Government calls on Maldivian students in Pakistan to return

The Government of Maldives has asked Maldivian students in Pakistan to return home, amid fears that the wars in Pakistan could spread further and pose a danger to the students.

In an interview with Haveeru, the Press Secretary of the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said that the Pakistan army’s war against the terrorist was at a critical phase now and that the Maldivian Government had received secret information that the situation was about to get worse. He further said that those students who wished to return home would receive the full cooperation and help from the Government. He said it wasn’t safe for the Maldivian students to remain in Pakistan as the war was going to spread further in the near future.

“The Government wants all the Maldivian students in Pakistan to return home on their own free will,” he said. “This is because the situation in Pakistan is already very dangerous for them.”

He said that the Foreign Ministry was ready to lend whatever aid they could in order to bring the students back home, but added that so far no one had made such a request.

Zuhair said that they had information that revealed that a lot of the Maldivian students were in places that were not even registered with the Pakistani Government. He further said that the Government knew the places that tried to convert students towards religious extremism.

“They don’t really want to return home,” Zuhair said. “However, even they admit that it was now dangerous to stay there. So we can’t really force them to come back.”

Human Rights Commission confirms existence of underage concubine

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has said that they have been able to confirm that an underage concubine had been tested for pregnancy at the Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital and that the results of the test were positive.

According to the Commission, an underage girl complaining about abdominal pains been taken to the Emergency Room at IGMH, and the woman who had accompanied the girl had told the doctor that the girl was a ‘jaariyaa’ (concubine).

“A woman had accompanied the girl,” Vice President of the HRC Ahmed Zahid told reporters. “After being questioned several times the woman finally said that the girl was a ‘jaariyaa’. At first the doctor wasn’t sure what the woman meant and had to rephrase the question and the woman clarified that the girl was a concubine kept by her husband.”

Zahid said that even though the Islamic Affairs Ministry had denied the reports of the underage concubine, the HRC’s investigation had confirmed that the reports were real and that they were now trying to find the identity of the child.

“We want to assure you that the Human Rights Commission is certain that the events had indeed transpired,” Zahid said. “An underage girl said to be a concubine was taken to IGMH where she did a pregnancy test. And the test was positive. So today I want to notify the media that this isn’t just an unconfirmed rumour or something we read off a blog.”

The HRC refused to give additional details about the case as it could hinder their investigation.

Maldives' underwater cabinet meeting was a sorry stunt

In the avalanche of publicity stunts being staged in advance of December's Copenhagen conference on climate change, none was more bizarre than the meeting of the cabinet of the Maldives government 20 feet beneath the waves. President Mohammed Nasheed and his ministers sat before desks in scuba gear to discuss the forthcoming submergence of their country, due to global warming.

This prompted an open letter to President Nasheed from Dr Nils-Axel Morner, the former head of the international Inqua Commission on Sea Level Change. The Swedish geologist, who has been measuring sea-level change all over the world for over 30 years, reminded the president that his commission had visited the Maldives six times in the years since 2000, and that he himself had led three month-long investigations in every part of the coral archipelago. Their exhaustive studies had shown that from 1790 to 1970 sea-levels round the islands had averaged 20 centimetres higher than today; that the level, having fallen, has since remained stable; and that there is not the slightest sign of any rise. The most cautious forecast based on proper science (rather than computer model guesswork) shows that any rise in the next 100 years will be "small to negligible".

President Nasheed is well aware of this, because in 2001, Professor Morner offered to explain his team's findings on the local TV station, to reassure viewers that their homes were not about to disappear underwater as they had been told. The government refused to allow his film to be shown. Egged on by climate alarmists, successive Maldivan leaders since the 1980s have pleaded for vast sums of international aid to save them from rising sea levels.

"For Heaven's sake," writes Prof Morner in his open letter, "lift the terrible psychological burden you have placed on the shoulders of all people in the Maldives", who have been made to live with "a wholly false notion that is nothing but an armchair fiction artificially constructed by mere computer modelling consistently proved wrong by meticulous real-world observation".

If President Nasheed really believed his own propaganda, he would of course immediately ban all flights into his country and turn off the lights in all its hotels. But since this would put an end to the international tourism which is almost his country's only source of income, he would rather carry on staging his publicity stunts, while holding out the begging bowl which he hopes gullible world leaders such as Gordon Brown will soon fill with large quantities of Western taxpayers' cash.

- By Christopher Booker -

Has Arsenal's Professor turned into a mad scientist?

However, even admirers of the Arsenal manager – and I count myself among them – can’t shake a nagging concern.

Is Arsene Wenger’s obsession with beautiful football masking an ugly neglect for winning titles?

I know. I know. That sounds like one of Carrie’s diary entries from “Sex & The City” but you don’t have to be an Arsenal fan to have a crush on Wenger’s young Gunners. Their silky skills and pretty passing can set pulses racing and hearts fluttering.

But the coach who once talked about the metaphorical “prettiest wife at home” must know the best romances are marked with permanent reminders. After four trophy-less seasons, the Arsenal groupies want something to show for their courtship.

In an exclusive interview for CNN, Wenger told me that it was the intelligence of his players which made him confident Arsenal can win the Premier League. He said, “I believe that we have a fair and true chance.”

However, the biggest strengths of his team – its youthful exuberance and technical ability – is also its biggest weakness. The average age of Arsenal’s squad is 23.3, more than a year younger than any other in the Premier League and more than five years younger than the oldest squads. But how often does the youngest squad top the table?

Arsenal’s youth system has been prolific in recent seasons but Wenger has been forced to trust it because the club want to pay off the debt from their new stadium before they splash out on star names.

They have signed experienced players. Andrei Arshavin and Thomas Vermaelen both look like good signings and neither were particularly cheap. But over the same period Wenger sold Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor.

In the five years up to the end of the 2007/8 season, Arsenal’s net spending (transfer money spent minus transfer money received) was $60 million versus $730 million by Chelsea, $208 million by Liverpool and $157 million by Manchester United.[1]

Those figures prove there is an element of genius about Wenger’s work. He is a master at delivering a lot for very little. Surely, though, now is the time for Arsenal to win a major competition instead of merely illuminating it with their brilliant brand of football.

The longer the wait for another trophy goes on, the stronger the argument that Arsenal’s professor is more of a mad scientist.

Dr Shaheed: No-confidence motion is a vote against Government

Voting for the no-confidence motion against Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed, submitted by the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party-People's Party alliance (DRP/PA) at the People’s Majlis, was not a vote against him, but against the Government, Dr Shaheed has said.

Speaking to the media at a press conference held at Dharubaaruge, Dr Shaheed said that the no-confidence motion against him had been filed as an attempt to vex the Government. He further said that the aim of the motion was to block the good work being done by the Government for the good of the people.

He said that everyone was aware that the new leaders of a country which has been able to achieve democracy after many years would be very tired. Which was the DRP was trying to topple the MDP’s Government as soon as possible, he said.

“The Government will become more powerful after a year,” he said. “It’s during the first year that the Government would be at its weakest. That’s why they think it’s possible to topple the administration now, but that will never happen. Once the IMF program ends and the meetings are over, the country will begin receiving aid. From then on it will be very difficult to catch up.” He said that was the reason why the DRP/PA is trying to get the no-confidence motion, based on false accusations, passed as soon as possible.

The Foreign Minister further said that he did not believe that he would have to do anything in order for the no-confidence motion to fail at the Majlis.

“I don’t see this as a vote against me,” he said. “This is a vote being taken against the Government. In reality, I don’t even have to concentrate on winning the vote. The Government is doing everything necessary at a very fast pace. The Government will win.”

Former Legal Reform Minister resigns from DRP

Haa Dhaalu atoll MP and former Legal Reform Minister, Mohamed Nasheed, resigned from the main opposition party, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), last Sunday.

DRP Secretary General Dr Abdulla Mausoom on Tuesday confirmed that Nasheed had resigned from the Party. Dr Mausoom said that Nasheed did not specify his reason for leaving the Party.

In his personal blog, http://www.mnasheed.com/, Nasheed said that he had not included his reasons for leaving the Party.

He further said in his blog that he had disassociated himself from DRP activities since February this year and that he had won a seat at the Parliament by campaigning as an independent candidate.

“All these months, I have had no political contact with the party,” he said in his blog. “For all political purposes, I have stood by myself in politics and in parliament. Therefore, the decision to leave DRP is not expected to create any surprise or bear any significance. It is for all practical purposes, a foregone conclusion.”