Armenia will boycott renewed discussions on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). The county’s delegation chief Naira Zohrabyan made the statement on Thursday, RFE/RL reports.
A satirical website has inspired a boycott against teen superstar Justin Bieber… Beliebers, Be Still! A boycott of all things Justin Bieber is in full swing after a website published an article that seemed to feature the heartthrob endorsing the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan. If only that were really what [...]
A White supremacist group has called for a boycott of Marvel’s eagerly-anticipated comic book blockbuster Thor in the wake of growing controversy over the casting of actor Idris Elba. The Missouri-based Council of Conservative Citizens, a hate group with a history of promoting racist rheotic that dates back to 1985, is angry over the casting [...]
Serbia will send an official to the ceremony in Oslo for this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize award.
This comes despite an announcement this week that the ceremony, set to honor a Chinese dissident and opposed by China, would not be attended.
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić said that Serbia’s decision not to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was not made easily. But he told TV B92 late on Wednesday that such a move was in the best interests of the country at this point.
Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and League of Social-Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) have called on the government to reconsider decision to boycott Nobel ceremony.
The Socialists and Radicals think that Serbia needs to support China’s official policy.
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) has called upon the state to change its decision to boycott this year’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
In an open letter to the authorities, YUCOM has asked the government to send its representative to Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo which will honor Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Serbia is among the countries that will boycott this year’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, according to the BBC. According to the report, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced that China and 18 other countries – Serbia among them – will stay away from Friday’s ceremony that will honor Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
ISLAMABAD – There was a rumpus in the Upper House of the Parliament on Friday when Chairman Senate, Farooq H Naek, declared the passage of the recommendations by the Senate to the National Assembly on the controversial General Sales Tax (GST) Bill.
Hullabaloo was not yet over when the Chairman announced to prorogue the House.
The Upper House passed the recommendations on the General Sales Tax (GST) Bill and Finance (Amendment) Bill (RGST) amid opposition from JUI-F and MQM, the ruling coalition partners, and PML-N and Jamaaat-e-Islami, the opposition parties.
Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar of PML-N and Prof Khurshid Ahmed of JI wanted Chairman Senate Farooq H Naek to hold voting on the GST Bill, 2010, usually known as the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) Bill. But the Chair announced to prorogue the house while turning a deaf ear to the advice of the two senior Parliamentarians and what they called a bid to bulldoze the parliamentary norms of the Upper House. The Chairman read the prorogation order without taking into consideration that the Finance Minister had to deliver a concluding debate on the issue amid voices of Ishaq Dar that his party would walk out of the House if voting was not conducted.
Instead of holding the counting on the RGST, the Chairman only asked the members that those who were in favour of the recommendations might say ‘yes’ and those who were against the recommendations might say ‘no’ amid the slogans of “No RGST, No RGST” by the MQM and JUI-F.
PML-Q staged a token walkout of the House for not allowing them to move some fresh proposals forward on the RGST in the House before the Senate passed the recommendations on both the bills to be sent to the National Assembly for further proceedings.
The House was hit another constitutional controversy with the start of its proceedings on Friday when Wasim Sajjad, Leader of the Opposition, on the point of order requested the chair to relax the rules while using his discretionary powers for allowing him to move some fresh proposals on the RGST Bill in the House. The fresh proposals given by the Opposition Leader with consent of JUI-F and ANP, coalition partners of the Government, stated that the House recommended to the National Assembly that it would not pass the RGST.
Many legislators both from the treasury as well as opposition benches were of the view that the recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee were not final and the chair should accommodate fresh proposals while using his discretionary powers. Kalsoom Perveen accused some of the parties of adopting double standard, saying that they had supported the recommendations in the Senate Committee and now they were asking for fresh recommendations. Dr Babar Awan and Mian Raza Rabbani gave their constitutional opinions before the Chairman gave a ruling on the issue. Rabbani while quoting the prescribed rules 95, 96 and 97 said that as the recommendation that Wasim Sajjad wanted to move was negative in nature, so it could not be taken into consideration under the rules. Babar Awan said that according to Rule 119 &120, a private member who wished to move a resolution (or motion or fresh proposal) should give 7 daysÂ’ notice prior to this. Wasim Sajjad asked the Chairman to issue directives under Article-77, as the rules did not provide any regulations for this purpose in the Article 73.
The Chairman Senate assured the members that he would resolve the issue by giving his ruling before laying the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance containing proposals for making recommendations on the GST Bill and Finance (Amendment) Bill.
But, Senator Ahmed Ali first presented the report after many requests from the chair as he was hesitating to present it and then Farooq H Naek gave his ruling. Zafar Ali Shah also said that the Chairman was becoming partial as he was continuously using some words in favour of the treasury benches and the chair had to expunge these words on ZafarÂ’s request.
The Chairman Senate in his ruling said that the point raised by Wasim Sajjad violated the rules, as the time to give any proposals regarding the bill had lapsed. “The GST Bill was laid down on November 12, 2010 before the House for recommendations and the Chairman Senate at that time with the sense of the House decided that any proposal for making recommendations to NA may be given to the Senate Secretariat within two days”, he added. He said as the time had lapsed so no member would be allowed to submit fresh proposals at this stage.
Minister of Ports and Shipping, Babar Ghauri, wanted that the issue should be resolved in accordance with the sense of the House, as his party also wanted to submit fresh recommendations on agriculture tax. JUI-F was also in favour of submitting the fresh proposals.
Sabir Baloch while pointing towards Ghauri said that the Minister was a part of the Government and was speaking against it, he should first resign and then speak. Wasim Sajjad was of the view that the views of his party in the form of fresh proposals should be accommodated, as it had become a majority view because the ruling parties were also supporting it.
Delegates of the Assembly of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities called on Kosovo Serbs on Tuesday not to take part in December 12 elections. The elections are organized by the Kosovo Albanian authorities in Priština.
Was Amazon actually selling a how-to manual for child predators? The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure was one of the top-100 e-books on Amazon.com, but after a public outcry and a Facebook campaign calling for a boycott the literature was removed from the website. The Pedo’s Guide was published two weeks ago and sold [...]
The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) called on Serbs to boycott the early parliamentary elections scheduled by the Priština institutions for February 13, 2011.
The vote represents a violation of UN SC Resolution 1244 and the Constitution of Serbia, the party announced in Belgrade today.
A high ranking official of the ruling Democratic Party (DS) says Serbs in Kosovo should not boycott elections organized by ethnic Albanians there. “The voice of Serbs must be heard, that it to say, there mzst be conditions for some decisions in PriÅ¡tina to not be made without their consent,” Dragoljub Mićunović told Novi Sad daily Dnevnik.
OPPOSITION GROWS AGAINST CONTROVERSIAL SB 1070 IMMIGRATION LAW
Nine Inch Nails, My Morning Jacket, Gogol Bordello, Maroon 5, Pitbull, Ben Harper, Ry Cooder, Steve Earle, DJ Spooky, and Billy Bragg, are just a few of the
artists who have recently joined the Sound Strike protest in response to the controversial immigration bill in
Arizona. Click
here for a
complete list of artists who are boycotting Arizona as part of Sound Strike.
However, opinion remains divided as to the proper response to SB 1070. Arizona promoter Charlie Levy of
Stateside Presents has written
an open letter
urging artists not to boycott the state.
Meanwhile, the Phoenix New Times has introduced a new compilation album entitled A Line in the
Sand: A Collection of Protest Songs from Arizona Artists Opposed to SB 1070. Click here
to buy the compilation.
Sound Strike architect Zack de la Rocha tells Billboard
that the
protest could culminate in a series of protest concerts in July: “In the coming weeks we are going to be organizing a
series of concerts that are respectful of the nature of the boycott in its attempts to isolate the Arizona government
but not isolate the people, and especially the organizations that are fighting this on the ground,” de la Rocha said in
a telephone interview. “Many of us have begun to plan concerts that include bands that have signed on the Sound
Strike, and make tickets available so that people within Arizona can come and see these concerts as they roll out.
These are things that are being set into motion right now – a series of concerts or maybe even one giant concert in
late July.”
Below is a video of Zack de la Rocha explaining his involvement in the Sound Strike protest:
Thanks to Pitchfork for the story.
The Islamic Community in Serbia (IZS) has called on a complete boycott on the buying and distribution of daily Blic. This was sparked by the photomontage of IZS leader Muamer Zukorlić which showed him dressed in the traditional frock of an Orthodox Christian bishop which appeared in the daily.
ISLAMABAD – The National Assembly on Friday passed the Budget 2010-11 with consolidated outlay of Rs 3,259 billion, however the PML-N walked out of the House and termed the budget one-sided fiscal policy.
Following the passage of the budget as well as the Finance Act 2010 with simple majority, the Government also got approval of supplementary demands for grants amounting to Rs 424.4 billion for the current fiscal 2009-10, while Minister of State for Finance Hina Rabbani Khar also presented the details of supplementary charged expenditures of Rs 39.59 billion in the House.
Earlier, Minister for Finance Abdul Hafeez Sheikh moved the Finance Bill 2010 in the Lower House to give effect to the financial proposals of the Federal Government for the year beginning on the first day of July, 2010 and to amend certain laws (The Finance Bill, 2010). All the amendments proposed by the treasury benches in the Finance Bill were passed while Opposition members opposed various amendments moved by Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, however the Lower House rejected all those amendments which were moved by Opposition members.
On the passage of the budget, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in his speech congratulated the treasury as well as opposition benches for the approval of budget and admired the House for a historic quality discussion on the budget. He was of the view that the budget was prepared while focusing on reality and transparency. “We will fulfil all promises of this budget,” Premier Gilani added. He also announced honorarium salary of one month for the employees of different departments who remained on duty during the budget session.
The Federal Budget 2010-11 provides Rs 663 billion for Public Sector Development programme while a tax collection target of 1,667 billion rupees has been fixed for the next financial year. However the estimated budget deficit for the fiscal year is about 700 billion rupees. In the budget, the Government has also taken measures to improve the lives of government employees by giving them a raise of 50 percent to their basic pay, besides providing relief to the pensioners retired after 2001. The finance act also allocated Rs 50 billion for BISP to help deserving people of the country. It also approved reduction in Customs Duty on 29 goods, 1 percent increase in General Sales Tax that do not include food items and imposition of Capital Gains Tax on the sale of shares in stock market.
Prior to the passage of Finance Bill 2010, Leader of the Opposition Ch Nisar Ali Khan said that the Opposition had given effective suggestions, which were ignored by the Government. “Last budget was approved unanimously and this budget can also be passed unanimously but the Government did not develop consensus while preparing the budget. Almost 61 suggestions of Senate were accepted but the Government ignored the proposals of 140 members of the National Assembly,” Leader of the Opposition said. However he congratulated the Prime Minister, the Minister for Finance and other members for the open debate on budget.
Terming it a one-sided budget, Nisar said that his party would not vote for the budget. He regretted that PML-Q did not support his party in opposing the amendments. Later PML-N staged a walkout from the House.
Central leader of PML-Q Riaz Hussain Pirzada, however, said that PML-Q had taken the decision to support the budget in the best interest of democracy. He also congratulated the Prime Minister, the Minister for Finance and other members. Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said that 161 members participated in the debate on budgetary proposals for 12 days, consuming 39 hours and 37 minutes.
Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh also presented the schedule of authorised expenditure 2010-11 and supplementary schedule of authorised expenditure 2009-10 before the National Assembly.
In the name of Rosa Parks, Martin Louis The King Jr. (also known as Kanye West) insists that artists boycott Arizona over its controversial new immigration law, which makes failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give law enforcement officials the authority to quiz residents on their immigration status. The rapper is supporting [...]
Early mayoral elections were held in the municipality of Istok in Kosovo on Sunday. Several minor incidents at polling stations were reported during the voting.
The temporary administration of the Kosovska Mitrovica municipality has called on a boycott of the Kosovo Albanian government’s institutions. In a news conference held today, the administration’s representatives also condemned the plan drafted by Priština and the International Civil Office (ICO) Chief Pieter Feith for the integration of northern Kosovo into the Kosovo system outside the rules set by UN Resolution 1244, in an effort to close all of Serbia’s institutions in the north.
