Ahmadinejad slams pressure to impose Islamic values

Google – AFP, 31 December 2012 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad holds a press conference in 

Tehran on October 2, 2012 (AFP/File, Atta Kenare)

TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again spoken out against the use of pressure to impose Islamic values on people, especially university candidates, media reported on Monday.

"You cannot impose things by issuing decrees and directives -- a choice imposed by force has no value whatsoever," Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Sunday.

"In some universities, female students are forced to wear the chador (covering the whole body, leaving only the face exposed), but the way they are forced to wear it... it is better not worn since it becomes worthless," he said.

He also criticised criteria on the selection of university candidates, citing the case of a student denied university admittance in the 1980s because he had shaved. Being unshaven in Iran is a sign that you are a good Muslim.

Ahmadinejad also mentioned another case of a girl refused a university place because she had "talked to a boy in the street and had her headscarf back an inch," thereby showing her hair.

He said that after he intervened in both cases they were granted places.

Ahmadinejad also denounced some of the questions posed to candidates during interviews for government jobs.

"We have asked people if they drank alcohol or have illicit sexual relations. This is an insult and goes against religion," he said.

Ahmadinejad, whose second and final presidential term ends in 2013, has repeatedly drawn the ire of ultra-conservative religious figures in the Islamic republic by advocating a more liberal view of Islam, criticising in particular the use of force to compel women to cover their hair.

Related Articles:

Israeli leaders meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in NYC

Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

“… No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give. …”

Barred Arab candidate allowed to run in Israeli election

Deutsche Welle, 30 December 2012

Israel's highest court has overturned a decision by the country's electoral commission to disqualify an Arab lawmaker from running in upcoming elections. The candidate was involved in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday overruled a decision by the country's electoral commission to disqualify an Arab-Israeli politician from running for office in the January 22 parliamentary elections.

The nine-judge court unanimously dismissed the argument there were sufficient grounds to disqualify Arab Balad party hopeful, Hanin Zoabi, from standing for election, saying she "shall be a candidate for the Knesset [parliament] in next month's poll."

The ruling, published on Sunday, did not outline specific arguments put forth by those seeking to have Zoabi, who entered parliament in 2009 as the first Arab-Israeli female representative, disqualified.

More than two-dozen extreme-right activists attempted to block Zoabi from leaving the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem, pushing her and yelling insults, including "Terrorist, go to Gaza."

Right-wing and ultra-right parliamentarians criticized the court's decision, saying the legal system in Israel was a "left-wing stronghold," and Zoabi had, in the past, "supported terrorists."

Opposition to Israeli blockade

Zoabi drew widespread criticism in Israel when she joined pro-Palestinian activists in the 2010 international aid flotilla challenging the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, a territory ruled by Hamas Islamists opposing the existence of the Jewish state.

Nine activists were shot dead in clashes aboard the ships, but Zoabi said she did not participate in the violent confrontation, nor did she witness it.

Earlier this month, Israel's Central Elections Commission voted to disallow Zoabi based on the reading of the Basic Law, which states "anyone who denies Israel's existence as a Jewish state, or supports armed struggle against it, may not be a candidate for the Knesset."

Zoabi told reporters on Sunday that the attempt to disqualify her had been "motivated by political persecution against her, her party and the Arab public in Israel as whole."

Environment Minister Gilad Erdan condemned the ruling saying Zoabi had been involved in "expressing solidarity with our enemies."

jlw/ rc (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Israeli president Shimon Peres speaks during an interview

 with Agence France-Presse on December 6, 2012 (AFP/File, 

Menahem Kahana)

Related Articles:

Israel must complete peace deal with Abbas: Peres

Israel indicts former Foreign Minister Lieberman


"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

Philippines contraception law signed by Benigno Aquino

BBC News, 29 December 2012

Related Stories

• UN backs Philippine contraception
• Fierce debate over Philippine contraception bill
• Church vs state in Philippine sex education row

The Catholic Church campaigned
against the bill

Philippines President Benigno Aquino has signed into law a bill providing for free access to contraception and family planning.

Supporters say the law, which took 14 years to pass, will reduce poverty and maternal mortality in a country with the highest birth rate in the region.

The Roman Catholic Church repeatedly tried to block the bill.

Parliament failed to pass the measure several times before approving a final version on 19 December.

The law is due to take effect in mid-January, said presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte.

"The passage into law of the Responsible Parenthood Act closes a highly divisive chapter of our history - a chapter borne of the convictions of those who argued for, or against this act," she said.

"At the same time, it opens the possibility of co-operation and reconciliation... engagement and dialogue characterised not by animosity, but by our collective desire to better the welfare of the Filipino people."

The BBC's Kate McGeown reports from the capital, Manila, that even now the bill has become law, the Church and its political allies could still derail it.

Several bishops have already threatened to contest the bill's legality in the Supreme Court.

More than 80% of the population in the Philippines is Catholic, and the Church has had the support of many politicians, media commentators, and businessmen.

Condoms are widely sold in the Philippines, but at a price that many people cannot afford.

Many maternity hospitals are struggling to cope with the number of births, and the UN appealed to the Philippines earlier this year to pass the family planning bill.

A government health survey in 2011 found that the maternal mortality rate had risen by 36% between 2006 and 2010.

Related Articles:

Top Australian Cleric Apologizes for Abuse

Dutch anger over pope's gay marriage condemnation

Contraception could save world $5.7 bn: UN report

Seven billion people and climbing, but not everywhere

Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

“… No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give. …”

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”

Dutch anger over pope's gay marriage condemnation

Dutch News, Saturday 22 December 2012

Dutch foreign affairs minister Frans Timmermans has criticised the pope for his recent statements on homosexuality, RTL news reported on Saturday.

Thank you for the flowers !

‘If every person is unique, as the pope’s representative said in Dublin last week, then why should that unique person not have the right to stand up for their own sexual orientation?’ Timmermans is quoted as saying.

'Why can Romeo marry Julia but not Julius?' the minister told RTL. ‘Marriage between two people of the same sex is having respect for the uniqueness of the individual.’

The pope used his traditional Christmas speech this year to denounce gay marriange which he said is destroying the very ‘essence of the human creature’.

The Netherlands legalised same sex marriages, in April 2001, the first country in the world to do so.

United Nations

The COC gay rights lobby group has called on Timmermans to summon the pope’s representative in the Netherlands and to campaign to have the Vatican lose its special position within the United Nations.

‘Wars are raging and people are dying of hunger, and the Vatican choses to condemn people who love each other,’ RTL news quoted a spokesman as saying. ‘And when it comes to Uganda, where the most terrible anti-gay legislation is being introduced in the name of religion, the Vatican says not a word.’

In the meantime, a new Facebook page ‘No flowers for the pope’ – a reference to the fact the Netherlands sends flowers to the pope every Easter – had gathered 7,000 likes by late Saturday afternoon.

Related Articles:

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word (Video)

Catholic newspaper calls for ordination of women

Facebook users wage condom campaign against Pope

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“ … Spirituality (Religions)

Number one: Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while keeping the basic doctrine the same.

The doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the Christ. It simply changes the interpretation. …”

Court appeal of dissident Vietnam bloggers is rejected

BBC News, 28 December 2012

Related Stories

• Vietnam jails dissident bloggers
• Vietnam's leader targets blogs
• 'Suicide' of Vietnam blog mother

Nguyen Van Hai (centre) is a
vociferous critic of the government

An appeals court in Vietnam has upheld the sentences of two prominent bloggers jailed in September for "anti-state propaganda", a lawyer has told the BBC.

The court ruled that the sentences and convictions of writer Nguyen Van Hai and former policewoman Ta Phong Tan should not be overturned.

Nguyen Van Hai and Ta Phong Tan received 12 and 10 years in jail respectively after a brief trial.

In a separate development, another top blogger has been arrested.

Le Quoc Quan, one of Vietnam's best-known dissidents, was arrested on Thursday on charges of tax evasion, state media reports say.

Mr Quan was detained as he took his children to school in Hanoi.

He has been jailed before, and had recently complained of being under surveillance and harassment.

Vietnam's communist rulers have opened up the economy, but suppress political opposition and ban private media. All newspapers and television channels are state-run.

Fearful

The case of Nguyen Van Hai, also known as Dieu Cay, has attracted international attention and was recently highlighted by US President Barack Obama.

Nguyen Van Hai's lawyer Ha Huy Son told the BBC Vietnamese service that the appeal failed because the court's judgement did not fully reflect the arguments presented on his client's behalf at the hearing.

Ta Phong Tan has been praised by campaigning groups for her work in exposing official corruption.

In June her mother committed suicide by setting herself on fire in front of government offices in protest over her continuing detention.

Le Quoc Quan writes a popular
blog exposing human rights abuses

The pair were found guilty of posting political articles on a banned website called Free Journalists' Club, as well as posting articles critical of the government on their own blogs.

A third blogger, who pleaded guilty, had his sentence reduced from four years to three.

Meanwhile the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that Le Quoc Quan was being held for tax evasion.

He was treated in hospital in August after being beaten up by men he believed were state agents.

The dissident was so fearful of being assaulted again since the August incident that he had reportedly begun carrying a golf club for self-defence.

Le Quoc Quan was detained in 2007 for three months on his return from an American government-funded fellowship in Washington.

He writes a popular blog exposing human rights abuses and other issues not covered by the state media.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency in September, he said that he and his family and staff had received frequent warnings from the authorities.

But he pledged to carry on speaking out against the government and in support of multi-party democracy and freedom of speech.

Related Articles:

Vietnam Bans Blogger From US Rights Award Trip

Vietnam jails dissident bloggers

Vietnam Jails Three Bloggers for 'Anti-State Propaganda'

Vietnamese bloggers go on trial for spreading anti-government propaganda

Vietnam orders crackdown on bloggers

India to name and shame sex offenders as rape protests grow

Government makes bold move after criticism it is out of touch and ignored public revulsion over violence against women

guardian.co.uk, Jason Burke in Delhi, Friday 28 December 2012

An Indian woman climbs on a police barricade during a protest for women's
rights, in New Delhi. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/EPA

The Indian government is to publish the names, photographs and addresses of thousands of convicted sex offenders in a bid to tackle a wave of sexual violence against women, and head off growing anger at what has been seen as an inadequate and tardy response by older political leaders out of touch with a rapidly changing society.

The controversial measure, announced by the minister of state for home affairs, RPN Singh, is to start in Delhi, where angry protests continue over the gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student 10 days ago. The victim of the hour-long attack, who suffered serious internal injuries, has now been moved to a specialist hospital in Singapore where her condition remains critical.

Police chiefs and officials are to meet activists and experts on Friday to discuss implementation of the scheme.

"We are planning to start the process [of identification] in Delhi. Photographs, names and addresses of the rapists will be uploaded on the Delhi police website also," Singh told reporters.

There are fears that identifying convicted rapists will lead to vigilante attacks. Others point out that, with a national average conviction rate of 25% for rape cases, and with many charges taking several years to reach court and enormous numbers of incidents going unreported, the measure can only have a limited effect. Women's rights campaigners have, however, backed the idea.

"It is true that there is a risk of such attacks but at the moment it is the victim who has to suffer the shame and social ostracism," said Ranjana Kumari, director of Delhi's Centre for Social Research. "She can't get married, for example. This will make sure the rapist is shamed. He won't get a job, or somewhere to live and will be cut off from society. This is a powerful deterrent," Kumari, who is also a member of the national commission for empowerment of women, told the Guardian.

Authorities, already under fire for their failure to prevent the original attack, which took place on a Sunday evening in a bus travelling on busy public roads, are now under pressure over their mishandling of the protests around India. Images of riot police beating back demonstrators carrying placards with slogans against violence who have attempted to reach parliament, the president's official residence and the official homes of top officials in the centre of the capital, have reinforced the impression of an uncaring, out-of-touch government.

Earlier this week, Abhijit Mukherjee, the president's son and an MP with the ruling Congress party, was forced to apologise after calling protesters "painted women" who "have little connection with ground reality" and "have nothing better to do". The incident has revealed deep fissures within Indian society. Described as "eve teasing", sexual harassment is endemic and rape systematically blamed on irresponsible women behaving in "un-Indian" ways.

Police routinely ignore complaints of sexual violence; senior officers have even suggested women should fight back by hurling chilli powder at rapists. Bollywood films typically feature an initially distant girl who finally gives in to her determined, and often physically aggressive, suitor.

"India is currently in a twilight zone, when the traditional social norms have lost their resonance while modern values based on individual liberty have not yet gained acceptance," said the financial newspaper Mint, in an editorial.

The six men responsible for the incident in Delhi included a driver of an unlicensed private bus, a vegetable seller and a gym assistant. Most had grown up in deeply conservative parts of rural India before moving to the capital. One consequence of the media's recent focus on sexual violence against women has been coverage of incidents that normally would be either relegated to local editions of newspapers or not covered at all.

A second alleged gang rape, this time of a 42-year-old woman, in a moving vehicle in Delhi made headlines. All major TV channels on Thursday reported the suicide of an 18-year-old woman near Patiala, a town in the north-western Punjab province two weeks after a serious sexual assault.

When she told police she had been raped by three men from her village, their response was to jeer, relatives said. Officials have admitted a case was only registered – the first step in a criminal investigation in India – after her suicide last month.

In Bhopal, a 21-year-old has told police she was raped in the office of a senior politician six weeks ago.

Among the demands of protesters are more severe punishments for rapists, including the death penalty. However laws protecting women are already on Indian statute books, the problem is haphazard implementation.

Kumari, one of those who suggested the public sex offenders' register, said she was pleased with the government's move but disappointed that finances devoted to women's schemes had been cut at a meeting earlier this week.

"How are they going to make all these ideas to protect women work if they are not going to fund them? There is a fundamental lack of priority and political intent," she said.

Indian protesters rally in Delhi following the cremation of the 23-year-old

 gang-rape victim. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Related Articles:

Delhi gang-rape: in India, anger is overtaking fear

India gang-rape victim cremated as UN chief calls for action to protect women

Indian gang-rape and murder victim cremated as politicians vow action

In pictures: Delhi rape protests

Delhi gang-rape victim dies in hospital in Singapore

Indian state plans 65 all-women police stations

Indian gang-rape victim takes "turn for the worse": hospital

Indian Teen Kills Self After Pressed to Drop Rape Case

Delhi bus gang rape: Sonia Gandhi visits hospital

Myanmar to allow daily private newspapers

The Daily Star, AP, December 28, 2012

Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi shakes hands with
supporters  after giving a speech in Monywa in this November 30, 2012 file
photo. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/Files

                          

YANGON, Myanmar: Myanmar will allow private daily newspapers starting in April for the first time since 1964, in the latest step toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation.

The Information Ministry announced on its website Friday that any Myanmar national wishing to publish a daily newspaper will be able to submit an application in February. New papers will be allowed to begin printing April 1 in any language, it said.

The move was an expected part of new press freedoms introduced in the former military dictatorship as part of reforms President Thein Sein has introduced since taking office last year.

Private dailies were once vibrant in the former British colony, previously known as Burma, but forced to close when late dictator Ne Win nationalized all private businesses in 1964.

'Instant chicken' scandal: McDonald's admits Liuhe was supplier

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2012-12-27

A McDonald's outlet in Beijing. (Photo/CNS)

McDonald's has finally admitted that the company at the center of China's "instant chicken" scandal was one of its suppliers, the state newswire Xinhua reports.

The global fast food chain had initially denied it did business with the Shandong-based Liuhe Group, a major supplier to rival KFC, which was discovered to have used excessive antibiotics and illegal hormones and chemicals to speed up the growth of its broiler chickens.

Following continued public and media scrutiny, however, McDonald's now says that Liuhe was in fact one of its "second-tier" or "downstream" suppliers, although it has stopped buying chicken from the company since Dec. 18 and samples of McDonald's products have subsequently been tested by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration.

McDonald's had been reluctant to comment after the scandal first came to light, only previously publishing a notice on its official Chinese microblog claiming that all its chicken products had passed stringent quality controls and met government standards after independent third-party laboratory testing.

A McDonald's China spokesperson said that the restaurant chain was not directly stocked by Liuhe and that quality controls of its second-tier suppliers are carried out by its first-tier suppliers.

According to Xinhua, second-tier suppliers provide the basic raw materials, while first-tier suppliers process the raw materials into chicken products. McDonald's does not deal directly with second-tier suppliers and relies on its first-tier suppliers to enforce quality controls, the spokesperson added.

The world's largest fast food chain added that it also conducts quality checks on every batch of its chicken products but has so far not found excessive antibiotic levels in Liuhe's chicken, while hormone levels are not tested as part of the checks.

A spokesperson from China's Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday morning that the scandal is still under investigation but all suspect chicken farms and processing plants have been shut down.

A KFC outlet in Shanghai.
anim(Photo/Xinhua)

Related Articles:

KFC admits excessive antibiotics were used in its chicken

Liuhe exec admits drug sales make up large part of chicken trade

CCTV exposes drugged chickens at KFC and McDonald's supplier

'Instant chicken' scandal may force safer practices in China

Shanghai to punish persons responsible in KFC hormone scandal

KFC suspected of concealing results of food safety tests

Indian Teen Kills Self After Pressed to Drop Rape Case

Yahoo – AFP, December 28, 2012

Indian riot policemen stand in front of a demonstrating crowd during a protest
calling for better safety for women in New Delhi on December 27, 2012 (AFP)

AMRITSAR, India (AFP) - A 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative said on Thursday.

Amid the ongoing uproar over the gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi earlier this month, the latest case has again shone the spotlight on the police's handling of sex crimes.

One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13 in the Patiala region in the Punjab, according to officials.

The teenager was found dead on Wednesday night after swallowing poison.

Inspector General Paramjit Singh Gill said that the teenager had been "running from pillar to post to get her case registered" but officers failed to open a formal inquiry.

"One of the officers tried to convince her to withdraw the case," Gill, the police chief for the area, told AFP.

Before her death, there had been no arrests over her case although three people were detained on Thursday. Two of them were her alleged male attackers and the third was a suspected woman accomplice.

The victim's sister told Indian television that the teenager had been urged to either accept a cash settlement or marry one of her attackers.

"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.

Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar.

The woman and her husband later brought the case to the attention of a more senior officer and a hunt has now been launched for her attacker, an auto rickshaw driver.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.

The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

During an address to the chief ministers of India's states on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to bring in new laws to cover attacks on women.

Related Articles:

India rape victim in Singapore; PM pledges action

India gang-rape victim 'extremely critical'

Delhi bus gang rape: Sonia Gandhi visits hospital

'Yak insurance' plan saving Nepal's snow leopard

Google - AFP, Frankie Taggart (AFP), 26 December 2012

This handout photograph taken by a remote camera trap shows a rare

snow leopard in Nepal (WWF Nepal/AFP)

KATHMANDU — The remorse felt by Himali Chungda Sherpa after he killed three snow leopard cubs in retaliation for his lost cattle inspired him to set up a scheme to prevent other herders from doing the same.

Sherpa lost his cattle near Ghunsa village at the base of Mount Kangchenjunga on the Nepal-India border, later finding their remains in a cave beside three sleeping snow leopard cubs.

The Nepalese herder put the cubs in a sack and threw them into the river, finding their bodies the next day.

"From that night onwards the mother snow leopard started crying from the mountain for her cubs, and my cattle were crying for the loss of their calves.

"I realised how big a sin I had committed and promised myself that I would never do such a thing in the future."

This handout photograph released by WWF Nepal shows a snow leopard

 in a conservation area (WWF Nepal/AFP)

Four years ago Sherpa, 48, founded with other locals an insurance plan for livestock that conservationists say is deterring herders from killing snow leopards that attack their animals.

In doing so the scheme has given hope for the endangered cat, whose numbers across the mountains of 12 countries in south and central Asia are thought to have declined by 20 percent over the past 16 years.

Under the scheme, herders pay in 55 rupees ($1.50) a year for each of their hairy yaks, the vital pack animal that is also kept for milk and meat, and are paid 2,500 rupees for any animal killed by the endangered cat.

"The (Himalayan) communities have been able to pay out compensation for more than 200 animals since the scheme started," WWF Nepal conservation director Ghana Gurung told reporters at a presentation in the capital Kathmandu.

"The community members are the ones that monitor this, they are the ones who do the patrolling and they are the ones who verify the kills."

The global snow leopard population is estimated at just 4,080-6,590 adults according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which lists the animal as "endangered" on its red list of threatened species.

Experts believe just 300 to 500 adult snow leopards survive in Nepal

(Lehtikuva/AFP/File, Jarno Mela)

Experts believe just 300 to 500 adults survive in Nepal, and few can claim ever to have seen the secretive, solitary "mountain ghost", which lives 5,000 to 6,000 metres (16,500 to 20,000 feet) above sea level.

Despite its name, it is not a close relative of the leopard and has much more in common genetically with the tiger, though it is thought to have a placid temperament.

"There has never been a case of a snow leopard attacking a human," Gurung said of the animal, revered for its thick grey patterned pelt.

It does, however, have a taste for sheep, goats and other livestock essential for the livelihoods of farmers and is often killed by humans either as a preventative measure or in revenge for the deaths of their animals.

WWF Nepal revealed details of its insurance scheme in filmed interviews shown at the recent Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival.

Sherpa now campaigns to convince Himalayan farmers that killing snow leopards is wrong, but has been frequently told they need to kill the animal to protect their livelihoods.

"I swear if I can catch a snow leopard. They rob our animals and our source of livelihood," herder Chokyab Bhuttia told the WWF.

The insurance plan, which also covers sheep and goats, was set up with 1.2 million rupees donated by the University of Zurich.

Since the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Snow Leopard Insurance plan was launched four years ago no snow leopard is thought to have been killed in retaliation for preying on livestock since.

Light from a sunrise is cast on Mount Kangchenjunga on December 22,

2012, as seen from the Indian side (AFP/File, Diptendu Dutta)

Locals, who count the number of cattle attacked as well as tracks, fecal pellets and scratches in the ground, believe snow leopard numbers have significantly increased.

"There is now an awareness among people that the snow leopard is an endangered animal and we have to protect it. The insurance policy has made people more tolerant to the loss of their livestock," Sherpa said.

He believes protecting the snow leopard is vital to boosting the economy in an area which gets just a few hundred trekkers a year, compared with 74,000 in Annapurna.

"If a tourist sees a snow leopard and takes a picture of it there will be publicity of our region and more tourists will come," Sherpa said.

Evidence of the scheme's benefits will remain anecdotal until the publication next year of the results of a wide-ranging camera trapping survey.

But locals are optimistic about the animal's future, according to Tsheten Dandu Sherpa, chairman of the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Management Council.

"In this area there was never any poaching of snow leopards for trade. They were killed only as a retaliatory act by livestock owners," he said.

"Now with this insurance policy there will definitely be protection of the snow leopard and its numbers will increase."