Where there is war there is an industry worth billions per annum. Scaremongering your people into believing in threats from 'rogue' states justifies your hike in defense spending next year. But you forget to mention your shares/ownership/commision rate in the potential benefactors.

Soma, you read too many Sunday papers mate, come on now, News of the World?

1) Cote De'Viore (Quarter Final) 2) Serbia and Montenegro (Semi Final) 3) Iran (Qtr final)

Ok people question: What is the semi circle in the key? The one under the rim? Is this a new thing?

I have seen some of 24 but the rest i have never watched an episode. CAnt watch anything for longer than 5 mins unless its football or News :confused:

How Earthquakes Occur

Islamic Relief

67:16 Mulk Ø£ÙŽØ£ÙŽÙ…ÙنتÙÙ… مَّن ÙÙÙŠ السَّمَاء Ø£ÙŽÙ† يَخْسÙÙÙŽ بÙÙƒÙم٠الأَرْضَ ÙÙŽØ¥Ùذَا Ù‡ÙÙŠÙŽ تَمÙور٠Can you ever feel secure that He who is in heaven will not cause the earth to swallow you up when, lo and behold, it begins to quake?

May allah ease their/our suffering, ameen,,

La xowla wala quwata illabillah,,,, More than 3,000 people have been killed and thousands more injured by a strong earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java, officials have said. The quake, measuring 6.2, flattened buildings in a densely-populated area south of the city of Yogyakarta, near the southern coast of Java. Witnesses said people fled as their homes collapsed around them, after the quake struck early in the morning. Electricity and communications across the city were also down, police said. At least 2,900 people have been injured, and many more are still thought to be trapped under rubble and collapsed buildings. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on rescuers to work around the clock, as he visited the area with a team of Cabinet ministers on Saturday. He has also ordered the military to help evacuate victims. Yogyakarta's airport was closed. Local media said the runway had cracked and part of a roof had caved in. Click here to see a map of Pacific Ring of Fire Yogyakarta is near the Mount Merapi volcano, which threatened to erupt earlier this month, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated. Experts were divided over whether the quake would affect Merapi, but there are reports of heightened activity at the volcano. There was an eruption soon after the quake which sent debris some 3.5km (2 miles) down its western side. Officials said that although the area affected was coastal there was no tsunami resulting from the quake. The quake hit at 0554 local time (2253 GMT Friday), around 25km (15 miles) south of the city of Yogyakarta, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. Yogyakarta, Indonesia's ancient royal capital and one of its biggest cities, is about 440km (275 miles) south-east of the capital, Jakarta. "The earthquake was felt to be massive - larger than the locals here say they've felt in their lives," said Brook Weisman-Ross, regional disaster co-ordinator for Plan International children's charity in Java. "I was shaken from my bed... As furniture was falling, concrete chunks started falling from my hotel room as people were running out in panic in their bedclothes," he told the BBC. He said there was extensive damage across the city and that many of the smaller, older houses had collapsed. But a wide swathe south of the city, in the Bantul and Kulonprogo regions, appears to be the worst hit. The BBC's Orlando Guzman in Yogyakarta says every other house on the main road south of the city is either flattened or seriously damaged. Another correspondent in the area, Andrew Harding, says there are a number of dead bodies by the side of the road. Aftershocks Local radio said there were not enough doctors to cope with the numbers of injured. People were ferried to hospital in lorries and buses, or made the journey on foot, because of a shortage of ambulances. Aftershocks have forced medical staff to move injured patients outside. Orlando Guzman says people here, who have been living in fear of a volcanic eruption for weeks, are very much still on edge. Many are still afraid to go back to their houses. Mosques, churches and hospitals have been housing people who have fled their homes. "We're still afraid. We don't want to go home," said Hendra, one of hundreds of people who took refuge at Yogyakarta's Marganingsih Catholic Church. Indonesia is in a zone known as the Pacific "ring of fire", which is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity. In December 2004, a huge earthquake off Indonesia's coast killed hundreds of thousands of people across the Indian Ocean by triggering a tsunami.

Ina lilahi wa ina ileyhi rajicuun, illahey ha-unaxaristo. Very sad indeed

I think he should visit more cities,,,,

Recently spent time in Makka Mukarama and Madina Munawara. Madina is the most peaceful place in the world and i would'nt think twice about moving there. I was lucky enough to be shown around by some of Madinah's Somali students (there are over 150) mashallah. :cool:

A good read "I have got 20-30 relatives who emigrated here. I came here when I was young and my parents came of choice but virtually all my other relatives - first cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles - have fled," he says. "They've come as refugees and been through the asylum system. It's something I wanted to capture in a book that I'm writing at the moment about the experiences of Somalis that I know who have grown up here in Britain, not just as Somalis but as British Muslims. That's a very important aspect that I wanted to write about, not as a journalist, but as someone who has grown up here and feels British as well as Somali." The book, called Only Half of Me, will be published by Penguin in the summer and is remarkably different from Omaar's last offering, when he was still at the BBC, an account of his role in reporting the Iraq invasion. Reviewers noted the almost complete absence of personal content. "That was more of a journalist's book", says Omaar. Should be interesting,,,,,

Currently working on the precontract to this up and coming project in Dubai Motor City

Congrats Amelia ya Omani and all the new grads this year.

^^I think he is referring to you saxib Daqanki waa guurey

Hope is forever By Shalaka Paradkar, Staff Writer Somalia. What the world gets to hear most about this country is of its war and the destruction. But the Somalis are tremendously resilient. Few other peoples could have endured so much and thrived against the odds in such a spectacular fashion. Shalaka Paradkar meets some Somalis in Dubai It's a sensory challenge trying to find Gold Oasis. Your eyes are dazzled by the auric radiance blazing of every storefront, and your mind is befuddled by the host of similarly named establishments. But stop for directions every few steps and you will get there eventually. Gold Oasis is a clutch of jewellery shops wedged into the interstitial spaces between Gold Land, Gold Centre and Golden Star in the Al Ras district of Deira, Dubai. You couldn't tell from the crush of buyers here that gold is retailing at a dizzyingly high rate. Most of the customers are women, blooming in their bright colourful clothes and elaborate African headdresses. What's unique about Gold Oasis is that the majority of shop owners are women and all are from Somalia. Customers come here to pick up ethnic African jewellery designs: featuring gems, the size and assorted colours of gumballs, exquisite combs and exaggeratedly-designed necklaces that are more like breastplates. The constant buzz makes you forget all the bad news about Somalia. The Somalis seem to have cornered this niche market for West African jewellery: half a dozen of them are doing brisk business here. "My customers come from Senegal, Mali, Ghana, The Gambia, and from the east of Africa as well," says shop owner Farhia Islow Adam. Farhia was the first Somali woman to set up her shop at Gold Oasis. She arrived in Dubai in 1997 from Toronto, Canada, where she had previously run a gold business. "As Somali women, we are born into business," she says, "After my shop opened here, many more Somali women entered the jewellery trade and there are now about 20 of us running our own stores all over Dubai, selling gold jewellery." Apart from the jewellery trade, Somali women also run a slew of textile shops in the same Al Ras neighbourhood, now known as the Somali market. Some, like Dubai-based Somali author and poet Safi Abdi, believe her countrywomen have weathered their national crisis better than the men, and emerged stronger for the experience. "Seeing how Somali women have suffered, following the destruction of their nation, I used to honestly believe that to function at all, a woman needed stability and governance more than her male counterpart. The years of instability have proved me wrong. "The sheer strength Somali women have displayed as they struggled to keep the family together, feed the household and devote themselves to their kith and kin, has shown the world that the Somali woman can stand her ground and take care of her own, with or without government," she says. It's not just the women who are doing well though. Somalis are the largest and oldest expatriate community from Africa in the UAE. A walk through Deira's Al Ras gives ample evidence of their grit and entrepreneurial skills. Three Somali airlines are headquartered in Dubai, as are the telecom companies and a host of smaller businesses: restaurants, hotels, money changers, internet cafes, textile and typing shops. Sharif Ahmad Ba'alawi, chairman of the Somali Business Council in Dubai, explains, "Somalia had no government for the past 15 years, there are no bank facilities and no security. That's why so many Somali businesses run their operations from Dubai and Nairobi." Dubai's proximity, economic climate and infrastructure has served Somali business well. The Somali Business Council in Dubai has a membership of about 200 companies. (Unofficial numbers could be much higher, though.) Ba'alawi's story is a typical one. A Yemeni who identifies himself as a Somali, since he was born and raised in Mogadishu, Ba'alawi left Somalia with his family when the war broke out in 1991 and has been in Dubai since. In the past decade and a half, he has invested heavily in his homeland. His commodities business involves exporting sugar, rice, cement and other staples to Somalia. He also owns a Coca-Cola bottling plant and a telecom company in Somalia. I ask him about his robust appetite for risk. He replies, "To you as an outsider, the situation seems terrible - your opinion is based on what you see on television or read in the newspapers. But to us, it's really not so bad. We know the people we are dealing with and are familiar with the culture of the place. It would probably be more risky for me to do business in another African country." An accepted fact of doing business in Somalia that is militiamen must be paid off at various points: at checkposts all over the country, at private air strips where cargo planes land, at the docks where ships unload. Doesn't that send the overheads into stratosphere numbers? Ba'alawi replies, "Since there is no government, there are no licences, fees or taxes to be paid. Instead we pay protection money." Although Ba'alawi describes it as another form of taxation, the big difference is that taxes paid to a government are used for public spending: in building schools, universities, hospitals and roads. Militiamen spend the money on qat, a narcotic leaf that is fast becoming an epidemic in Somalia and destroying its men. (Qat is illegal in the UAE.) Yet the situation isn't so bleak across the country. Somalia's northwestern region broke away to form the Republic of Somaliland with its capital at Hargeisa; but that 'country' has yet to gain international recognition, even though Somaliland has a democratically elected government and is well administered. Then the northeastern region broke away to form Puntland. Again, an autonomous region, not an independent country. The south of Somalia continues to be devastated by rival warlords and fighting. As a stateless state, Somalia is also unique in becoming the world's purest free market. Money can buy you anything, and the currency is US dollars. Mogadishu's main market offers a variety of goods - from food to the newest electronic gadgets. Security, electricity and water are all in the hands of private business. The absence of regulation and licensing has allowed the private telecom companies to flourish, while the competition forces operators to keep prices low. Telecommunication firms in Somalia offer the lowest international call rates anywhere in the world. Staying connected to the rest of the world is crucial, because remittances from the Somali diaspora abroad run into millions of dollars. After the telecom infrastructure was destroyed in the first outbreak of war, VSAT was installed by private operators and international companies such as AT&T and Telia entered as carriers for incoming and outgoing calls. One of the leading operators is the Somali Telecom Group (STG), an umbrella organisation for a number of companies. Its offices are a spartan aerie high above the din of Nasr Square. The walls are decorated with laminated newspaper articles describing the kind of challenges STG must overcome to do business in Somalia and a giant map of landmines in the region, prepared by a Danish aid agency. (The absence of clutter, and the near paperless office, must be due to the absence of a formal banking system in Somalia, I surmise. After all, the wheels of the Somali economy are oiled on trust and credit and not much else.) One of those laminated stories informs me that telecom operators were first to take advantage of the lack of regulations in an ungoverned state. Operators moved in with cheap equipment and were off and running. With so many players in the field, the competitive bloodletting ensures call rates are at the cheapest anywhere in the world. The telecommunications story is perhaps the only silver lining to emerge from the years of war and famine. The next time you think about complaining about a government, think about the alternative. Somalia has lived without a government for more than a decade in its history - the only country in the world to have this dubious distinction. Sure there are bad governments and corrupt ones, but Somalis are unanimous in the opinion that the alternative - a state of anarchy - is much worse. Few other people could have endured so much and thrived against the odds in such a spectacular fashion. Somalis' fierce loyalties to family and clans, has caused much bloodshed over the years, but it has also helped them survive and flourish in expatriate enclaves all over the world. Living in a nomadic society and a harsh environment, Somalis have learnt the language of cooperation and community. As Ibrahim of STG says, "I am proud to be a Somali because we help each other. Our family bonds are very strong, like no other." So much so that families in Somalia look for sustenance from better-off cousins, aunts, uncles and others, and they are not disappointed. Somalia's money exchange services handle between $500 million (about Dh1.84 billion) and $1 billion (about Dh3.68 billion) in remittances annually. And even though Dubai is one of the unofficial capitals of the country (the other being Nairobi), every Somali dreams of returning home one day to a peaceful, well-governed state. Those who come from Somalia in search of a better life may not always get lucky. The biggest challenge facing Somalis who arrive here is, still, finding work. "I was lucky to be able to get a good job. Other young men are not so lucky. Often they may have to go back home and take to trading goods sourced from Dubai. The situation is improving, but slowly," says Hassan. Like other Somalis, Ba'alawi too awaits the day he could return to Mogadishu. "We love our country and want to do business there. With the new government being elected in Nairobi, things will improve, and who knows, many businesses will relocate to Somalia." Farhia too cherishes the hope of eventually going back. "Somalia is my home after all," she says. Gulf News

Watch

I think he hit the nail on the head in many respects.

Cuban asks: Northerner, I'd bet all that I own that you were not, I repeat, not, born in the 1980's lol, glad you dont think i'm a kid saxib, but i did narrowly miss it Jeddah (KSA)---> England, UK (north of)----> Muscat, Oman ----> Burco IA

^^Tell me about your time in Iraq

^^A Russian born Somali fighting for the Brits in Iraq? :confused:

Glad he won, heres an article. Having spearheaded a boxing resurgence in his native Australia, former rugby league mega-star turned professional boxer Anthony 'The Man' Mundine was written off as a loudmouthed sideshow act in the wake of his knockout defeat by Sven Ottke in December 2001. However, his September 2002 mauling of respected brawler Antwun Echols not only netted him the WBA super middleweight belt, but also proved he's very much for real. 'It's starting to sink in now just what I've achieved; going from being the best in rugby league to world champion boxer in just three years,' the 28-year-old said over the phone from his Sydney home. 'Hardly anyone thought I could beat Echols but I was very confident even though almost everyone had me getting knocked out in three. Echols, for sure, believed he would just turn up and win. 'Echols was looking for one shot to knock me out but I could see [concern] on his face when I didn't crumble under his early pressure. I was a move ahead all the way through. I'm not just a fighter who likes to bang away in a fight. I'm smart; I was thinking my way through every single second.' Mundine's empathic points win was all the more impressive following post-fight revelations that he had fought the dangerous puncher while not only suffering with the after effects of a serious virus but also a broken rib. 'And I don't mean cracked, it was broken,' Mundine said. 'But I'd already postponed the fight once due to illness and if I did it again it could have been tricky to get a title fight for the next year or more so I boxed even though I was nowhere near 100%. 'And in a weird way I think the rib and all that actually helped me. My concentration was razor sharp, better than ever before. I knew I couldn't let him get anything near my rib and I knew I had to make every shot score. Echols was supposed to destroy me, but I made him look ordinary. I dominated him.' Only Australian writer and pundit Paul Upham tipped 'The Man' to best Echols beforehand and the way in which Mundine won - punishing the former two-time middleweight title challenger in the later rounds - astounded experts in the northern hemisphere. How could Mundine, knocked out by light-punching Ottke in Germany, have possibility withstood the hammer blows of Echols? 'Yeah, because of the Ottke loss the assumption was Echols, who's a much, much more powerful puncher than Ottke, would smash me to bits,' Mundine admitted. 'But I knew the stoppage in Germany was due to a great punch to the temple combined with inexperience [it was only the 11th pro fight for Mundine] and exhaustion. I'd never fought at that sort of level before, remember, and I was fighting on instinct from round seven onwards. I ran out of gas, left my temple where he could get full power into a shot and I lost.' Yet rather than accepting any of the numerous six-figure tenders to return to rugby (both League and Union teams made offer) Mundine rededicated himself to boxing. Possessing almost frightening self-belief - he once held talks with Don King to challenge Byron Mitchell for the WBA belt in only his sixth fight - Mundine remained convinced he'd achieve the world title that forever eluded his father, former Commonwealth champion Tony, who now trains Mundine Jr. He clawed his way back up the rankings and when Ottke was declared WBA super champion and the body's 'world title' thus became vacant, Mundine was matched with dangerman Echols. Hammering the man who pushed Bernard Hopkins hard and had stopped Charles Brewer was not only professional redemption, it was also a catharsis for Mundine in terms of his relationship with the Australian public. Truculent and opinionated almost from birth (his father insists he's no idea where Anthony gets it from) Mundine was cast by the media as the ultimate bad guy long before he decided to abandon his position as Australia's highest-paid rugby league star to follow his father into boxing. However, the 12,000 crowd which rabidly cheered their man on at the Sydney Entertainment Centre was the final proof that Mundine had achieved iconic status with his public. 'The press always labelled me as bad boy and villain because I am so dangerous,' Mundine explained. 'I treat people with respect but also I always speak out against injustice - especially injustice against my Aborigine people, who are second class citizens in Australia. The racism in Australia is dreadful but no one speaks out; I do. I wasn't picked for my country [at rugby] because I am an Aborigine who refuses to be silent. 'And for the people who run parts of the media I'm terrifying because I'll actually say what so many others are silently thinking. And my voice just keeps getting louder as I continue to be successful and they just can't stand that. They want to tear me down; but the public make up their own minds no matter what is written about me.' Speaking with Mundine, I never once got the impression of a crusader using his public standing as a platform to sermonise. Instead, I think, this intelligent, cocky but likeable man is merely someone who can't help but speak his mind whenever a camera or dictaphone is pointed at him. This penchant for the outspoken, though, landed him in considerable bother just before he flew to Germany for the Ottke fight. During a live interview with Channel 9 Mundine, who converted to Islam in 1998, was asked to comment on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. His observations, as far as they were allowed to go (the TV station claimed there was a 'technical fault'), were somewhat ambiguous but overnight Mundine became a pariah and everyone from sports journalists to the leader of the Labour Party leapt to denigrate the boxer. Manager and long-time friend Khoder Nasser recalls: 'He got roasted over here. Hammered. The main Sydney paper basically called him a terrorist; they crucified him for voicing his opinion when he was asked to voice it. It was crazy. But then when the media vilified Anthony for speaking out against a rugby player who'd called him 'a black cunt' you come to expect them to use anything as ammunition against him.' But the reverberations of the Channel 9 comments went far beyond Australia. The U.S.- based IBF considered dropping him from their ratings before opting to 'warn him' not to voice similar opinions again; yet the WBC felt it incumbent upon them to 'indefinitely suspend' the Aussie from their ratings. Speaking to this magazine in October, WBC President Jose Sulaiman rationalised that decision by citing ArticleV.2 of the Mexico-based organisation's constitution. 'No-one in boxing should use the sport as a platform for politics,' Sulaiman said. 'What that man said offended many, many people and brought the sport of boxing into disrepute.' Kinda like Mike Tyson did when he was convicted of rape in 1992? The same Mike Tyson the WBC installed as No.1 heavyweight challenger upon his release from prison in 1995? 'That is totally different,' boxing's moral guardian countered. 'Mike Tyson didn't commit that crime.' Oh. To this day, Mundine insists his interrupted comments were contorted by his adversaries in the press. 'What I said was raw but it was what was in my heart,' he argued. 'Taking one innocent life, to me, is like taking all of humanity and I was horrified [at what happened] like everyone else. But if you look at the American foreign policy in so many parts of the world - Iraq, Afghanistan are just two - they've helped create this whole problem and that's what I meant when I said they'd brought it on themselves. There are other ways through this that don't involve dropping bombs. 'I knew I'd get bombarded but I had to take this stance and if you look at what's happened since then, millions of people have protested against these wars not only in Australia but also in American and Britain, too. I highlighted an issue when no-one else dared speak out against what our governments were planning.' But a subsequent TV appearance, where Mundine apologised for any pain his comments may have caused while reiterating his condemnation of war, didn't abate the press assault. Nasser said sections of the Sydney media declared all-out war on his fighter and positively delighted in his defeat by Ottke. 'The photo of Anthony laying on the canvas was used for three days straight in some newspapers,' said Nasser. 'In fact, some papers used that shot for the Echols fight - they continually use it and that was a fight from two years ago. 'If you believe what you read you'd think the public hate Anthony Mundine, but the reception he gets in the arenas and on the street is nothing like that. The papers can write what they want to write for the reasons they want to write them, but they can't tell the public what to think. Not about politics and not about public figures. Most people just aren't that ****** .' Mundine added: 'I won the world title not just for myself, my dad and the people who supported me, but also for Australia. And I'm going to bring back more titles to Australia.' Next up is a rather facile looking voluntary defence against Yoshinori Nishizawa, a 37-year-old with a 24-13-5 (12 KOs) record. The Japanese veteran has only been stopped once, in a round by one Takehito Saijo back in 1992, but it would be astonishing if he lasted beyond eight rounds against an ever-improving puncher like Mundine. 'This was a fight we could put together very quickly,' Nasser explained. 'Anthony has told the rest of us in the team that he wants four fights a year as champion - to wipe the division out - and this was a fight we could get together for January.' Team Mundine expects European champ Mads Larsen, who many believe beat Ottke in September 2002, to be made WBA No.1 contender shortly and are planning to stage that fight in the spring. 'We just want to get Anthony's first defence out of the way,' the champion's manager said. 'Anthony sets himself challenges and he's always in a rush. ' While the 12 stone (168lbs) division has gone off the boil somewhat since the mid-1990s, Team Mundine believe there are still some good fights out there for them. 'I'm setting my goals very high,' Mundine said. 'My top priority right now, though, is the rematch with Ottke [who was to face Britain's Robin Reid as this issue went to press]. Every fighter wants to avenge a defeat, especially a defeat which should never have been allowed to happen, and I am no different. I know I'd beat him easily this time around.' Another big name Mundine wants is long reigning WBO champion Joe Calzaghe. 'A fight with Calzaghe is defiantly something I want to happen,' the WBA kingpin said. 'He's someone I have to beat in order to prove myself the best in the world and move up the pound-for-pound rankings.' Mundine has just returned from a seminar with highly respected American trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. 'I've been over a few times to train with Mayweather,' he said. 'Getting that American training experience is important, for sure. My dad is very open to me working with other coaches. My dad believes that while he knows a lot from his era, things modern fighters have never even heard of, it is useful to both of us for me to get other expert input elsewhere. 'My initial goal was always to win a world title - always a world title, and as soon as possible - but now I want to go on and unify titles and earn myself pound-for-pound recognition. 'I want to unify the division and then move up to win titles at different weights. I really feel my full potential hasn't even been realised by even 50%. There's so much more to come from me and I can improve in so many areas to become, in time and with hard work, one of the most complete fighters in the world.' Boxing Monthly