Image credit goes to khalil @ bendib.com

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on Islamic banks to take a leadership role in the global economy, amid the financial crisis.

He was speaking at the opening of the World Islamic Economic Forum in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

The forum has brought together political and business leaders from 38 countries to discuss the global economic slowdown.

They will also discuss ways to achieve energy and food security.

Mr Yudhoyono said it was time for Islamic banks to do some missionary work in the West.

Islamic financial institutions, he said, had not been hit as hard as their western counterparts because they did not invest in toxic assets.

Banks run in accordance with Muslims laws on interest payments and the sharing of credit risks are seen by many as fairer than traditional banks, less focused on profit and kinder to the communities they work in.

Demand for Islamic financial products has been growing in the Muslim world for years but Mr Yudhoyono said that many in the West were now ready to learn from them.

Islamic law prohibits the payment and collection of interest, which is seen as a form of gambling.

Transactions must be backed by real assets, and because risk is shared between the bank and the depositor, there is added incentive for the institutions to ensure deals are sound.

Ref: [BBC News – Asia Pacific;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7918129.stm ]

image taken from saulgallery.com

Few combinations of English alphabets which are more than words ..

1. Aegilops is the longest word with letters in alphabetical order which means goat grass.
2. Honorificabilitudinitatibus is the longest word to alternate consonants and vowels.
3. Esophagographers is the longest word in which all letters appear twice.
4. Latchstring has the longest run of consonants.
5. Dermatoglyphics is the longest word without a repeating letter.
6. Queuinghas the longest run of vowels.
7. Screeched is the longest one-syllable word.
8. Strengthsis the longest word that has only one vowel.
9. Swims is the longest word with 180-degree symmetry.
10. Stressed & Dessertsare the longest words that can be reversed.

Dont watch it if you dont like Micheal Jackson

Michael Jackson – They don’t care about us (Prison Version)

Wonder, if I should add the lyrics too …

Sigh, Can you believe this stupendously ignorant pathetic dumbest crapiest news

—
India to launch cow urine as soft drink

Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India’s Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called “gau jal”, or “cow water” – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched “very soon, maybe by the end of this year”.

“Don’t worry, it won’t smell like urine and will be tasty too,” he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. “Its USP will be that it’s going to be very healthy. It won’t be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins.”

The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.

Hindus revere cows and slaughtering them is illegal in most of India. Cow dung is traditionally used as a fuel and disinfectant in villages, while cow urine and dung are often consumed in rituals to “purify” those on the bottom rungs of the Hindu caste system.

In 2001, the RSS and its offshoots – which include the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party – began promoting cow urine as a cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even cancer.

The movement has often been accused of using more violent methods, such as killing 67 Christians in the eastern state of Orissa last year, and assaulting women in a pub in Mangalore last month. It also has a history of targeting foreign business in India, as in 1994, when it organised a nationwide boycott of multinational consumer goods, including Pepsi and Coca Cola.

The cola brands are popular in India, now one of their biggest markets, but have struggled in recent years to shake off allegations, which they deny, that they contain dangerous levels of pesticide.

Mr Prakash said his drink, by contrast, was made mainly of cow urine, mixed with a few medicinal and ayurvedic herbs. He said it would be “cheap”, but declined to give further details about its price or ingredients until it was officially launched.

He insisted, however, that it would be able to compete with the American cola brands, even with their enormous advertising budgets. “We’re going to give them good competition as our drink is good for mankind,” he said. “We may also think of exporting it.”

Ref: [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5707554.ece]

Do you believe this crap .. reminds me of the movie ‘Lord of War’ ..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7885533.stm

Very odd and strange ..

——–

Yahoo News – By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Suicides among Army troops soared again last year and are at a nearly three-decade high, Defense Department officials announced Thursday.

At least 128 soldiers killed themselves in 2008. But the final count is likely to be considerably higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated and could also turn out to be self-inflicted, the Army said.

The new figure of more than 128 compares to 115 in 2007 and 102 in 2006 — and is the highest since record keeping began in 1980.

It also calculates roughly to a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers — which is higher than the adjusted civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War, officials told a Pentagon news conference.

A new training and prevention effort will be made starting next week.

“We need to move quickly to do everything we can to reverse this disturbing … number,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said.

Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general, made an open plea for more U.S. mental health professionals to sign on to work for the military.

“We are hiring and we need your help,” she said.

Officials have said repeatedly that troops are under tremendous and unprecedented stress because of repeated and long tours of duty due to the simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The stress has placed further burdens on an overwhelmed military health care system also caring for huge numbers of troops suffering from post-traumatic stress, depression and other mental health problems as well as physical care for tens of thousands of wounded.

Yearly increases in suicides have been recorded since 2004, when there were 64 — only about half the number now. And they’ve occurred despite increased training, prevention programs, increased psychiatric staff and other Army efforts to stem the rise.

[Reference: Yahoo News ]

I think deep down we knew this was the reality. Nice to get it confirmed though, moreover, by Seymour Hersh himself…!

Seymour Myron “Sy” Hersh (born April 8, 1937 Chicago) is an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, DC. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters. (read more about him here.)