Muslim TV anchor suspended over haircut

KUALA LUMPUR: A Muslim TV anchor's decision to support cancer awareness by chopping off her hair has cost the woman her job at a Malaysian channel, which wants her to grow back her mane to an "acceptable" length before being allowed to resume her work.
Popular Malaysian NTV7 news anchor and television personality Ras Adiba Mohd Radzi has also claimed to have received anonymous calls abusing her for defying a 'fatwa' prohibiting women from shaving their head, local media reported today.
Ras Adiba, who works on a freelance basis for NTV7, cropped her hair on Friday last to show solidarity with The National Cancer Council cancer awareness campaign.
However, NTV7 found her new look too much to handle, ruling that she could no longer appear on air until her hair grows back to an acceptable length, Star newspaper said.
An NTV7 source said Ras Adiba had approached them before getting shorn, and the management had told her that if her hair was cropped, she would not be allowed to announce the news, the paper said.
She was told that once her hair had grown, she could resume her part-time position as newscaster.
"We can't put a bald person on air, especially for news and the anchor is a woman. We have to upkeep a certain look and feel.
"Ras suggested a wig, which we were against because it would look strange for her to appear on air in a wig and then in public with a shaved head," the source said.
The source also added that that NTV7's management had fully supported Ras Adiba's cause and had left the decision to her.
Ras Adiba's has also received anonymous calls abusing her for defying a fatwa that prohibits women from shaving their head. "The callers claimed to be from a religious department," she told the paper.
However, Ras Adiba said she did her research before cutting off her locks, adding that she still had hair and that her scalp could not be seen.
"I am answerable to God. Islam is a way of life, and we are told to always help people. I am a Muslim, I pray five times a day and I love my religion," she said.
"My late stepfather died of cancer, my uncle is a cancer survivor. I have many friends going through it, and it breaks my heart."
She has currently taken to wearing a turban chosen for her by her young son, as she finds it comfortable.

Reading offers Brazilian prisoners quicker escape

BRASILIA: Brazil will offer inmates in its crowded federal penitentiary system a novel way to shorten their sentences: four days less for every book they read.
Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil's most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced.
Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay which must "make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing," said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette.
A special panel will decide which inmates are eligible to participate in the program dubbed "Redemption through Reading".
"A person can leave prison more enlightened and with a enlarged vision of the world," said Sao Paulo lawyer Andre Kehdi, who heads a book donation project for prisons.
"Without doubt they will leave a better person," he said.(Reuters)

Teen violin star is Venezuela's youngest conductor

MARGARITA ISLAND, Venezuela: At 2 years old, he was given his first musical instrument: a "cuatro," or small four-string guitar. At 8, he cried with emotion at a brass band concert.
Now, at just 14, Jose Angel Salazar is Venezuela's youngest orchestra conductor - the latest prodigy from his nation's famed El Sistema (The System) music development program - and possibly the youngest in the world.
Since the mid-1970s El Sistema has taught hundreds of thousands of youths, many from impoverished homes in Venezuela's tough slums, to play in orchestras. Supporters say it gives them discipline, cuts truancy and boosts self-esteem.
"For a boy of 14 to be conducting an orchestra at the same time as going to school is a miracle that only happens in Venezuela," Salazar told Reuters in an interview last week on Margarita, the Caribbean island where he was born.
The teenager, who delights in the complex symphonies of Franz Schubert and overtures by Antonio Vivaldi, is the second of three siblings raised by two local schoolteachers.
At a concert that night, the other musicians applauded him warmly as he took the stage to conduct 40 other youngsters, many of them older than him. Smiling shyly, he raised his baton and silence fell before the first notes rang out.
After two pieces, he received a long standing ovation, with his proud family looking on from a private box.
Jose Antonio Abreu, a local pianist, politician and economics professor, founded El Sistema in 1975 to get poor youngsters off the street, especially in shantytown "barrios" with some of the highest murder rates in the world, by offering them a classical musical education focused on ensemble playing.
Today, it is made up of 180 orchestras and about 350,000 youths, some 2,000 of whom recently flooded the Caracas metro to play in a simultaneous concerts at 23 stations.
Its most well-known alumnus is 31-year-old Gustavo Dudamel, who is now director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and shot to rock-star levels of fame after leading Venezuela's Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra at rapturously received concerts worldwide.
Another prodigy is Edicson Ruiz, who at 17 became the youngest musician to join the Berlin Philharmonic.
Youth orchestras inspired by Abreu's methods are being set up in places including Los Angeles, Scotland and Spain.
GLOBAL AMBITION
Salazar, who spoke to Reuters between rehearsals while wearing his high school uniform - a pale blue polo shirt, says he too hopes to travel the world one day, thanks to music.
In preparation, he said he plans to study languages after he leaves school in two years' time. And, as a fan of Schubert, he says he will start with German.
His love of Schubert, and classical music in general, began when he was age 8 and he saw a concert in Margarita by a local brass band with a trumpet player from the Berlin Philharmonic.
"I wanted to play the trumpet. ... I remember crying three times because of the impression the music made on me," he said.
He soon gave up karate lessons in favor of his new passion.
He began by learning the recorder, which all initiates to El Sistema are taught, and then the violin. He excelled at that instrument and was soon named as a concertmaster - or the leader of the first violin section of the orchestra.
Salazar, who also plays the guitar and the "cuatro," said the first time he directed the orchestra it was spontaneous.
"I was playing (the violin) and there was a teachers' meeting so our teacher had to leave. Since no one was left in charge, I put down the violin and began to conduct," he said with a smile.
Before long, Salazar was conducting boys twice his age, but always under the watchful eye of his teacher, Felipe Izcaray.
His life has changed a lot. After school he runs, without changing his uniform, to rehearse late into the night. It is only during the weekends when there are no concerts that he has something resembling a normal teenage life with his friends.
One day, he dreams of conducting at New York's storied Carnegie Hall, or the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
"I want to continue developing myself so that in the future I can pass on the gifts that I'm receiving now," Salazar said. (Reuters)

Venezuelan tribe angry at "sacred" stone in Berlin

BERLIN: Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld's sculptures in a Berlin park were meant to promote world peace, but the 79-year-old German now finds himself at war with a Venezuelan tribe which accuses him of stealing a sacred pink stone known to them as "Grandmother".
The Venezuelan government is championing the Pemon Indians of the "Gran Sabana" region by demanding the return of the polished stone from Berlin's Tiergarten park - putting the German government in something of a dilemma.
With Caracas calling it robbery, and the sculptor arguing that the stone was a legal gift, the monolith is emitting more negative energy than its esoteric fans in Berlin are used to.
Blissfully unaware of the diplomatic tug-of-war, Robert, a Berlin gardener, got off his bicycle to light joss sticks among the stones from five continents that form the "Global Stone Project", awaiting friends for an afternoon shamanic ritual.
But newly arrived Venezuelan tourists Grecia Melendez and Juan Carlos Brozoski knew all about the war of the stone and suspected there were political motives behind the protests.
"(President Hugo) Chavez always wants a conflict with someone," said 32-year-old Melendez, taking photos of the 12 cubic meter stone, which is engraved with the word "love" in different languages - and graffiti with couples' names and hearts.
Von Schwarzenfeld, a frail figure with whispy white hair and scuffed brown shoes, waved a sheaf of documents authorizing the removal of the stone from the Canaima National Park in 1998.
As with all the stones arranged in a circle in Berlin, a "sister" stone remained behind. Every summer solstice, their burnished surfaces reflect the sun "as a symbol of a united mankind, hopefully one day in peace", he said.
The project was inaugurated in 1999 near Berlin's landmark Potsdamer Platz and Brandenburg Gate. As children played among the stones, Von Schwarzenfeld defied Venezuela to take back what he called a "gift to Berlin" from former president Rafael Caldera.
"Peace for me does not mean the absence of conflict," said the artist, undeterred by threats and what he too suspects are "political motivations" behind the tussle over the stone.
ALL THE ANTS YOU CAN EAT
A video circulated on Youtube has mobilized public opinion in Venezuela, recounting the mythical origins of the Kueka (grandmother in the Pemon language) and its pair, and voicing locals' sense of loss.
"This man decided to take the Kueka without caring about its cultural value for the Pemon community," Venezuelan activist and ecologist Any Alarcon says in the video.
Culture Minister Pedro Calzadilla told state television the donation was "illegitimate" because the stone was part of "the cultural patrimony of the (Pemon) community". Prosecutors are looking into the stone's removal because "whoever authorized the removal of the Grandmother committed a crime", he said.
After Pemon tribespeople demonstrated outside Germany's embassy last week with spears, feather headdresses and banners saying "The Pemon People Want Our Wise Grandmother Back", the German envoy promised to relay their feelings to Berlin, while telling them it would be no easy task to return the stone.
German Foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke said Berlin wanted a solution "agreed by all sides - Venezuela, the indigenous groups, the artist and the city of Berlin".
Von Schwarzenfeld was not convinced, saying the stone's removal would sacrifice "the 15 years of my life and all the money I spent. If it is taken away, it ruins the whole project."
Beside him stood German anthropologist Bruno Illius, who has studied the Pemon tribe for two decades. He said there was "no such thing as a 'holy stone' for the Pemones, just small magical stones with practical purposes, like helping you to catch fish".
Illius rubbished stories about the stone's removal bringing misfortune on the tribe, like drought and the disappearance of the ants they eat in spicy sauce, saying he had eaten plenty of ants on three visits to the region, as recently as last year.
"This is all a fraud, a deception," the professor said. (Reuters)

LHC directs Zardari to stop politicking in Presidency by September 5

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has set a deadline of September 5 for President Asif Ali Zardari to stop political activity while sitting in the Presidency.
Earlier on Wednesday, the LHC had given President Zardari ‘one more chance’ to comply with the court’s order adding that if this was not done contempt proceedings would be initiated.
A three member bench of the LHC headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial completed proceedings on petitions relating to contempt of court being committed by President Zardari by not giving up his political activities in the President House.
On May 12 last year, a full bench of the LHC ordered that President Zardari could not continue as co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, while sitting in the presidency.
The full bench had asked President Zardari to either step down as co-chairman of the PPP or stop using the presidency for politicking.

Raja made PM to serve Zardari: Imran

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman, Imran Khan Wednesday reiterated that Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was not elected to serve the people but President Asif Ali Zardari.
PTI staged a rally against price hike, corruption and loadshedding which marched from District Council to Ghantaghar Chowk. Led by Imran Khan, the rally was attended in large numbers among others by Javed Hashmi, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and other leaders.
Addressing the rally, Imran Khan lamented that prices soared skyward during the rule of the current regime while large factories and manufacturing units witnessed closure due to prolonged loadshedding, rendering hundreds of thousands of labourers jobless.
He said the government could not be allowed any more time and called upon the traders, laboureres and youth to prepare for a long march towards Islamabad.
Lashing out at Pakistan Muslim League-N President Nawaz Sharif, he accused the former of staging a sham fight with the government. "Tell me what steps did you take in four years for addressing the power crisis issue?" he asked Nawaz Sharif.
He also asked the PML-N leader to provide details as to how much electricity dues stood outstanding against the latter's textile mills.

Army Chief Kayani urges ISAF Commander to curb border incursions

RAWALPINDI: ISAF Commander, General John Allen called on Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at General Headquarters Rawalpindi.
According to sources, General Kayani expressed serious reservations on the intrusion of militants from Afghanistan into Pakistan.
Security sources said COAS General Kayani also raised the issue of the attack on a Pakistani post by militants from Afghanistan in the Dir area.
Kayani told the ISAF Commander that NATO should take serious notice of cross border incursions.
AFP adds: The US commander in Afghanistan discussed border coordination with Pakistan's army chief on Wednesday as the Taliban released a video showing the remains of 17 beheaded Pakistani soldiers.
General John Allen, who commands 130,000 NATO troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, flew into Chaklala air base and went straight into the talks with General Ashraf Kayani at his Rawalpindi headquarters, before jetting out of the country, officials said.
There was no immediate comment from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), but a Pakistani official said Kayani demanded greater efforts from the Americans on stopping cross-border incursions.
"It was a routine meeting to discuss the border coordination," a senior Pakistani military official told AFP.
"We also raised the issue of cross-border attacks on the Pakistan military from Afghanistan. We demanded that ISAF take action against the militant sanctuaries in Afghanistan and eliminate the militant groups involved in cross-border attacks inside Pakistan," he added.
Pakistan said around 100 Afghan-based militants crossed the border into the northwestern district of Upper Dir on Sunday. Six soldiers were killed and 11 went missing. Pakistani officials said Tuesday that seven of them were beheaded.
On Wednesday, a senior security official in the northwest admitted that all 17 had in fact been beheaded after the Pakistani Taliban released a video showing the slaughtered heads.
Pakistan's main umbrella Taliban faction claimed responsibility for the attack. Intelligence officials said the perpetrators were loyalists of Maulana Fazlullah, a Pakistani cleric who led a two-year Taliban insurgency in the northwestern Swat valley before fleeing into Afghanistan to escape an army offensive in 2009.
But both the Afghans and the Americans repeatedly blame Pakistan for not doing more to eliminate havens on its soil, which are used as launch pads for attacks across the border.
Last Friday, Allen blamed the Pakistan-based Haqqani network for a siege on a lakeside hotel in Kabul that killed 18 people. Earlier this month, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington was running out of patience with Pakistan over militant havens. On Tuesday, officials and witnesses in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar also said that thousands of villagers have been forced to flee their homes to escape a barrage of cross-border artillery and rocket attacks from Pakistan.
It was also likely that Allen and Kayani discussed Pakistan's seven-month blockade on overland NATO supplies into Afghanistan after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border on November 26.
Talks to reopen the border have reached stalemate over Pakistani demands for a formal apology.

Five killed, 20 injured in Sibi railway station blast

QUETTA: At least five people were killed and 20 others injured in a blast at Sibi railway station Wednesday night, said Deputy Commissioner Sibi.
However, the hospital sources put the number of dead at four including a child while those of the injured at 30.
Shahid Saleem, the Sibi Deputy Commissioner said the injured from the blast were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital where condition of eight is said to be critical.
According to eyewitnesses, the blast occurred near a tea stall on a platform of the railway station where Jaffar Express heading towards Quetta from Jaffarabad was making its scheduled stop.