Yemen Falling

A potential agreement brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council between Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his opponents was rejected on Sunday pending substantial alterations to the pact. Now, with chances for a peaceful resolution to the crisis fading, fears are growing in Washington and Saudi Arabia that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) will have even more freedom to carry out attacks against America and its allies. Perhaps most troubling of all, a quick end to the chaos may result in a government that is unwilling to cooperate with the United States in its battle against AQAP terrorists, who are based in Yemen’s northern provinces bordering Saudi Arabia.

The putative agreement negotiated by the Saudi-led GCC would have required Saleh to leave office in 30 days, transferring power to his Vice President in exchange for the legislature passing a measure that would have given the president and his family immunity from prosecution.


Read more: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/04/25/yemen-falling/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8249e00c87-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail

Brotherhood leader: Preparing for an Islamic government

The role of the Muslim Brotherhood is to mobilize the nation to establish a way of life based on Islam, said its Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater.

Speaking at a conference in Alexandria two days ago, Shater further said that the group is preparing to initiate an Islamic government to achieve progress based on Islamic principles, and that its objective is to establish an Islamic state and become world leaders.

Pointing out that no Sunni state currently has a regime with Islamic references, he urged Muslim scholars to contribute an workable, comprehensive, civilized Islamic model.


Full story: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/409973

Video: CAIR-MI Rep Comments on Planned Anti-Islam Rally

Breslov Hassid injured in shooting tells Ynet: They were shooting to kill, It was crazy. Incident fatality Ben-Yosef Livnat will be buried today in Jerusalem

Witness: Shooters yell Allahu Akbar

A group of Breslov Hassidim's regular twilight visit to Palestinian controlled Joseph's Tomb in Nablus came to a tragically violent end Sunday: According to one of the Breslovers, Palestinian police officers fired at the convoy as they were on their way in to the Tomb.

The fire continued as they drove out, killing Ben-Yosef Livnat, a 24 year-old father of four from Jerusalem and the nephew of Minister Limor Livnat, and injuring five others.


Full story: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4060142,00.html

Yair Altman

Published:  04.24.11, 10:29 / Israel News

Low-key Easter preparations for Pakistan's Christians

 

Credit: Reuters/Naseer Ahmed

By Kamran Haider

Sun Apr 24, 2011 1:03am BST

GOJRA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Christians in the small Pakistani town of Gojra are making low-key preparations for Easter this year.
Residents of the neighbourhood, known as Christian Colony, in the town in Punjab province, are haunted by memories of a 2009 attack by a Muslim mob in which seven members of a family were killed and dozens of houses torched.

A few days before Easter, which Christians believe marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his crucifixion, bare-foot children played cricket in the town's dusty alleys while some men chatted on a bench under a tree.

"If we celebrate it with a fanfare, we fear somebody might get annoyed and attack us," said Khalid Anjum, 45, the owner of a small snooker hall.

The only sign of the approach of Easter was a few young men rehearsing hymns in St. Mary's Catholic Church.


Full story: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/24/uk-pakistan-easter-idUKTRE73L2SM20110424

Bridge for sale: Pakistan's army chief says his forces have broken the jihadists' "backbone"

In November 2009, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said that the Taliban is being routed along the Afghanistan border. “The operation so far has been very successful,” he revealed. “The resistance that we were expecting initially did not come with the same swiftness we were expecting.”

AP reported that “Pakistan’s armed forces hope to rout Taliban militants in the rugged mountainous region along the border with Afghanistan before winter sets in by late December.” That's late December 2009. Qureshi said that Pakistan’s armed forces have the Taliban “on the run. They are in retreat and there is disarray over there.”

In May 2009, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said that the Pakistani military was just about to wrap up its offensive against the Taliban: “The operation against the terrorists is progressing very successfully and those who destroyed the peace of the nation are fleeing in disguise,” he said confidently. Only mop-up operations remained: “Troops will remain in the region until peace is ensured and all the displaced people return home.”


Full story: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/04/bridge-for-sale-pakistans-army-chief-says-his-forces-have-broken-the-jihadists-backbone.html

7 wounded in bombing outside Baghdad church

Iraqi Christians have faced a recent wave of violence

By SAAD ABDUL-KADIR

 

The Associated Press

 

updated 4/24/2011 9:54:15 AM ET 2011-04-24T13:54:15

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi police official says seven people have been wounded by a roadside bomb outside the entrance of a Baghdad church.

The official says the blast took place Sunday just yards (meters) from the Sacred Heart Church in Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood. Shrapnel from the bomb struck the outside of the building.

The officer said no parishioners were inside and services had not been held in the building.

Four policemen and three civilian bystanders were wounded.

Full story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42738043/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/