SOUTH DA-KOTA CON-SIDERING SHARIAH

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States finds targeting workers isn’t easy

Egypt’s security

forces target activists

Charles Carlson’s Corner

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Feb 10 - Feb 17 2011 Issue No. 13 16 Pages English Section

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Dr. Fawzia’s Corner

Associated Press

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GREGORY KATZ’s Corner

Arizona, California & Illinois

CARAMA- the coalition of Arabs and Muslims in Amer-ica and SJP” students for justice in Palestine held a sec-ond pro Egyptian rally in a week near ASU in Tempe Arizona. More than 150 people joined the rally which started nearby the Tempe Islamic Community Center “ICC” and marched and marched passed ASU, through the downtown to Mill Avenue and University Drive.CARAMA announced that more rallies are going to be held in Phoenix metropolitan area in the coming days if Mubarak’s regime does not step down and end about 30 years of its rulings. The rally was covered by the major media outlets in Arizona.

COALITION URGES HALT TO HOUSE HEARINGS ON MUSLIM RADICALIZATION

Rally held near the ICC in Tempe by CARAMA and the SJP to support the Egyptian uprising

Religious and civil rights groups say the hearings headed by Republican Rep. Peter T. King will demonize Muslim Americans. King remains unmoved.

CAIRO (AP) — A young leader of Egypt’s anti-govern-ment protesters, newly released from detention, joined a massive crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for the first time Tuesday, greeted by cheers, whis-tling and thunderous applause when he declared: “We will not abandon our demand and that is the departure of the regime.”Many in the crowd said they were inspired by Wael Ghonim, the 30-year-old Google Inc. marketing manager who was a key organizer of the online campaign that sparked the first protest on Jan. 25 to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Straight from his re-lease from 12 days of detention, Ghonim gave an emo-tionally charged television interview Monday night where he sobbed over those who have been killed in two weeks of clashes.

Freed young leader energizes Egyptian protests

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Foreign Aid: The Sly Hand that Feeds Mubarak and Other Tyrants

3Opinions Feb 10 - Feb 17 , 2011

The standoff in the streets of Cairo, Egypt has stimulated press coverage of issues rarely revealed to us. For the first time, Americans - even those who view Fox News - have learned undisputed facts like these: (1) The Mubarak Regime is a dictatorship backed by both the US and Israel(2) US military aid has kept him in power for 30 years.(3) Mubarak’s chief of security Omar Suleiman (now Egypt’s Vice President) tortured prisoners for the US before “water-boarding” became a “legal” practice at Guantanamo. (4) The Egyptians’ revolt was triggered by high food prices in a region where poverty is endemic. (5) The Arab people there are dis-

playing bravery in the face of possible overwhelming force. Americans, especially Christ fol-lowers, should be asking why it is the ongoing policy of the world’s great democracy, bridging five presidents from both parties, to use our American dollars to support some of the world’s most brutal dictators. Professing Christians should recognize and be disturbed about their own tacit support for those who ignore the God-given right to life. The 2011 Statistical Abstract of the US Census Bureau, Foreign and Military Aid, reveals that the US government supports dictators and revolutionaries with Foreign Aid. The largest recipient governments, in order of money received, are Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, and Sudan. All but Is-rael and Sudan have unelected governments, or mock elected officials. Afghanistan received an amazing $6.0 billion in military aid in the last reported year, 2008, and Iraq received $4.4 billion. Both countries were conquered and occupied by the US and have held elections run by the occupier, resulting in US puppet presidents. Israel received $2.4 billion, which is by far the most per capita, about $500 each. Egypt received $1.5 billion, about $21 per capita. Neighbor-ing Jordan received $530 million. Egypt is given enough money to maintain armed soldiers at every tourist site and street corners, as you will see if you go there. Mubarak consistently sides with Israel, even against the Gazan Arabs. He has repeatedly denied or severely restricted pas-sage of aid convoys across its land into Gaza. “Gaza and the West Bank” are listed as receiving $570 million in non-military aid, but all of this goes to the unelected government, the Palestine Authority and Fat-ah, both of which were rejected by voters in 2008. Democratically elected Hamas receives no military or humanitarian aid. The census bureau reveals that the US craft-ily funds revolutions in countries that do not get along with the state of Israel, including Sudan. US support of revolution in Sudan is an especially abusive case of using our money against humanitarian interests. Sudan’s Omar El Bashir-led government is has been under sanction by the US and since 2005, so it could not possible receive military aid. It is considered an enemy of Israel. Yet “Sudan” is listed on the census report as receiving $199 million in military aid from the US in 2008...how cans this be? Those dollars, tanks and guns were in fact delivered to the unelected Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) a rebel operation in Southern Sudan, a faction working to overthrow the elected President, Omar El Bashir...with US military aid. Every dollar of foreign aid is printed out of thin air, most of it awarded to US military contrac-tors, and paid for by diluting Americans’ savings with higher priced food and fuel. Sadly, US history of Foreign Military aid tells the story truthfully when our press and politicians only tell us what we want to hear. We can expect the USA, with Israel in the background, to attempt to broker the status quo in Egypt, denying Egyptians the freedom for which they are struggling for in the interest of Israel. Our germ of hope is found in the certainty that American compla-cency is ending in the mushroom cloud of our war-based economic dilemma.whtt.org

Echoes of Soviet collapse in Mideast revoltGREGORY KATZTunisia. Egypt. Yemen. The astounding pro-democracy domino effect in the Arab world evokes the shock waves of 1989 that toppled communism in Eastern Europe and eventu-ally brought down the Soviet Union. Two figures who helped shape the Soviet collapse — former Czech president Vaclav Havel and former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze — are watching the Arab drama with excitement and nostalgia, but warn Cairo 2011 may not be Berlin 1989. They fret about possible military takeovers or reli-gious extremists hijacking the revolutions, and whether they’re churning forward too slowly, or too fast. Havel told The Associated Press that the protests are at a dangerous crossroads, the outcome impossible to predict, and warned that just because the revolts in Eastern Europe brought about meaningful democratic change doesn’t mean the same will happen in Egypt and its neighbors. “I have to point out that the situation in the Arab countries is quite different — mentality, culture, political culture, and attitude to the world,” he said. Havel said he learned during the popular rebellions in Eastern Europe that mass demonstrations against entrenched rulers need to succeed quickly or they risk degenerating into thuggishness — as has happened in Cairo as pro-government agitators moved against forces demanding President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. If the uprisings in Eastern Europe had taken a month instead of just a week, he said, the results might have been different — and far worse. “Time is a crucial element,” he said. “The longer it takes the bigger the danger of a far worse dictatorship than Mubarak’s.” He cautioned that the military could seize power if the stalemate continues and said the best solution is for Mubarak to step down right away rather than try to serve the rest of his term, which ends in September. Mubarak has said he will not run again, but President Barack Obama and other Western leaders are urging him to leave now to avoid further bloodshed and allow landmark democratic reforms to get under way. However, Havel held out some hope for a democratic breakthrough. “It’s an interesting process and if it results in some sort of democracy, a system that will respect human rights, that won’t rig elections, and so on, then it would of course be an immensely positive development.” Shevardnadze, who helped open the Soviet system under Mikhail Gorbachev, warned against rushing Mubarak to the exit. He said Western officials should allow the Egyptian president, who has been a steadfast ally in a troubled region, to serve the remaining months of his term. “I don’t understand the leaders who strongly insist on Mubarak’s resignation,” he said. “Just recently they were friends with him and cooperated with him. When they had prob-lems they asked Mubarak for advice and listened to him.” He said Mubarak served as an important point of contact between Israel and other Arab countries hostile to the Jewish state, having valuable influence on both sides. He, too, cautioned against making too much of parallels between the revolutions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. “It’s not exactly the same thing,” he told The Associated Press. “However, the destruction of any system has some general patterns, so the current developments in the Arab world look similar.” At a security conference this weekend in Munich, German Chancellor Angela Merkel — who was raised in East Germany and entered politics as communism crumbled in 1989 — said the Middle East protests bring back strong memories of the uprisings that brought democracy to Eastern Europe. “We are seeing pictures awaken memories of what we experienced,” she said. “People who are shaking off their fear.” She said it was necessary for western leaders to back the Egyptian pro-democracy move-ment to help spread universal rights, including freedom of opinion and freedom of the press. Others who played important roles during the communist breakdown believe the Middle East uprisings are less deeply rooted than those that challenged a string of So-viet bloc dictators. James Collins, who was acting U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union during the upheaval, said the Middle East protests have more in common with the revo-lutions in the Philippines, Iran and Indonesia. “What happened in Tunisia and is happen-ing in Egypt are nowhere near as fundamental,” he said. “These have been uprisings against a sclerotic and out of touch leadership. In Eastern Europe the change was much deeper, systemic. It touched the roots of the economy and the way society operated.” While former political leaders have mixed feelings about parallels, some analysts be-lieve the comparison between Eastern Europe in 1989 and the Middle East today is use-ful. “I hear it coming out of the region,” said Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Center at the University of Oxford and author of “The Arabs: A History.” “The Tunisians talked about their movement being similar to what happened in the Gdansk shipyard with Solidarity. They see this as a starting point for changing the Arab world.” “The Poles showed the rest of the region that demonstrations and strikes could challenge the state’s ability to repress basic rights, like freedom of speech and free assembly, the same lesson the Tunisians hoped to teach other Arab nations,” Rogan said.

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CARAMA- the coalition of Ar-abs and Mus-lims in America and SJP” stu-dents for justice in Palestine held a second pro Egyptian rally in a week near ASU in Tempe Arizona. More than 150 people joined the rally which started nearby the Tem-pe Islamic Com-munity Cen-ter “ICC” and marched and marched passed ASU, through the downtown to Mill Avenue and University Drive.

5Arizona & National News Feb 10 - Feb 17 , 2011

PHOENIX (AP) — When six Ar-cadia High School students em-barked on their project, their goal sprang from the pure idealism of the young: Reveal a solution to the problem of illegal immigration by making a documentary. After five months, dozens of interviews and more than 40 hours of video, “The Border” reflects the nature of their subject: complicated, with many different perspectives. The students interviewed state Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who co-sponsored Senate Bill 1070, which makes it a state crime to be in the country ille-gally. And they talked to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a vocal supporter of the law, known for his crime-suppression sweeps that crit-ics say target immigrants. The teen-agers traveled to the border twice, interviewing people on both sides. They rode along with the group Humane Borders, which provides water to people who cross the des-ert. They got statistics from an agri-cultural economist and stood at the fence with Border Patrol agents to see their perspective. They talked to a college student who is in the Valley illegally, fighting for the Dream Act. “As we moved for-ward, we saw all sides,” said Jake Lipson, 17, a senior who served as producer. “We saw all the valid points, and it became more about the issues than about partisanship.”“And from that, we realized why there are no quick solutions,” se-nior Danny Miller, 17, said. “The Border” was accepted into the Phoenix Film Festival this month, and the team entered shorter ver-sions into two student competi-tions: C-SPAN StudentCam and Student Television Network. The other student filmmakers are se-niors Yihyun Jeong and Josh Kant-er, 17, and juniors James Harkins, 17, and Myles Kramer, 16. All have taken classes in the media-communications department at Arcadia, an east Phoenix school a few hours from the Arizona-Mex-ico border. Several of the students went to the STN competition in California last year, where their media-communications teacher,

Paul Hoeprich, encouraged them to watch the other students’ docu-mentaries. That prompted them to consider the project when school started in August. SB 1070 was a hot topic then, and they decided to tackle it. “Other kids are so amazed we’re doing this because they’re not educated about it,” Jeong said. “We weren’t educated about it ei-ther.” The teens said they had those moments of pure luck that every filmmaker hopes for. “The first per-son we interviewed in Nogales (So-nora, Mexico) was a man who was waiting for his wife who had just been captured trying to get across,” Lipson said. The group also trav-eled to Lukeville, an Arizona town south of Tucson, where they ap-proached the border fence. When they got within about 20 feet, Bor-der Patrol agents drove up and talk-ed to them. “It was really surreal to see it,” Harkins said. “They told us how in all these rundown houses there are sentries that tell when the Border Patrol is gone.” The group learned basic skills such as how to call a government office and set up an interview, and how to deal with adults in positions of power. They also used creative problem solv-ing. During one of the trips, they forgot to sign out a microphone boom pole from the school, so they tied the mike to a stick during film-ing. No school money was spent on the documentary beyond using the school’s equipment. The proj-ect was not a class assignment, and they’ll receive no grade. The stu-dents shot the film after school and on weekends. They’re still editing, mostly during their lunch periods, and hope to add an interview with Gov. Jan Brewer, said to be possi-bly available this month. The final version in the film festival will be about 65 minutes. The students realize “The Border” might draw criticism not only for addressing a controversial topic but to the school for encouraging it. “I would argue that the schools are obligated to teach us about the issues,” Lip-son said. “The school isn’t telling us what to think, but how to inves-tigate.”

Photos of CARAMA and SJP’s Rally near the ICC in Tempe Arizona

Arcadia students tackle immigration by making film

CAIR: Rep. Peter King to Hold House Hearings on ‘Radicalization’ of Muslim Americans By Sally Steenland, American Progress, 2/3/11 Rep. Peter King (R-NY) plans to hold hearings this month in the U.S. House of Representatives on his inflammatory charges about “radicalized Muslims” in America. Ac-cording to King, 80 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by radical imams--including the Long Island mosque in his district that he regularly used to visit. King also believes that Muslim Americans are unpatriotic and that they don’t cooperate with law enforcement in identifying extremists in their com-munities. King’s blanket condemnation of a diverse religious community flies in the face of facts. Ac-cording to recent statistics, Muslim-American com-munities have helped prevent more than one-third of Al Qaeda terrorist plots in the United States since

9/11. Furthermore, a study by Duke University and the University of North Carolina last year found that community mosques actually deter radicalization and extremism through a range of efforts such as publicly denouncing violence, confronting extremists, provid-ing programs for youth, and cooperating with law enforcement. And a study released yesterday showed terrorist attempts by Muslim Americans significantly declined last year. The study further said tips from Muslim-American communities provided informa-tion that thwarted terrorist plots in 48 of 120 cases involving Muslim Americans. King’s slanderous talk ignores the millions of hardworking, law-abiding Muslims in this country. Muslims have been part of America since before we were a nation, have fought in every war (including the Revolutionary War), and are an integral part of the vibrant mosaic that makes us who we are. Muslim Americans participate in vir-tually every sector of society and engage in interfaith efforts that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews to work for the common good. The fact that Muslim Americans strongly denounce terrorism, prove their patriotism, and serve their communities and nation every single day has been demonstrated in ways large and small. Yet anti-Muslim hateful speech still thrives. Anti-Muslim hate crimes are on the rise as well. Last month police in Michigan arrested a man who was planning to blow up the Islamic Center for America, located in Dearborn. The mosque had been threatened and vandalized before, as have scores of other mosques, Islamic community centers, and indi-viduals who are Muslim American. Such actions and hate speech are a shameful reminder of past discrimi-nation and intolerance, when Catholics, Jews, Mor-mons, and others were persecuted for their beliefs.

CAIR: South Dakota Considering Ban on Courts Us-ing “Foreign Religious or Moral Code” Submitted by Brian on January 31, 2011 In states like Wyoming and South Carolina, numerous state legislators are proposing measures to limit the application of “inter-national” or “religious” laws in the court. An amend-ment that “forbids courts from considering or using international law” and “Sharia Law” passed easily in 2010, only to be blocked by a federal judge. Now, it appears South Dakota is jumping on the bandwagon. The Republican-dominated State Legislature is con-sidering House Joint Resolution 1004, which similar to the South Carolina resolution, uses broad language and does not explicitly mention Sharia law.

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court said Tuesday it will give the state the go-ahead to execute Daniel Wayne Cook. Granting a motion by the state, the court said in a brief order that it will issue an ex-ecution warrant for Cook “forthwith.” Cook was con-victed of strangling two men in 1987 in Lake Havasu City in Mohave County in northwest Arizona. Pros-ecutors say Cook tortured and raped the victims.Arizona’s last execution was on Oct. 27 when Jeffrey Landrigan died by injection at a state prison in Flor-ence. It was the state’s first execution since 2007 and came after Landrigan lost a court fight that went to the U.S. Supreme Court over Arizona’s use of an in-jection drug obtained from a supplier in Britain. The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 18 rejected an appeal by Cook. The appeal argued that his sentence should be reversed because he has post-traumatic stress disorder and brain damage.

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has sentenced a subur-ban Phoenix man to 10 years in prison for putting his 7-month-old son in a freezer. Judge Robert Gottsfield also sentenced 24-year-old Chance Kracke (KRAH’-kee) Tuesday to lifetime probation after Kracke pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse. Chandler police say Kracke told them in August he was high on methamphetamine when he put the boy on the bottom shelf of his freezer and closed the door because the kitchen floor was too dirty. Kracke says he removed the baby after a few minutes when he began crying. Kracke’s wife, Leanne, was also sentenced to lifetime probation for child abuse. Police say the 7-month-old suffered only a forehead laceration, possibly from the freezer door.

PHOENIX (AP) — Damage from last October’s hail storm is costing the Maricopa County government and taxpayers millions. Officials say the storm that dumped large hail in some areas damaged about 450 county-owned vehicles. Some vehicles had cracked and broken windshields. The county says others had damaged and dented hoods and mirrors on cars, bus-es, vans and forklifts. The county says the cost of re-pairs will be partially picked up by insurance carriers but tens of thousands of dollars in repair costs will be passed on to taxpayers. The Arizona Republic reports the county estimates total real-property damage costs from the Oct. 5 storm range from $15 to $20 million.

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS MAY INFLAME ISLAMOPHOBIA

SOUTH DAKOTA CONSIDERING SHARIAH BAN

Arizona court to authorize execution

Arizona dad sentenced for putting baby in freezer

Damage in the millions from October hail storm

6 Business & Education Feb 10 - Feb 17 , 2011

Let us look for a moment at the system used in some other countries. In all my childhood travels, I found the best pedagogical meth-od for Social Studies to be the French one. In France, in the entire elementary grades, the history curriculum covers nothing but French history. This may seem slightly chauvinistic but all 5th graders (French el-ementary school has only five grade levels) knows their French history inside out, dates,

names, dynasties, events, the whole lot. Geography is a separate subject. I clearly remember a particular lesson: the teacher had dis-tributed a number of “documents” to the students. Mine consist-ed of a photograph of a hilltop covered with scrubby vegetation, whitish limestone showing here and there. The questions under the photo asked, “What type of soil do you think this is?” Easy as pie. I answered, “Most probably limestone.” Next question,”What type of agriculture is most suitable here?” We had gone over this ad nauseam in class, so I responded, “Sheep farming. -- Why? -- Because the soil is not rich enough in humus to support cattle farming or cultivation of crops.” Final question, “Where in France do you think this image is from?” Now there are two main moun-tain ranges dating from the Quarternary Period in France, the Alps

and the Pyrenees. These are very tall peaks with snow caps. This photo showed a rather low altitude eroded range, meaning they were mountains from the Secondary Period. That left just two pos-sibilities, either the Massif Central or the Jura. I picked the Massif Central out of instinct but added that it could be the Jura too. I wonder what results I would get were I to give this same lesson plan to a class of 5th graders in Arizona. Would the students know how to tell the Rockies from the Appalachians from a photograph? I doubt it. One of my students once claimed that the tallest moun-tain in North America was Camelback Mountain! This exercise might seem to concentrate only on France. But in fact it applies to any region in any country. As an adult, whenever I see scrubland on limestone in the Middle East, on pictures of China, or in Central Asia, or Africa, I apply the lessons learned and deduce that they are probably raising sheep there. By Grade 11, a typical exercise would consist of a map of a coast, a port city, smaller towns and surrounding lands, and an accompanying text. You have such a crop produced at such a place. Please mark on the map where you would locate a processing plant for this product, and give your rea-sons. Support your answers. Of course, here, you are thinking of transportation (trucking, shipping), cost, labor, export, pollution, proximity to resources, etc. And you need to produce numbers and facts to support your assertions. Another typical activity in geog-

raphy class was map drawing, sketching, coloring, labeling, and so on. By Grade 5, all students could sketch the pentagon (map of France), with the little mouths of rivers in the right places, the little horn on top of Normandy, and so on. Then draw and label the main cities, the mountain ranges, and the rivers. In Arizona, the students are blessed. We only need to draw a tall rectangle with straight borders, then slash the bottom into a slope, and squiggle the left border for the Colorado River. So I asked my 6th graders to sketch the map of Arizona. I got a student uprising in return, “What? DRAW the map of Arizona? By hand? And how are we supposed to do that?” In history, in Grade 11, I studied the French Revolution for an entire semester in preparation for the GCE “O” level exam (British university entrance exam). The lessons drawn from the economic, social, historical and cultural factors stayed with me, helping me later to analyze, understand, and compare and contrast the Chinese Revolution of 1911, the Great Arab Revolu-tion and the American Revolution. After years of comparative edu-cation, my conclusion is that the best way to teach Social Studies is not to run around the world in 80 days, but to pick one specific historical event or one specific region, and delve in great depth into it. The lessons learned from this one event or region can be applied to other times and places. Then repeat the process.

Dr. Fawzia’s Corner The Impossible Subject: Social Studies (cont’d)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Bank of America Corp. said Monday it provided more than $685 billion in

credit to individuals, small businesses, nonprofit organi-zations and large companies last year, down 9.6 percent from a year earlier. Spokes-woman Colleen Haggerty said the decline from $758 billion in 2009 reflected lower demand for loans in the first half of 2010. She said there were sequential increases in lending in each of the four quarters in 2010.The bank extended nearly $188 billion in credit in the final quarter of 2010, a 4.5 percent increase over the same period a year ago. That

included $85 billion in first mortgages, $15 billion to nonprofit, government and anchor institutions, and $75 million to community devel-opment financial institutions that provide loans for low- and moderate-income fami-lies and small businesses.Bank of America also com-pleted 76,000 mortgage modifications in the fourth quarter. The bank so far has completed 775,000 loan modifications since Janu-ary 2008. Shares of the bank added 44 cents, or 3 percent, to $14.72 in midday trading.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Canadian company that hopes to use a mineral clay to power a new generation of hybrid and electric vehi-cles is developing plans for

a lithium mine in northern Nevada. The Reno Gazette-Journal reported Monday that Western Lithium Corp. of Vancouver, B.C., expects to develop the fifth-largest

lithium mine in the world at the site in northern Humboldt County near the Nevada-Or-egon line. Western Lithium development official Den-nis Bryan says the company believes it could produce 11 million tons of lithium car-bonate from the Kings Val-ley site. The company plans to employ up to 150 people to produce up to 15,000 tons a year. Bryan says that would be a big boost for worldwide lithium carbonate production of about 120,000 tons a year. Most now comes from Chile and Argentina.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sev-eral big acquisitions and a strong earnings report from Loews Corp. pushed stocks higher in afternoon trading Monday. Pride International Inc. jumped 16 percent after Ensco PLC, a London-based oil rig operator, said it would buy the offshore driller for $7.3 billion. Beckman Coul-ter Inc. gained 10 percent after Danaher Corp. said it plans to buy the manufactur-er of medical diagnostic tests for $5.8 billion. Loews Corp. rose 4 percent. The compa-ny, which owns Loews ho-tels and the property insurer CNA Financial Corp., said falling costs helped earn-ings rise 16 percent even as revenue slipped slightly. The results were higher than analysts were expecting and helped push financial com-

panies broadly higher. The Dow Jones industrial aver-age rose 78 points, or 0.6 per-cent, to 12,170. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 10, or 0.8 percent, to 1,321. The Nasdaq composite rose 21, or 0.8 percent, to 2,791. Jo-seph Saluzzi, co-head of eq-uity trading at Themis Trad-ing, said that with no major economic reports due out this week, mergers and earn-ings are sure to drive stocks higher. Saluzzi thinks inves-tors are getting too optimistic about the economy. Anything that can be construed as good news is likely to give them a reason to buy stocks, he said.“The path of least resistance right now is up,” Saluzzi said. “People are beginning to assume the market is go-ing higher. It’s momentum.”Financial companies rose

1.6 percent, the largest gain of any of the 10 company groups that make up the S&P index. Lorillard Inc. rose 2 percent after the company, which makes Newport and Maverick cigarettes, said it increased both sales and prices for its cigarettes. AOL Inc. dropped 2.5 percent af-ter saying it would buy the Huffington Post, a news and opinion website, for $315 million. Arianna Huffington, the site’s co-founder and po-litical pundit, will join AOL’s management team. Toy mak-er Hasbro Inc. rose 1 percent after reporting earnings that were lower but still beat ana-lysts’ expectations. Monday was the first day of trading since the company that owns the Nasdaq exchange ad-mitted Saturday it had been hacked late last year. The problem did not affect any trades, the company said. The Dow and the S&P 500 surpassed significant mile-stones last week after Pfizer Inc., UPS Inc. and other large companies reported higher earnings. There was also a strong report on manufactur-ing. The Dow closed above 12,000 and the S&P 500 in-dex above 1,300 for the first time in two and a half years. Both indexes are trading at levels last seen in June 2008, three months before the worst of the financial crisis.

SAO PAULO (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner traveled to Brazil to meet with top officials Monday, looking to bolster ties ahead of next month’s visit by President Barack Obama and foster teamwork on economic issues such as confronting China on its currency. Geithner, taking questions from economics students in Sao Paulo, said Brazilian and U.S. “interests are fundamentally aligned” and the countries have “very similar interests in what we want to build globally.” Eco-nomic relations between the U.S. and Brazil have frayed in the past few years. Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blamed the U.S. and other wealthy na-tions for creating the global financial crisis and not doing enough to halt it. In recent months, Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega blamed both the U.S. and China for a global “currency war” that has caught nations like Brazil in an economic crossfire, with upward pres-sure on currencies that makes

Brazilian goods less competi-tive abroad and imports more affordable at home, eating into the domestic market. Since President Dilma Rous-seff took power Jan. 1, how-ever, there are growing signs in Latin America’s biggest economy of worries about losing out to Chinese prod-ucts that critics say are cheap because of China’s refusal to allow its currency to ap-preciate as the market would dictate. A survey last week of 1,529 manufacturing firms in Brazil indicated 45 percent of them were losing business to Chinese competitors within Brazil. China has surpassed the U.S. as Brazil’s biggest trading partner. While Brazil maintained a $5 billion trade surplus with the Asian giant last year, it was on the back of commodity exports, stok-ing worries that this is hurt-ing Brazil’s ability to develop its industrial sector. The U.S. government and American companies have long been critics of Chinese policies that keep its currency low relative to the dollar. While not naming names, Geithner made the case for Brazil to lean toward the U.S. argu-ment on China’s currency, saying “there are a significant number of emerging econo-mies outside this region that are running exchange rate systems that are designed to try to preserve undervalued

currencies.” “We need to see more progress toward more flexible exchange-rate sys-tems where they’re not flexi-ble,” he added. Erasto Almei-da, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group, said there has been a split within Brazil’s government between sectors who see China and see it as a powerful strategic political partner and those looking more at economic issues, who see it as a rival. During Silva’s eight years in office, Brazil took on a more muscular foreign policy and pushed hard for so-called “south-south” ties, rather than fierce competition with other emerging market nations like China. But Almeida said Rousseff’s administration ap-pears to be giving more voice to those within the govern-ment who are aware of the threat it poses to Brazilian in-dustry. “Under Rousseff, the more political view of China won’t go away, but there is going to be more emphasis put on the more economic view,” he said. “There is a growing concern within the government about the cur-rency.” After his stop in Sao Paulo, where Geithner met with several business leaders in addition to speaking with students at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, he was expected to meet with Rousseff and Mantega in Brasilia before flying back to the U.S.

Bank of America extends $685B in credit in 2010

Canadian firm has plan to mine lithium in Nevada

Deal news, earnings push stocks higher

Geithner in Brazil to bolster US economic ties

NEW YORK (AP) — Med-ical and industrial instru-ments maker Danaher Corp. said Monday it agreed to buy medical testing instru-ment maker Beckman Coul-ter for about $5.87 billion. Beckman Coulter Inc. makes products that simplify and automate biomedical test-ing. It will become part of Danaher’s life sciences and diagnostics business if the deal goes through. That would more than double the life science unit’s revenue, making make it Danaher’s largest business. Beckman Coulter, which is based in Brea, Calif., had reportedly put itself up for sale in De-cember. Danaher has agreed to pay $83.50 per Beckman Coulter share, a 45 percent premium over Beckman’s share price on Dec. 9 — the

day before the acquisition rumors first surfaced. Da-naher valued the purchase at $6.8 billion including Beck-man Coulter’s debt and its cash on hand. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of the year. Closing depends on a ma-jority of Beckman Coulter shareholders tendering their shares in favor of the deal. Beckman Coulter said its board unanimously supports the sale. Shares of Beckman Coulter surged $7.35, or 9.8 percent, to $82.52 in after-noon trading. Shares of com-panies making large acquisi-tions often trade lower, but Danaher shares rose $1.35, or 2.8 percent, to $49.33, an early indication that inves-tors approve of the combina-tion. In a note to clients, Citi Investment Research analyst

Deane Dray said Danaher is paying a reasonable price for Beckman Coulter, which is a “nice fit” with the rest of its business and should add to its profit immediately, excluding acquisition costs. Danaher, which is based in Washington, D.C., reported $13.2 billion in revenue in 2010, with $2.3 billion from the life sciences business. It also makes Craftsman tools for the retailer Sears. Beck-man Coulter has not reported its full-year results, but it had $2.68 billion in revenue in the first nine months of the year. Beckman Coulter has dealt with several recent setbacks. The company said in March it would have to get new regulatory approval for its AccuTnI test kit, which is used to determine if a patient has suffered a heart attack. The Food and Drug Admin-istration said it appeared the company made changes to the test kits without approv-al. It reported a drop in its second-quarter profit and cut its annual guidance because sales from developed mar-kets were down. Chairman, CEO and President Scott Garrett resigned unexpect-edly in September after five years with the company.

Danaher agrees to buy Beckman Coulter for $5.87B

7California & Illinois News Feb 10 - Feb 17 , 2011

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — Riverside Coun-ty supervisors are deciding whether to award $50,000 to a witness who provided testimony that led to the conviction of the man who set a 2006 wildfire that killed five firefighters. Prose-cutors who won Raymond Oyler’s conviction in 2009 have encouraged the Board of Supervisors to approve the award at their meeting Tuesday.The 40-year-old Oyler was convicted on five counts of murder and 37 counts of arson and has been sentenced to death for setting the Oct. 26, 2006, fire south of Cabazon. Five members of the U.S. Forest Service Engine 57 crew were over-run by flames while defending a vacant house in Twin Pines. The blaze burned 43,000 acres and destroyed 39 homes.

SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER,Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Child obesity is considered a very serious problem by nearly 60 percent of the registered California voters sur-veyed as part of a Field Poll released Tuesday, marking an increase from 46 percent eight years ago. Seventy percent of those surveyed strongly support high school students being enrolled in gym for four years, and 61 percent strongly sup-port keeping school athletic facilities open out-side school hours. The study was sponsored by The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation that focuses on underserved communities. “Voters are saying that all Califor-nia families deserve access to healthy, affordable foods and opportunities for physical activity, and they’re 100 percent right,” said Dr. Robert K. Ross, president and CEO of the endowment. The telephone survey of 1,005 Californians was con-

ducted in October and funded by endowment. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent. Nearly one in three voters surveyed said unhealthy eating habits are the single great-est health risk facing California’s children, while another 15 percent identified a lack of physical activity as the greatest risk. About half of those surveyed, 47 percent, said the average child is eating less healthy foods now than they were five years ago, while 18 percent said kids are eat-ing healthier foods and 28 percent said there’s no change. The remainder had no opinion. Only 9 percent of respondents said the average child is more active than five years ago, with 60 percent saying kids are less active and 24 percent seeing no change in activity level. Parents in low-in-come communities consistently asked for more government intervention to create healthier en-vironments, when compared to voters statewide.— Asked if current laws should be expanded to ban the sales of all drinks with added sugar in schools, 34 percent of statewide respondents strongly support the action compared to 53 per-cent of low-income parents. — Sixty-one per-cent of low-income parents strongly support banning all forms of junk food advertising in schools, compared with 44 percent of statewide respondents. — Sixty-two percent of low-in-come parents strongly support government aid to supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods, compared to 32 percent statewide.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The only Bell city councilman not charged with looting the work-ing-class Los Angeles suburb has testified that

he doesn’t recall taking part in any meetings of four committees for which the other council members collected tens of thousands of dollars.Councilman Lorenzo Velez testified Tuesday during the second day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to have the mayor of Bell and five other past and present members of the City Council stand trial on dozens of fraud charges. Deputy District at-torney Edward Miller questioned Velez about the four committees. Velez said he couldn’t re-call any council member doing any work for any of them or whether any of them ever actually held a meeting.

CHICAGO (AP) — With less than two weeks to go before Election Day, the candidates for Chicago mayor veered from debating city issues to talking about whether they support reparations for de-scendants of slaves. They all supported the notion of reparations but had differ-ent ideas about what reparations were. There were no details about where the money might come from. The forum was sponsored by the Chicago Defender, the city’s historic black newspaper.. For-mer White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel pointed out the city had serious budget problems to solve. Another can-didate, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, called it “offensive” for Emanuel to talk about budget deficits when talking about repa-rations. City Clerk Miguel del Valle said he believes in economic development and wants a federally-funded youth em-ployment program, something he consid-ers a reparation.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Moore has crunched the numbers and concluded he is owed millions of dollars more for his film “Fahrenheit 9/11.” The documentary filmmaker sued finan-

ciers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles on Monday, claiming the brothers have used creative accounting to keep Moore from receiving more than $2.7 million for the 2004 documentary. “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which centered on the Bush White House’s actions af-ter the Sept. 11 attacks, grossed more than $100 million — a blockbuster by documentary film standards. Moore claims his agreement with the Weinsteins to distribute the picture called for him to receive half the film’s profits, but audits per-formed since 2008 have turned up several irreg-ularities. The lawsuit states Moore’s payments have been reduced by advertising, consulting, taxes and for travel described as “grossly exces-sive and unreasonable.” The Weinsteins’ attor-ney, Bert Fields, said Moore’s lawsuit should be thrown out. “Michael Moore has been paid $20 million and he claims he should get $2 million more,” Fields said Tuesday. “His claims are hog-wash. They are totally without merit. He’s been paid every dime he’s entitled to.” Disputes over how studios handle accounting for major mov-ies is nothing new, with lawsuits filed over the profits of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” Both cases were eventually resolved out of court. The brothers have been responsible for bringing several hits to audiences, including “Pulp Fic-tion” and “Chicago” during their tenure at Mi-ramax, which they founded in 1979. They later sold the company to The Walt Disney Co. but stayed there as managers, although they left over disputes about “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Moore is a documentary filmmaker known for tackling seri-ous subjects with a touch of humor. He won an Academy Award for “Bowling for Columbine,” which looked at gun control in the United States, and his latest project was titled, “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

CHICAGO (AP) — With winter about half over, Illinois’ public health depart-ment is reporting widespread flu activity.Many hospitals are seeing an increase in cases they say is typical for early Febru-ary. There have been 33 flu-linked inten-sive care cases in Chicago since October, including 13 late last month and most in adults. Starting this week at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, all visi-tors are being screened and those with flu symptoms told to go home. Those with-out get a yellow sticker to wear during their visit. At Loyola University Medi-cal Center in Maywood, visitors with a cough are asked to wear masks. So are hospital employees exempt from a man-datory flu shot policy there. Dr. Jorge Parada (GEORGE Pah-RAH’-duh) says that’s usual policy during flu season.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — New Wis-consin Gov. Scott Walker has all but de-clared war on government employees and their unions — or as he calls them, the “haves” in an economy full of “have nots.” In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich says state law should be changed to weaken unions in contract negotiations. And Ari-zona House Speaker Kirk Adams wants to cut pension benefits. But state officials trying to close crippling budget deficits may find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to translate their words into action. Many will find that contracts and state law limit their power to lay off public employees. Case law, and in some cases state con-stitutions, restrict what can be done to pensions. Efforts to impose furloughs are likely to trigger court battles. “It’s going to be tough,” said David Primo, a scholar at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center and author of a book on state budgets. “I think there are going to be a lot of hard-fought battles over the next few years.” As most states struggle with crushing budget deficits this year, government employees are frequent tar-gets for officials looking to cut expenses. That’s partly because they’re easy targets. There’s a lot less political risk in talking about cutting bureaucrats than in cutting services, although the two often amount to the same thing. It’s also because em-ployee wages, benefits and retirement costs account for a significant chunk of government spending. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates employee costs account for roughly one third of state operating expenses. Nicho-las Johnson, head of the center’s State Fiscal Project, said the meltdown of so

many state budgets has far more to do with falling revenues and climbing ex-penses in other areas than it does with employee benefits. Still, the pension and health care portions of employee benefits have been rising steadily and budget-cutters can’t ignore the issue. In Ohio, Kasich has talked about trying to change state law so that public employee unions couldn’t go to an outside arbitrator to de-cide contract disputes. “We are going to have collective-bargaining reform,” the Republican said during his election cam-paign. “It’s just a matter of how far we go.” His Wisconsin counterpart has been even more outspoken. Walker wants gov-ernment employees to pay more for their health insurance and pensions. To make that happen, he talks about weakening the unions that represent 39,000 workers — perhaps turning Wisconsin into a right-to-work state where labor unions can’t force employees to be members, or even getting rid of unions altogether. His choices boil down to either changing state law, which will be difficult even with a Republican majority, or negotiating with unions who are livid with Walker. “The guy has cre-ated the hostile environment,” said Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union. “Now he’s go-ing to have to learn to deal with it.” Other governors have found that employees are a difficult target to hit squarely. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, moved to lay off state employees but was blocked when the courts ruled any job cuts had to be negotiated with the union. Ultimately, he imposed furloughs on non-union em-ployees and negotiated a deal that cut union salaries but protected their jobs.

Witness could get $50K for tip in CA wildfire

Many CA voters say child obesity is serious issue

Calif. city official testifies in corruption case

Chicago mayor candidates debate as election nears

Michael Moore sues over ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ profits

Flu cases on the rise with winter about half over

States may find targeting workers isn’t easy

8 International News Feb 10 - Feb 17 , 2011

CAIRO (AP) — “Do you know why you’re here?” a military in-terrogator asked an Amnesty In-ternational worker who was held incommunicado for nearly two days, bound or blindfolded much of the time. Then he answered his own question. “You’re here for your own protection,” the interro-

gator told Said Haddadi, a French national who was swept up in a wave of detentions of human rights activists and journalists during deadly clashes between pro- and anti-government pro-testers. Dozens of activists who were rounded up in Egypt’s chaos like Haddadi have been freed, but

some are believed to remain in custody. Advocates say the gov-ernment refuses to release names or locations of detainees, and the involvement of both police and military agencies makes it hard to determine who is responsible. “It’s not clear who is doing what,” said Sally Sami of the Cairo In-stitute for Human Rights Studies. On Sunday, Egypt’s Vice Presi-dent Omar Suleiman met opposi-tion figures and promised to be-gin releasing political detainees as part of a concession package. Spokesman Magdy Rady said Egypt was in such a state of up-heaval that “some groups” might be detaining people “in the name of the government” without prop-er authority. “In the mess we are in, everything is possible,” said Rady, promising investigation into such cases. “We are really against these forces now.”

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian-American scholar and Nobel lau-reate Ahmed Zewail added his weight Sunday to calls for Presi-dent Hosni Mubarak to step down to help end the standoff with anti-government protesters. Ze-wail, who has been living in the United States, returned to Egypt Sunday and met with government officials and young protesters to

help mediate a resolution as pro-tests continued for a 13th day. “I call on President Hosni Mubarak, leader of the largest country in the Middle East, to give up power to another leader and make history in the Middle East,” he said at a news conference. Zewail, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in chem-istry, met with Vice President Omar Suleiman, who is leading talks with the opposition for the government. Zewail also met with religious leaders and with-Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who has put his name forward as a possible presidential candidate. “We are at a crossroads in Egypt and we need a clear vision,” said Zewail, who has called for po-

litical and educational reforms in Egypt in the past. He said he was optimistic after meeting with young protesters for seven hours to understand their demands. Zewail said he believed a solu-tion would involve amending the constitution, setting a time-line for free elections, canceling emergency laws, freeing politi-cal prisoners and respecting press freedom. On Sunday, Sulieman met with major opposition groups for the first time and offered new concessions including freedom of the press, the release of those detained since anti-government protests began nearly two weeks ago and the eventual lifting of the hated emergency laws.

JAMEL, Germany (AP) — This is a town taken over by neo-Nazis. Wooden signposts by the main road point to Vienna, Paris, and Braunau am Inn — the birthplace of Adolf Hitler. A far-right leader runs his demo-lition company from home, its logo featuring a man smashing a Star of David with a sledgeham-mer. Every few months, towns-folk host outdoor parties where guests sing “Hitler is my Fueh-rer” to chants of “Heil” around a massive bonfire. Jamel is the most extreme manifestation of a chilling phenomenon in the for-mer communist East Germany: a creeping encroachment of neo-Nazism that makes Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania one of only two states where Germany’s big-gest far-right party, the National Democratic Party, or NPD, sits in parliament. The extreme-right is believed to be behind some 40 attacks in the state over the past year, including stones thrown through windows of political par-ties and fireworks blown up in a prosecutor’s mailbox. Last year in Jamel, witnesses say, a neo-Nazi punched a visitor and shouted his allegiance to Hitler. The state has Germany’s highest unemploy-ment rate outside Berlin, at 12.7 percent in December, and few industries — fueling xenophobia the neo-Nazis have capitalized on. Only 2 percent of the popula-tion is foreign born, but officials say that lack of immigrant contact itself has reinforced suspicions.

“Federally the Islamic extrem-ists are the biggest problem; for us the extreme right is the biggest problem,” said Reinhard Muel-ler, who heads the state branch of Germany’s domestic intel-ligence agency. In Jamel, six of the 10 houses are in the hands of the far right, and authorities con-sider 10 of the village’s 28 adults right-wing extremists. Town life is dominated by one man: Sven Krueger, a 36-year-old leading NPD official, who grew up here. Legally, very little can be done to expel the neo-Nazis — they care-fully skirt German laws against displaying Nazi symbols, like the swastika or the SS runes, and the banned songs people hear in the night cannot be pinned on any one individual. Still, residents say their sympathies are clear. Horst and Birgit Lohmeyer, who have lived in Jamel for the past sev-en years, say the local far-right scene attracts scores of neo-Na-zis for parties a few times a year — including several hundred at Krueger’s wedding last summer. “They sit around the bonfire and sing these songs — ‘Adolf Hitler is mein Fuehrer’ they sing — they call out ‘heil’ — there are some-times as many as 300 right ex-tremists at these parties,” Birgit Lohmeyer said. In protest. “The NPD is nothing less than the suc-cessor to the Nazi party and their goals are the same,” said Mayor Uwe Wandel in an interview at the Mercedes dealership he runs about 200 yards (meters) from

Krueger’s demolition company. “Maybe today they’re not talking about Jews but about foreigners in general, but their ideals are ex-actly the same. Krueger was the only known far-right extremist in the village when the Lohmeyers moved there in 2004 from Ham-burg. But his presence started attracting more extremists; as they moved in, others moved out — and Krueger encouraged his friends to buy up the property.Lohmeyer said she and her hus-band for the most part keep to themselves in their 150-year-old half- timbered restored farm-house with their 13 cats. She said they haven’t suffered any retalia-tion from the neo-Nazis for hold-ing their music festival. The NPD is marginalized at the national level in Germany, and wherever the party holds rallies, the hun-dreds who show up are dwarfed in numbers by thousands of counter-demonstrators. And even though its popularity has slipped slightly in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it appears poised to remain over the 5 percent of the vote needed to keep its seats in the upcoming Sept. 4 state election. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency estimates that as of 2010 there were about 1,400 far-right extremists in Mecklenburg-West-ern Pomerania — a small fraction of the state’s 1.6 million popula-tion. Of them, 400 are NPD mem-bers. Still, officials acknowledge the far-right extremists in the state make up a disproportion-ate number of Germany’s over-all 26,000. Mueller said the state government supports a ban of the NPD, which would cut it off from funding given to all parties that receive a certain proportion of the vote, based on a sliding scale. The NPD got some €1.19 million in 2009, the last year for which a figure was available, while by contrast Merkel’s conservative party got €41.9 million.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Ven-ezuelan President Hugo Chavez is backing workers in a labor dispute with Coca-Cola’s bottler in the coun-try, saying Friday that Venezuelans can live without the American soft drink.The leftist leader raised the issue dur-ing a televised speech to supporters when he spotted a sign in the crowd denouncing “exploitation” by Coca-

Cola. “If Coca-Cola doesn’t want to comply with the constitution and laws, well, one can live without Coca- Cola,” Chavez said during the outdoor speech in the central city of Valencia.Local bottler Coca-Cola Femsa de Venezuela SA said last week that shortages of soft drinks have beenincreasing due to a strike at a key plant in Valencia. About 1,000 workers at the plant have been striking since Jan. 14, demanding pay raises and other benefits. Chavez said workers must be supported “in their fight against capitalism.” “Coca-Cola isn’t essen-tial. Who said Coca-Cola is needed to live?” Chavez said. He suggested nat-ural options like guava juice or lem-onade with sugar cane juice. “Passion fruit juice is very good,” Chavez said.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s president recently boasted that his country, one of the Arab world’smost stifling regimes, is immune to the upheaval roiling other Arab countries. He was proven right — at least for the time being. A weeklong online cam-paign failed to galvanize the kinds of mass protests that have rocked Tuni-sia and Egypt in recent weeks. In fact, no one showed up Friday and Satur-day for what were to be “days of rage” against the Syrian president’s iron-fisted rule. By Saturday afternoon, the number of plainclothes security agents stationed protectively in key areas of the old city of the capital, Damascus, had begun to dwindle. “The only rage in Syria yesterday was the rage of na-ture,” wrote Syrian journalist Ziad Haidar, in reference to a cold spell and heavy rain lashing the country. But it was more than just the weather that kept Syrians at home. A host of factors — including intimidation by security agents and President Bashar Assad’s popular anti-Israel policies — kept Syria quiet this weekend. Suheir Atassi, who helped organize a small vigil this week in support of Egyptian protesters, told Human Rights Watch that a plainclothes officer accused her of mobilizing people and working for Israel. “He called me a germ. He got angry when I would answer him back, and he finally slapped me heavily on the face and threatened to kill me,” said Atassi, a longtime Syrian pro-de-mocracy activist. Attempts by The As-sociated Press to reach Atassi were un-successful. Human Rights Watch also quoted witnesses as saying Syrian se-curity forces intimidated people trying to organize support for protesters in Egypt. The New York-based watchdog said security services arrested Ghas-san al-Najjar, leader of a small group called the Islamic Democratic Current, from his home in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, after he urged Syr-ians to demonstrate and press for more freedoms. It also said a group of 20 people dressed in civilian clothing

beat and dispersed the demonstrators, including Atassi, who had assembled in Damascus on Wednesday to hold a candlelight vigil for Egyptian demon-strators. The Syrian regime has a his-tory of crushing dissent. Assad’s father beat down a Muslim fundamentalist uprising in the city of Hama in 1982, killing thousands in the violence. In 2004, bloody clashes that began in the northeastern city of Qamishli between Syrian Kurds and security forces left at least 25 people dead and some 100 injured. Joshua Landis, an American professor and Syria expert who runs a blog called Syria Comment, said Syr-ians are wary of rocking the boat and have been traumatized by the sectarian violence in Iraq. “They understand the dangers of regime collapse in a reli-giously divided society,” he wrote in a recent posting. Syrian state-run news-papers have reported extensively on events in Egypt, suggesting Syria may be feeling vindicated. An editorial this week in the Baath newspaper, mouth-piece of the ruling party, said the upris-ing in Egypt is proof that all the trou-bles of the Arab world stem from “the complete acquiescence of some (Arab)regimes to the U.S. and their accep-tance to take Zionist dictates.” Assad told The Wall Street Journal in an in-terview published Monday that Syria is insulated from the upheaval in the Arab world because he understands his people’s needs and has united them in common cause against Israel. In downtown Damascus on Saturday, Syrians casually walked over an Is-raeli flag placed a few months ago on the cobbled pavement and followed the events in Egypt on TVs placed in crammed shops. A 17-year-old stu-dent, Tayyeb, said some Syrians have legitimate grievances against the gov-ernment. “But I am against staging such mass protests,” said Tayyeb, who asked that only his first name be usedbecause of security concerns. “Look at what’s happening in Egypt, it’s total chaos.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey is hoping to foster dramatic talent in the Middle East with a new theater arts academy. The joint venture by

the Kevin Spacey Foundation and an-other group led by an Emirati business

tycoon plans to offer workshops and classes in every aspect of theater from acting to stage design. The mission also seeks to bring Mideast content to international venues such as Broad-way. Spacey, who is artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theater, unveiled The Middle East Theater Academy on Sunday in Dubai. The academy will not have a specific base, but will take up projects across the region. Spacey is in the United Arab Emirates to host the Laureus sports awards.

In Egypt, security forces target activists

Egyptian Nobel laureate Zewail: Mubarak must leave

Neo-Nazis dominate tiny German village

Chavez backs workers in dispute with Coca-Cola

Syria escapes ‘Day of Rage’ protests

Kevin Spacey seeks to boost Mideast theater