Despite denials that the buying of pieces by Qatar helped fuel a black market, Egyptian officials say Gulf collectors are the reason Islamic heritage sites are being looted.
Posts Tagged ‘Ibrahim’
Journalism Boot Camp: Booming Islamic Antiquities Market in the Gulf Leads to Thefts in Old Cairo Mosques
July 21st, 2009 |
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Islamists ‘share French hostages’
July 16th, 2009 |
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Two French security advisers seized in Somalia this week have been split up and are now being held by two different hardline groups, reports say.
The pair were snatched by gunmen from a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and were being held by the Hizbul-Islam group.
But officials say the al-Shabab group wanted them and after a row, Hizbul-Islam handed one of the men over.
Al-Shabab has recently carried out several beheadings, amputations and stonings in areas it controls.
They are allied with Hizbul-Islam against the UN-backed interim government and together control much of southern Somalia.
Both groups are said to have links to al-Qaeda and have been reinforced by foreign fighters.
A BBC East Africa correspondent, Peter Greste, says kidnappings in Somalia are normally about the negotiation of ransom payments rather than making violent points about foreign interference.
But he says this abduction has diplomats worried because making a point about foreign support for the government might be more valuable than demanding a cash payout.
‘Good health’
A group of gunmen dressed in military uniform seized the men on Tuesday morning and handed them over to the Hizbul-Islam group.
The move apparently sparked a row with the al-Shabab militants, who managed to persuade the other group to hand over one of the hostages.
Meeting al-Shabab Somali justice – Islamist-style
An unnamed al-Shabab militant told Reuters the two men had been shared "to avoid clashes between Islamists".
Somali Social Affairs Minister Mohammed Ali Ibrahim told French media the government was trying to free the men.
"The Shabab party took one of the two hostages and the other is in the hands of the Hizbul-Islam, but we’re in negotiations with them and we’re hoping for a positive result," he said.
Mr Ibrahim said that Somalia’s prime minister had spoken to one of the hostages who was being held in Mogadishu and said they are apparently in good health.
Moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was sworn in as president in January after UN-brokered peace talks.
He promised to introduce Sharia law but the hardliners accuse him of being a western stooge.
The French advisors were reportedly helping to train the forces of government, which has recently appealed for foreign help to tackle the Islamists.
The US last month confirmed that it has sent weapons to the government, which is also being protected by some 4,000 African Union troops in Mogadishu.
Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Experiment For Optimum Results
July 15th, 2009 |
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Many times when we are looking to improve in any aspect of our life, we search for someone who has already achieved the results that we are looking for, and we do our best to mimic their actions, expecting their results. The problem with this approach is that there are too many variables to consider in pretty much any aspect of life, and therefore too much is out of our control. We would be better off creating a plan that takes into account the success of others’ actions, and then tweaking our own actions to better fit our needs and expectations.
For instance, I just finished a 30 day biphasic sleep experiment. For 30 days I slept only 4.5 hours total each day, with a 3 hour core sleep each night and a 1.5 hour nap midday. This schedule was very different than any other biphasic sleep schedule that I had read about. The problem with the other schedules was that they just didn’t match my lifestyle and day-to-day schedule. I knew that in order to be successful with my experiment I would have to follow a schedule that worked for me. So I set about researching the amount of hours of sleep I could function on, then with the help of a neuroscientist friend created a schedule that we thought could work. I decided not to get too attached to this newly created schedule till we could observe whether or not it worked, and having gone 30 days with it, I can safely advise that the Universal Man sleep schedule (as I later named it) was a great success and can be used by anyone with a few days to adjust.
Had I followed other schedules, I can’t assume that I would have been as successful as I was with the Universal Man schedule. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t have been successful, but that there would have been schedule conflicts initially, which would only lend to less success. As I went through the experiment there were days when I needed to make minor changes, though. And thus the idea of tweaking your experiments as you go. I started summer school mid experiment, which meant that I would need to have higher levels of focus from 8 am to 3 pm. This led me to have a really sleepy mid day lul. I supplemented my sleep with a 15 minute nap at 1 pm (I just walked out of class, went to the library, and slept for 15 minutes). This allowed me to “recharge” and when I got back to class I was better focused and able to stick to the experiment. Had I not tweaked the experiment to allow for this nap, I’m quite sure I would have failed.
This is not to say that it’s not good to follow the trails of others who have found success, because it’s always better to follow someone who has done what you want to do than to try it alone. But we need to understand that we are all different, and because of that we all have different needs and requirements. By learning your own needs, you will be better equipt to tweak every aspect of your life for optimum results. And what is the use in all of this self-improvement if not to become the optimum human, right?
Ibrahim Husain is the creator of ZenCollegeLife.com, a college blog dedicated to helping students succeed in and out of academia. He also journals his lifehack experiments at BrainVault.net. Offline Ibrahim is a fitness addict, motorcyclist, avid reader, guitarist, digital artist, adventure seeker, and so much more.
Follow him on Twitter: @IbrahimZCL