Pope calls for Syria peace at start of Mideast tour

Yahoo  - AFP, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 24 May 2014

Pope Francis (L) sits in a golf cart with King Abdullah II of Jordan (R) as they
 visit Bethany, a site on the eastern bank of the River Jordan where some
Christians believe Jesus was baptised, on May 24, 2014

Amman (AFP) - Pope Francis made an urgent plea Saturday for peace in war-torn Syria as he kicked off a three-day pilgrimage to the Middle East.

And he called for religious freedom to be upheld throughout a region ravaged by war and bloodshed, where a dwindling Christian population faces daily persecution.

As he walked off the plane onto a red carpet at Amman airport, his white robes flapping in the hot desert wind, he was greeted by officials and two children dressed in traditional costume who handed him bouquets of irises, the national flower of Jordan.

Pope Francis (2nd-L) is greeted by Jordan's King

 Abdullah II (R) and his wife Queen Rania (L) 

at the Royal Palace in Amman on May 24,

2014 (AFP Photo/Andrew Medichini )

On a trip which continues Sunday in the Palestinian territories and Israel, Francis reserved his biggest public event for Jordan, an open-air mass at Amman's main international stadium where he was joyously welcomed by 40,000 pilgrims.

Entering the stadium in an open-topped white jeep, he smiled and waved at the crowds, his white skullcap flying off in the breeze.

Babies and toddlers were passed through the crowd to be held by him for a moment and blessed, as thousands of balloons were released into the air.

"Peace is not something which can be bought, it is a gift to be sought patiently and to be crafted through the actions, great and small, of our everyday lives," he told the crowd packed into a sea of blue and red chairs on a sweltering May afternoon.

His landmark first visit to the Holy Land, billed by the Vatican as a "pilgrimage of prayer," is chiefly aimed at boosting ties with Muslims and Jews, as well as seeking closer unity with Orthodox Christian leaders.

'Humanity and wisdom'

"Lasting peace for the entire region... requires that a peaceful solution be found to the crisis in Syria, as well as a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," the pope said at the royal palace, ahead of a meeting with Syrian refugees on the banks of the River Jordan.

Syria's civil war, which began in 2011, is estimated to have claimed at least 162,000 lives and forced another 2.7 million people to flee to neighbouring countries, 450,000 of them Christians.

Jordan's King Abdullah II told Francis his "humanity and wisdom" could contribute to easing the crisis confronting Syrian refugees and the burden on host countries like Jordan.

Abdullah himself drove the pontiff in a golf cart to the reputed site of Jesus' baptism on the River Jordan, chatting to the 77-year-old Francis squeezed in beside him, another sign of the pontiff's famed informality.

Pope Francis leads (R) a mass at Amman 

stadium in the Jordanian capital on May 24,

2014 (AFP Photo/Khalil Mazraawi)

The pope stood for a few minutes in silent prayer on the riverbank, his head bowed, before being driven by the king, once again in the cart, to speak and pray with some of the 600,000 refugees hosted by Jordan and hear their accounts of suffering in Syria.

Speaking earlier, Francis urged respect for religious freedom in a region where the Holy See has called for an end to the ongoing persecution of Christians.

"Religious freedom is, in fact, a fundamental human right and I cannot fail to express my hope that it will be upheld throughout the Middle East and the entire world," he said.

Thousands of Christians around the world are killed every year because of their faith, and persecution has become more widespread in countries torn by conflicts involving radical Islamists, including Syria and Iraq.

Ahead of his arrival in a region roiled by political and religious division, the Argentine pope said he felt like the biblical prophet Daniel heading to the lions' den.

"I feel like Daniel, but now I know that the lions don't bite," he told reporters travelling with him on his plane.

Open-topped tour

At the stadium mass, he revelled in the raucous greeting of pilgrims as he toured the crowd in his open-topped vehicle, reaching out to grasp hands as people pressed around his slowly moving jeep on all sides, prompting scuffles with the security detail jogging alongside.

Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, 

Bartholomew I (C) prays at the Church of

 the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City

on May 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/Gali Tibbon)

"This pope is special," said 77-year-old Sister Rachel, highlighting his dedication to the downtrodden.

"He only wants to see the poor and the diseased. He is the protector of the helpless."

The pope will take a short helicopter flight early on Sunday across the River Jordan to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus in the West Bank.

There he will hold a mass and begin his two-day tour of the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Francis said the main reason for his visit is a historic meeting in Jerusalem with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and "to pray for peace in that land, which has suffered so much".

Key events in Pope Francis' visit to the Middle East, with photo

and map (AFP Photo/V Breschi / J Jacobsen, vb/jj/gil)

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Child Remembers Past Life as WWII Pilot: ID’ed Vessel, Crash Site, Other Details

The Epoch Times, Tara MacIsaac, May 22, 2014

Right: James Huston Jr., a WWII pilot who died at the Battle for Iwo Jima
 (Screenshot/YouTube via Walter Semkiw). Left: A file photo of a boy playing with
 an airplane. From a very young age, James Leininger seemed to remember being
Huston in a past life, and the details he was able to give are surprising. (Thinkstock)

The universe is full of mysteries that challenge our current knowledge.

In “Beyond Science” Epoch Times collects stories about these strange phenomena to stimulate the imagination and open up previously undreamed of possibilities. Are they true? You decide.

When James Leininger of Louisiana was 2 years old, he began having horrific nightmares of crashing in a plane. The boy said he was shot down by the Japanese, that his plane took off from the Natoma ship, and that he had a friend named Jack Larson. He also identified the site where he crashed, Iwo Jima, from a photograph.

Iwo Jima is an island that the United States fought to capture in 1945. The Natoma was indeed involved in the Battle for Iwo Jima. One pilot died in the battle, and a pilot named Jack Larson was also on the Natoma.

Leininger started saying he was the third James. The pilot who died in the Battle for Iwo Jima was named James Huston Jr. That would make James Leininger the third James if he is the reincarnation of this pilot.

This boy’s case was recounted by Dr. Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia, a leading reincarnation researcher.

One skeptic, writing for the blog Skeptico, noted that the boy was taken to a military museum where he seemed transfixed by a WWII aircraft shortly before his nightmares began, as reported by the Pittsburgh Daily Courier.

The skeptic said this visit, rather than past-life memories, may have caused the nightmares and that adult encouragement to remember his past life may have constructed the rest of the story. The blogger admits it is difficult to explain the names the boy recalled, though he essentially chalks it up to prompting from adults.

Dr. Tucker said the boy’s father is an evangelical Christian who was completely resistant to the idea of reincarnation. Dr. Tucker takes into account parental enthusiasm when investigating reincarnation accounts, and he has often found children with unenthusiastic parents nonetheless have amazing stories to tell.

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"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

“…. The Biggest Change...

Old soul, right before you come back into the planet, the energy is completely different at the Wind of Birth because of what has happened in the last 20 years. In this new energy past 2013, the old soul who is coming back with that spiritual library filled with spiritual purpose is comfortable with this process. He intuitively remembers very fully what he has been through. Did you hear that? This is different than the last time! This is a result of everything that has happened in these last years. You have changed the rules!

The old soul is not going to be subject to some of the energies that push and pull a younger soul. The old soul has made up his or her mind as part of the planning about what they are going to do that they could not do before within an older energy. This is only possible since they can now plan on having the spiritual jar intuitively open early in the new life. The old soul may even know this now and plan for this before the end of his/her current life, intuitively knowing about the next life during the current life. This is the difference, dear ones. It's the beginning of "intuitive spiritual logic".

We've told you in previous channels about some of the interesting differences between new Humans and ones like you, who have been born into an older energy. We've told you that the quantum DNA alterations that you have created by living many lifetimes of awakening to enlightenment and knowledge will now allow you to be a very different child in your next life. It will be a child who remembers how to read instead of one who is taught how to read; a child who can walk earlier and talk earlier, because he remembers how. This is because the bridge in the DNA is starting to be complete between what was and what is. What this means is that the DNA is starting to quantumly change into its original state of being, which is that of being far more efficient. You will see it first in the children and, dear ones, don't expect to see it in a microscope. Instead, you will have to eventually ask a sociologist to prove any of this, for it will be seen first as a change in Human behavior.

Therefore, old souls will come in as Humans who will not need to start over and be taught everything from scratch, but instead will arrive with a full load of intuitive past-life experience. As their brains develop, they may even remember who they are [old souls who have been here before]. This is the promise of the new energy, especially after 2013. You're going to see changes in some of your children and grandchildren as they arrive and grow up. The stigma of a planet that is going to be destroyed by war or by God will not be among the energies of the new ones. The promise of a planet going into new, unchartered areas of quantum discovery will be upon them. They'll need a whole new set of tools.

Who Has Gone Through This?

Oh, you have all participated in this wind. Everyone in the room has participated in this. You stood there knowing what the life lessons were and the potentials of what was next due to what had happened in previous lives. These were not mistakes, dear ones. These were the results of potentials and plans you made for your own soul.

There is no newbie here in this room [to be explained]. Not all of you listening and reading, however, are old souls in the classic sense - souls who have been here hundreds of times. But you have been here before, so this counts as one who has walked through the process many times. It's what makes you interested in this material. Did you think of that? There is great variety, however, in the understanding of this knowledge among you. It is absorbed very differently between you. Some will sleep through it and others will be spiritually awakened by it [Kryon smile]. It depends on where you are on the path you planned. Again, each path is unique. …”

"Soul Communication" - Feb 22-23, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version Part 1, Text version Part 2) - New

"... New Discovery - New Reality

The doctor is operating on a patient. Chemically, the patient is out. Perhaps his heart has been removed and another is ready to be placed into a gaping cavity in his chest. A machine is keeping him alive by pumping his blood. His life essence is hovering above the operating table and somehow he is watching it all. Some patients have reported seeing things that only the doctors knew, and some have not. Those who went into that surgery with an allowance saw themselves on the table. That is "soul communication". The multidimensional part of them watched it all.

There is so much here to look at, and some of it is very provable with time. When the studies begin in earnest, some of these things will start opening up. Humanity is going to have to give allowance to an entirely new set of concepts about life, and one of them will be this: Multidimensional life is eternal, completely separated from corporeal life. Consciousness is forever, and the soul indeed comes back over and over. Can there ever be proof of that? Yes. But many will deny it. When more and more children begin to remember their last immediate deaths and can give facts that could not be known, it will start to be studied by those who are mainstream. More and more children will tell their stories, and you will know that a new chapter in spiritual awareness has begun on the planet. Many will deny what the findings show, for it won't fit their truth.

When the earth starts to look at that, it will begin to turn the corner of all spiritual belief. How far away is that? Far, far away. Don't worry about it, dear ones, for you'll be there. Don't put a time limit on it. When it happens, you're going to be there. The next time you awaken in this [future] life, at many levels you're going to remember who you are. It will be in a way much grander than you did this time. It won't happen later in your life. Instead, it will happen when you are a child. You might be some of these example children!. ..."

Pope's Middle East mission sows discord

The Manger Square in Bethlehem is extraordinarily immaculate this week in preparation of Pope Francis' visit. However, not everyone will have the opportunity to see the Pope during his visit.

Deutsche Welle, 24 May 2014

Come Sunday the square outside the Church of Nativity, the birth place of Jesus, will be packed with up to 9,000 Christians who will attend a mass and 1,000 journalists when Pope Francis arrives by helicopter from Amman.

In Bethlehem the pope will meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, hold the mass and then visit a nearby refugee camp.

Tickets to the mass have been issued to Christians from Jerusalem, Ramallah, the Galilee and Gaza. But not all Christians will be able to see the pope during this visit. Just a 10-minute car journey separates Bethlehem and Jerusalem, but a separation wall between the two and a checkpoint have created a barrier to Christians accessing holy sites in Jerusalem. Streets have been closed in Jerusalem preventing Palestinians and Arab-Israeli Christians from being on the streets in East Jerusalem when the pope visits on Sunday evening and Monday.

Ghost town

"We demand that Palestinian Christians be allowed to be on the streets and that the city will not be placed under curfew, we would like the pope to use his diplomatic capacity in a situation where the peace process is almost completely halted," said Hind Khoury from the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and former Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs.

Papal preparations are in full swing

Yusef Daher, head of the Jerusalem Inter Church Center, said he had been in a meeting ahead of the Pope's visit with Israeli officials.

"It will be a ghost city. One Catholic was asking an Israeli during these planning sessions of the visit and he told him: 'I don't really understand, there will be nobody in the streets of Jerusalem except cats?' and the Israeli answered, 'not even cats.'"

Unlike the large audiences that see the pope most Wednesdays in Rome, Arab-Israelis living in Jerusalem will not get the same privilege.

"This has been the case in every single visit of the pope, we had a very hard time with Pope Benedict's visit and it seems we will not get in touch with this holy visitor," said Daher.

According to Khoury, Jerusalem is increasingly closed to Palestinians. She said that during Easter time it was nearly impossible for Palestinian Christians to get access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and holy sites within the Old City.

Dwindling numbers

In terms of numbers and influence of Palestinian Christians, the statistics are grim - in 1947, the last year of British rule, 85 percent of Bethlehem's population was Christian. In Jerusalem it was around 19 percent but today it is 20 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.

However, the number of Christians across the whole of Israel has risen from 34,000 in 1948 to 125,000 today.

There are no official population statistics in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, while in the Gaza Strip governed by Islamist group Hamas the Christian populations have halved to around 1,400.

Yusef Daher said there were only 8,000 Christians left in Jerusalem and that a report that Christians wanted to emigrate of their own volition wasn't entirely correct.

"My brother who is in the US now was deprived the right to come back to Jerusalem, they [the Israeli authorities] revoked his residency right."

A recent survey carried out by Near East Consulting in Ramallah showed that 62 percent of Christians in Jerusalem wanted to emigrate. A third of them said they knew of one family who had left in the last five years.

Bernard Sabella, an expert on Palestinian Christian history and demography who oversaw the recent survey, said of the 300 Christians surveyed, 81 percent believed the occupation was the biggest challenge they faced. This was followed by settlements and an absence of a peace process, then by a variety of economic factors including unemployment and housing.

This week Israeli authorities placed three Israeli citizens under house arrest during the time of the papal visit amid concerns that the Jewish ultra-nationalists would disrupt the visit in some way.

Jerusalem could resemble a ghost town

There has also been a growing fear that "price tag" attacks against the Christian community would occur during the papal visit.

Yusef Daher said he had kept a record of price tag attacks over the past five years and pointed out that the number had doubled from 10 attacks in 2012, to 22 in 2013. In early May vandals wrote "death to Arabs and Christians" in Hebrew on the Vatican's Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem's Old City and similar graffiti was found on a wall close to the Romanian Orthodox church.

"We think that fanatic Jewish individuals or groups are encouraged indirectly at least by the government's policy which is not interested in peace, which is encouraging more settlements during the peace talks and claiming exclusivity over the Old City for the Jewish majority," he said.

Hopes and expectations

Local worshippers are hoping Pope Francis will use the whirlwind trip to Israel and the West Bank to recognize their plight but after the collapse of recent peace talks they are not hopeful.

"We cannot expect much from the pope - but we need a message of justice and peace, or encouragement, of hope for the future," said Father Khader.

Hind Khoury said she believed it was within the pope's mandate to condemn the occupation and the treatment of Palestinians.

"The visit of a very high moral authority in the world is needed - what is happening in Jerusalem is not only an abuse of international law and human rights it's so morally incorrect that one people is given the right to live, while another people is denied the simple right to live."

Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif to attend inauguration of India's Modi

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will attend the inauguration of incoming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sharif's attendance will be the first by a Pakistani premier since the two countries' independence.

Deutsche Welle, 24 May 2014

In a statement released Saturday, Sharif's office announced that the prime minister had accepted an invitation from Modi (pictured) to attend the inauguration ceremony in New Delhi. Sharif had already congratulated his Indian counterpart-to-be for his Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory in the national elections that ended May 12.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been uneasy since the countries gained independence from Britain in 1947. They have fought three wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Ties were frozen following the 2008 attacks in Mumbai in which Pakistani terrorists killed 166 people, but Saturday's move could be a sign of continued easing tensions between the two nuclear powers.

Modi, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, took a hard line on Pakistan's role in sponsoring attacks in India, but has eased his stance somewhat since Bharatiya Janata secured the first majority in parliament by a single party in 30 years. He has expressed his desire to engage with India's neighbors and establish friendly relations.

Sharif hailed Modi's "impressive victory" in the election, and promised last year to rebuild relations with India. He is set to hold a meeting with Modi during his visit to New Delhi for Monday's inauguration, state-run Pakistan Television reported.

The Pakistani prime minister is aiming to boost trade with his southern neighbor, and Modi's new economic agenda will require India to open up its markets and normalize trade relations with surrounding nations.

Former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf was the last Pakistani head of state to visit India in 2005. Last year, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declined Sharif's invitation to attend his oath-taking ceremony following Pakistan's general election.

dr/mkg (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)

Nawaz Sharif is also likely to invite Modi to visit Pakistan,
an official said on Saturday. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

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In this handout photograph received from the Gujarat Information Bureau on

 May 22, 2014, India’s prime minister-elect and BJP leader Narendra Modi speaks

with his mother Hira Ba before leaving for New Delhi at her home. PHOTO / AFP

Philippines, Indonesia Sign ‘Model’ Maritime Border Accord

Jakarta Globe – AFP, May 23, 2014

Philippine president Benigno Aquino III (EPA Photo)

Manila. Indonesia and the Philippines on Friday signed a maritime border accord, hailing it as a model for peacefully settling increasingly tense territorial disputes in the region.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the agreement, the result of 20 years of negotiations, showed that the escalating rows in the South China Sea could be resolved without violence.

“This indeed is a model, a good example, that any disputes including maritime border tension can be resolved peacefully — not with the use of military might which (may) endanger stability and peace in our region,” Yudhoyono said after overseeing the signing with Philippine President Benigno Aquino at the presidential palace in Manila.

Tensions have flared in the South China Sea, which is believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits, with China embroiled in separate rows with Vietnam and the Philippines over disputed waters.

Deadly riots broke out in Vietnam last week after China deployed an oil rig in contested waters.

Aquino said the new agreement between Indonesia and the Philippines served as “solid proof of our steadfast commitment to uphold the rule of law and pursue the peaceful and equitable settlement of maritime concerns”.

Signed by the Indonesian and Philippine foreign ministers, the agreement delineates the boundaries of both nations’ overlapping exclusive economic zones in the Mindanao Sea, the Celebes Sea and the Philippine Sea.

Under international law, countries have exclusive economic zones extending 200 nautical miles from their coasts that give them rights to resources in those waters. But these zones can overlap between neighbouring countries.

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have conflicting claims to parts of the South China Sea.

The Philippines and Vietnam have repeatedly expressed concern and more recently anger at what they perceive as increasingly hostile Chinese efforts to assert China’s rule over the disputed areas.

China is also engaged in a worsening dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea that has severely damaged relations between Asia’s two biggest economies.

Yudhoyono, in Manila for a state visit and to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia, voiced alarm at the growing disputes.

“The situation in East Asia is filled with tensions and so is the situation in Southeast Asia, including the South China Sea,” he said.

He urged China and Southeast Asian nations to “return to the spirit” of a 2002 agreement in which they said they would not take any actions that raised tensions in disputed areas.

Agence France-Presse

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A Call for Peace as Asean Deals With Disputes

Indonesian Govt Urged to Stick to ‘Asean Way’ After Thai Military Coup

Jakarta Globe, Erwida Maulia & Dessy Sagita, May 23, 2014

Asean leaders, from left: Philippines President Benigno Aquino, Singapore Prime
 Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana,
Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Myanmar
 President Thein Sein, Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak, Cambodia Prime Minister
 Hun Sen, Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Laos Prime Minister
 Thongsing Thammavong pose for the group photo after the opening ceremony of the
24th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Naypyidaw, Myanmar
 on May 11, 2014. Myanmar hosts the ASEAN Summit in Naypyidaw for the first time
 since it joined the ASEAN community in 1997 and the theme for its Chairmanship of
 ASEAN is ‘Moving Forward in Unity to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community’. (EPA
Photo/Lynn Bo Bo)

Jakarta. Foreign affairs experts said Indonesia should stay out of Thailand’s domestic affairs despite the escalating situation in the country after that country’s military’s announcement on Thursday that it was taking power in a coup d’etat.

“We have made a commitment based on the Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] charter that we will not intervene with other country’s domestic affairs unless we have been asked to by that country,” Hikmahanto Juwana of the University of Indonesia told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday evening. “Indonesia should also urge other Asean countries to practice self-restraint to not intervene, stay true to the Asean charter.”

He added that the situation in Thailand could be volatile depending on how the Thai people reacted to the coup.

“My concern is that if Thai people are not willing to accept the coup, a civil war might erupt and the stability of the whole region would be affected,” he said. “The most important thing right now for the Indonesian government is to ensure the safety of Indonesians living in Thailand, make sure they stay away from dangerous areas and they have what they need.”

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia would keep a watchful eye on the situation.

“Without meaning to intervene in the domestic affairs of Thailand… the development of the situation [there] should be a concern of Indonesia, together with the Asean,” he said on Thursday night. “Indonesia is calling on the Thai armed forces and various civilian elements involved to work together in a reconciliatory atmosphere, in order to soon restore the political situation.”

He said that Indonesia would discuss the issue with Myanmar, the current chair Asean, so as to “consolidate the Asean contribution to creating conditions conducive to the restoration of political [stability].”

With the two conflicting parties in Thailand having been unable to resolve their differences for months and no solution in sight, the coup was nearly inevitable, according to Teuku Rezasyah, the executive director of the Indonesian Center for Democracy, Diplomacy and Defense.

The only figure who could have been able to unite the two sides, namely Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was already too old to successfully interview — which might explain his lack of action, unlike when he dealt with similar cases in the past, Rezasyah said.

“What I see is the military’s attempt to restore stability,” he said. “Theoretically, strong governments are still needed in Southeast Asia because civilian [governments] are not ready.”

“Too many civilian freedoms makes it very difficult for [some Southeast Asian states] to run their development programs effectively. In such conditions, the military feels the need to return to politics.”

Echoing Hikmahanto, Rezasyah said Indonesia could not do anything concerning the matter despite its regional leadership, citing the “Asean way,” in which member states handle their own domestic affairs.

The coup came shortly after the Thai army made the declaration of martial law earlier in the morning to prevent more violence between government supporters loyal to ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and anti-government protesters backed by the royalist establishment.

“Indonesia has consistently called for respect of constitutional process and democratic principles in order to promote national reconciliation and unity, reflecting the wishes of the Thai people,” Marty told AFP. “It is our hope that this latest development will not detract from such principles and normalcy can quickly be restored,” he said. But that was two days before Thai army chief Gen. Prayut Chan-Ocha announced the coup.

“In order for the country to return to normal quickly, the National Peacekeeping Committee comprised of the army, the Thai armed forces, the Royal Air Force and the police need to seize power as of May 22 at 4:30 p.m.,” Prayut announced in a televised address to the nation on Thursday, after months of deadly political turmoil.

The broadcast was sent out just after soldiers took the leader of anti-government protests, Suthep Thaugsuban, out of the meeting that was aimed at finding a solution to a drawn-out power struggle that has polarized the country and battered its economy.

Prayuth had called on the two sides in a first round of talks on Wednesday to agree on a compromise that would have hinged on the appointment of an interim prime minister, political reforms and the timing of an election.

Wednesday’s talks ended inconclusively with neither side backing down from their entrenched positions, participants said.

Additional reporting from AFP

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World Economic Forum Gives SBY Global Statesmanship Award

Jakarta Globe, May 23, 2014

Indonesia's outgoing president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been
honored by the World Economic Forum. (Reuters Photo/Toru Hanai)

Manila. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was awarded the Global Statesmanship Award on Friday at the 23rd World Economic Forum on East Asia for his achievements during his time in office.

He was the third recipient of the award since the WEF was established in 1971. The two other recipients were Felipe Calderon in 2012, when he was president of Mexico, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2010, when he was president of Brazil.

“I stand before you now with a sense of pride for what Indonesia has become today,” said Yudhoyono, whose second five-year term ends in October. “In a world marked by political turbulence, economic uncertainty, and strategic tensions, Indonesia does have a good story to tell.

“We have achieved that critical point of no return in our democratic development. We have proved to ourselves and to the world that we do not have to choose between democracy and development, and that indeed we can have both political freedom and high economic growth at the same time.”

On Thursday, Yudhonoyo reiterated that the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) could reach its development agenda to double the region’s combined gross domestic product to around $4.4 trillion by 2030. With millions of poor people across the region, Asean could also try to reduce the region’s poverty rate to 9.3 percent in the same time frame, he said. World Bank data show 43.3 percent of Indonesia’s population lived on less than $2 a day in 2011, compared to 52.7 percent in 2009.

“But as an optimist, I do see the glass as half full,” Yudhoyono said on Thursday. “I believe our generation is now endowed with the resources and knowhow to beat age-old problems of poverty, deprivation and conflict.”

Indonesia has embarked on a plan to support economic growth, aid the poor, promote jobs and protect the environment, he said.

“The overall purpose is to attain sustainable growth with equity,” Yudhoyono said on Thursday. “By pursuing this strategy over the past 10 years, we have been able to stimulate growth, reduce inequity and alleviate people from poverty.”

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was presented the award at a launch sponsored by the Lippo Group, which is the parent company of the Jakarta Globe.

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Arrests over 'Happy' video highlight Iran rift

Yahoo – AFP, Mohammad Davari, 22 May 2014

Iranian women, wearing jeans, shop in Tehran on October 7, 2013

(AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)

Tehran (AFP) - The arrest of six Iranian youths for dancing to US singer Pharrell Williams' hit "Happy" in a video that went viral highlights the rift between conservatives and youths fascinated by the West.

Recorded on a smartphone and uploaded multiple times on YouTube, the clip shows three girls dancing and singing along to the song in a room, on rooftops and in secluded alleys with three young men.

For the youths, the homemade video now watched one million times was merely an "excuse to be happy", but for the Iranian authorities it was "vulgar" breach of the Islamic republic's values.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
 delivers a press conference in Shanghai,
 China, on May 22, 2014 (AFP Photo/
Mark Ralston)

Originally posted online in April, the clip gradually spread online before it led to the arrest of the dancers and their director on Tuesday for having "hurt" the country's strict moral codes, according to Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia.

The youths appeared on state television repenting for appearing in the clip, after the girls failed to properly observe hijab, a series of rules that oblige women in Iran to cover their hair and much of their body when outside.

Their arrest sparked international fury and criticism in the media and online, with many Iranians expressing shock and some observers questioning whether it was a "crime to be happy in Iran".

Supporting the young Iranians, Williams himself chimed in and hit out at their treatment, saying on Twitter and Facebook: "It's beyond sad these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness."

Reports emerged Wednesday night that the dancers were released on bail, with one of the arrested girls, Tehran-based fashion photographer Reihane Taravati, saying on Instagram: "Hi I'm back."

'Right to happiness'

The arrests came after President Hassan Rouhani -- a self-declared moderate who claims to be for more social freedoms -- reiterated in a weekend speech his calls for a relaxation of Internet censorship.

Rouhani's statements have irked the conservatives, who have long imposed limitations on the Internet, blocking millions of websites particularly social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as YouTube.

The president appeared to send an apparent message of support to the dancers on Wednesday night, through a Twitter account associated with his office.

"Happiness is our people's right. We shouldn't be too hard on behaviours caused by joy," read a tweet quoting a June 2013 speech by Rouhani, who constitutionally has no power over Iran's judiciary.

The arrest is also the latest in a series of crackdowns on social disobedience, carried out by conservatives and traditionalists in the Islamic republic who are wary of an encroaching Western way of life.

In the summer of 2011, the police clamped down on hundreds of young men and women after detecting dark intentions in their participation at an organised water pistol fight in a Tehran park.

And the "morality police" hand out on a daily basis fines and verbal notices to women found to have broken the hijab rules, and in some cases make temporary arrests.

But there appears to be a growing undercurrent of young people in Iran willing to test the rules.

A Facebook campaign this month promoted women inside Iran posting pictures of themselves flouting the Islamic dress code, with the aim of sparking debate on whether women should have the right to choose what to wear.

Iranian youth play at a game net arcade in Qom on June 9, 2013
 (AFP Photo/Behrouz Mehri)

In a counter move, two small pro-hijab rallies were held in Tehran as hardline men and women demanded authorities strike down on the rules.

'Youths need fun'

The authorities appear to show leniency when a huge number of Iranians are involved in events that in other cases would be considered inexcusable.

This was demonstrated in June 2013 when police looked on as millions of people flooded the streets, dancing and singing for hours with joy over their country's qualification for the 2014 World Cup football tournament.

The celebrations were even acknowledged by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic republic's ultimate authority who thanked the team for making Iranians "happy".

For a Tehran-based Western diplomat, the brief incarceration of the dancers this week -- reportedly only a few days -- came with a message despite the police chief's warning the youth against such "corrupt" acts.

"The establishment understands that youths need to have fun," said the diplomat who did not want to be named.

"So it comes down to protecting the Islamic state's values but stopping short of instituting a police state."

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Coup needed for Thailand 'to love and be at peace again' - army chief

General Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered members of rival political factions to sit still as he told them the military was seizing power

The Guardian, Kate Hodal in Bangkok, Thursday 22 May 2014

Thai soldiers guard the Army Club in Bangkok where the army chief took
control of the government in a coup. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Thailand's army seized control of the country and suspended the constitution on Thursday after rival factions failed in talks to end six months of political turmoil, causing the nation's 19th coup in 82 years.

While General Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the army and now acting prime minister, did not use the word "coup" in his televised announcement to the nation, he said the takeover was necessary "in order for the country to return to normality quickly, and for society to love and be at peace again".

He added: "We ask the public not to panic and to carry on their lives normally."

The surprise announcement followed the unexpected, late-night, invocation of martial law on Tuesday, which the army said was not a coup but merely a peacekeeping move to "restore order" in a nation beleaguered by political in-fighting.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, in a strongly worded statement warning that the takeover would "have negative implications for the US-Thai relationship", openly condemned Prayuth's move and said: "There is no justification for this military coup."

He added: "I urge the restoration of civilian government immediately, a return to democracy, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as press freedoms. The path forward for Thailand must include early elections that reflect the will of the people."

Bangkok's road traffic increased Thursday evening after the military announced a nationwide 10pm-5am curfew. Many people stocked up on essentials at supermarkets and small shops.

The army also banned public gatherings of five or more people, suspended all television and radio stations (which are permitted to play only military signals), and established a special unit to monitor social media comment.

Rival political factions have spent the past two days at Bangkok's Army Club, where they attempted to come to a compromise over the future of the country.

The coup became apparent during Thursday's negotiations when Prayuth asked the caretaker justice minister, Chaikasem Nitisiri, whether the government was ready to resign.

"As of this minute, the government will not resign," Chaikasem allegedly answered, according to the English-language Nation newspaper.

"So, as of this minute, I decide to seize ruling power," Prayuth retorted.

An electoral commissioner who was at the negotiations said that Prayuth had told the assembled company: "Everyone must sit still."

Rumours of a possible coup had been circulating since November, when anti-government protesters first took to the streets to demand the resignation of the incumbent Pheu Thai party. But Prayuth's seemingly sudden decision on Thursday – in the midst of negotiations between rival political groups – took many by surprise.

"The army clearly had no sincerity in brokering talks," said Michael Connors, a south-east Asia expert and associate professor at the Malaysia campus of the University of Notthingham. "In retrospect [the coup] must have been calculated, and it looks like the [declaration of] martial law was just a pretext to deliver a strategic advantage to the coup group."

Despite options reportedly being floated at the Prayuth-mediated talks at the Army Club no agreement was reached, although the rival leaders did tweet "selfie" pictures of themselves smiling and laughing together at the round-table discussions.

All that changed, however, when hundreds of extra troops arrived at the venue and took away the leader of the anti-government protests, Suthep Thaugsuban.

Various other leaders have also been detained, including members of the opposition party, of the Pheu Thai government, plus members of the pro-government Red Shirts and anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC).

Thailand's caretaker prime minister, Niwutthamrong Boonsongpaisan, who assumed the role this month after the former premier, Yingluck Shinawatra, was removed from office by a controversial court ruling, was not at the meeting on Thursday and his whereabouts was unknown. Rumours that he could have been at the US embassy were denied publicly, and the army asked him to turn himself in.

Prayuth had warned he wanted an end to the political warring that, since November, as anti-government protesters begancalling for a new, appointed, government, has led to the deaths of 28 people and caused injury to more than 700 others.

"This must be resolved swiftly before I retire, otherwise I won't retire," said Prayuth, who is due to step down at the end of September. "I will not allow Thailand to be like Ukraine or Egypt."

The new Peace and Order Maintaining Command, which includes the army, navy and police, will now be in charge of governingthe country. The plan is to reform Thailand's economic, political and social structures, Prayuth said, though courts and parliament's upper house will continue as normal.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, press freedom advocate of the online news outlet Prachatai, told the Associated Press: "Our problems will never be solved if people are not allowed to express their ideas and speak."

The takeover was met with a warning by the Red Shirt activists' group, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), which vowed retaliationshortly after the televised statement.

"NOW it is COUP – stand by for a retaliation from the UDD," the group tweeted.

Various governments, including those of France and Germany, as well as human rights groups, have condemned the military's move – the 19th coup since absolute monarchy was abolished here in 1932.

"The military's seizure of power has become routine and a sad reality of Thai politics," said Karim Lahidji, of the International Federation for Human Rights. "Two days after it publicly declared that it was not going to stage a coup, the military seized power and plunged Thailand into a deeper political crisis."

Observers say Thailand's next move will depend on just how well the various factions, and the public, respond to the military takeover.

"This coup looks like many others going back to the 1970s: the language used, the seeming solidarity among the main branches of the security forces," said Michael Montesano, co-coordinator of the Thailand studies programme at Singapore's institute of south-east Asian studies. "They've inherited a mess and how they're going to manage it depends on how much resistance there is to the government that they attempt to install."

Connors said, though, that the fact that there had been so much talk of resistance proved this coup was different from all the others. "They've never had a coup like this, in which this potential of mass resistance is so strong," he said. "It's only imaginable that this coup will be incredibly repressive as a response."

Thai Deputy Supreme Commander General Worapong Sanganetra,
Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Navy Admiral Narong Pipattanasai,
 Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army General Prayuth Chan-ocha,
 Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Air Force Air Chief Marshal Prachin
 Chantong and Police Chief Police General Adul Saengsingkaew attend a news
 conference at The Army Club after the army declared martial law nationwide in
Bangkok on May 20, 2014. (Reuters Photo/Athit Perawongmetha)

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