Speech Obama to the British Parliament, has praised the strength, humility

London - in a historic speech to the British Parliament today, the Obama President has insisted that then that a new world order has been shaped, the United States, Britain and their allies will continue to play an essential role to bring peace and prosperity in the world.

Both of € a million is still denied their basic human rights issue of who they are, what they think, or the type of Government that they live as we are the nations more willing to defend the values of tolerance and self-determination that lead to peace and dignitya €

Large-scale speech, which has also focused on the economy, nuclear proliferation and the importance of education, received a standing ovation from Parliament and was commended for its topics human State and tones.

IMAGES: Obama visits Britain

"He has recognized the strength of the past but insists on the need to transform the values confirmed by Anglo-American relations, their origins in universal values," said James Ellison, school of history at Queen Mary, University of London. "It was a speech of interdependence and multilateralism." Obama s gone a long way today to extend the history of America beyond Bush.

"I can't think of an American President to make a such sensitive speeches in Europe for some time", he added, noting that it struck the right balance between the force and humility.

The speech was the first time that an American President had addressed the Parliament in the historical framework of Westminster Hall, who played a central role in the Government of the nation for 900 years. Only three other foreign dignitaries have been granted this honour since World War II: Charles de Gaulle, Nelson Mandela and Pope Benedict XVI.

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Obama rejected the idea that the emergence of new superpowers made the alliance not less relevant. While China, India, Brazil and other nations assume the responsibilities of global leadership, ties with the United States and Europe remain a € ?indispensable € to the objective of a century that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more just, a

But he promised in the future, a more subtle approach to Foreign Affairs referring to the position of the United States has already taken on the Libya. "We will proceed with humility, and knowledge that we do not dictate results abroad." Ultimately, freedom must be won by the people themselves, not imposed from without. But us can and must stand with those who struggle as well. ?

At a press conference held jointly with Prime Minister David Cameron earlier in the day, Obama talks about winning the war in Libya as a "slow continuous process."

He returned to the theme of the North Africa and the Middle East in his address to Parliament, stressing that the United States and Britain supported those struggling for democracy, but implying that support did not mean military intervention.

"We must show that we back up our words deeds," he said. "This means investing in the future of these nations this transition to democracy, starting with the Tunisia and the Egypt - expanding trade links; by helping demonstrate them that freedom brings prosperity. ?

He said that, while many of the problems of the past decade have been retreating, the future would present major challenges. If while a large part of the speech reaffirmed the close relationship between Britain and the United States, the President also acknowledged that "a new chapter in the shared history" would require a building "new partnerships", to adapt to new circumstances and remake ourselves to meet the requirements of a new era

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British codename of the Obama: it is an insult?

Before the arrival of President Obama in London, The Daily Mail published an article under the title "Codename"smart alec": the British police label Obama with the word"slightly insulting"Punjabi"for visit to U.K."Scotland Yard, explains its computers randomly selected a code for Obama name""chalaque" for his visit to the country. But the newspaper quoted a leader of the Sikh community stating that the name is often used to "denigrate" someone. Yahoo News then picked up the story, featuring on its homepage under the title: "Obama Code named smart alec in Britain."

As someone who grew up hearing chalak used to describe a person who is a notch below evil, I laugh. The West may try to assert cultural prowess on the economic front, on its military and diplomatic, but codename of the Obama is yet another example of intercultural communication in lost in translation.

I checked with the best person that I could find on the shades of the regularity of South Asian culture: my mother, Sajida Nomani, a native speaker of Urdu schooling in the highly maniérée culture, called adab in Arabic, Lucknow (India)., a kind of Charleston, s.c., in South Asia. She is a grandmother with a sophisticated ear. Chalak, as it is usually written phonetically, is not just a Punjabi Word, but also found in Urdu, Hindi and Bengali. Verbally, Hindi and Urdu are very similar, and the Punjabi and Bengali are related to Hindi and Urdu.

No doubt about it, she said. "It is an insult." Practice my mother dusted off the coast of our edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English-Urdu, published in Lahore, Pakistan, by the society of book Oriental Ganpat road and turned to page 156 [PDF], where she read the definition of chalak. It read: "adj. clever;" knowing; clever. Sly. "My father, Zafar Nomani, me then faxed a copy of the dictionary pages, including the 156.

Believe me, when they mean "clever" and "knowledge", which is not as a compliment. The word is a pejorative term for those aged more than about 7. For a young person, this may mean clever, as, "what a ruse boy." Think that somewhere between Eddie Haskell of Leave It to Beaver and the Uriah Heep in Dickens David Copperfield character. Or Tom Sawyer TWAIN Huckleberry Finn.

But for a grown man, above all, it is a curb. Think about Arnold Schwarzenegger, to keep his wife, Maria Shriver, the secret of a baby born to his cleaning lady: a true chalak. Or Bernie Madoff, for foundations and million seniors scam: a precise chalak. Osama bin Laden to hide in the city of military garrison of Abbottabad Pakistan kilometres of national capital? Definitely, 100% chalak, although most of its supporters would step insult even Ben Laden by calling a chalak. On the contrary, they would say Seal were real chalak to keep operation Geronimo a Pakistani secret. During this time, if he knew the word, comedian Jon Stewart would say that Pakistan has been a real chalak to pretend he did not know bin Laden was in Abbottabad.

As you can see, chalak is in the eye of the accuser, er, beholder. But Chief Chalak is not a compliment.

If someone tries to con someone, we will say, Oh, "he has really tried a chalak." Or if someone tries to get out of trouble, other say, Oh, "he is a true chalak." Or if an ethnic group wants to put an end to another ethnic group, they say, "Oh, they are real chalak." On Yahoo, a Bengali speaker explains that chalak is used to refer to a scammer: "we would say 'buddhiman' for a knowledgeable person and"chalak"for anyone trying to outsmart the other (s).".

For a few references of real pop culture on chalak, you must go no further than Bugs Bunny. Blogger Muhammad Ahmed displayed a Bugs Bunny cartoon, dubbed in Punjabi and has called, Chalak Khargosh, chalak rabbit, for the poor, or poorly understood little Bugs.

A company based in Houston, the Group Chalak, with executives rooted ethnically in Asia to the South, the question properly on its Web site, "" why Chalak? "" I know no more than an amateur "aunt", as older women are called in South Asia, clucked their tongues to the use of the word in a company name.

"The word CHALAK is Hindi…, said the Web site." She talks about a meaning, which means "overflow", if the word is pronounced "chu - luk." "The other meaning is"wise or intelligent"If pronounced chaa-laak," that it claims."." But, on the explanation of its site Web, society cannot hide the real meaning of chalak: "Chalak group is a dynamic enterprise organization led by several young and energetic entrepreneurs." Those guys WISE started their business in 1998 with an overflow of energy and enthusiasm. "A caption on a photograph of the five directors of readings of the society,"the chalak Group wise guys"and a picture of the founder has his tongue paste, just somewhat indelicately. Nice guy wise move, leaving his chalak flag fly.

Now Scotland Yard could borrow a page from the Chalak group and claim that this meant no insult is thinking but Obama as "wise or smart". It would be classic chalak.

ASRA q. Nomani is the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman struggle for the soul of Islam. She is co-director of the project Pearl, an investigation into the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. His activism for the rights of women in its W.V. Mosque is a PBS documentary, the mosque in Morgantown. She has recently published a monograph, milestones for a spiritual Jihad: towards an Islam of Grace. ASRA@asranomani.com

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Middle class in Latin America develops, but with a tenuous grasp status

Bogota (Colombia) and the city of Mexico - with a regular salary as a beauty salon Manager, Edgar Ladino supports her two children, rent a compact car and is able to make rent payments on time.

"It is not my dream job, but it's OK," he said with a shrug of the shoulders, sipping a latte at a shopping mall in Bogotá.

Mr. Ladino cannot love his work, but it landed him a place in the nascent bourgeoisie of Latin America. Millions throughout the region are finally in place new companies, buy houses and cars and helping to stabilize more democracies. In the region of the world more unequal, their ascent has dominated policy, academic documents and articles in press documents.

Fifty-six million households have joined the middle class American in the last decade and a half, according to the new analysis by the Economic Commission of the United Nations for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which studies the 10 countries of the region that represents 80% of the population. The growth reflects the trends in the rest of the world, the group said, with 1.3 billion people who today ranks average.

But behind the good news is a troubling reality. While the new members of the middle class in Latin America could be better than their parents, often taken benefits acquired by their Western counterparts remain far from understanding. Many are barely holding their new status, with precarious employment and access to a quality education for their children. In most cases, they are more likely to fall into poverty again that the rise in wealth.

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Situation of ladino, for example, is far from stable. As of the millions of Colombians, it has only a one year contract. It expires at the end of May. It belongs entirely to his employer whether to renew the contract or not. "What kills me is the uncertainty," he said. If his boss decides not to sign him once more, not some Ladino from which will come from the next payment of the car.

"This is not a European or us middle class", explains Christopher Sabatini, editor-in-Chief of the journal political quarterly Americas in New York, which is published by the Council of the Americas. "I think we are at risk of overstating the stability and the type of middle class has increased." … "It is very, very fragile."

Several factors are increasing economic status, including increased access to education and credit and macroeconomic policies that have kept inflation in check.

Throughout the region, GDP increased by an average of 2.6% between 2000 and 2008, according to the World Bank. Many countries have reduced poverty by paying families who keep their children at school. Demographic data were a boon, as the population of people of working age is superior to these not - giving families a supplementary income.

Growth of the informal economy

But are more considered poor, many in the region are that they survive on the margins, without a basis in place to ensure their. One of the reasons is the growth of the informal economy.

According in the Latin American Economic Outlook 2011 of the OECD, which focused on the heterogeneity of the middle class, more than half of the "middle sector" workers 72 million in Bolivia, the Brazil, the Chile and the Mexico - those whose income of the household by capital between 50 and 150% of the national median - operate informallywhich means that they have no safety net in the case of illness, retirement or job loss. The coverage of the schemes of social protection in Latin America remains well below 50 percent of the workers, said the group.

Colombia, according to official figures from the Government, only half of the active population works in the formal sector, with access to benefits, credit consumption and subsequently a pension. Economist Alejandro Gaviria according to rigid labor laws contribute to the situation. The cost for employers of benefits compulsory nonsalary, such as severance pay, health insurance and pension payments, has led many companies to find ways to circumvent the costs.

"They paralyse the creation of jobs and lead to a trap of informality," explains Mr. Gaviria, Dean of Economics at the University de Los Andes in Bogota.

IN pictures: the Rising Global Middle class

Despite a rate of healthy economic growth of 4.3% last year - it should increase by 5% in 2011 - the size of the middle class of Colombia remained stagnant, according to the study of ECLAC. In fact it remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, behind Haiti, according to the human development report 2010 UN.

New status less benefits

While States have managed to reduce poverty, they have failed to create significant, bringing together social programs such as unemployment or social security to protect those that at the bottom of the class averagesaid Mr. Sabatini. Mexico has experienced more robust growth of its sector average, households in the middle class that double to 14 million dollars in the last over decade and a half, according to ECLAC.

But the numbers often painted a rosier picture of reality, explains Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, the Deputy Director for the Mexico Office for the ECLAC and author of "' development and growth of the Mexican economy: A Historical Perspective." "

"The middle class in this country, unlike us, has no unemployment benefits, and our retirement system is extremely poor," said. "Many are in a very vulnerable position."

Javier Malagón takes into account that it is on the lower end of what is considered to be middle class is Colombia, but he is proud to be distinguished from poor.

"I'm not hungry," he said. He and his brother jointly have a food basket where they sell hot dogs, hamburgers, chorizo and arepas, a Colombian cornmeal patty. They borrowed $1000 he cost of informal lenders, three years ago and are still making payments. "Banks would never even look at us," he said. When it is not manning the stand, m. Malagón tries to find shifts to the restaurants and grills.

But with its current configuration, Malagón can think about upcoming sentence. "At any time, the police can come and carry further the cart and where we will be then?" he asked. "It is very unstable."

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Seizure of the Sudan border key city reignites concerns of the civil war

The news of Juba, southern Sudan - end Saturday evening, frequency of percolation from the Sudan more challenged and militarized hotspot of North-South border: Northern Sudanese army had invaded the town of Abyei, with tanks.

The move, followed by two days of aerial bombardment and a statement by the President Omar el-Bashir that its Government has been dissolving the local Government of Abyei, raises fresh questions that Sudan could descend into civil war before Southern secession officially on July 9.

Oil-rich South, the seizure of the strategic town leaders, was both a declaration of war by the Government of the North and an attempt to well planned to supplant the Ngok Dinka people loyal to the South to maintain permanently take AbyeiAfter the South declared independence.

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"[By the Government of the North forced] current occupation is illegal," said Information Minister Barnaba Marian Benjamin of South Sudan. "It is the responsibility of the [UN] Security Council to see that they are withdrawn."

Mounting clashes

The massif escalation of violence between the two armed forces of the Sudan in the historically volatile region came to mind as a delegation of the United Nations Security Council arrived in the capital of the North for a four-day visit.Tensions began to boost Thursday when a grenade Rocket Tower hit a vehicle one which was escorting a convoy of troops from the North. Saturday, a hard response from the North was well already launched in Abyei.

Saturday, spokesman of the army of the South Col. Philip Aguer said that at least 5,000 soldiers from the North and allied militias proxy had infested Abyei from multiple directions, causing the troops from the South to scatter before the city fell to the army of the North.

Concerns of the civil war

Security analysts are now warning that the violence may spread rapidly.

"After weeks of commitment critical national actors and international to prevent escalation, the situation in Abyei has indeed boiled, and the immediate priority is to contain the situation to do not ignite wider conflict, said EJ Hogendoorn"Horn of Africa for the International Crisis Group Project Director based in Brussels.

Sudan 101: Could the North-South war trigger again?

Ambassador Princeton Lyman, Special Envoy of President Obama in Sudan, warned in an interview telephone Sunday that the failure of the Sudanese Army North to stop his offensive in Abyei, which he calls a "disproportionate" by the North to the fighting that flared Thursdaywill cause setbacks in the process of normalization of relations with the U.S. Government.

But a Western diplomat who spoke the condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism of the ability of international representatives to influence the Government of the North following the arrest of the army of Abyei. "We can issue statements, but where leverage? "the diplomat returned in question."

Control of Abyei: a key friction point

The fertile territory, producers of oil to the North and the South say that it has proved to be the main point of friction between the two parties since they signed the 2005 peace agreement that put an end to decades of war. International arbitration, several treaties placed and constant pressure of actors ranging from groups of local civil society to start Hollywood George Clooney did not move north and South on their positions hardened on the future of the Abyei area. Southern Sunday leaders appealed to the international community, including the delegation visit to Security Council United Nations, to put pressure on the army of the North to withdraw in Abyei, but leaders of Northern appeared refuses to move - perhaps emboldened by a military victory clear and the increasingly obvious that fact other clashes between the armies of the North and South in Abyei would probably another decisive victory for the army of the North immediately.

Comments the Obama AIPAC can conceal a mutual distrust, say Israeli analysts

Tel - Aviv - Obama President and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday sought to caveats a new crisis after the two clashed in public in the White House two days earlier in the appeal of Mr. Obama for a border between Israel and a Palestinian State based on the 1967 boundary line the West Bank.

Addressing a Conference of the Committee of public affairs of American in powerful (AIPAC) Sunday Israel, Obama seemed blunt statement address Mr. Netanyahu Friday that the use of the line of 1967 as future border is "untenable" highlighting that the sides would need to draw a new border that would include the swaps of land to allow Israel to incorporate some Jewish settlements State. Shortly after the speech of Obama, Netanyahu issued a statement expressing "satisfaction" for the remarks.

But few believe Sundaya€ ? s comments can cover until Israeli analysts see as the same lack of confidence and coordination between the two administrations who was arriving for two years. This crisis will be displayed in the coming days when Netanyahu addresses AIPAC Monday and then gave a speech to Congress on Tuesday.

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"There are a lot of suspicion on both sides, and this is a problem," said Shmuel Rosner, columnist for the Israeli daily Maariv. ".Obama suspect that the Netanyahu Government does not want to advance the solution of two States and that it is to drag his felt because it does not support the peace process in General. And I think that the Netanyahu Government suspects that this administration may... try to force a solution which will be not acceptable to Israelis. ?

Mr. Rosner, says the Prime Minister was rejected because he was on short notice last week the Obama plans to refer to the 1967 borders as a starting point for renewed peace talks.

Although Sunday, Obama noted that the sides had already discussed this principle in recent negotiations Netanyahu considers the endorsement, U.S. as change game development. However, Rosner, response of the premier conferences Obama on camera Friday has been "disproportionate" Israeli and bordered on "hysterical", explains.

The analysis of words - and body language

Israeli newspapers were brimming with Deconstructions of meeting of the two leaders Friday, suggesting that body language during remarks on camera was evidence of mutual disdain and frustration.

Title page of coverage in the Yediot Ahronot speaks of "mutual mistrust", while the daily blessings Israel cited a help Prime Minister who said "President Obama does not understand reality". "

Ben Caspit, wrote in the Maariv daily, said "we have declared war to America."

Members of the Government of right-wing Netanyahu, meanwhile, were quick to back up, some to speculate that Netanyahu believes that a majority of Israelis would support him on his refusal to negotiate based on the 1967 line.

History of Rocky

Last year, a conflict between the allies on the construction of Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem triggered a crisis and a meeting chilly in the White House between the leaders. And during the first months of Obamaa€ ? s tenure, the sides sparred in public by his opposition to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

He appeared - after last year's administration dropped pursuing a limit on the expansion of the Israeli settlement - Obama and Netanyahu had improved their links. But the outbreak of the regional turmoil in the Arab world has exposed once again different visions of the world, with the American President, calling for a renewed effort to revive the moribund peace as more essential than ever talks and Israeli Prime Ministerthe call for caution.

"The crisis is very serious." "It is not something, you can put the lipstick," said Meir Javedanfar, Middle East Tel Aviv-based analyst. "It seems Obama is of join the rest of the international community in the belief that the current Government does not create trust and go forward with the process of peace". ".

Inspired by the Arabs in the spring, Spain young movement of 15 M is spreading in Europe (The Christian Science Monitor)

Madrid - tens of thousands of disenchanted unemployed young Spaniards have refused to leave the tent cities that they raised in the week in places across the country, defying a formal ban on gatherings before this Sunday's municipal election of.

Some call the movement of young people a "Spanish Revolution" - spread via Twitter and Facebook - reminiscent of the French student movement of 1968 that catalyzed by a social and moral reform unprecedented in Europe and around the world. Some commentators say that Arab spring arrived in Spain. Critics call it at the same time, an excuse for a large party.

Regardless, the so-called movement of 15 M, a reference to the day demonstrators occupy Plaza del Sol in Madrid, called for a political and economic reform in Spain and spread to 166 Spanish cities and other parts of Europe. Supported by similar plaza were organized through social networks online for Friday in at least 10 Italian cities.

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I am here against the system, against all, banks, the Government, the people's Party, unemployment. You name. Nothing works, "says Sabina Ortega, a student of journalism." "This is against a two-party system." And my goal is to feel represented. I want politicians to know that they don't listen, "said." "I will stay here as long I have to."

Unemployed young people

More than 21%, the Spain has the rate of unemployment higher in Europe and is also suffering from the worst economic crisis in decades, exacerbated by a series of drastic austerity measures.

One of the two persons of the age of work less than 25 years is without a job in Spain. They are nicknamed "the lost generation". Young Spaniards are fleeing to other European capitals to find work. However, experts say that this movement is not only work, but about feeling alienated and denatured.

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"It is an expression of discontent and this is understandable." The Spain had a change of generation 35 years with the transition to democracy, but it did not any mobility since, said José álvarez Junco, a respected writer, historian, Professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and an expert in social movements. "They face on a wall in their professional and personal expectations."

Sunday's election

The leaders of the people's Party, who see the election Sunday as leading to the eviction of the ruling party in the general election of 2012 have criticized the movement, while the Government and the Socialist Party tried to capitalize on resentment - even if apparently without success.

There is a certain arrogance by the leaders of the country. They forgot what happened 35 years ago when we, because I am one of them, came to positions of power at a very young age. "We must recognize that, but I doubt that this will happen because they reject them as a group of young, of rowdy", explains Mr. Junco.

But logically, the popular party will benefit from this. "More people decide to ignore the election and who has the right".

Polls before even OPA plaza already provided the Socialist Party, suffering from a serious defeat in power, lose towns and provinces he controlled for decades in the opposition of right-leaning people's Party.

Reminiscent of France 1968

But the ability of the movement to achieve a concrete change is unlikely, at least not through supported by plaza. The manifestations are heterogeneous and lack of leadership and clear requirements, apart from a complete overhaul of the system policy.

"It is impossible for a movement without requirements for success", says slate. "It reminds me of May 1968 in France." It is a component of the show, but also a great moral expression, a revolution, shaking of moral conscience, which is however not any political achievement. ?

The protests began last weekend when police removed with force a dozen tents to main square Puerta del Sol. The inflamed Madrid, young populated square, swelling number every day, in what is today a tent city feeds donations - food and blankets to electricity producers - to keep the movement alive.

United in frustrations, divided into message

It has attracted people of all ages and social groups United only by their frustration with the leaders of what many believe is an elite deaf corrupted for requests for change of masses.

On the main square, there was an image of a Nazi officer with the swastika and replaced by a euro symbol. Slogans were numerous: "this is not a crisis." "Fraud,""Don't vote for them," "you are all enemies," "we are not anti-system, the system is anti - us,"and "We will pay not for this crisis".""

There are also posters written in English: "Stop the new world order" and "democracy is our struggle."

The crowd increased their hands, palms forward, chanting: "they we are not." It is our weapons. "Another hit on the pots. He was playing the guitar, drink, dance and anti-system denigrate epidemiologic.

Almost everyone has a different ground or reason to be there and a different purpose. Some want a revision of the electoral system, others a revolution all azimuth other reform of the financial system. Some intended to vote, others will vote non-, and most said that they will reappear in protest.

"I am tired to be governed by people who are not me," explains Denis, a student in political science who refused to give her name. "We are all sick and it is the only thing we have in common." We want our rights back. ?

The election Thursday Commission prohibited a walk of protesters planned for Saturday, saying political rallies are not allowed in the week before the elections. Organizers, however, say they have no political agenda, and in fact they are calling for vote not and criticize all parties dominant to the Spain.

Late last Friday, the Group voted in favour of the extension of their support by plaza, but to avoid clashes voted against a March.

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Travel of Skype tiny Estonian startup to Microsoft $ 8.5 billion purchase

Tallinn, Estonia - it is in a bleak Soviet complex on the outskirts of Tallinn, in Estonia, a quiet revolution of the high-rolling technology. In the research park where the USSR secretly assembled his first computer and designed its first space mission, a group of young Estonian computer enthusiasts launched Skype and marked the beginning of a communications revolution.

Eight years later, Microsoft is set to pay $ 8.5 billion for the Internet telephone company, which has about 400 million users around the world, in its largest acquisition in the history. Looking back on the rapid rise of Skype, Jann Tallinn, one of its founders, credits to a spirit of entrepreneurship that filled with Estonia days after the Soviet collapse, giving rise to a spirited community of computer developers who, in some caseshave contributed to write new laws on the technology of the country.

"Because we started again, we have new laws, new leaders and new technology," explains Mr. Tallinn in Skype interview at his home in Tallinn. "The big winners were the creation of enterprises."

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Of course, there was much uncertainty in the early days of the independence of the Estonia of the Russia. Nothing in the crime, there was a black market, but there were also unbridled creativity. "It was the wild, wild west," remembers Tallinn, which also contributed to the development of Grokster, online music site that began as a peer-to-peer file sharing application.

"If you start a new country in the 1990s, you have the advantage of the drafting of new laws in the knowledge that the Internet is there," explains Tallinn.

SOUND OFF: How often do you use Skype?

Skype put the Estonia on the map. In the country, his success began to influence other technology entrepreneurs. "" If you were an entrepreneur who wanted things crazy and people say, 'come, it is not possible' - well, you it could not say more, "said Tallinn."

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When eBay has paid about $ in 2005 for Skype 2.6 billion, about $ 150 million has remained in Estonia. Most visits investment Ambient Sound (ASI), an investment firm owned by the engineers of Skype, including Tallinn. ASI has provided approximately $ 25 million to finance 30 technology or business on the Web, many in Estonia.

Park former Soviet Cyber science where Skype has made its debut today houses Estonia hub creative IT Rebaptisé Tehnopol Research Park, it houses Business Tip like Modestat, which develops communications technology to make it possible to introduce broadband high speed ultra on the jets and the high speed train.

Estonia is not quite Silicon Valley. But many see here its small size and the spirit of innovation the greater incentive for thinking big.

The popular Mexico Calderón, despite massive protests on its drug strategy

Mexico City - more than half of the Mexico approves of Presidency of Felipe Calderón, according to a new survey of public opinion, despite the appearance otherwise nationwide over the weekend protests calling for him to put an end to its strategy led by the military in the war against drugs.

Today, a day after tens of thousands demonstrators marched in the capital for peace and a new strategy against crime, the firm survey Buendia & Laredo has published a study showing President Calderón approval rating at 54 per cent - a little less in 2010, but not much.

Critics led by the military strategy Calderón to fight against drug trafficking, which took some 36,000 lives since it was inaugurated in December 2006, saying that their complaints have fallen more and more on deaf ear.

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But when specifically asked if the work of Calderón to the fight against drug trafficking was good or very good, 50 per cent of respondents have said that it was more than 46 per cent in November 2010. Commissioned by the Mexican newspaper El Universal, the survey reveals that the continuous public support Calderón emphasis on security, even if they disagreed with the manner in which it is being implemented, says firm Director Jorge Buendia.

"[A] must differentiate between ends and means", says Mr. Buendia. "The means, the strategy, people are not happy or are unhappy with it." He has translated in addition to violence, but the objective, they are very favourable. ?

And that, according to him, gives Calderón of the room to continue advancing in the conviction of her struggle, most analysts say it is unlikely to back down so that it is in position. Indeed, a day before peace mass March set out of Cuernavaca Thursday - including the culmination in Mexico City Sunday - Calderón went on the air to reiterate the need not to change policy but to redouble its efforts. "There is no option to withdraw from this fight", said the President.

At the same time, Buendia adds, the survey does not mean that Calderón may dismiss the protest weekend peace, archive growing sections of critical opinion and editorials or condemnation of academics, politicians and activists.

Javier Sicilia: Mexico can ' place of ruin

The most recent display of anger came Sunday at the end of the March of peace led by Javier Sicilia, a poet whose son was killed allegedly in the hands of drug in March.

"a€ new we have travelled and arrived here in silence, it's because our pain is so great and so profound and the horror that causes it is so huge, that there is no words to describe it," he said in a speech. "We always believe that it is possible for countries to revive and increase of the ruin and show the agents of death that the sons and daughters of this country are standing up".

Authorities have said that the younger Sicilia was not involved in the trafficking. While the Government has long maintained that the extreme majority of tens of thousands of drug-related homicides are drug traffickers themselves, many innocent victims have been killed, abducted and tortured.

Mr. Sicilia also demanded the eviction of Secretary of the Mexican public security Genaro Garcia Luna, considered the architect of the strategy of Calderón of deployment of tens of thousands of military and federal police across the country since December 2006. While the Government claims many successes, including arrests or killings of at least 20 leaders of drug since 2009, many observers believe that the fragmentation of the groups has led in turn to more violence.

When Calderón took office, beheadings made front page. In an atmosphere of violence today, decapitations shock barely more. Instead, more grim news dominated headlines, including organizations from tombs in the North of the Mexico, many apparently innocent migrants en route to the United States.

Protests raise calls for debate

Public safety became major concerns of Mexicans, before the economy--a trend that has grown since November of last year, the new survey Buendia & Laredo.

Although no one expects Calderón to change its strategy - especially with public support in the United States, where he is visiting this week - many hope the March Sunday, will stimulate more discussion.

"Calderón options gave were simplistic: you press the strategy or you ask for the transfer of the State," analyst Jose Antonio Crespo wrote in El Universal, which learned opinions as to what it come after peace March. "."It is more complicated. I hope that after the March discussions, forums, ideas, and continue to steps more. ?

Ahmadinejad the Iran survives worst snowstorm in his presidency

 Istanbul, Turkey – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has survived one of the most turbulent political storms of his seven-year presidency, a stand-off with Iran's supreme religious leader that caused some to believe he would be impeached or forced to resign as early as this past weekend.

But Mr. Ahmadinejad arrived in Istanbul today for an international conference as planned, after accusing political enemies of dirty tricks and brushing off his weeks-long defiance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. At issue was a tussle over the key post of the Intelligence minister and the powerful role of Ahmadinejad's chief of staff and in-law, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.

The feud drew a rare public rebuke of Ahmadinejad from Khamenei, whose unqualified support of the president’s disputed reelection victory in June 2009 – Khamenei called it a “divine assessment” – ensured that Ahmadinejad stayed in the post and set the tone for a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

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The political turmoil is likely to extend far beyond the current spat to parliamentary elections next year and the presidential vote slated for 2013.

“Both Ahmadinejad and Khamenei have been damaged, because what has become evident [is] that Ahmadinehad was genuinely trying to encroach on the powers of the supreme leader,” says Mehrdad Khonsari, an Iranian analyst and critic of the government who is based in London. “Ahmadinejad couldn’t carry the day and that’s why he backed down.”

“The fate of these two men were bound together in the aftermath of the [2009] elections,” adds Mr. Khonsari. “So the fact that they are feuding is a highly damaging matter … because fighting is seen at the very top of the hierarchy.”

How the spat evolved

Ahmadinejad dismissed the Minister of Intelligence, Heydar Moslehi, in mid-April, apparently because he found out that the ministry and Revolutionary Guard intelligence had bugged the offices of chief of staff Mr. Mashaie, according to an account in The Los Angeles Times.

Moslehi's deputy, Hassan Abdollahian, had helped Mashaie discover that his office had been bugged and was subsequently fired, according to the Times. After Ahmadinejad sacked Moslehi, he picked Mr. Abdollahian for the top slot.

But within hours, Khamenei overturned the president’s decision. Ahmadinejad then refused to accept Khamenei’s ruling, and for 11 days boycotted official functions, from cabinet meetings to religious ceremonies. The spat turned into a full-blown political storm as the days went by, damaging the image of a unified leadership in the Islamic Republic as senior voices across Iran’s conservative spectrum – from grand ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guard commanders to parliamentarians – made clear their view that challenging Khamenei was akin to apostasy against God. Ahmadinejad was given a deadline by the supreme leader to accept the return of the Intelligence minister or resign, according to an videotaped account to followers by Morteza Agha-Tehrani, the hard-line “ethics” adviser of the cabinet, as described in the Guardian newspaper.

Before leaving for Istanbul on Monday, Ahmadinejad tried to reclaim the high ground, while restating his loyalty to Khamenei.

“Due to actions of two groups, I feel it is necessary to once again defend the supreme leader,” Ahmadinejad told Iranian state television. “One group is those who assume that the supreme leader is a tool for regulating political debates between parties for their advantage. And another group is the one that defends the supreme leader in a wrong manner.”

Even hard-line supporters criticize president

In fact, it is Ahmadinejad and his controversial chief of staff who have been widely accused of deviation from the tenets of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, and from accepted Shiite religious practice. Some of Ahmadinejad and Mashaei's close advisers have been arrested for “sorcery” in recent days.

Ahmadinejad this week repeated his statement that Khamenei’s relationship with him is like a father to a son. But even high-ranking hard-line voices in the regime, who have supported Ahmadinejad for years, have taken aim at the president this time.

“To obey and submit to the supreme leader is a religious duty that has nothing to do with politics,” said Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, who has often been cited as the president’s spiritual mentor. He added that the president’s “legitimacy is based upon the approval of the supreme leader and not the popular vote,” according to a translation by Agence France-Presse.

Khamenei’s representative to the Revolutionary Guard, Hojatoleslam Ali Saeedi, had a similar warning for the president. He told Ahmadinejad that “resisting the supreme leader’s orders is opposition to God and the Hidden Imam…”

Ahmadinejad last week reaffirmed his allegiance to the velayat-e faqih – the post of supreme leader which gives Khamenei final say in all state affairs – but he and Moslehi did not appear in the same room during a Wednesday cabinet meeting.

The immediate crisis was finally defused on Sunday, when Moslehi was shown by Iranian state media sitting in a cabinet meeting, several chairs away from the president.

“We saw that some celebrated. They said the rift has been created,” Ahmadinejad told the cabinet on Sunday, according to a translation of state-run TV by the Associated Press. IRNA news agency quoted him saying that despite “propaganda by enemies over my absence [from cabinet meetings], my entire life … has been geared toward velayat.”

Sorcery charges

The dispute over the top intelligence post is just one problem for Ahmadinejad, whose son is married to Mashaie’s daughter. Both men have not hidden their obsession with the 12th Imam – the Muslim messiah who Shiites believe will return one day to bring justice to the world – nor their view that this apocalyptic return is imminent.

But many in Iran, including many clerics, see a swift return of the messiah as superstition only – a view that played into the arrest of a handful of Ahmadinejad allies for "sorcery."

Among them was Abbas Amirifar, who heads the president’s cultural affairs office, and was picked up on May 1 for promoting a DVD called “The Appearance is Imminent” that describes the president, supreme leader and chief of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, as paving the way for the return of the 12th Imam.

Other arrests have also been reported among those close to Mashaie – whom Ahmadinejad is widely believed to be positioning to succeed him as Iran’s next president – for “sorcery” and summoning of spirits.

“Certain people within the regime have forgotten the values of the revolution and seek to misrepresent Islam … but the people do not follow demons or djinns, and will not tolerate such deviance,” warned Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Ali Jafari.

Mashaie has drawn fire from hard-liners for promoting an “Iranian school of Islam” that amounts to Islam without clerics – a taboo notion is this religious regime. He has in the past spoken about the Israelis – citizens of Iran’s archenemy – as “beautiful people.”

Ahmadinejad's gutsy politics

When Ahmadinejad named Mashaie first vice president in 2009, Khamenei overruled him. But to the surprise of many, the president took one week to act on Khamenei’s order – and then snubbed the supreme leader by appointing Mashaie to be his chief of staff.

The political gamesmanship has shown Ahmadinejad to be a gutsy politician, in keeping with his accumulation of power in a presidential post that – almost by definition in Iran – has limited influence.

But the latest episode also shows a lack of judgment that will embolden Ahmadinejad’s enemies.

“I think he overplayed his hand,” says Khonsari in London, though he says Ahmadinejad is far from a lame duck president. “He’s just received a setback at this stage [and] it has some political costs for him. But it's not something that will cripple him just yet.”

Can us and the Taliban cut agreement in Afghanistan? (The Christian Science Monitor)

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Kabul, Afghanistan; and Islamabad, Pakistan – Muhammad Hassan Haqyar once sat close to the heart of Afghan power, wielding influence as an administrator in the Ministry of Mines during the Taliban years. The government in those days was filled with illiterate bumpkins better versed in an uncompromising interpretation of Islam than the nuances of statecraft.

But Mr. Haqyar was different. A religious scholar, he was an expert on Islam and disagreed with certain Taliban dictates. He even wrote a book arguing that Islam promoted girls' education – though he cautiously published it under a pseudonym. When a Taliban superior found out about it, he summoned him for questioning.

"He told me to come talk and he said, 'We are not against women's education,' " recounts Haqyar. " 'We just don't have the resources.' "

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As implausible as it may sound, the assertion that the Taliban, then and now, aren't against women's education is being floated by a growing number of Taliban members and sympathizers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nor does the revisionist history stop at girls' schooling. Some Taliban members argue that they were misunderstood about Osama bin Laden, too. They would have handed him over to the United States – eventually.

It is all part of what appears to be a charm offensive by some elements of the Taliban a€“ a concerted effort to soften their image in what may be a precursor to a possible political breakthrough 10 years after the advent of war.

These changes were observed before the killing of Osama Bin Laden. But the US success in targeting the Al Qaeda leader last weekend is likely to force the Taliban as well as Pakistan’s military hard-liners to look even more closely at negotiation. The US, meanwhile, will need to decide if it’s worth more years of both military and diplomatic engagement to reach an Afghan settlement, or if now is the moment simply to declare victory and begin departing.

In interviews across Afghanistan and Pakistan over the preceding two months, members of the insurgency and their supporters have sounded strikingly similar notes, almost as if reading from the same sheet music. "The world ignored us and we had no resources ... no money for girls' education and even boys' education," says one Taliban commander from Wardak Province. "If we have resources and money, we'll start doing these things."

Perhaps most significant, when the Taliban reclaimed the Pech Valley in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan last month, the insurgent commander there, Haji Muhammad Dawran Safi, told the Afghan Islamic Press that they intended to keep all schools and health institutions open. He dismissed allegations that the Taliban have torched schools around the country, noting: "We do not want to deprive Afghan children of education."

So far, the schools of the region – boys' and girls' – remain open, says Khan Wali Salarzai, a reporter based in Kunar Province with Pajhwok Afghan News. "In some areas which are completely out of the government control, these schools are observed by the Taliban," who are even making sure teachers are not delinquent.

The more conciliatory rhetoric from the Taliban side – to the extent it really is conciliatory – comes at a time when the US has been signaling that it, too, might be more open to talking to the enemy, and a new vision for a postwar Afghan government is emerging. Top officials from the US, Pakistan, and Afghanistan reveal a common goal of resolving the underlying tensions that have torn Afghanistan apart for three decades – and at least the foundation of a shared -vision for peace.

Under one scenario outlined by officials in all three countries in recent months, power would be rebalanced among all ethnic groups and warring parties, not just President Hamid Karzai's government and the Taliban. This would be attempted through a central coalition government and decidedly not by carving up Afghan territory among various factions.

Behind the nascent political movement on both sides may be weariness over a war that has now dragged on for a decade – longer than any conflict in US history. Neither side seems poised for a quick or complete victory, the killing of Mr. bin Laden and successes of the year-old US "surge" in southern Afghanistan notwithstanding. Al Qaeda has little operational role in the Afghan insurgency. And the Taliban have responded to losses in the rural south with a series of dramatic suicide attacks inside cities and coalition ranks.

There’s also a ticking clock. The Obama administration set 2014 as the deadline for withdrawing US troops from the country.

Yet forging a peace won't be easy in a land that has lived by the sword for centuries. The US is not likely to be easily impressed by the girls-education talk from insurgents who once beat women just because their socks slipped, revealing their ankles below their burqas. An even bigger question looms over whether the Taliban are ready and capable of entering a political process that favors messy compromise over the purity of holy war.

Still, the recent seemingly calculated comments from Taliban members at least suggest the emergence of a new pragmatism.

"The talks that we are able to observe and comment on are the ones that involve everybody except the Taliban, and there's no coincidence in that," says Michael Semple, a Harvard University fellow, former diplomat, and informal mediator in the Afghan talks who frequently travels to the region. "I would say that in the contacts I have in the [insurgency] movement a€| they realize that politically something will happen a€“ which is a change."

Bin Laden strike improves conditions for talks

In several ways, the knockout of bin Laden improves conditions for talks.

By sending helicopters across Pakistani territory and storming an urban compound, the strike sends a message to insurgent leaders that their havens are not so safe. It also creates an additional opportunity for the insurgency to cut links to Al Qaeda, says Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist based in Lahore, Pakistan.

The ties between Afghan insurgents and global jihadi organizations are based more on interpersonal relationships rather than ideology, he says. One key relationship, the friendship between Bin Laden and Mullah Omar, is now removed.

“Some elements may be loyal to the ideals of Osama bin Laden. But I don’t think that kind of element within the Taliban movement can win the argument when they think about their strategic priorities with Osama gone and Al Qaeda not as potent a force,” says Dr. Rais.

On the US side, the demise of Al Qaeda’s figurehead has purged some fears among Americans of the group and exposed its current weakness. And having burnished his anti-terror credentials, President Obama would have wider domestic latitude to cut a peace deal that involved insurgents who are willing to swear off any ties to Al Qaeda.

Some American officials are already downgrading the threat of Al Qaeda.

“We are going to try to take advantage of this to demonstrate to people in the area that Al Qaeda is a thing of the past, and we are hoping to bury the rest of Al Qaeda along with Osama bin Laden,” said US Homeland Security Adviser John Brennan on Monday.

But it’s unclear whether this narrative will further the push for a peace process or for declaring “mission accomplished.”

The antiwar group Rethink Afghanistan put out a petition on the heels of bin Laden’s death, saying the rationale for the war has “evaporated.” The most recent Pew polling from early April found half of Americans wanted to pull out of Afghanistan as soon as possible, with 44 percent preferring to stay until the situation is stabilized.

Some Americans express concern about mission creep, doubts that a vital national security interest remains, and skepticism that the US can stabilize the situation.

Within the region, those who view the American presence as only fueling the conflict are urging a US withdrawal as well. But others contend a lasting settlement requires ongoing American engagement.

“It all depends on what America does next – are they going to put more pressure on Pakistan [or] will they look at this opportunity as an opportunity to withdraw from Afghanistan?” says Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani security analyst.

The current regime a repeat of Afghanistan's tumultuous history

Peace requires a constant gardener in the soils of Afghanistan. A search through a century of newspaper archives finds a string of dispatches about uprisings against Kabul by the Waziris, the Afridis, the Shinwaris, and other tribes on either side of the border that are at the forefront of the current conflict.

In periods of relative calm, rulers would try spurts of modernization. One article from Afghanistan in 1932 reads: "Afghan Girls Like Attending School."

These moments of spring in Kabul have frosted over because of overly ambitious governments that failed to find a balance among competing groups. Today, even supporters of Mr. Karzai's government argue that the current regime is a repeat of history. They liken the 2001 Bonn Conference in Germany, which created the Karzai government after the fall of the Taliban, to the Treaty of Paris after World War I: a victor's peace that disenfranchised the losers so much that future conflict was all but inevitable.

But negotiating a more inclusive government now, one that brings in elements of the Taliban and other insurgents, remains an epic challenge of diplomacy. "It's like designing a mission to Mars – the complexity of it is really quite great," said Stephen Biddle with the Council on Foreign Relations in an interview last year.

Yet, in the weeks before bin Laden’s death, several moves occurred that could fortify the diplomatic track in Afghanistan even as the war enters a period that is expected to be particularly violent:

?Turkey has offered to let the Taliban open an office there, according to Abdul Hakim Mujahid, the former Taliban ambassador to the United Nations and member of the High Peace Council, a body set up by Karzai to lead the peace process that includes both former Taliban members and warlords. This would establish a third-party location for talks to occur.

?Pakistan and Afghanistan have established a high-level commission to facilitate peace talks. This group has real decisionmaking power since it includes top elected officials, representatives of the foreign services, and – crucially in Pakistan – top representatives of the militaries.

Experts disagree over the degree of influence Pakistan has over the Taliban leadership. But most think that Pakistan can at least bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Pakistani officials themselves are cagey on the question, since they want to be seen as indispensable without being viewed as playing both sides in the conflict.

"We are very clear we don't want to be [at] the table...," says Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan. "We would like to facilitate it, support it, in whatever way is possible."

?The US has signaled it is willing to talk. In a speech in February before the Asia Society in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the US is ramping up a "diplomatic surge" that follows increases in military and civilian deployments.

"Now, I know that reconciling with an adversary that can be as brutal as the Taliban sounds distasteful, even unimaginable. And diplomacy would be easy if we only had to talk to our friends," said Secretary Clinton. "But that is not how one makes peace. President Reagan understood that when he sat down with the Soviets."

?The biggest breakthrough, however, may be a convergence between the US, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and even Hizb-e-Islami, one of the insurgent groups, about what the goal is: a balanced government for a unified Afghanistan.

Until recently, Pakistan appeared to be obstructing talks in order to dictate its own conditions: Any new government must be "friendly" to Pakistan and keep India at a distance. Speculation also swirled that Islamabad wanted Kabul to formalize the Durand Line, the border drawn by the British in the 19th century between the two countries, which Afghanistan has never formally recognized.

"First we have to reach a peace agreement with Pakistan, then reach a deal with the Taliban," says Khalid Pashtoon, a member of Afghanistan's parliament from Kandahar, reflecting the common perception that any peace deal goes through Islamabad.

Karzai has made several goodwill gestures toward Pakistan, including dismissing a pro-India intelligence chief, inking a transit agreement with Pakistan, and making Islamabad the first stop of his new High Peace Council.

Feeling reassured, Pakistan's leadership has been tempering its diplomatic goals. Ambassador Sadiq says his government had settled on wanting a "peaceful, prosperous, and friendly Afghanistan" but has since swapped out "friendly" for "united."

Others echo the shift. "We've dropped the word 'friendly' – it's only 'peaceful and stable' – because it's been misconstrued that Pakistan wants a government of its own [in Kabul]," says Gen. Athar Abbas, spokesman for Pakistan's military.

As Abbas tells it, the military wants to be sure that it won't have to guard the country's western border with Afghanistan in the event of another war with India. It also doesn't want agents of India to be able to cross into Pakistan through Afghanistan. "With a peaceful western border, then all those fears are addressed," he says.

While Abbas didn't mention "united," top civilian officials in Pakistan agree with the Afghan and US government aversion to dividing Afghanistan. Talk of partitions along ethnic lines has always been broadly unpopular. But some of the proposed configurations for a peace settlement had involved ceding control of certain provinces to various factions – peace through devolution.

No division of the country

US officials, however, are against handing over pieces of territory to the insurgency out of fear that it will embolden them to seek or seize more. That at least was the result of a 2006 cease-fire struck by the British in the Musa Qala district of Helmand Province. For this reason, the US doesn't want to hold talks in Afghanistan – as opposed to a place like Turkey – because it might justify creating a safe district for insurgents to come and talk, which could lead to them controlling the area.

With a division of the country ruled out, political balance must be restored through an inclusive government, say US, Pakistani, and Afghan officials. One analyst in the region argues that this is what some Taliban are seeking, too – perhaps with US help.

Insurgent leaders hoping to eventually return and resettle in Afghanistan are going to need a comprehensive peace settlement, but with a weak Afghan military and meddling neighbors, it's an open question who could safeguard such a deal. Instead, a US presence – perhaps with a UN mandate – may have to act as a guarantor for some period of time.

All this still sounds far off from Taliban rhetoric, which remains focused on removing the US and its allies. "This movement will definitely not be stopped or decreased until the foreign forces are defeated," says the Taliban commander from Wardak. "We don't believe in these shuras [councils] and these [peace] commissions – it's a political project from which these people can get money.

Also worrying is the talk coming from Pakistan's former chief of intelligence, Hamid Gul. Though retired, Mr. Gul maintains contacts with the Afghan insurgency and remains enough of a player that the High Peace Commission visited him in Islamabad.

"I don't see any chance for a coalition government," Gul said last month. "An inclusive government, yes, not a coalition." While an "inclusive" government would involve factions other than the Taliban, it would not be arrived at through Western political pluralism but by the Afghan tradition of the loya jirga, or grand council. And then – significantly – Gul added: "Mullah Omar [the Taliban's supreme leader] is the only man who can convene a jirga.”

However, the killing of bin Laden has put hard-line elements of the intelligence establishment like Gul on the defensive in Pakistan. In broadcast interviews Monday, Gul denied that the government harbored Bin Laden and suggested it was a "make-believe drama" designed to help Obama get reelected.

“They have lost face and they are so embarrassed that they are now inventing new conspiracy theories,” says Rais.

“It will help the political forces persuade the military establishment not to pursue a parallel security agenda in Afghanistan,” he adds, referring to aspirations for greater influence over Kabul.

But even if bin Laden’s death spurs greater Pakistani assistance in negotiations, the country’s credibility has been damaged.

“When it comes to bringing the Afghan Taliban leadership to the table … Pakistan is an indispensable partner,” says Anatol Lieven, author of “Pakistan: A Hard Country.” “The problem there is the US has to trust Pakistan as a broker. What just happened makes that considerably more difficult.”

Trust is severely lacking

Any negotiating in a peace process would require an element of trust among the parties – something severely lacking in this conflict. Yet a willingness to at least talk is springing forth from unlikely places.

In a leafy corner of Pakistan's capital, Ghairat Baheer welcomes three reporters into his multistory home. "Would you like some tea or coffee?" he asks, following up shortly thereafter with a platter of sweet biscuits.

In the middle of a night in 2002, he had a different set of visitors to his house: gunmen who whisked him away, eventually to Afghanistan. For six months, the US military confined him to a dark cell measuring 6 feet by 8 feet at a CIA prison in Kabul, he says. "My toilet was a small bucket," recalls Mr. Baheer. "I was given a meal each 48 hours – sometimes 24 hours. I used to eat in darkness; I couldn't see the plate."

He says he was tortured, including being suspended from the ceiling by his arms. (Another detainee at the site, known as the Salt Pit, died at the time. The CIA's inspector general forwarded the case to federal prosecutors, who later dropped it, according to the Associated Press.) Eventually Baheer was brought to the prison at the US's Bagram Air Base outside Kabul.

Baheer says he's never been a militant. Instead, he serves as head of the political wing for a faction of Hizb-e-Islami headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Before the Taliban came to power, Mr. Hekmatyar served as prime minister of Afghanistan and Baheer, his son-in-law, was the country's ambassador to Pakistan.

Hekmatyar earned a bloody reputation for his role in rocketing Kabul during the struggle among the mujahideen factions that fought over the capital after the Soviets left. Few leaders emerged from those years with good names, including rival Northern Alliance commanders now backed by the US and leading the Karzai government.

Hekmatyar's group was "ignored" at Bonn – it was a "joke," says Baheer – and has become a third component of the Afghan insurgency along with the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

In the Bagram prison, Baheer says he eventually won over the Americans with long talks about politics and his help in negotiating with detainees. From his six years in detention, he estimates that he now knows about 2,000 to 3,000 Americans by sight. He says he has worked hard to let go of his anger about what the Americans have done to him and his country.

"I didn't let the hatred develop in my body towards even Americans," says Baheer. "I was a politician, and I knew in my future the time would come that again we would be talking to each other. If you have hatred toward someone, then you aren't talking to them from the bottom of your heart."

While Baheer might be willing to engage in new peace negotiations, it wouldn't simply be a matter of showing up at some conference center for talks. In the complicated world of Afghan politics, even getting to the negotiating table can be tricky.

Some of the top insurgents have spent years in harsh detention or on a UN blacklist. They fear they will be detained if they travel outside their protected territories. It's a reminder of the mistrust that exists on all sides, a mistrust rooted in painful memories – of torture on one side and of fanatics flying airplanes into skyscrapers on the other.

The UN has begun removing some names from its blacklist. But even former Taliban who now sit on Karzai's High Peace Council remain listed. Fixing this issue won't be easy. According to Western officials in Afghanistan, Russia, as a member of the Security Council, must agree to any changes, and Moscow views this as valuable leverage. It's one of the many trump cards being held in the top floors of embassies, the "poppy palaces" of warlords, and the underworld havens of insurgent leaders when it comes to trying to launch peace talks.

"The downside of this whole thing: There are too many people who are trying to reconcile," says Sadiq, the Pakistani ambassador.

A lack of American support?

Since his release, Baheer has represented Hizb-e-Islami in talks with Karzai's government. Yet those negotiations failed last year due to a lack of American support, he claims – something echoed by Karzai administration officials.

On paper, Hekmatyar is demanding withdrawal of foreign forces and changes to the Afghan Constitution. In the interview, Baheer wouldn't get specific on constitutional changes, but said his party has always believed in women's education and suggested flexibility on troop withdrawal, saying it should be "according to logical, acceptable, and practical timetables."

Officially, the Taliban still set withdrawal as a precondition for talks – a nonstarter for the US. As one of Afghanistan's longest-running political parties, though, Hizb-e-Islami has more experience with compromise and the art of politics. "I am trying to talk with [the Taliban] to come up with something practical. This stand is not logical to say 'no' to everything," says Baheer.

Ultimately, he sees a new government being formed with many different players. "The Taliban were rigid and lacking the experience of running a country. But they have learned, and there will be a lot more political players in Afghanistan."

But are the Taliban really ready to talk and, more crucially, enter a political process? Their official statements are not encouraging. They have rejected the High Peace Council formed by Karzai to lead the process, even though the Afghan leader designated the council a nongovernmental organization to overcome the Taliban refusal to meet with the Afghan government.

Parsing Taliban statements

Given the limited access to top Taliban figures, experts have to parse their intents and interests from statements and shards of information – an Afghan version of the old cold-war Kremlinology. One of these experts is Wahid Mujda, himself a former Taliban official.

In an interview last year, Mr. Mujda noted that as far back as March 2009 the statements from the Taliban were moderating. A new political chief for the group sent out a message to the Muslim world asking citizens to not revolt against governments. (This predated the events touched off in Tunisia this spring.) The rationale was that revolts would bring deeper US meddling in the Middle East. The statement intrigued Mujda.

"It was against Al Qaeda opinion, because Al Qaeda wants a revolution all over the Muslim world," Mujda explained last year. He asked his Taliban contacts if this statement was official and if it meant a severing of ties with Al Qaeda. A contact close to Mullah Omar replied that it was the Taliban's position, and hinted that the message was really a signal that they wanted to talk peace.

"That means we are ready to talk and have negotiations with the Afghan government and the US, but [US officials] never accepted that because they want to ignore us and say we don't understand their messages. We have sent a lot of messages to these people, but they never listen," Mujda said the contact told him.

Mr. Semple, another of the new Kremlinologists, reads the latest rhetoric on girls' education from Taliban commanders as a similar signal to the US. "They are certainly trying to make themselves more palatable," says Semple. He cautions, though, that "it's not just that they need to be palatable to the international community, but they need to be prepared to contemplate political compromise with fellow Afghans."

Still, even if the Taliban were ready to talk, there is no guarantee all elements would speak with one voice. Omar himself has struggled over the years to retain control of the disparate movement. Most notably, the cleric has released handbooks of conduct for Taliban fighters that argued against needless targeting of civilians, but there have since been numerous suicide attacks on so-called soft targets.

"The Taliban is not a central system. Some people are listening to the main shura; some are not," says Sami Yousafzai, a senior Pakistani journalist who has met with top Taliban leaders. "Omar is not in physical contact with anyone."

Since taking command of the NATO effort in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus has targeted mid-level commanders, killing many. That has helped sever some of the ties between the leadership and those in the field. But it's also emboldened a younger generation of Taliban who are in many ways more extreme.

"There is a saying that the older [Taliban] will not kill you for at least five hours; the new will just kill you on the spot," says Mr. Yousafzai.

The new Taliban are more versed in information technology, too. They frequently peruse Al Qaeda and Taliban websites, he says. When it comes to a possible peace deal, the leadership may have trouble bringing the younger generation along.

"The older [Taliban] who served in government as ministers or deputy ministers, at least they have an idea, if they are coming to reconciliation, what their [government] role would look like," says Yousafzai. "But the new generation has no idea. They just fight jihad."

Still, despite the considerable obstacles to any kind of peace process, there seems to be at least some movement on the long-moribund diplomatic side of the Afghan conflict. Those halting steps, to be sure, will likely be driven by how America and Pakistan work together after Osama bin Laden's killing and whether the Taliban can sow doubt again about the US commitment to the war and the peace.

RELATED: Top 5 Al Qaeda-linked militants Pakistan has captured

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The Muslim Brotherhood will soon control Parliament the Egypt? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Cairo - new political party of the Muslim Brotherhood will field candidates in half of the parliamentary seats in the first post-revolutionary elections to the Egypt, the leaders announced Saturday.

After years of be banned for life policy and persecuted by the former President Hosni Mubarak, the official launch of the freedom and the Party of Justice of the Group was a historic moment.

Leaders portrayed the party as inclusive, say Christians and women can join. According to Egyptian law, the party is officially civilian, non-religious and is independent of the group. The leaders also repeated a commitment earlier do not run a candidate in the presidential elections.

MONITOR QUIZ: Quiz of news Weekly for 21-25 April 2011

But plans to 50 per cent of parliamentary seats for the competition will be disturbing for young secular and liberal-leaning activists who have been a major force in the revolution. They fear that the brotherhood, Egypta€ ? s démêlera group, dominate the Parliament and to impose Islamic ideas on population. The leaders had said earlier that the group could challenge only about 30 per cent of the seats.

The decision to go for a bigger block to Parliament is probably partially a result of pressure exerted by the ordinary members, who are not content merely to a small percentage of the pie when the race is wide opensaid independent analyst Ibrahim El Houdaiby, a former member of the brotherhood.

The dissolution of Mubaraka€ ? s National Democratic Party has left the fraternity with an advantage over the rest of the opposition, which has not the Organization and discipline of the brotherhood.

But Mr. Houdaiby traces also the decision of the growing gap between the brotherhood and liberal secular groups since a constitutional referendum in February, when the two campaigned on the sides. As the gap is widening between the two parties, fraternity may feel he needs to win more seats to influence Parliament because it will be not able to create coalitions with such groups, said Houdaiby. "If you think you are on your own, on the other side of the game, then you must have more seats," he said.

Brotherhood has surprised many by winning approximately 20 per cent of parliamentary seats in the elections of 2005. Last year, the Mubarak regime ensured that the scenario did not repeat itself, and the elections have been regarded as the most fraudulent in recent history. Only a member of the brotherhood won a seat.

DIAA Rashwan, analyst at the Al Ahram Center for strategic studies, policies and calls for the decision to request as many seats an error which will be perceived as would represent by many Egyptians. The brotherhood has overestimated his own popularity and underestimated the strength of the sectors newly empowered population who discovered only political during the revolution, he said.

Organization of the Islamic Group has helped well it past votes, where turnout was low. If the participation rate is much higher than in September, organization of the group will be of lesser importance, said Dr. Rashwan. "The problem with their analysis is to underestimate the strength of the revolution." They have a very large number, and most of them have no Islamic feelings, "he says. "And now also for the average Egyptian, they have their fears and their doubts about the behaviour of the Salafi" extremely conservative Islamists, who have also benefited from the absence of Mubarak to enter the political scene. All these factors combined, said Rashwan, will mean that the brotherhood will not sweep elections in September.

The brotherhood says the freedom and the Justice Party will be independent of the religious organization, the leaders said, although he appointed personalities in the brotherhood to lead the party. And it prohibited the members of the brotherhood to join other parties. "People are feeling that it is first a political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, not an independent political party," said Rashwan.

Refugees tell of brutal repression in the West of the Syria (The Christian Science Monitor)

Mqaible, Lebanon - hundreds of residents of Tel Nimrud in the West of the Syria escaped an intensification sits by the Syrian army slipped across the nearby border with the Lebanon.

"They are terrorizing the city," said Ammar, a 33 year old taxi driver. "People living in fear it y.".

The stories told by refugees frightened of Tel Nimrud highlight the repressive tactics used by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, as he struggles to quell a pro-democracy uprising. against the domination of 40 years of his family.

MONITOR QUIZ: Quiz of news Weekly for 21-25 April 2011

Such Nimrud, a town of some 20,000 mainly Sunni residents is surrounded by villages inhabited by the Alawi minority sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, which is the backbone of the Syrian regime.

Anti-Government protests grabbed in such Nimrud in response to the severe repression of the regime against Deraa in Syria of the South, which has become the epicenter of the revolt of six weeks in the South.

As the protests in Tel Nimrud grew, the Syrian security forces flooded the region. Residents said that security forces had attempted to recruit the help of the surrounding villages Alawi, adding a sectarian edge to local tensions.

a€ ? armed tanks sent into the city and set up a blockade on all main roads. A control point, I learned that I must leave because they intended to raze the city to the ground, a €

Images of the event focused on his cell phone showed protesters brandishing banners in English read, "We only want you" and "exit Bashar."

Sheikh Abdel Rahim Akkari, cleric of the city, shown speaking to the crowd and denouncing the accusations of the regime that the demonstrations are agitated by Islamic extremists.

"Where are the Salafi you are looking for." Akkari Sheikh asked for the form. "They are all in your prisons." All we ask is our freedoms. ?

An approximately 2,000 residents, mainly women and children, have fled the city two days earlier Wednesday, walk two kilometres from the border with the Lebanon. Alawi "shabiha" said militiamen at the border, residents and some women were assaulted by a group of military intelligence officers. The harassment of women has stimulated a Syrian border guards Squad, usually composed of locally recruited staff to attack the intelligence and militia officers, they added. A small border post was burned down.

A growing number of accounts is Syrian fighting between security forces, usually involving Sunni soldiers confronting Alawi troops of the elite and intelligence divisions. The residents of Tel said Nimrud that Alaa Shwaiti, a young lieutenant of the city, was executed with a bullet in the head after he refused to open fire on demonstrators in Homs, a town in the North of the Syria and one of several homes where the regime plagued hard against the signs of dissent.

a€ ?He phoned his brother in Tel Nimrud until he died and said that he feared he would be executed for disobeying the order, a

According to residents, the Syrian army said Lieutenant Shwaiti, killed by rebels and intended to bury them in Tel Nimrud with military honours. But residents refused and buried the officer themselves on Saturday.

Contacted by cell phone, a man in Tel Nimrud said that the funeral of the Lieutenant Shwaiti fair took place in a strong presence of the army and security.

? we are under siege now, a €

During this time the Syrian army tanks shelled the old quarter of Deraa and sent more reinforcements to the region, which has been besieged for nearly a week, an eyewitness told Associated Press.

Residents remained defiant: unable to leave their homes, they sang "God is great!" to each other of their Windows in the evenings, shocked the security forces and raise the spirits of the other.

Deraa without water, fuel or electricity since Monday, when the regime sent troops backed by tanks and a sniper to crush the protests seeking to put an end to the authoritarian regime of Assad.

On Saturday, Syrian troops killed four people by capturing a mosque which has become a focal point for demonstrators in Dara, and the security forces in Damascus kept dozens of women walking on the Parliament to urge Assad to end his crackdown on the uprising.

Libyan, fight against spills in Tunisia (The Christian Science Monitor)

Dehiba, Tunisia - the civil war of the Libya in the South of the Tunisia Friday as scores of troops loyal to the bursting of the colonel Muammar Qathafi across the border and in a town nearby. The incursion came after the failure of the loyalists to return to a remote border post, which has become a rebel lifeline.

Two Libyan Government rockets landed in the Tunisian city of Dehiba and angry residents attack one of the Libyan military vehicles with stones, causing it and its anti-aircraft gun to overturn, killing the driver.

The presence of the armed forces blasting their guns in a neighbouring country would have been an international incident nowhere elsewhere. But the ebb and flow of this conflict - and the porous desert border between the Libya and the Tunisia - means that the Tunisian authorities could do little to stop the incursion. The military Tunisia and the border police is removed entirely from their border posts during the heaviest fighting late Thursday.

Uplift Libya: 5 steps the world takes

Rebel flag was raised again to that position on Friday morning, the final result of an attack by the forces of Colonel Gaddafi three-pronged began Thursday afternoon. The battle was initially loyalist victory - and a farm of their green flag for the first time since the rebels took control here a week ago.

Battle at the border.

But a fierce battle that stretched into the night saw loyalist troops surround and finally forced to flee, with 162 entering Tunisia with 18 vehicles.

The Tunisian army disarmed the Libyans, but then escorted back to a point of illegal crossing frequented by smugglers. The Loyalists surrendered their weapons and should resume their fight.

"Dehiba is very important for the [anti-Qathafi] revolutionaries for resupply - they are battling for the corner," said Samir Abdelmounem, a Tunisian doctor who treated the injured rebels and loyalists Qathafi both Dehiba hospital.

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"And this population feels great solidarity with [the rebels], as they are family," explains Dr. Abdelmounem. The Tunisians "hate Qathafi soldiers, they have a horror of them".

Tunisian soldiers have been posted from the hospital, he said, because "people wanted to come here and finish their".

Two Dehiba homes, a few kilometres from the border, were hit by Libyan rockets. Stray bullets struck a Libyan refugee boy in the foot and injured a Tunisian man.

Surprise attack

Rebels said that they were surprised at the attack by the forces of Qathafi and said that they had hired local guides in the difficult mountainous desert and provide details of force rebel and location.

"Even the Nalutis [local sections of the nearest Libyan town of Nalut]" were surprised: how come this way? ", says a rebel named Wajdi who works on the Tunisian side of the border."

"The rebels learned something this.". We will never leave this low area once again, "said Wajdi." Or they will depend on NATO aid: Wajdi has been in direct contact with NATO during the fighting, providing details in real time of possible targets.

"I was talking to their live... and nothing," said Wajdi. "" "". "Unfortunately provide us the information, but we continue long wait for a response."

As he spoke, a column of black smoke rose from the Libyan side of the border, where rebels burn clothing and personal effects of LOYALISTS fleeing Qathafi. A Loyalist dead had his toes tied together, apparently to prevent him to flee before his death.

For the months of two and a half years, rebel in remote mountains of Western the Libya, which are dominated by ethnic Berbers that have always challenged rule Qathafi, took up arms to join the anti-Government revolution.

Crucial passage for the rebels

This crossing has played an important role. Capture of rebels it a week ago has been a blow to Tripoli and stimulate their supply of long-hampered, leading to a boost in the fight against the rebels.

Members of the Tunisian National Guard thought some Qathafi Loyalists who crossed Friday were intended to tackle a Libyan refugee on the edge of the Dehiba camp.

Failed, but there was drama at Dehiba hospital, where wounded soldiers Qathafi 12 have been taken, with three rebel wounded. Doctors were struck by the fact the loyalist troops seemed so young, and that two have been traumatized while they tried to flee to the arrival and had to be captured by the Tunisian soldiers.

Hospital staff immediately separated the rebels and loyalists in two different wings of the building. Abdelmounem has explained: "it is therefore that we have not any more problems we already have".

Uplift Libya: 5 steps the world takes

Deadly day of the Ugandan riots following opposition leader stop (The Christian Science Monitor)

Kampala, Uganda - sitting outside his shop laundry in a quiet suburb, usually the capital of Uganda, Kampala, David Ssentongo points to slow ash locals tires burned in protest and rage.

"People are angry," says Mr. Ssentongo. "They are angry because of the way in which the presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye was arrested yesterday." But they are also angry because prices are increasing, because they cannot afford to take the bus to work, because they can not buy milk for their children. ?

Friday, Kampala awakened to a day of rioting. Markets downtown to the suburbs, demonstrators set up roadblocks made of rubble and burning tires and the police and the army fired live ammunition at demonstrators.

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In early evening, at least two people had been killed by bullet and 143 were hospitalized, including a Ugandan child 2 years old with bullet wounds, said the Red Cross. The Minister of Internal Affairs has developed the number of order 360.

The main spark for the riots was the brutal arrest of Dr Besigye, s€ ? s main opposition leader. For the past three weeks, Besigye and other opposition leaders attempted to walk to work in protest against the increase in the cost of living. In March, inflation on food increased nearly 30% and fuel at more than 10 per cent.

Police, who have banned all demonstrations, arrested Besigye three times, he trapped for six days and was allegedly shot in the finger with a rubber bullet.

On Thursday, the reaction of the authoritarian Government became even more brutal. After police prevented him from walking, Besigye got in his car and led to Kampala. The first police has shown, stopping the car of the Besigye at a roundabout and refrained from tear gas at crowds of fire growth.

But as it appeared the Besigye protest could be petering out, plainclothes police arrived, shattered the Windows of his vehicle and he sprayed with tear gas before him drag in a police van. When Besigye appeared before the tribunal later this day there, he was unable to see. A doctor who saw him said that it is too early to say if the damage was permanent. Friday evening, Besigye flew to Nairobi to receive medical treatment for injuries, he received the police Thursday.

Analysts say the violence on Friday and the reaction of the Government will only exacerbate the public anger over rising prices and the repression of the opposition.

"The rejection by the way the Government handled Besigye sweeps the Board of Directors," said Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, political analyst at the University of Makerere in Kampala.

In February Besigye lost the President incumbent Yoweri Museveni for the third consecutive time. Besigye immediately rejected the results, calling the election a "sham" and seeking the mass protests.

But nothing happened, and many began to write political obituaries of the Besigye. Now, analysts say, the brutal treatment he received made him relevant again.

"Museveni has now succeeded in stimulating support so Besigye, who had become marginal after the elections," said Mr. Golooba-Mutebi.

With the protests draw discontent over rising fuel prices and perceived government inaction and corruption, the situation remains tense. The Kenya Government recently cut, taxes on fuels to suppress popular discontent, Museveni has so far not acted and dismissed demonstrations as "idiot".

"It is because of what happens to Besigye, due to rising prices and the arrogant reaction of the Government to any person who complains," said Golooba-Mutebi. "The situation is much worse that the Government is admitting."

Standing outside his store of laundry, Ssentongo said that the reaction of the Government of stirring more anger and this turmoil is likely to continue. "Prices are only going higher and growth of anger", said Ssentongo. "This will end quickly."

Quiet of London on the eve of William and Kate his marriage (The Christian Science Monitor)

London - with repeats of royal marriage family, less than 24 hours before the Prince William and Catherine Middleton exchange greetings in "the wedding of the century".

But the atmosphere in London is really calm and quiet in advance of the Friday ceremony 11 hours. Londoners have a keen interest in the event and the story of love behind it; new surveys of 70% of the British support the monarchy and that William is now the most popular member of the Royal family. (Ms. Middleton is followed in the third, behind the Queen).

But there is no marriage tidal wave - mania, some Cree groupies and little acute buzz down King Street or Piccadilly Circus.

A day before that 2 billion people are expected to look at "Kate and wills" intimate greeting and balcony Kiss at Buckingham Palace (if time permits) it is a pleasant interest but not mounted in the big day. It is a royal and she is a woman of middle class with a diploma of art history are a fully filled story line.

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Most permanent residents outside the Red Lion and pubs of three crowns off the coast of St. James square, after reading about the relationship of Middleton and William since nearly a decade, plan to leave to the extent € weekend and printed ? t look at marriage.

"I'm going to the South of the France," explains Stephen Gantry, a lawyer. "I'm going to Botswana," says his law partner Geoff. "Really!" I'm going, too, "chortles Judith Edwards, when the issue turns on whether it is just the men who cannot be that in marriage."

"Excitement built last week, but that is deflated....". What I note is how quiet is in London, "says Jasmine Birtles, a commentator of London and a Web site owner who spoke from the underground to Heathrow, where it was scheduled to depart." "It seems now that we are in a mass exodus, or people planning a lie down in the garden on the wedding day."

Pub talk, when he focuses on marriage, a tradition dating to the 11th century, tends to be more whether it will rain Friday, Middleton will focus his hair upwards or downwards at the ceremony and when the wedding ever discussed but still invisible dress and its designer will appear.

A few scandals, little tabloid fodder

Middleton and William are in fact y giving the tabloids so scarce any scandal or bad behaviour of regurgitate. And there is little chance that this change. They plan to resume their life as a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot and women likely to be work and spend time with his family.

The bride and groom "seem to love each other and look happy together," explains f. Philippou, owner of a store of barber in Mayfair for more than 50 years. "It is already an improvement."

This week the main statements passionate the pair came to the historian David Starkey, who said the couple had little "passion" were a "pragmatic game... remarkably equal." The couple reflects a post-royal sensitivity and elite in Britain that Mr. Starkey assigns to the colossal failure of the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana.

"The great legacy of Diana is that our expectations of the Royal family have changed," explains Richard Starkey. "As a result, Kate had a much easier time." We expect no longer perfection of our royals. If they have changed, we have too much as a society we grew up. ?

The real issues here are widespread and painful budget cuts. If anything, the two directors get accessories to try to put one more "real" and "human scale" marriage appropriate for the times. Middleton is already affecting a glut of small green trees imported into stony Westminster Abbey, a set of vows which should not to include the word "obey" and for dragging dressed with his sister Pippa. William has played a game of football with friends in a downtown Park.

Major London words use in describing the pair are "good", "decent" and "normal". The Daily Mail today extinguish a first page photo of Middleton on a race as the queen of calm - which seems to fit the Zeitgeist wedding.

No Blair or Brown?

Same tabloid controversy here are small scale: today the invitation of marriage to the Syrian Ambassador was withdrawn after a massacre would take place in this country as his representative served on Westminster for marriage.

Most indicated here, this is the criticism of the Royal family, which is supposed to be scrupulously non-partisan, for not inviting former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Previous Conservative leaders Margaret Thatcher and John Major are invited, as are the guests which include the King of Swaziland.

The Times of London today indicated on what he calls "blunder" to invite only step Labor Prime Ministers Blair and Brown, "two men who have served the grandmother of William... for a total of 13 years," in a list of guests more of 2,000 people.

"The royals can allow to appear to favor one political party over another," said the Times. After the tragic death of Princess Diana, she added, "the royals have had the chance to have Blair's place to give effect to the national mood in a way that they could not." It should not too much trouble to him have been offered a seat at Westminster Abbey. ?