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To: Neeka who wrote (143)4/5/2006 11:30:02 PM
From: paret  Respond to of 908
 
ITALY: MUSLIMS TOLD TO VOTE COMMUNIST
AKI ^ | 04/05/06 | AKI

adnki.com

Rome, 5 April (AKI) - The secretary general of Italy's largest Muslim organisation, the Union of Islamic communities in Italy (UCOII), has called on Italian Muslims to vote for the Party of Italian Communists at the general election. Hamza Piccardo sent an email late Tuesday to Muslim centres saying that the party's leader Oliviero Diliberto had been sensitive to the needs of Muslim inmates when he was justice minister in the late 1990s and this constituted a sound reason to vote for him on 9-10 April. This was the first time that a leading member of Italy's Muslim community publicly supported a party on the eve of an election.

In the email, Piccardo also said that, "another five years with a cabinet of [prime minister Silvio] Berlusconi and the Northern League Party is for Muslims and for foreigners in Italy a sad perspective of misunderstanding and segregation." The Northern League is an anti-immigration party in the government coalition.

The UCOII leader explained that he met Diliberto along with the president of UCOII Mohamed Nour Dachan when he was justice minister - from October 1998 until December 1999 in the progressive government of Massimo D'Alema.

"We spoke at length about the community's problems and needs, agreeing that the government needed to take more action on its behalf. Diliberto was extremely interested and helpful. In particular, we spoke to him about the problem of celebrating Ramadan in prisons, asking the ministry to make sure that dinner was served when [Muslim inmates] could interrupt their fast."

The leader of UCOII said that Diliberto's willingness to accommodate the needs of the Muslim community was a good reason to vote for his party - even placing at the end of his email the logos of the Party of Italian Communists and its allies at the Senate, the Greens, both members of the center-left coalition.

Piccardo concluded that in December 1999 the minister sent him a letter explaining that, as agreed in their previous conversation, he had "given instructions so that Muslims in Italian prisons could conveniently abide by their Ramadan obligations. Ever since, that practice has been implemented in Italian prisons."



To: Neeka who wrote (143)4/6/2006 5:42:55 PM
From: paret  Respond to of 908
 
Girl, 5, Forced To Apologize For Hugging Classmate
Parents Looking For New School For Girl
April 5, 2006

thebostonchannel.com

MAYNARD, Mass. -- A family in Maynard is outraged after their 5-year-old daughter was forced to write a letter denouncing hugging after a classmate embraced her.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Brenda Brier and Michael Marino pulled their daughter, Savannah, out of school early Wednesday. The couple was angry after a meeting with officials at the Greenmeadow Elementary School in Maynard, where Savannah is in kindergarten.

At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, "I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn't like it because she was hugging me. I didn't like when she hugged me."

"She said, 'I'm really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'" Brier said.


"I can understand if boys are playing rough or kids are pulling each other around -- that's one thing. But when kids are being affectionate, I mean hugging, hey, they shouldn't be disciplined over it and they shouldn't be lying in letters making the kid say the opposite that they don't like to hug," Marino said.

School Superintendent Mark Masterson told NewsCenter 5 there was a "dispute of the facts between a hug and a lifting of a child off the floor." The superintendent said the school reported "one girl bear hugged another girl and lifted her off the ground. The aide who was monitoring told the teacher. The teacher asked several students to write a note to their parents and describe what happened."

Savannah said she did not lift her classmate off the ground.

"They're trying to accuse her now, basically," Brier said.

Savannah's parents said it should have never gone this far, and want an apology from the school. The family said they are so upset they'll start looking for a new school for their daughter to attend.



To: Neeka who wrote (143)4/9/2006 12:45:35 PM
From: paret  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 908
 
Couric did talk about bias in the media – but the only "biased" outlets she discussed were the hugely popular conservative radio talk shows:

"Some people are very concerned about talk shows, radio talk shows in general, of course. Most of them around the country have a decidedly conservative bent. The rap that some people give them is that they reflect the views of a very vocal minority, the extremists in this country, and don't really reflect the true nature of political debate in the United States. And, as a matter of fact, they tend to be quite divisive and sort of have a bad, a negative impact on the country."