"Individualism: the isolated action of a person alone in a social environment must dissappear. It is very easy to claim that in capitalism the individual has the option to satisfy or to express true human nature. A child has one toy and wants two. That child gets two toys and wants four. This is human nature is it not. But when a whole society behaves in this same way or it becomes a monopoly oppressing the less fortunate, is that human nature? It is then that someone has to stand up and do something. Yes, we are individuals that have accepted the challenge and responsibility to lead in the name of a society as a whole." - E.G.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States and its allies are weighing focused sanctions against Iran's leadership rather than broad-based penalties that they fear could harm the protest movement, officials and diplomats said.
Increasingly frustrated by Iranian defiance over its nuclear program, the Obama administration has been crafting a "menu" of sanctions that could be imposed by the United Nations or in concert by the United States and its European allies.
U.S. officials, congressional aides, and Western diplomats said the administration has grown increasingly cool to broad-based sanctions targeting the oil sector with the aim of destabilizing the Iranian economy.
Such measures, while favored by a growing number of U.S. lawmakers, would not only be a hard sell in the UN Security Council and Europe, but could have unintended consequences like undercutting Iranian public support for the opposition movement, officials and diplomats said.
"This is not about trying to bring Iran to its economic knees. It is about stopping the nuclear weapons program," said a Western diplomat.
Broad-based sanctions aimed at destabilizing the overall economy "would just feed into Iranian paranoia" about the West, according to the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Eight people were killed in antigovernment protests on December 27, and Iran has expanded its crackdown on the groups, arresting at least 20 opposition figures.
U.S. President Barack Obama has condemned what he said was the "iron fist of brutality" used to quell the protests and demanded the immediate release of detainees.
Year-End Deadline
Iran has rebuffed the West's year-end deadline to accept an enrichment fuel deal aimed at calming international fears it is trying to build nuclear weapons.
A senior Obama administration official said Washington had given up hope of a breakthrough with Iran by January 1, and played down the prospect of Western powers taking concrete steps against Tehran immediately after the deadline passes.
The official said discussions over what sanctions to impose were unlikely to begin in earnest within the UN Security Council before mid-January.
Negotiations could take several months.
Support for tougher sanctions against Iran has increased in the U.S. Congress, but Obama administration officials have privately told leading lawmakers that the White House does not at this time support legislation that would curb Iranian imports of gasoline and other refined oil products.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the administration wanted to "ensure that any legislation that emerges preserves the necessary flexibility to pursue the president's policy."
Diplomats said Washington knows that there is little chance of garnering international support for sweeping economic penalties aimed at the broader economy, citing resistance from Russia and China for far more modest penalties.
Menu Of Sanctions
The targeted sanctions being considered by the White House include expanding travel and other restrictions for individuals and institutions with close ties to the leadership and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, officials said.
Some European states favor more sanctions targeting the country's financial and insurance sector, diplomats said.
Officials and experts said the sanctions debate was prompted by the resilience of the opposition protests, which began when a June presidential election returned hard-liner Mahmud Ahmadinejad to power.
"Up until now, the [U.S.] administration thought of sanctions only in the context of altering the Iranian government's nuclear calculations. I think they're now thinking a lot harder about what types of punitive measures would be helpful and hurtful to the cause of democratic reform in Iran," said Karim Sadjadpour, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Imposing targeted sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard makes sense because it "potentially kills several birds with one stone," he said, referring to the Guard's oversight of the country's nuclear program, its contacts with militant groups across the region and its role reining in the protests.
"If the Obama administration can deprive them of the ability to sign billion-dollar deals with multinational corporations and turn them into an international pariah, I don't think many tears will be shed for them among the Iranian opposition," Sadjadpour added.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Nickname "Che" derived from Guevara's habit of punctuating his speech with the interjection che, a common Argentine expression for a friend or hey!
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina into a middle-class family of Spanish-Irish descent. Celia de la Serna y Llosa, his mother, had lost her parents while she was still a child. Celia was raised by her religious aunt and her older sister, Carmen de la Serna, who married in 1928 the Communist poet Cayetano Córdova Itúrburu. Guevara's family was liberal, anti-Nazi and anti-Peronist, and not very religious. With Celia's fortune, the family lived comfortably, although Ernerto Guevara Lynch, Ernesto's father, managed to spend much of it in his unlucky business ventures. In his youth Guevara read widely and among his reading list in the 1940s were Sartre, Pablo Neruda, Ciro Alegría, and Karl Marx's Das Kapital. He also kept a philosophical diary and in Africa 1965 Guevara planned to write a biography of Marx.
In 1953 Guevara graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, where he was trained as a doctor. During these years Guevara read Stalin and Mussolini but did not join radical student organizations. He made long travels in Argentina and in other Latin America countries. At the same time his critical views about the expanding economic influence of the United States deepened. In 1952 he made journey with his motor bike, an old Norton 500 single, around South America. The journey opened his eyes about the situation of the Indians and was crucial for the awakening of his social conscience. Like Jack Kerouac later in his book On the Road (1957), Guevara recorded his impressions in The Motorcycle Diaries. "The person who wrote these notes died the day he stepped back on Argentine soil," Guevara wrote in his diary. "Wandering around our 'America with a capital A' has changed me more than I thought."
After witnessing American intervention in Guatemala in 1954, Guevara radicalized and become convinced that the only way to bring about change was by violent revolution. He wrote in a letter to home: "Along the way, I had the opportunity to pass through the dominions of the United Fruit, convincing me once again of just how terrible these capitalist octopuses are. I have sworn before a picture of the old and mourned comrade Stalin that I won’t rest until I see these capitalist octopuses annihilated." In Guatemala Guevara met Hilda Gadea. They married 1955 and had one child. Guevara was arrested with Fidel Castro in Mexico for a short time. He had joined Castro's revolutionaries to overthrow the Batista government. In 1956 they loaded 38-feet long motor yacht Granma full of guerrillas and weapons and sailed to Cuba, landing near Cabo Cruz on December 2.
Che Guevara and Fidel Castro
Che Guevara taker prisioner in Bolivia. Few hours before his murder.
They made their base in the mountains of Sierra Maestra, attacking garrisons and recruiting peasants to the revolutionary army. In the areas controlled by the guerrillas, Guevara started land reform and socializing process. In spite of his chronic asthma, Guevara enjoyed the hard conditions and war. Land reform become the slogan, the "banner and primary spearhead of our movement" as Guevara described it in an interview, that made eventually peasants participate in the armed struggle. Guevara was respected by his men, although considered violent - he shot Eutimio Guerra who had cooperated with dictator Fulgencio Batista's army.
In the mountains Guevara met Aleida March in 1958, 24-year-old revolutionary fighter, and she became Guevara's second wife in 1959. He continued to write his diary and composed also articles for El Cubano Libre. A selection of Gurvara's articles, which he wrote between 1959 and 1964, was published in 1963 as PASAJES DE LA GUERRA REVOLUCIONARIA. For the media Cuba was a hot subject - New York Times, Paris Match and Latin American papers sent reporters to the mountains to make stories of the revolutionaries. At the same time when Guevara was in the mountains, his uncle was Ambassador to Cuba.
Guevara rose to the rank of major and led one of the forces that invaded central Cuba in the late 1958. After the conquest of power in January 1959 Guevara gained fame as the leading figure in Castro's government. He attracted much attention with his speeches against imperialism and US policy in the Third World. He argued strongly for centralized planning, and emphasized creation of the 'new socialist man'. In his famous article, 'Notes on Man and Socialism', he argued that "to build communism, you must build new men as well as the new economic base." The basis of revolutionary struggle is "the happiness of people," the the goal of socialism is the creation of more complete and more devoped human beings.
Che Guevara's body aften been killed.
Che Guevara´s Monument at La Higuera (Bolivia), where he got killed.
In a discussion on September 14, 1961 Guevara opposed the right of dissidents to make their views known even within the Communist Party itself. However, privately Guevara was critical of the Soviet bloc, but so was also Nikita Khruschev. When the executions of war criminals started Guevara acted as the highest prosecuting authority. The condemned were soldiers found guilty of murder, torture and other serious crimes. Because Guevara was a doctor, one of his friends once asked how he could work in such a position. Guevara's answer was like from Western movies: "Look, in this thing you have to kill before they kill you." In 1959 Guevara adopted formally the nickname Che and was granted honorary Cuban citizenship. He was visited by such intellectuals as de Beauvoir, and Sartre who saw in him the "most complete human being of our age". The most famous picture of Guevara was taken by Alberto Diaz Gutiérrez, known professionally as Korda. He declined to take royalties when the picture became worldwide icon. When a British advertising agency appropriated the image for a vodka ad Korda rejected the idea: he never drank himself," said the photographer, "and drink should not be associated with his immortal memory."
From 1961 to 1965 Guevara was minister for industries, and director of the national bank, signing the bank notes simply 'Che'. He traveled widely in Russia, India and Africa, meeting the leading figures of the world, among others Jawaharel Nehru and Nikita Khruschev. Guevara was also the architect of the close relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union. Although good relationships with Moscow become the cornerstone of Castro's foreign policy, Guevara followed the emergence of the Maoists. In 1965 Guevara made public his disappointments in Algiers and described the Kremlin as "an accomplice of imperialism". Guevara's dismissal from the ministry followed immediately on his return from Algiers.
To test his revolutionary theories Guevara resigned from his post as a politician. He had published highly influential manuals Guerrilla Warfare (1961) and Guerrilla Warfare: A Method (1963), which were based on his own experiences and partly chairman Mao Zedong's writings. President John F. Kennedy had Guerrilla Warfare rapidly translated for him by the CIA. Guevara stated that revolution in Latin America must come through insurgent forces developed in rural areas with peasant support. The is no need for right precondition for revolution - guerrilla warfare can begin the activities. In his last article, 'Vietnam and World Struggle', Guevara outlined his global perspectice for revolutionary struggle, and stressed the dual role of hate and love.
"And he did have a saving element of humor. I possess a tape of his appearance on an early episode of "Meet the Press" in December 1964, where he confronts a solemn panel of network pundits. When they address him about the "conditions" that Cuba must meet in order to be permitted the sunshine of American approval, he smiles as he proposes that there need be no preconditions: "After all, we do not demand that you abolish racial discrimination…." A person as professionally skeptical as I.F. Stone so far forgot himself as to write: "He was the first man I ever met who I thought not just handsome but beautiful. With his curly reddish beard, he looked like a cross between a faun and a Sunday-school print of Jesus…. He spoke with that utter sobriety which sometimes masks immense apocalyptic visions." (Christopher Hitchens in New York Review of Books, July 17, 1997) During his disappearance from public life Guevara spent some time in Africa organizing the Lumumba Battalion which took part in the Congo civil war. He was not happy how Laurent Kabila fought against Joseph Mobutu, although his first impression on Kabila was positive. "Africa has a long way to go before it reaches real revolutionary maturity," Guevara concluded in his diary.
In 1966 Guevara turned up incognito in Bolivia where he trained and led a guerrilla war in the Santa Cruz region. In his manual Guerrilla Warfare, Guevara had stressed that the guerrilla fighter needs full help from the people of the area, it is an indispensable condition, but Guevara failed to win the support of the peasants and his group was surrounded near Vallegrande by American-trained Bolivian troops. "The decisive moment in a man's life is when he decides to confront death," Guevara once said. "If he confronts it, he will be a hero whether he succeeds or not. He can be a good or a bad politician, but if he does not confront death he will never be more than a politician." After Guevara was captured, Captain Gary Prado Salmón put a security around him to be sure that nothing happened. Guevara told him, "don't worry, captain, don't worry. This is the end. It's finished." (from the document film 'Red Chapters,' 1999) Guevara was shot in a schoolhouse in La Higuera on October 9, 1967, by Warrant Officer Mario Terán of the Bolivian Rangers at the request of Colonel Zenteno. Terán was half-drunk, celebrating his borthday. Guevara's last words were according to some sources: "Shoot, coward you are only going to kill a man." In order to make a positive fingerprint comparison with records in Argentina, Guevara's hand were sawed off and put into a flask of formaldehyde. They were later returned to Cuba. Guevara's corpse was buried in a ditch at the end of the runway site of Vallegrande's new airport. "Che considered himself a soldier of this revolution, with absolutely no concern about surviving it," said Fidel Castro later in Che: A Memoir.
Che Guevara did have some last words before his death; he allegedly said to his executioner: "I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man."
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Snow was being cleared from the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore ahead of an NFL game on Sunday
A winter storm is gripping the eastern US, dumping more than 1ft (30cm) of snow in some areas, snarling up travel and cutting power supplies.
Storm-related incidents claimed five lives and forecasters warned of 40mph (64km/h) winds in what may be the worst snowstorm in a decade.
Snowfall is due to reach 22in overnight in the Baltimore-Washington DC area, the heaviest since 2003.
The storm system is moving north toward New York and Boston.
Forecasters say the cities could be in for more than 14in of snow.
In Washington, a snow emergency was declared and the capital's Reagan National Airport has been shut down for the night.
Most flights from Baltimore were cancelled and there were long delays for passengers using Philadelphia and New York.
Roads have been badly affected, too, with one transport official calling it a very serious storm.
As Washington's Union Station filled with travellers, some of them sprawled out on the floor, the passenger train service Amtrak said delays between Washington and Boston were averaging between 30 and 60 minutes.
At least two trains to Boston apparently departed more than four hours late.
Traffic accidents
In Virginia, several hundred motorists became stranded in their vehicles and had to be rescued by the National Guard, using Humvees.
Washington DC is preparing for its worst winter since 2003 Some 500 people sought warmth and refuge in emergency shelters.
Three people died in the state. One was killed when a car hit a tree, a second died of exposure and a third was also apparently killed in a road traffic accident.
In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.
The US National Weather Service said the storm was expected to reach as far north as Massachusetts on Sunday.
Heavy snow is expected to fall from North Carolina to New York, with major cities bracing themselves for a foot or more of snow.
The US National Weather Service warned that weather conditions in the Washington area had made travel "extremely treacherous".
"Do not travel," it warned drivers.
"If you must travel, have a winter survival kit with you. If you get stranded, stay with your vehicle."
Empty malls
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty asked residents to sit out the weekend snowstorm at home where possible.
Those who did venture out were treated to nearly desolate stores on what is usually one of the busiest shopping days of the year, The Associated Press reports.
In snow-bound areas, there were virtually no queues to get a picture with a mall Santa on the last weekend before Christmas, it adds.
"It's nice because no one's here," said shopper Nnika White, out buying a drum set for her boy of two in Richmond, Virginia.
"For shopping, it's great, but the roads are very, very bad," she added.
US President Barack Obama, arriving back at Andrews Air Force Base in Virginia from the Copenhagen climate conference, travelled into Washington by motorcade rather than helicopter because of the weather.
The storm system originated over the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing flash floods in much of the US south-east.
The rain turned to snow as the storm tracked north-eastward into sub-freezing temperatures.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
09 December 2009 - 12H40
Nuclear scientist, former minister among 11 'held by US'Iran claimed on Tuesday the US is holding a former deputy defence minister and 10 other Iranian citizens. Tehran only named nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri (photo), accusing Washington of abducting him during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
REUTERS - Iran believes the United States is holding a former deputy defence minister who disappeared in 2007 and 10 other Iranian nationals, according to a list carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency on Wednesday.
Separately, a Saudi official denied Iran's claim that Riyadh handed an Iranian nuclear scientist to the United States, saying the kingdom had searched in vain for him on its territory.
"Saudi authorities searched for him after being informed of his disappearance in
Medina and at all the hospitals, hotels and centres in Mecca -- even at his place of residence -- but they could not find him," Saudi Foreign Ministry media chief Osama al-Nogali said.
On Tuesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's spokesman said 11 Iranians were being detained in the United States, naming only the missing scientist, Shahram Amiri. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, speaking to reporters in Washington, declined to comment on the situation.
The list on Mehr also named former deputy minister Ali Reza Asgari and included a former ambassador to Jordan.
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relationship for three decades and are embroiled in a long-running row over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs. Iran denies the charge.
Iran's foreign ministry was "seriously following" the cases of the 11 Iranians held in the United States through legal and diplomatic channels, Mehr said.
In 2007, Iran's police chief suggested that Asgari, who disappeared in Turkey that year, had been kidnapped by Western intelligence services. Israel and the United States have denied any involvement in the disappearance.
At the time, Turkish newspapers reported that Asgari had information on Iran's nuclear programme. Turkish, Arabic and Israeli media have suggested Asgari defected to the West, but his family dismissed that.
"There are documents and evidence showing he has been transferred to the United States," Mehr said.
Amiri, a researcher working for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, disappeared during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June. Media reports said he wanted to seek asylum abroad.
Three months after he disappeared Iran disclosed the existence of its second uranium enrichment site, near the central holy Shi'ite city of Qom, further heightening tension over the Islamic state's atomic activities.
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, a key regional ally of the United States, shares its fears that Iran's nuclear energy programme is aimed in part at acquiring nuclear weapons and opposes Tehran's backing for Shi'ite and anti-U.S. militant groups in the region such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Palestinian student Berlanty Azzam speaks to the press on the Gaza Strip side of Erez crossing terminal with Israel following a court hearing with her lawyer and Israeli authorities in November 2009. Israel's top court on Wednesday upheld a decision under which Azzam was deported from Bethlehem to Gaza just two months before she was due to complete her bachelor's degree.09 December 2009
Israel top court upholds deportation of Palestinian to Gaza Palestinian student Berlanty Azzam speaks to the press on the Gaza Strip side of Erez crossing terminal with Israel following a court hearing with her lawyer and Israeli authorities in November 2009. Israel's top court on Wednesday upheld a decision under which Azzam was deported from Bethlehem to Gaza just two months before she was due to complete her bachelor's degree. Palestinian student Berlanty Azzam speaks to the press on the Gaza Strip side of Erez crossing terminal with Israel following a court hearing with her lawyer and Israeli authorities in November 2009. Israel's top court on Wednesday upheld a decision under which Azzam was deported from Bethlehem to Gaza just two months before she was due to complete her bachelor's degree.
AFP - Israel's top court on Wednesday upheld a decision under which a Palestinian student was deported from Bethlehem to Gaza just two months before she was due to complete her bachelor's degree.
"I am very disappointed, and I don't understand why Israel is preventing me from continuing my studies," said Berlanty Azzam, 22, who was a student at the Vatican-sponsored Bethlehem university before she was forcefully removed because her ID had a Gaza address.
"They don't claim that my return to Bethlehem University poses a security risk, and studying at a Palestinian university is my right and the right of every Palestinian student," she said.
Azzam was handcuffed and blindfolded when she was sent to Gaza on October 28, according to the Israeli human rights group Gisha which had petitioned the court to allow her to return.
The Supreme Court's ruling upheld the state's decision that Azzam may not return to the West Bank because she had lived there since 2005 without the necessary Israeli permit.
The state admitted that Azzam had received a permit to travel to the West Bank via Israel in 2005 but argued that she should have obtained a further authorisation to remain there, even though it admitted none existed at the time, according to Gisha.
Israel controls the Palestinian population registry and since 2000 has not permitted address changes from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.
Azzam's lawyer, Yadin Elam said it is "absurd" and contrary to international law that a Palestinian should need an Israeli permit to live in the West Bank.
"I cannot imagine why the state of Israel is so insistent on preventing Palestinian young people, against whom it makes no security claims whatsoever, from accessing higher education," he said.
Like Azzam, an estimated 25,000 Palestinians could be forcibly sent to Gaza because their addresses are registered there, according to Gisha.
Residents of Gaza cannot leave the tiny enclave, except in some medical emergency cases, because of an embargo Israel imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there in 2007.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Kenyans start to embrace daring fashion
Women modelling Kenyan fashion designs
By Kevin Mwachiro BBC News, Nairobi
Kenya's fashion designers are trying to step into the spotlight and overturn their somewhat dull reputation.
Within East Africa, Kenyans are renowned for being the worst dressed.
Practical and predictable would be the best description of Kenyans' fashion sensibilities.
Jeans, T-shirts and suits - one size too big - make up many a wardrobe, with a colour palette of grey and brown.
People are willing to invest in Kenyan designs and now can be heard name-dropping at functions Writer Judy Munyinyi, Nairobi
But now more and more Kenyans are embracing local fashion labels.
Designers who have worked, showcased or studied abroad are injecting a badly needed new lease of life to the industry.
Their collections are bold, bright and, for Kenya, daring.
"I think we have all decided to come back to our roots, we are using a lot of local materials and promoting a lot from our own country," said Rachel Maithya, who runs the fashion label, ki2.
"I'm using a lot of fabric and I'm trying to make it in a modern and very fashionable way, to have also the young people wanting to wear that and want to be seen around with that."
Shopaholic's paradise
But the industry faces two major obstacles - second-hand clothes markets and cheap Chinese imports.
Women modelling Kenyan fashion designs A dress by a local designer can cost upwards of $100
Sunshine boutiques, as the markets are commonly known, are a shopaholic's paradise.
Despite offering employment opportunities and choice for the consumer, they pose a major hurdle to the growth of the fashion industry.
In the 1980s, the country's textile industry was the leading manufacturing sector.
But the government has not helped much in trying to revive the industry.
During this year's budget, import duties on second-hand clothes were lowered, making foreign-made clothes even cheaper.
Cheap chic
In the markets, wooden shacks are draped with a wide array of clothes.
Whole outfits can be mixed and matched for less than $10 (£6).
Advertisement
A look at Kenya's catwalk fashion
Cheap, cheerful and chic.
In comparison, a single dress by a designer can cost upwards of $100.
Critics of the industry argue that the prices of most outfits being made by the local designers are too expensive, exclusive and lack originality, borrowing heavily from the 'Wests' - Western countries or West Africa.
But Kevin Mbugua, the style editor of Adam Magazine, points out that it is impossible for local designers to compete against a sector where an item like a shirt could cost less than $1.
Lack of exposure
Designer John Kaveke boasts 10 years' experience in the industry with his label, Kaveke.
He and his fellow designers defend their high prices, placing the blame on the high cost of production, the lack of affordable local produced textiles and the fact that their creations are one-of-a-kind.
model wearing Kenyan designer dress A lot of Kenyans are turning their backs on boring clothes
Though to him, these are secondary issues.
He says the key problem facing the fashion industry is the lack of exposure for Kenyan designers.
David Ohingo, a Nairobi resident and creative, agrees: "There isn't enough marketing done to promote local designers. It's too costly for them to employ teams to sell their work. It is expensive for them to get the word out."
Most designers sell directly from their workshops.
There are only a few who have opened shops but a group of designers have got together and opened a store under a collective label.
Names like Sura Zuri, Moo Cow, Kooroo, Rialto designs, Kiko Romeo, Monica Kanari and Spice may not yet make the fashion racks or the pages of international fashion magazines.
But they are slowly getting noticed.
Writer Judy Munyinyi notes: "The industry is growing, the people who helped start the industry have grown and have become more established and recognised. There is a lot more recognition for Kenyan designers.
"A lot more Kenyans are willing to patronise the industry even if not that often. People are willing to invest in Kenyan designs and now can be heard name-dropping at functions."
The demise of Kenya Fashion Week four years ago dealt a heavy blow to what had been hailed as a promising industry.
But recent events like the Africa Fashion Fair and the Festival for African Fashion and Arts are showcasing Kenyan designers.
It seems a heightened sense of national pride and the desire to outwardly display forms of patriotism are forcing the Kenyan fashion industry to finally step out of the shadows.
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Saturday, December 5, 2009
Surge in East Jerusalem Palestinians losing residency 05.12.09 - 20:43 Israel stripped a record number of Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem last year, an Israeli rights group has said.
ImageSome 4,570 people had their residency rights removed, more than a third of the total number since Israel took control of East Jerusalem in 1967.
Palestinians fear an attempt to reduce their presence in Jerusalem, which both they and Israel claim as their capital.
Israel says most of those stripped of their rights were living abroad.
Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were offered Israeli citizenship after Israel occupied the area in 1967 and later annexed it.
Many refused, not wanting to recognise Israeli sovereignty, and were instead given residency.
But, according to the Israeli rights organisation Hamoked, if these Palestinians live abroad for seven years, or gain citizenship or residency elsewhere, they lose their Israeli residency.
Hamoked obtained the figures from the Interior Ministry using the Freedom of Information Act.
The organisation said that some of those who had lost their citizenship may now be stateless, or may not even be aware they have lost their residency.
Family visits and students studying abroad would be affected, it said.
Hamoked executive director Dalia Kerstein said the phenomenon had "reached frightening dimensions".
Israel's interior ministry said it had carried out a "comprehensive check" that people listed as residents of Israel had their lives centred in the country, and many were found to be living abroad.
Former Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, who initiated the survey, told the BBC "it is a very normal, regular idea that people who are not living here for a long time" are not supposed to be residents.
He said those who had appealed had been approved to stay.
"The state of Israel pays billions of shekels a year in stipends to people who don't even live here," he told Haaretz.
The figures come amid Palestinian fears that Israel is trying to increase its control over East Jerusalem and cut it off from the West Bank, through the building of the West Bank barrier, house demolitions and evictions.
The right-leaning government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that Jerusalem is Israel's "eternal, undivided capital".
But it says recent demolitions and evictions are simply issues of law enforcement.
On Tuesday, a draft document leaked to Haaretz suggested the EU was considering hardening its stance on the city.
According to the newspaper, the document called for East Jerusalem to become the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The EU has never recognised Israel's annexation of the east of the city, which is illegal under international law.
Its formal position has been that the city's status is to be decided in negotiations, although some EU leaders have called for it to be a future shared capital.
Israel's foreign ministry reacted angrily to the reports, saying the apparent move by Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, "harms the European Union's ability to take part as a significant mediator... between Israel and the Palestinians".
It said the EU should be pressuring the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table, but the step would have "the opposite effect."
About a third of Jerusalem's residents - a quarter of a million people - are Palestinians with Israeli residency or Israeli-Arabs, who have Israeli citizenship.
Israel's annexation of the east of the city has never been recognised by the international community.
Martial law is imposed after election-linked massacre
The military chief in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao has taken over as local governor after martial law was imposed following an election-related massacre last month.
AFP - The Philippines on Saturday announced the imposition of martial law in a southern province to quell a rebellion by a powerful clan accused of being behind the massacre of 57 people.
President Gloria Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under military control late on Friday in an effort to contain heavily armed militias belonging to the provincial governor and other members of his Muslim clan, authorities said.
"There's a rebellion in the area," Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said. "It was practically an overthrow of government."
Arroyo's controversial move is the first time martial law has been declared in the Philippines since the reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who had the whole of the country under martial law from 1972 to 1981.
Authorities insisted martial law was necessary to rein in swarms of heavily armed gunmen loyal to the Ampatuan clan who had threatened violence if their leaders were taken into custody.
Within hours of the declaration, special forces detained the province's governor and clan patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Snr, who had ruled Maguindanao since 2001 with Arroyo's support and the backing of a private army.
More than 4,000 government soldiers were deployed in Shariff Aguak, the provincial capital, and other Ampatuan strongholds, the military said.
By nightfall on Saturday, 32 people had been taken into custody, including five members of the Ampatuan family and 20 of their militiamen, national police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa told reporters in Manila.
The militiamen were arrested in a raid on an Ampatuan warehouse that also netted 340,000 rounds of ammunition for M16 assault rifles, Verzosa said.
But he warned that the many gunmen not yet rounded up were likely to fight back.
"So far, there has been no firefight but we expect there will be an engagement because they are armed," he said.
Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a son of the patriarch, is already in a Manila detention centre after being charged with 25 counts of murder for the November 23 massacre that took place in a farming area near Shariff Aguak town.
Police allege he and 100 of his men shot dead the occupants of a convoy that included relatives of his rival for the post of governor in next year's elections, as well as a group of journalists.
The rival, Esmael Mangudadatu, said the killings were carried out to stop him running for office.
The military said one of the triggers for martial law was the discovery on Thursday of a huge cache of weapons buried a few hundred metres (yards) from the family's compound in Shariff Aguak.
The cache included three anti-tank recoilless rifles, mortars, machine guns, rifles and pistols, and thousands of rounds of ammunition -- enough to arm two battalions or about 1,000 soldiers.
Devanadera said local governments had stopped functioning as a result of efforts by forces loyal to the Ampatuans to foment rebellion.
But Arroyo's critics said martial law was not justified and might be unconstitutional.
They also warned it might be a prelude to her seizing similar control of other parts of the country or even part of a bid to remain in power after the constitution requires her to step down next June.
"We believe there's no basis for the implementation of martial law," said opposition Senator Benigno Aquino, the front-runner in next year's presidential elections.
Muslim rebels fighting for an independent homeland have been waging a rebellion on Maguindanao and other parts of Mindanao island since the late 1970s. The conflict has claimed more than 150,000 lives, the military says.
Arroyo's government has used Muslim clans such as the Ampatuans to rule these areas, and allowed them to build up their own armies as part of a controversial containment strategy against the insurgents.
Andal Ampatuan Snr and Jnr were members of Arroyo's ruling coalition until last week.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
News Middle East
Palestinian man hit in car attack
Violence erupted in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday when a Palestinian man entered a petrol station at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank and stabbed two settlers.
But that was not the end of the story. According to the Israeli army, the Palestinian was then shot by a soldier, after which a car, apparently driven by a settler, ran over the wounded Palestinian, twice, with Israeli soldiers all around.
Jacky Rowland reports.
*Viewers may find some of the images disturbing.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Matteo Scalera's work inspired by The Master and Margarita
Maia Oprea's painting entitled The Master and Margarita
Marina Korenfeld's etching of The Master and Margarita
Marina Korenfeld’s etchings evoke a quest for the mysterious, with a use of a symbolism that is profound, emotionally gripping, and visually stunning. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, with her father an accordion teacher and her mother a drama coach, her home was visited by artists, musicians, actors, comedians, and poets, creating an atmosphere that shaped and prepared her for a life in the arts. At Odessa's Theater and Art College, Marina majored in puppetry, "an absolutely marvelous experience in a hard-working environment," in a city rife with political instability and crime. While also studying Classical Figure Drawing, Portraiture, Watercolor, Oil Painting, and the history of art and theater, one Marina’s puppet creations was selected for Odessa's Art Gallery, its largest museum.
Behomoth fighting with a rifle.
Margarita's Moonlight ride
“Who art thou, then?” “Part of the Power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good” Goethe – Faust (Bulgakov, Ginsburg translation 1).
“Bulgakov began The Master and Margarita in 1928, and though he destroyed the first version in 1930, it occupied his mind until the very last moments of his life” (Natov 92).
“The Master enters Ivan’s hospital ward encouraged by Ivan’s friendly attitude, and the two immediately reach a mutual understanding. When Ivan asks why his visitor does not escape since he has the keys to the balcony grills, the visitor replies that he has nowhere to go, which is the ultimate stage of man’s loneliness and despair. He also has given up his name, like everything else in life” (Natov 100).
“Love caught us like a murderer jumping out of a dark alley” (Bulgakov Enter the Hero). After the Master finishes his novel and hands it over to the editor he finds the Soviet literary world less than receptive to him and his novel. “Soon the critic Latunsky and Ahriman and a certain writer Mstislav Lavrovich viciously accuse him of propagating religiosity and ‘Pilatism.’ The Master’s story summarizes Bulgakov’s own painful experience: Orlinky’s famous article “Against Bulgakovism” and the vicious slander campaign headed by Averbach (Ahriman), Blium, Litovsky and others, after the performance of The Days of the Turbins and the preparation of Flight. Vsevolod Vishnevsky is the prototype of Mstislav Lavrovich. The dramatic scene in which the Master burns his novel replicates Bulgakov’s own burning of his novel about the devil in March 1930” (Natov 101). “‘I am incurable,’ the Master responds to Ivan’s suggestion he might recover. Once again the Master’s story parallels Bulgakov’s: through his hero Bulgakov confirmed his recognition that his disease is terminal. The motif of bidding farewell to life accompanies the Master. After his arrest, the Master did not write Margarita for fear of exposing her to the hardships of his maimed existence. And now he has found the moral strength to renounce the joy of meeting Margarita again” (Natov 101). “I don’t want you to perish here with me,” (Bulgakov Enter the Hero). “During his last months of life, the Master talks only to Ivan. Before his final disappearance the Master’s shade comes to bid farewell to the former poet, now called Ivanushka, like the Russian fairytale hero, and ask him to write the continuation of the Master’s novel. ‘Farewell, my disciple!’ are the Master’s last words said to a living being. A few moments later, the nurse tells Ivan that his nameless neighbor from ward 118 has just died” (Natov 101, 102). “Nothing can prevent the human mind from escaping the banality of everyday life into the realm of the supernatural. Man’s search for truth and justice never ceases, although it sometimes takes unusual forms. The Master and Margarita, and late Ivan, escape their suffering through contact with the supernatural—at first demonic, then metaphysical—and reach the sphere of spiritual knowledge” (Natov 108). “After the extraordinary flowering of literature in a great variety of forms in the post-revolutionary decade, the end of the New Economic Policy and the introduction of the Five Year Plans of the late 1920s brought about a tightening of the reigns in literature and the arts as well. The party’s instrument of pressure and coercion at that time was RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers) under the leadership of the narrow and intolerant zealot Leopold Averbakh. And the persecution and pressures applied to writers to force them into the requisite mold succeeded in destroying all but a very small minority which resisted to the end. Many of the most famous authors became silent or almost silent, either by their own choice, or because their works were barred from publication. The former included Isaac Babel and Olesha. The latter included Zamyatin, Bulgakov, Pilnyak. Some, like Pilnyak, were unable to withstand the pressure and broke down, rewriting their works according to the demands of the party critics and censors. Others, like Zamyatin and Bulgakov, refused to submit” (Bulgakov, Ginsburg translation v-vi). “In 1930, after the censors rejected his play, The Cabal of the Hypocrites (Moliere), Bulgakov, ill and despairing, sent a long and remarkably courageous letter to Stalin. He pointed out that none of his writing was being published, and none of his plays produced. He wrote that in the ten years of his literary activity, 300 ‘reviews’ of his work had appeared in the press, of which three were favorable, 298 hostile and abusive. The entire Soviet press and the agencies in control of repertory had throughout the years ‘unanimously and with extraordinary ferocity argued that Bulgakov’s work cannot exist in the USSR. And I declare,’ he wrote, ‘that the Soviet press is entirely right’ “(Bulgakov, Ginsburg translation vii-viii). “Many of Bulgakov’s works were published in censored form or only outside the USSR. Such editions are clearly indicated in the entries, as are corrupt texts whether printed abroad or in the Soviet Union. This especially important for The Master and Margarita, since three different texts have been published to date” (Proffer, An International Bibliography 9). “Sometime towards the end of Bulgakov’s life his neighbor Gabrilovich had asked what he was writing.’ Oh, I’m writing something,’ he had answered, ‘just a trivial little thing.’ This ‘little thing’ had developed over twelve years and had involved an enormous amount of research, which included the history of ancient Rome and early Christianity. Many of the books which were probably familiar to Bulgakov from his childhood in the family of a professor of theology must have been reread and studied. Eight separate versions [of The Master and Margarita] had been produced” (Wright 258). “At the most general level The Master and Margarita is concerned with the conflict of the spiritual and material world of everyday – a theme that, in one form or another, underlies the whole of Bulgakov. Man, in society, prefers to rely on himself and thinks he can ignore spiritual issues. ‘But what troubles me,’ Woland says to Ivan Homeless in the first, essential conversation with him and editor Berlioz, ‘is this: if there is no God, then, you might ask, who governs the life of men and, generally, the entire situation here on earth? ‘Man himself governs it,’ Homeless replies (pp. 10-11). The whole book is a demonstration of the fact that man does not govern the world - although he usually thinks he does. The trouble is that man is mortal, even – as Woland puts it – ‘suddenly mortal,’ unable to guarantee his own next day , which is demonstrated by Berlioz’ dramatic death by decapitation under a tram, as Woland has foreseen” (Wright 261). “The heroes of this novel are those who are aware of more than trivial and temporary issues” (Wright 262). “The third major hero in Moscow is Ivan Homeless, who after giving up writing bad verses gains realization of the importance of the world beyond that of everyday reality, and finally becomes a professor at the Institute of History and Philosophy. Several critics have seen in him the simple, ordinary man comparable to the ‘Foolish Ivanushka’ of Russian folk-tales, and we may too be reminded, on a more serious level, of Sancho Panza and his receptiveness to Don Quixote’s ideals. It is indeed in Ivan that Bulgakov’s optimism shows most clearly. Not outstanding, not naturally courageous, he none the less becomes the Master’s ‘disciple,’ and the ‘recorder’ of his story in the same way as Matthew Levi is that of Christ’s… All in all, Ivan is the personification of man’s susceptibility to spiritual truth. (Wright 268-269). “Behind The Master and Margarita there lies a very straightforward attitude, an optimistic insistence on the power of the spiritual in human life and on the individuality of man. Unavoidably in this framework there is a deep concern for ethical problems. But as Ewa Thmpson points out, Bulgakov ‘is a moralist but not a sermonist: he does not preach virtuous life, and whenever we seek to make him lead a roman a these argument he turns out to be inconsistent.’ Unthinking people may wish to create a hell on earth, but beyond the earth is eternity and immortality for those who desire to achieve it” (Wright 273). The Master’s background is brief and concise at most. “His romance with Margarita told so movingly but concisely to Ivan, provides very little information about him as a person. By the time Ivan meets him, the Master is a broken man, a burnt-out case, a man who has had the life scared out of him. He pointedly denies that it was prison alone that did this, and says that his fear came before his apparent arrest” (Proffer 560). “In the late 1920s… RAPP critics specifically took aim at those writers who seemed to continue the traditions of the nineteenth century, who tried to show a link between pre- and post-revolutionary Russia” (Proffer 564). “We do the novel a disservice if, as some critics are inclined to do, we see it as little more than an allegory of Stalinist Russia, though there are certainly many real-life sources for the characters and events in the novel. Bulgakov had a much greater ambition, namely to put the cataclysmic events of his life, the Russian Revolution, and the rule of Stalin, in historical perspective, and to reaffirm the connection of post-revolutionary Russian literature to the great traditions of the nineteenth century. To be sure the rascals and the soulless bureaucrats of the nineteenth-century works by Gogol, Saltykov and Sukhovo-Kobylin are here in their twentieth-century incarnations, a theme Bulgakov sounded in his earliest works, but so are the intellectuals” (Proffer 564-565). “For all his criticism of his class, Bulgakov was proud of being a member of the intelligentsia and refused to consider its values outdated and inapplicable in the brave new world of Stalin’s Short Course” (Proffer 565). “The point of the Master’s novel is also the point of Bulgakov’s novel: there exists moral absolutes, concepts which are unaffected by revolutions tyrannies, and one ignores them at one’s peril… His focus is on those who know better, those who hear the voice of conscience but stifle it in the name of political expendiency” (Proffer 565).
Works Cited:
Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita. Trans. Mirra Ginsburg. Grove Press: New York, 1995. Bulgakov, Mikhail. White Guard. Trans. Marian Schwartz. Yale University Press: New Haven, 2008. Natov, Nadine. Mikhail Bulgakov. Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1985 Proffer, Ellendea. Bulgakov: Life and Work. Ardis: Ann Arbor, MI, 1984. Proffer, Ellendea. An International Bibliography Of Works By And About Mikhail Bulgakov. Ardis: Ann Arbor, MI, 1976. Wright, A. Colin. Mikhail Bulgakov: Life and Interpretations. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1978.
29 NOVEMBER 2009 - 22H18 - FC BARCELONA
Barcelona defeats Real Madrid in Spanish clasico
Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the only goal in favor of Barcelona against arch-rival Real Madrid. This victory offers Barcelona the top spot of the Spanish championship. By News Wires (text)
AFP - Swedish supersub Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the hero as 10-man Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 1-0 in an enthralling 'El Clasico' at Camp Nou to move top of the table by two points on Sunday
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who was exceptional, both started but it was Ibrahimovic who stole the limelight volleying in a 56th minute winner just five minutes after coming on.
Barca were reduced to 10 men when Sergi Busquets stupidly handballed just after the hour mark and needed some heroics from captain Carles Puyol, who produced three crucial blocks, against a Real side that missed some clear-cut chances.
It was a third successive Clasico win for Barca who are still unbeaten this season and nudge Real off the summit holding a two-point lead over their rivals.
Ronaldo started for the first time since the end of September with Real coach Manuel Pellegrini feeling his ankle was strong enough.
Ronaldo's return saw Karim Benzema drop to the bench while captain Raul had to be content with a place on the bench.
Barcelona started with Messi who shrugged off a thigh strain but Ibrahimovic was on the bench with a thigh strain of his own so Thierry Henry kept his place in attack.
It was touted as the Clasico between Real's 'Galacticos', the most expensive team on the planet, and the homegrown talent of Barca's 'cantera' who the most successful team on the planet last season when they won a unique treble.
Real were second best in terms of posession and Messi looked match fit as he thrust at the Real defence twisting Pepe inside out but Henry's poor low shot ended the danger.
Barca were passing like they can do but Real were looking the more dangerous.
On 19 minutes Ronaldo should have scored after Kaka cut inside before sliding the ball accross goal but Ronaldo's side-footed shot was saved brilliantly by Victor Valdes using his trailing foot.
It was then Barca captain Puyol's turn for a heroic block to deny Marcelo on 29 minutes.
Ibrahimovic came on for Henry minutes into the second half and had an immediate impact on his Clasico debut scoring the opener five minutes after coming on.
Dani Alves curled a delightful ball across the face of goal and Ibrahimovic arrived on cue guiding a left-footed volley past Iker Casillas.
Barca looked in control but Busquets was then sent off for handball just after the hour mark and Pep Guardiola was furious with his midfielder.
Real threw on Benzema but Barca should have made it 2-0 but Gerard Pique headed wide.
Down to ten men Barca still attacked although Real had chances with Ronaldo heading over and Puyol producing another great block to thwart Benzema.
Real substitute Raul skied from right in front of goal while Casillas pulled off a wonder save to deny Messi at the death.
Madrid's Lass Diarra was sent off in the closing stages for hacking down Xavi after Barca pinged the ball about like they were in training.
Earlier former Real Madrid striker Roberto Soldado scored his second hat-trick of the season as Getafe heaped more misery on bottom side Xerez with a 5-1 thrashing at the Coliseum on Sunday.
Promoted Xerez actually took the lead with only their fourth goal of the season but Soldado equalised on 44 minutes and then netted his second 60 seconds later from the penalty spot.
To make matters worse Xerez had David Prieto sent off for giving away the penalty for a foul on Daniel Parejo.
Getafe exploited the numerical advantage scoring three times in as many minutes with Soldado wrapping up his hat-trick on 58 minutes.
It was a second treble for the striker following his hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Racing Santander.
In other matches, Deportivo La Coruna moved level on points with Valencia in fourth thanks to a 1-0 win at Racing Santander.
Atletico Madrid are also in action later when they host Espanyol at the Vicente Calderon.
PLEASE WATCH IN HIGH QUALITY This is only a fan made video. This is not official. Music: Handsome Furs - Evangeline Face Control 2009 Film: Communism Education Film (Public ...
Handsome Furs first video from the new album Face Control, the followup to 2007's Plague Park, is a zombie love thriller for the ages. You can find out more about Face Control ...
Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims pelted pillars symbolising the devil on the third day of the world's largest annual pilgrimage, as the death toll from flash floods in the western Saudi city of Jeddah rose to 83.
REUTERS - Some two million Muslims headed to Muzdalifa on Thursday after spending the day at the plain of Arafat to prepare to cast stones at the devil in the most dangerous part of the annual haj pilgrimage.
Bright weather greeted the pilgrims after heavy rain hit the nearby city of Jeddah, gateway to Mecca, on Wednesday. Some 77 people were killed, none of them pilgrims, most of whom were swept away by currents and drowned, state television said.
At Muzdalifa, the pilgrims will collect pebbles to throw at walls at the Jamarat Bridge on three occasions over the next three days in an act that symbolises the rejection of the devil's temptations.
The bridge has been the scene of a number of deadly stampedes -- 362 people were crushed to death there in 2006 in the worst haj tragedy since 1990.
Saudi authorities have made renovations to ease the flow of pilgrims at the bridge, adding an extra level so that pilgrims have four platforms from which to throw stones.
The fittest chose to walk the distance of about 3 km (2 miles) to Muzdalifa on a special highway joining the sites while others clung to any form of transportation they could find.
Young Saudis sped around on motorbikes looking for customers in a hurry and seeking to avoid the congested traffic.
Aisha Mennan, 63, from Morocco, managed a smile as she sat against a wall waiting for a bus. "I just cried and cried while I stood and prayed in Mount Arafat. You really feel something special as if you are standing before the Almighty," she said.
"Now I can die in peace. My two sons and three daughters have been saving for years to send me here and when the money was ready I had to wait another three years before I got picked by a ballot. I'm very lucky to be here," said Mennan.
In Mecca, pilgrims flocked to Arafat to pray until sunset. They set up tents on a plain, squatted on the side of the road in shelters or stayed at the nearby Namira mosque.
About 1.6 million pilgrims have come from abroad for the haj, the world's largest regular religious gathering and a duty for all Muslims to perform at least once if possible. Many wait for years to get a visa under a strict quota system.
The haj marks sites that Islamic tradition says Prophet Ibrahim -- biblical patriarch Abraham -- visited in Mecca and that Prophet Mohammad established as a pilgrim route 14 centuries ago after removing pagan idols from Mecca.
Islam is now embraced by a quarter of the world's population.
Wednesday's rainfall, the heaviest the desert country has seen in years, prevented thousands of people from getting to Mecca from Jeddah, Saudi haj organisers said.
"God gave us a reprieve from the rainfall on the most important day of haj. It shows his immense clemency," Indonesian pilgrim Abdulwadood Asegaf said.
"We are going to avoid going up the Mount Arafat this time because it is too muddy," he added.
"The rain was a blessing from God. We are now going to pray to beg for God's forgiveness and mercy, for the good of our children and of all Muslims," said Egyptian pilgrim Nasser Abu Ahmed.
Nigerian businessman Mustafa Abu Bakr said Muslims from different parts of the world and different walks of life renew their allegiance to God in Arafat.
"We will pray for world peace," he said.
Authorities have reported none of the problems that have marred the haj in previous years such as fires, hotel collapses, police clashes with protesters and stampedes.
Russia train crash 'caused by bomb'
A bomb blast caused the derailment of a Russian express train in which 26 people were killed and scores were injured, the head of Russia's intelligence service (FSB) has said.
The Nevsky Express came off the tracks on Friday night as it travelled across Novgorod province on its journey between Moscow, the Russian capital, and St Petersburg.
"Criminal experts say that based on preliminary findings a bomb equivalent to 7kg of TNT was detonated," Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the FSB domestic intelligence service, told President Dmitry Medvedev in a televised meeting on Saturday.
The federal investigative committee said in a statement on Saturday that "elements of an explosive device" had been found at the scene of the crash.
A second, less powerful bomb exploded at 2:00pm (11:00 GMT) on Saturday near the site of the first blast, though no one was injured, the head of Russia's state railway operator said.
Vladimir Yakunin, the president of Russian Railways, also said that the accident may have been caused by an explosion under the tracks.
"There is objective evidence that ... a blast from an explosive device is one of the explanations for the Nevsky Express incident," he said.
Russia's prosecutor general has opened a criminal case on terrorism charges, Russian news agencies have reported.
Terrorist attack'
Al Jazeera's Neave Barker, reporting from Moscow, said that the attack has broad implications for safety protocols across Russia's rail network.
Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports on the Russian authorities investigation into deadly train crash
"It was an organised attack deliberately designed to target the Nebsky express on a Friday evening, perhaps one of the busiest time of the week when travellers, commuters, tourists were going through Russia's two biggest cities.," he said.
"Before the train derailed, officials on the ground had said there was a metre-wide crater very close to the site of the wreckage and also on Russian television, a recorded interview with the driver of the train which he believed that a bomb had been detonated underneath his train on his journey from Moscow to St Petersburg."
Our correspondent said there are deep concerns that Friday's incident is an act similar to what happened a few years ago involving the same line and train service.
A bomb blast in 2007 derailed a passenger train and injured about 30 people.
"It's still very early to suggest who was behind the attack, but officials have drawn comparison to a similar incident two years ago when a bomb was detonated under the same service and derailed 12 out of 14 carriages of that train. There were no deaths, but at least 30 people were injured," Barker said.
"Two suspects were arrested and they are believed to have been from Ingushetia with possible links to fighters operating across the Caucasus region."
The country's anti-terrorism committee has sent units to the area to help with the rescue effort and the investigation, Interfax news agency reported.
Investigation launched
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, ordered Bortnikov, the head of the FSB domestic security service, and Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika to lead the investigation into the causes of the derailment, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Dimitry Babich, an analyst for Russia Profile magazine in Moscow, told Al Jazeera: "Officials from the Federal Security Service (FSB) are saying that there was an explosive device that used 7 kilos of TNT. That's a substantial amount and now we can be pretty sure that the disaster was caused by a terrorist attack."
Attacks are relatively frequent across Russia's North Caucasus, and include the December 2003 suicide bombing of a train near Chechnya that killed 44 people.
The last fatal attacks outside the volatile southern region, however, occurred in 2004 with the twin bombings of passenger aircraft that killed more than 80 people.
Those attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels, as were the February 2004 Moscow metro bombings that killed 40 people.
The 2007 derailment of a train on the Moscow-St Petersburg line was caused by an explosion and injured 27 people. Authorities have arrested two suspects and are searching for a third - a former military officer.
Another train derailment in June 2005 left at least 12 injured. The train had been travelling from Chechnya to Moscow.
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