social network Facebook. "They want to scare us, we will not be scared ... They want us to live underground, we will not live underground," Assad told a group of workers who had gathered around him. "We hope that by this time next year we will have overcome the crisis in our country," he said. Tuesday's blast was the second in the heart of the capital in two days. Rebels seeking to topple Assad have been trying to create a supply line from Jordan, so that arms bought by Saudi Arabia and Qatar can be shipped in for assaults on the city they hope to capture. Meanwhile, the Egypt-based Syrian National Coalition rebuked the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, in its first public response a day after he said that Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat Assad's regime militarily. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah had warned that Syria's "real friends," including his Iranian-backed militant group, could intervene on the government's side if the need arises. The coalition said it hoped Hezbollah would stay out of the Syrian war, and urged Lebanon to "control its borders and urgently stop, through all available means, the military operations attributed to Hezbollah in areas close to the Syrian border." It also blamed Assad's regime for "destroying" religious Muslim and Christian sites. Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite Muslim group, is known to be backing Syrian government forces in Shiite villages near the Lebanese border against the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Assad. But Nasrallah's comments were the strongest indication yet that his group is ready to intervene more substantially on the side of Assad's embattled regime. "You will not be able to take Damascus by force and you will not be able to topple the regime militarily. This is a long battle," Nasrallah said, addressing the Syrian opposition. "Syria has real friends in the region and in the world who will not allow Syria to fall in the hands of America or Israel or the Takfiris." Takfiris is a term used to refer to followers of an al-Qaida-like extremist ideology. Hezbollah and Iran are close allies of Assad. Rebels have accused both of them of sending fighters to assist Syrian troops trying to crush the 2-year-old anti-Assad uprising, which the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people. ____ Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Ireland publishes bill on life-saving abortions

Ireland publishes bill on life-saving abortions, seeks to close decades-old confusion in law

Syria's Assad in rare visit as rockets hit capital

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