The 'teddy bear named Muhammad' story gets more unbearable by the day.
Thankfully, the stand-off in Sudan--on whether it's proper to lash a school teacher 40 times or imprison her or both--is over. Kevin Sullivan, in the Washington Post, relays this uplifting news from a place that could use all the uplifting news it can get.Gillian Gibbons was pardoned by the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, who shortened her sentence from 15 days to two weeks and there will be no lashes. Her crime: allowing a toy bear in her classroom to be given the name Muhammad.
The entire episode sparked conversations and comments worldwide. Among the comments were the following.
"This case has done quite a bit of damage to how the Sudanese government will be perceived; they have done their country no favors."
--Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, the county's largest Muslim organization. He called Gibbon's release "wonderful news."
Gibbons was part of a western plot against Islam.
--A leading group of Muslim clerics in Sudan
"...delighted and relieved"
--U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown
"This is a case which is unfortunate, unintentional, innocent misunderstanding,"
--Nazir Ahmed, Muslim member of Britain's House of Lords
"I have been in Sudan for only four months, but I have enjoyed myself immensely."
--Gillian Gibbons, British schoolteacher
"There's no pic-a-nic baskets in Sudan, Boo Boo."
--Yogi Bear (through a spokesman)
Okay, the last one hasn't yet been verified.
Any hopeful comments from victims in the Darfur region of the country went unrecorded; but then, it's hard to organize one's thoughts while being gang-raped.
As Sullivan points out:Western governments accuse Khartoum of backing violent militia groups that have killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than 2 million from their homes in one of the worst humanitarian crises in African history.
Britain wasn't the only source of outrage over the affair.
Members of B.A.I.R. (Bruins Against Islamist References) protested Gibbons' light sentence.“This is an insult to ALL bears everywhere” said T.D. Bear, spokesbruin for the group, adding, “We’re a species of peace and to associate us with this nonsense is very offensive."
This last statement, once again, has not been verified.
"Bad enough that we're given human names, but this is an OUTRAGE and we demand satisfaction! Those guys just want to beat her to pieces; we feel she should be eaten."
"And, we'll clean up the mess".
Yogi Bear stated "It could be a regular pic-a nic, eh, Boo Boo?"
President Omar was most likely relieved to be done with the mess; after killing and maiming for years in a Mainstream Media vacuum, all of this unwanted attention over a school teacher had to have caught him by surprise.
BAIR's members may want to check out Darfur: they might find the militia thugs, who've preyed largely on unarmed civilians, to be good eating.
A group member, only identified as Pooh, growled approvingly.
"I hear they taste like chicken".
by Mondoreb
[image:RideAPaleHorse; preventgenocide]
notes: RAPH
Sources:
Washington Post - "Sudan's President Pardons British Teacher"
B.A.I.R. - Press release & interview
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Life is hard.
So is life behind bars, apparently. At least for one of the suspects in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
He's not happy with the conditions in the jail he's housed in.Joran van der Sloot, a suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, is complaining about his treatment in jail.
The re-arrest of the suspects was the latest twist in the case. The order of events: the disappearance of Holloway, an island-wide search, questioning the suspects, arrest, release, long wait, re-arrest.
"He's making a request to lift restrictions to allow family visits and access to newspapers, magazines, TV, even a Bible," prosecutor spokesman John Pauley told CNN on Tuesday.
Van der Sloot, jailed on a rural part of the island, is allowed to meet only with his lawyers and police investigators.
He and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe are being held on suspicion of manslaughter in the presumed death of Holloway, who disappeared on the island in May 2005.The three men maintain they are innocent and say they have no idea what happened to Holloway. She was last seen leaving a bar with them.
New evidence prompted prosecutors to act.
None of the three has been charged. A judge ruled they can be detained while a new team of Dutch and Aruban investigators decides whether to bring them to trial.
Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos has said he hopes to decide by the end of the year whether to bring the men to trial. This week, van der Sloot's Aruban lawyer will ask the court to allow the college student's American lawyer, Joe Tacopina, to visit his client during a planned trip next week to Aruba.
"It's just so ridiculous, these restrictions, " Tacopina said.
"These are tactics reminiscent of Nazi Germany," he added. "How could reading a book or the Bible possibly affect their investigation?"Tacopina said he doubts prosecutors have new evidence, as they have asserted, and called the rearrest of his client an act of desperation.
"I think they're trying to isolate them to get them to break and then say, 'Oh, they made some admissions,' " the lawyer said.
Last week, authorities picked up van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers based on undisclosed new evidence.
Van der Sloot was flown from the Netherlands, where he has been attending a university, to Aruba.
On Monday, a judge ordered that he be jailed until December 7 to give investigators more time to gather evidence and conduct interrogations.
The Kalpoe brothers are being held in separate jails until at least Thursday. Authorities will probably ask a judge to detain them another eight days, but must prove to the court they have enough evidence to justify their further detention.
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Also Monday, the Kalpoe brothers' attorneys said that they have seen the so-called new evidence and that the videotaped 2005 interrogations and wiretaps contained nothing new. Attorney David Kock, who represents Satish Kalpoe, accused the prosecutors of harassing his client.
"They either want to do a last desperation attempt to solve this case or they want to buy some new time, because they see that the deadline is right in front of their door.
The family of Natalee Holloway awaits the disclosure of the evidence kept under wraps.
The suspects await their fate.
Source: CNN - " Holloway case suspect complains about jail treatment"
by Mondoreb
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
