Ramadan---NOT a holiday of peace but one for jihad:
"Militants believe they win a special place in paradise if they die in a jihad, or holy war, during Ramadan."
Holy month of Ramadan begins Friday
October 14, 2004
CAIRO, Egypt
Leading clerics in many countries of the Middle East didn't spot a new moon Wednesday, meaning the four weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan will begin Friday, local news media reported.
Reports from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Egypt said the Ramadan fast begins at dawn Friday.
Iraqis fear an escalation in violence during Ramadan. Last year, insurgents sharply increased attacks on U.S. and coalition forces during the holy month. Militants believe they win a special place in paradise if they die in a jihad, or holy war, during Ramadan.
During Ramadan, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk.
Muslims believe it was during Ramadan about 1,400 years ago that the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.
www.suntimes.com/output/n...dan14.html
Something is going to happen in North Korea- VERY SOON IMO!
(courtesy of mutter's)
"China has recently deployed 10,000 elite troops to the North Korean border,"
China sends more troops to N. Korea border
WASHINGTON
China has dispatched thousands of additional soldiers to its border region with North Korea, prompting an alert among intelligence officials in South Korea and the United States, says a diplomatic source here.
'Based on the US satellite photos and South Korea's human intelligence, the two countries concluded that China has recently deployed 10,000 elite troops to the North Korean border,' the source in Washington was quoted by South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo as saying yesterday.
Last Saturday, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper also reported that China had sent 10,000 troops earlier this month to three border areas along the Tumen River, running between China and North Korea.
The Washington source said: 'China already has two divisions of troops guarding the border. Seoul and Washington are now analysing why China had to send another division of its best-trained troops to the area.'
China reportedly already has some 150,000 People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops stationed along its 1,400km border with North Korea, with which it signed a Border Cooperation Agreement in June.
In response, Beijing confirmed on Tuesday that it had deployed troops to the border, but denied media speculation that the move was aimed at stopping North Koreans from defecting or in protest against Pyongyang's continuing nuclear arms development.
In a related development, two North Korean refugees, including the wife of an economic official, were to fly to the US yesterday to seek political asylum, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.
Ms Chang Sun Young, the wife of a senior state-run trading company official, and Mr Chung Sung Il, are to arrive in the US via Japan and Germany, Yonhap said.
Ms Chang has information regarding the family tree of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, it said.
The two would be the first North Koreans to apply for political asylum in the US after the US Senate approved a Bill last month pressuring North Korea to improve its human rights conditions.
straitstimes.asia1.com.sg...8,00.html?