Headlines:

• Veiled Muslim mayor a first for BoVeiled Muslim mayor a first for Bosnia, possibly Europe
• US wants Syrian Opposition Shakeup to "Defeat" Assad
• Arab World will be 'Relieved' by Strike on Iran: Jewish PM
• UK to Double Number of Drones in Afghanistan
• UN: Myanmar Must Protect Muslims, Stop Discrimination

 

Details:

Veiled Muslim mayor a first for Bosnia, possibly Europe:

Bosnia's first veiled mayor began her duties this week, after an election which saw her becoming the first hijab-clad mayor in the country, and possibly in Europe. Amra Babic, who served as a regional Finance Minister before running for mayor, will now run the Bosnian town of Visoko, in an electoral win she describes as a "victory of tolerance" amid government debates elsewhere in Europe over laws to ban the Muslim veil. "It's a victory of tolerance," Babic, a wartime widow told the Associated Press last week. "We have sent a message out from Visoko. A message of tolerance, democracy and equality." "I am the East and I am the West," she declared. "I am proud to be a Muslim and to be a European. I come from a country where religions and cultures live next to each other. All that together is my identity." Now Babic, for the next four years, will run a town of 45,000 people, with a population consisting of mostly Bosnian-Muslims. And her electoral pledge for the town? Babic has said she wants to fix the infrastructure, partly ruined by the Bosnian 1992-95 war; in turn hoping to make Visoko attractive for investments, encourage youth to start small businesses and lower the unemployment rate which stands at more than 25 percent. Out of Bosnia and Herzegovina's nearly 4 million population, some 40 percent are Muslims, 31 percent Orthodox Christians and 10 percent Catholics. "Finally we have overcome our own prejudices," she told AP. "The one about women in politics, then the one about hijab-wearing women - and even the one about hijab-wearing women in politics."

US wants Syrian Opposition Shakeup to "Defeat" Assad:

The Obama administration said Wednesday it would push for a major shakeup in Syria's opposition leadership so that it better represents those dying on the front line, can rally wider support and resist attempts by extremists to hijack the revolution against the Assad regime. Speaking to reporters in Croatia's capital, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the administration was suggesting names and organizations that should feature prominently in any new rebel leadership that emerges from talks starting next week in Doha, the capital of Qatar. She dismissed the Syrian National Council, a Paris-based group of regime opponents who have lived in exile for decades, saying its leadership days are over, even if it could still play a role. The council was viewed with suspicion by rebels who stayed in Syria and fought the regime of President Bashar Assad. "This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but have in many instances not been inside Syria for 20, 30 or 40 years," Clinton said. "There has to be a representation of thos:e who are on the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom. And there needs to be an opposition leadership structure that is dedicated to representing and protecting all Syrians." The shift in policy reflects as much the failure of the SNC to win widespread political legitimacy as the Obama administration's desire to be seen playing a leading role in shaping an opposition capable of winning the support of frightened Syrian minority groups and replacing Assad. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has criticized the Obama administration for spending too much time trying to win support for a Syrian political transition plan at the United Nations, where Russia and China have protected Assad from three damning resolutions. And he has called for stronger U.S. leadership in forging a cohesive body to lead Syria from decades of dictatorship.

Arab World will be 'Relieved' by Strike on Iran: Jewish PM

The Arab world will be "relieved" if the Jewish state strikes at Iranian nuclear installations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Thursday by France's Paris-Match weekly. He said in case of an attack, "five minutes later, contrary to what sceptics think, I believe there will be a great feeling of relief throughout the region," said Netanyahu. "Iran is not popular in the Arab world, far from it," he said in comments reported in French. "And some neighbouring regimes and their citizens have well understood that a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger for them, not only for Israel," he said, without mentioning specific nations. Netanyahu has warned that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to the Jewish state and has repeatedly refused to rule out military action, fuelling speculation that an attack was imminent. But he then appeared to pull back, pushing the deadline until spring or even summer 2013, ostensibly to allow time for international sanctions to work. Iran denies Jewish and Western suspicions that its nuclear programme is a front for a drive for a weapons capability.

UK to Double Number of Drones in Afghanistan:

Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) makes urgent purchase of five more Reaper drones, which will be the first to be controlled from a UK base. The UK is to double the number of armed RAF "drones" flying combat and surveillance operations in Afghanistan and, for the first time, the aircraft will be controlled from terminals and screens in Britain. In the new squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), five Reaper drones will be sent to Afghanistan, the Guardian can reveal. It is expected they will begin operations within six weeks. Pilots based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire will fly the recently bought American-made UAVs at a hi-tech hub built on the site in the past 18 months. The UK's existing five Reaper drones, which are used to target suspected insurgents in Helmand, have been operated from Creech air force base in Nevada because Britain has not had the capability to fly them from here. After "standing up" the new XIII squadron in a ceremony this Friday, the UK will soon have 10 Reapers in Afghanistan. The government has yet to decide whether the aircraft will remain there after 2014, when all Nato combat operations are due to end. "The new squadron will have three control terminals at RAF Waddington, and the five aircraft will be based in Afghanistan," a spokesman confirmed. "We will continue to operate the other Reapers from Creech though, in time, we will wind down operations there and bring people back to the UK." In the first three-and-a-half years of using the Reapers in Afghanistan, the aircraft flew 23,400 hours and fired 176 missiles. But those figures have almost doubled in the past 15 months as Nato seeks to weaken the Taliban ahead of withdrawal.

UN: Myanmar Must Protect Muslims, Stop Discrimination:

United Nations Human Rights investigators called on Myanmar yesterday to halt deadly sectarian violence and warned it not to use the conflict as a pretext to remove Rohingya minority Muslims. Some 89 people have been killed in clashes between Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingyas in western Myanmar in the past 10 days, according to the latest official toll. "This situation must not become an opportunity to permanently remove an unwelcome community," said a joint statement issued by Mr Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on Myanmar and independent experts on minority issues and the internally displaced. They voiced their "deep concern about the assertion of the government and others that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants and stateless persons." "If the country is to be successful in the process of democratic transition, it must be bold in addressing the human rights challenges that exist," Mr Ojea Quintana said. "In the case of Rakhine state, this involves addressing the long-standing endemic discrimination against the Rohingya community that exists within sections of local and national government, as well as society at large." The Rohingyas say their homes were burnt down by Rakhines armed with slingshots, wooden staves, knives and gasoline. The UN says that more than 97 per cent of the 28,108 people who have fled the violence are Muslims, mostly stateless Rohingya. Many now live in camps, joining 75,000 mostly Rohingya displaced in June after a previous explosion of sectarian violence killed at least 80 people.

 

Abu Hashim