Egyptian street to carry Sherbini's name

Thu, 16 Jul 2009

Egyptian officials have announced plans to name a street after Marwa el-Sherbini, the woman who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom two weeks ago.

"[We have] agreed to give the name of martyr Marwa el-Sherbini" to a street, the governor of her hometown, Alexandria, said during a public mourning ceremony on Wednesday, according to a MENA report.

“The international community should realize that fanaticism has become a public issue that is not restricted to a certain place,” said Adil Labib, governor of the northern Mediterranean city.

“What happened to Marwa can be repeated not only against Muslims, but also against Jews and Christians, as long as fanaticism exists,” he added.

The 31 year-old Sherbini died in a courtroom in the eastern German city of Dresden after being stabbed at least 18 times by a German man of Russian decent in front of her three-year-old son and her husband.

The assailant, identified only as Alex W., attacked Marwa as she was about to give evidence against him in an appeal case held to decide whether he should face heavier fines for calling her a 'terrorist' because of the way she dressed.

At the time of the attack, Sherbini was three months pregnant with her second child. Her husband Elwi Ali Okaz was also injured, suffering stab wounds from Alex W. and gunshots from the police who had mistaken him for the attacker.

The Egyptian officials' decision comes as authorities in Dresden are also mulling the idea of naming a street after Sherbini as a tribute to her.

"We are thinking of naming one of the city's streets after her, but the last time we wanted to do that, it took 16 years,” Dresden's immigration officer, Marita Schieferdecker-Adolph said on Tuesday.

Sherbini's death has created outrage in across the world, with Muslims in various countries giving her the title 'veil martyr' in demonstrations held to condemn the hate crime.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/100823.html.

CIA report: Israel will fall in 20 years

Fri, 13 Mar 2009

A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years.

The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."

The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years.

"There is over 500,000 Israelis with American passports and more than 300,000 living in the area of just California," International lawyer Franklin Lamb said in an interview with Press TV on Friday, adding that those who do not have American or western passport, have already applied for them.

"So I think the handwriting at least among the public in Israel is on the wall...[which] suggests history will reject the colonial enterprise sooner or later," Lamb stressed.

He said CIA, in its report, alludes to the unexpectedly quick fall of the apartheid government in South Africa and recalls the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, suggesting the end to the dream of an 'Israeli land' would happen 'way sooner' than later.

The study further predicts the return of over one and a half million Israelis to Russia and other parts of Europe, and denotes a decline in Israeli births whereas a rise in the Palestinian population.

Lamb said given the Israeli conduct toward the Palestinians and the Gaza strip in particular, the American public -- which has been voicing its protest against Tel Aviv's measures in the last 25 years -- may 'not take it anymore'.

Some members of the US Senate Intelligence Committee have been informed of the report.

Senate confirms ex-astronaut Bolden to head NASA

By CHRISTINE SIMMONS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed on Wednesday retired astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as administrator of NASA, just in time for the space agency's 40th anniversary celebrations of man's first steps on the moon.

His confirmation also came just hours after the launch of space shuttle Endeavour, which began a 16-day mission to the international space station.

The Senate confirmed Bolden to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration without objection. Bolden, who has flown in space four times and was an assistant deputy administrator at one point, will be the agency's first black administrator.

Former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver was also confirmed as the agency's No. 2.

The confirmation allows Bolden to be sworn in by July 20, 1969, 40 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Bolden told senators last week that if the U.S. chooses to lead in technology, it must commit to, among other measures, inspiring the rising generation of children to contribute in the fields of science and engineering as well as enhancing NASA's ability and expertise in understanding Earth's environment.

"Either we can invest in building upon our hard earned world technological leadership or we can abandon this commitment, ceding it to others who are working vigilantly to push the frontiers of space," he said during a confirmation hearing on July 8.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., another ex-astronaut, said Bolden will "bring back the magic from a time when we rode rockets to the moon."

Bolden would inherit a NASA that doesn't look much like the still-somewhat-fresh-from-the-moon agency he joined as an astronaut in 1980. NASA now "is faced with a lot of uncertainty," former Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey has said.

President George W. Bush set in motion a plan to retire the space shuttle fleet at the end of next year and return astronauts to the moon and then head out to Mars in a series of rockets and capsules that borrows heavily from the 1960s Apollo program. The shuttle's replacement won't be ready until at least 2015, so for five years the only way Americans will be able to get in space is by hitching a ride on a Russian space capsule. And some of NASA's biggest science programs are over budget.

Bolden, a native of Columbia, S.C., will be only the second astronaut to run NASA in its 50-year history. Vice Adm. Richard Truly was the first.

In 2002, Bush unsuccessfully tried to appoint Bolden as the space agency's deputy administrator. The Pentagon said it needed to keep Bolden, who was a Marine major general at the time and a pilot who flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam.

Bolden was the pilot of the shuttle flight that launched the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit in 1990.