SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – National Guard troops have fired tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse students protesting against the official results in Venezuela's disputed presidential election as Nicolas Maduro, the acting president, was formally declared the winner of Sunday's vote.

The students hurled chunks of concrete and stones back at the troops on a highway in Caracas on Monday.

The demonstrators were trying to reach the western part of the capital, where most of the government is headquartered.

Al Jazeera's Chris Arsenault, reporting from the city, said: "Demonstrators are on the streets across the wealthier areas of Caracas waving flags and banging on pots. Many roads are closed across the capital.

"In Altamira square, a centre of the opposition movement, several thousands youths are burning tyres and protesting. The smell of tear gas lingers in the air."

Henrique Capriles, the opposition candidate, had earlier called on electoral authorities to suspend plans to officially proclaim Maduro as the winner of the election.

Repeating his call for a vote recount, Capriles said on Monday that Maduro would be an "illegitimate president" if he was proclaimed president.

Capriles urged Venezuelans to bang their kitchen pans later in the day if the proclamation went forward - a popular Latin American form of protest known as a cacerolazo - to "let the world know our outrage, our anger".

Following his confirmation, Maduro urged his supporters on Monday to demonstrate across the nation on the same days

that the opposition planned further protests.

"I continue calling for peace, and I call the people to combat in peace," Maduro said on state-run television, calling for "mobilizations across the country" on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Arsenault said: "On the political front, both candidates appear to be entrenched in their positions."

Slim margin

The National Electoral Council said late on Sunday that Maduro had won 50.66 percent of the vote compared to 49.07 percent for Capriles - a difference of less than 300,000 ballots - allowing him to carry forward the policies of the late Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela uses electronic voting machines that print a paper ballot as a back-up for any recounts.

"There should be no doubts about the election results," Maduro said addressing a crowd from the Miraflores presidential palace.

"The institutions are functioning. If 7,500,000 Venezuelans said that Nicolas Maduro should be the president of the republic until 2019, this must be respected - the democracy and the power of the majority."

Maduro, however, said he would welcome an audit. "We are calling for respect of the results," he said.

"If they want do an audit they are welcome to do it. They can do whatever audit they want to do. We trust in the Venezuelan electoral system. We welcome an audit."

Capriles said there were attempts to let people vote after polling stations had already closed.

Turnout was 78 per cent, down from just over 80 per cent in the October election that Chavez won by a near 11-point margin.

Electoral machinery

Maduro inherited Chavez's formidable electoral machinery, which helped the late leader win successive elections in 14 years, with government employees often seen handing campaign pamphlets and attending rallies in groups.

Both candidates had pledged during the campaign to recognise the vote results.

Maduro was widely expected to win the right to complete the new six-year term Chavez won in October, promising to continue oil-funded policies that cut poverty from 50 to 29 percent with popular health, education and food programmes.

Chavez named Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist who rose to foreign minister and vice president, as his political heir in December before undergoing a final round of cancer surgery.

Chavez died on March 5 aged 58.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Al Jazeera

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Every week, a group of teenagers and 20-somethings dressed in hoodies gets together in a tiny room on a college campus and plug in their laptops. They turn up pulsing electronic funk music, order pizza and begin furiously hacking into computer networks.

But they’re not shadowy criminals: They’re students training to become “white-hat” hackers, experts to help business and government agencies protect their data from cyberattacks that have become an almost daily occurrence.

“It’s the new espionage. Spies operate from behind keyboards now,” says Evan Jensen, a senior at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and one of the leaders of the Hack Night events where about two dozen students hone their hacking skills.’

Since actual hacking is illegal, the students can’t just sneak into a webpage and poke around for learning’s sake. So industry experts, professors and the school’s very own “Hacker In Residence,” Dan Guido, collaborate to create exercises that expose the students to real-world hacking scenarios.

Guido, who runs his own cybersecurity firm, will walk students through one of the most common means hackers use to gain access to a computer network — attacks on the software of a browser like Internet Explorer. In June 2011, Google said it had traced to China a cyberattack that attempted to access hundreds of Google email accounts.

Guido uses the case, much of which has been made public, to recreate the exploit, having students map out step by step how the hacker was able to access a desktop computer and infiltrate the company’s network.

While bigger schools such as Georgia Tech, Purdue and Carnegie Mellon are known for their cybersecurity programs, experts say Brooklyn-based NYU-Poly is now considered among the best schools for training students with hands on, mission-critical cybersecurity skills. That’s due in part to Hack Night, an active cybersecurity club and an annual hacking competition each fall that the school bills as the largest in the country.

“Every one of the faculty, every one of the undergraduates and every one of the graduate students is engaged in real-world exercises,” says Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training organization. “They come out having actually developed and tested their skills.”

Paller says the need for cybersecurity experts with real world training is severe — a 2012 report he co-authored found that the Department of Homeland Security alone needs 600 such experts. Last month, the Defence Department announced it is establishing a series of cyber teams charged with carrying out offensive operations to combat threats of cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the country’s vital infrastructure.

And just this week, the House Intelligence Committee voted in favour of a bill proposing a new data-sharing program that would give the federal government a broader role in helping banks, manufacturers and other businesses protect themselves against cyberattacks.

“The only defence against these things are skills,” Paller says. “We have too many people in the cybersecurity field that don’t have the hands-on skills. We call them frequent fliers. We don’t have enough pilots.”

In the last few years, some companies have staged “bug bounty” programs, paying cash or other prizes to cybersecurity researchers in controlled situations who are able to breach their systems and expose flaws in their software. Though they haven’t yet won a major cash prize, NYU-Poly students are currently participating in “bug bounty” programs for companies like eBay, PayPal, Google Chrome and Samsung. A few months ago, one student received a bag full of random gifts such as T-shirts, a board game and a handwritten note after he identified a security flaw in the software of online merchandise seller Woot.com.

NYU-Poly professor Nasir Memon, director of the Information Systems and Internet Security laboratory, says the goal is to teach aggressive tactics beyond the classroom, while staying inside the boundaries of the law.

“Becoming good at security involves doing these challenges, exercises that put you in the context even if it’s artificial and made up,” he says. “There’s something in front of you that you have to overcome and reach your goal — very much like athletes or military soldiers.

Memon says he hasn’t yet had a student get busted for hacking illegally but every time the FBI calls to recruit a student his heart skips a beat.

“We try and create that culture of no messing around. If we find they’ve done anything we throw them out of the lab,” says Memon, adding that he knows of no students who have crossed the line.

Many of the 270 NYU-Poly cybersecurity students are already starting to line up jobs earning lucrative salaries at private cybersecurity consulting firms or big banks in need of people able to identify and correct vulnerabilities in their networks.

Others, especially those with graduate degrees, will go on to careers in law enforcement working for the National Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies in need of hackers with special computer skills, such as advanced programming and digital forensics.

Because they are in such demand, cybersecurity students can pick and choose where they want to work.

“You see all the time a lot of job descriptions for people who are trying to hire guys like us say things like, business casual is not acceptable here,” says Julian Cohen, 22, a senior and a founder of the weekly Wednesday evening Hack Night. “No one wants to go to work in a button-down shirt and slacks.”-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Financialpost

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Every week, a group of teenagers and 20-somethings dressed in hoodies gets together in a tiny room on a college campus and plug in their laptops. They turn up pulsing electronic funk music, order pizza and begin furiously hacking into computer networks.

But they’re not shadowy criminals: They’re students training to become “white-hat” hackers, experts to help business and government agencies protect their data from cyberattacks that have become an almost daily occurrence.

“It’s the new espionage. Spies operate from behind keyboards now,” says Evan Jensen, a senior at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and one of the leaders of the Hack Night events where about two dozen students hone their hacking skills.’

Since actual hacking is illegal, the students can’t just sneak into a webpage and poke around for learning’s sake. So industry experts, professors and the school’s very own “Hacker In Residence,” Dan Guido, collaborate to create exercises that expose the students to real-world hacking scenarios.

Guido, who runs his own cybersecurity firm, will walk students through one of the most common means hackers use to gain access to a computer network — attacks on the software of a browser like Internet Explorer. In June 2011, Google said it had traced to China a cyberattack that attempted to access hundreds of Google email accounts.

Guido uses the case, much of which has been made public, to recreate the exploit, having students map out step by step how the hacker was able to access a desktop computer and infiltrate the company’s network.

While bigger schools such as Georgia Tech, Purdue and Carnegie Mellon are known for their cybersecurity programs, experts say Brooklyn-based NYU-Poly is now considered among the best schools for training students with hands on, mission-critical cybersecurity skills. That’s due in part to Hack Night, an active cybersecurity club and an annual hacking competition each fall that the school bills as the largest in the country.

“Every one of the faculty, every one of the undergraduates and every one of the graduate students is engaged in real-world exercises,” says Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training organization. “They come out having actually developed and tested their skills.”

Paller says the need for cybersecurity experts with real world training is severe — a 2012 report he co-authored found that the Department of Homeland Security alone needs 600 such experts. Last month, the Defence Department announced it is establishing a series of cyber teams charged with carrying out offensive operations to combat threats of cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the country’s vital infrastructure.

And just this week, the House Intelligence Committee voted in favour of a bill proposing a new data-sharing program that would give the federal government a broader role in helping banks, manufacturers and other businesses protect themselves against cyberattacks.

“The only defence against these things are skills,” Paller says. “We have too many people in the cybersecurity field that don’t have the hands-on skills. We call them frequent fliers. We don’t have enough pilots.”

In the last few years, some companies have staged “bug bounty” programs, paying cash or other prizes to cybersecurity researchers in controlled situations who are able to breach their systems and expose flaws in their software. Though they haven’t yet won a major cash prize, NYU-Poly students are currently participating in “bug bounty” programs for companies like eBay, PayPal, Google Chrome and Samsung. A few months ago, one student received a bag full of random gifts such as T-shirts, a board game and a handwritten note after he identified a security flaw in the software of online merchandise seller Woot.com.

NYU-Poly professor Nasir Memon, director of the Information Systems and Internet Security laboratory, says the goal is to teach aggressive tactics beyond the classroom, while staying inside the boundaries of the law.

“Becoming good at security involves doing these challenges, exercises that put you in the context even if it’s artificial and made up,” he says. “There’s something in front of you that you have to overcome and reach your goal — very much like athletes or military soldiers.

Memon says he hasn’t yet had a student get busted for hacking illegally but every time the FBI calls to recruit a student his heart skips a beat.

“We try and create that culture of no messing around. If we find they’ve done anything we throw them out of the lab,” says Memon, adding that he knows of no students who have crossed the line.

Many of the 270 NYU-Poly cybersecurity students are already starting to line up jobs earning lucrative salaries at private cybersecurity consulting firms or big banks in need of people able to identify and correct vulnerabilities in their networks.

Others, especially those with graduate degrees, will go on to careers in law enforcement working for the National Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies in need of hackers with special computer skills, such as advanced programming and digital forensics.

Because they are in such demand, cybersecurity students can pick and choose where they want to work.

“You see all the time a lot of job descriptions for people who are trying to hire guys like us say things like, business casual is not acceptable here,” says Julian Cohen, 22, a senior and a founder of the weekly Wednesday evening Hack Night. “No one wants to go to work in a button-down shirt and slacks.”-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Financialpost

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Non-Muslim students at Boston University have volunteered to spend a day wearing headscarves as part of the university’s March’s Islam Awareness Month in a trial to correct misconceptions about Islam and hijab.

“I saw the poster at the GSU Link and thought this was a really interesting thing to do,” Dian Qu, a College of Arts and Sciences student, told BU Today.

“I asked them to show me how to put it on, but I forgot, so I did it my own way,” Qu, who is from China, added.

Qu was not alone in this experience.

She is among 40 non-Muslim women at BU who volunteered to spend a day wearing headscarves as part of the BU Hijab Day Challenge.

Her boyfriend insisted she remove the scarf while they walked together. She refused.

“I just turned around and walked on my own,” she said.

The hijab day is one of several events sponsored by the Islamic Society of BU as part of March’s Islam Awareness Month.

Signing up at their dorms or at the George Sherman Union Link, the students were given links to instructional videos and pink buttons that read “BU Hijab Day Challenge—Ask Me About My Hijab.”

Sonia Perez Arias, another student, said her friend giggled when he saw her and total strangers greeted her on Commonwealth Avenue with the word “Salaam.”

“I like to do things that challenge me,” Arias said.

“Muslim people were greeting me in Arabic,” said Perez Arias, who describes herself as an atheist.

“I didn’t know how to respond.”

Anya Gonzales gained what she calls “a new-found respect” for Islam, while Richa Kaul, an initial sense of fear gave way to understanding and confidence.

“I have a new-found respect for Muslim women,” Gonzales said.

Kaul, a Hindu, joined the challenge out of curiosity and to show “solidarity with the Islamic culture.”

“The only time I felt scared or anxious was right before I opened the door to my classroom, a School of Management class, and some people turned their heads,. I could see that people see the hijab first and then you.”

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.

Positive Experience

Supporting the hijab day, non-Muslims were praised as being opened to correct misconceptions about Islam and hijab.

“I applaud Boston University students who willingly took up the challenge of the Hijab Day and decided to experience the subjective rewards that may come with their personal choice or the hazard of becoming the object of hostile public gaze,” said Shahla Haeri, a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of anthropology, who has written extensively on religion, law, and gender dynamics in the Muslim world.

The hijab day was not the only event organized during the university’s Islam Awareness Month.

Throughout March, the Islamic Society has sponsored a series of events, including Petals from the Prophet and the sharing of flowers on Marsh Plaza, an evening of prayer on the plaza.

A #WhatisIslam? open discussion was also held at the Howard Thurman Center.

The monthlong observation concludes Sunday with a free open invitation spring dinner at the GSU Metcalf Ballroom.

“The turnout has been great,” said Sakina Hassanali, president of the Islamic Society, recalling that at the Petals for the Prophet event,

“Even though we were the ones giving out the flowers, one guy actually came up to give us flowers.

“It really warmed our hearts. It just goes to show you the kind of community we have at BU.”

Though there are no official estimates, the US is home to an estimated Muslim minority of six to eight million.

An earlier Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans Muslims are loyal to their country and optimistic about their future in the United States.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: On Islam

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Encouraging their non-Muslim colleagues to explore what Islam really is, Muslim students in the Newcastle University has held a Week to raise awareness about the Islamic religion and clear misconceptions on the faith.

“I think people have bad views of Islam,” Samantha McGregor, a non-Muslim student, who took part at the week, told Sky Tyne and Wear on Monday, March 11.

“Today it’s made me completely change and get rid of all those views.”

Hijab: What’s It All About?

The Islamic Society at the university has held the “Discover Islam Week” to raise awareness about the faith among students.

Organizers say the event aimed at breaking down barriers and getting people talking and exploring what Islam really is.

Ahmed Gatnash from the society said the Week tries to “dispel stereotypes that are so common about Muslims in the media these days, as they are really harmful to society as well as being plain wrong”.

As part of the Week, Muslim students arranged what they called “The Hijab Challenge” to encourage non-Muslim colleagues to try to wear the Muslim headscarf for a day.

The challenge was a way for students to experience what it feels like to be a Muslim woman in Britain.

“I found that people were looking at me. I don’t know if they were thinking she looks silly or she’s not actually a Muslim,” McGregor, who tried hijab for the whole day, said.

“I felt like saying: ‘Stop looking at me! I’ve done nothing wrong.’

“I like the idea that you wear a hijab so only your husband can see your hair, I find that quite special.”

Non-Muslim students said donning hijab has helped them change views about the headscarf.

“It’s been really interesting to think about why someone would choose to wear it and why hair would be something to be kept private and be modest about,” said Jeanna Spencer, another participant.

Liberty

Organizers say the event has helped dispel misconceptions that hijab is a symbol of repression of Muslim women.

“It’s actually quite liberating because we’re not forced to dress the way that society or fashion says that we should,” Rokeya Begum, head sister of Northumbria University’s Islamic Society, said.

“The event is to show that we’re not forced to wear it and we’re quite happy.”

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.

“We’re normal people, and others shouldn't judge us by the way we dress,” said Begum.

Throughout the week, members of the Islamic Society gave short talks, Q&A sessions and offered refreshments and food.

Marking the first annual World Hijab Day on February 1, scores of non-Muslims donned the Muslim veil for a day to promote more religious tolerance and understanding.

The event was first suggested by New York woman Nazma Khan to encourage non-Muslim women to don hijab and experience it.

Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.5 million.

The majority of the multi-ethnic minority has Indian, Bengali and Pakistani backgrounds.

The 2011 census showed that the proportion of Muslims rose from 3.0 percent to 4.8 percent, becoming the fastest growing faith in Britain.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: On Islam

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Students take over sections of the campus in protest at outsourcing of services such as catering to private providers

It is a dispute that has radicalised dozens of students, shut down sections of Sussex University for more than a month and won admiration and support from the likes of Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and the actor Peter Capaldi.

At issue are two clashing visions of the university experience – one that sees students as consumers and another that rejects the commercialisation of learning and everything that goes with it.

Other universities are watching as students and staff at the Falmer campus, near Brighton, flex their campaigning muscles.

The trigger for the dispute is what the protesters regard as creeping privatisation on campus. Sussex is one of several universities outsourcing key services such as catering and estate management.

Student campaigners, who have occupied the university's conference centre since early February, say the move will jeopardise employment terms and conditions. "Private providers won't be bound to provide workers with the same contract terms, so there's a danger positions may be undermined," said William Brown, a first-year English student. "The university has also been very unclear about the reasons behind the decision, which is incredibly hypocritical of an academic institution."

Plans to outsource services at Sussex were "the straw that broke the camel's back", said Theadora Jean, a master's student in critical and creative writing. "Even among people like myself who aren't taking part in the protests, there is a lot of support for the campaign. Across the country universities are becoming more and more like businesses … this is about making a stand against that. It's the principle that counts."

The university's vice-chancellor, Michael Farthing, told BBC Radio Sussex: "I respect students' right to voice their opinions … Sussex has always been a place where people are critical of a whole range of issues from management to government.

"Providing the protests are peaceful, and providing they're legal and the protesters are safe, we have freedom of speech here and we allow people to express their views."

He added: "We're talking about a relatively small number of students and there are many students on campus who would have diametrically the opposite views to those in the conference centre."

Universities and colleges are increasingly looking to outsource campus services, according to the National Union of Students, which is working with Unison to advise students what impact the privatisation of university services could have on their experience.

The NUS says London Metropolitan University is using a private firm to reshape its non-teaching services and Falmouth University plans to move academic support staff to a private company, FX Plus. The company, which is jointly owned by Exeter and Falmouth universities and employs 235 of the universities' non-academic staff, would allow the university to evade the national pay structures that usually apply in higher education. In November, the University of Central Lancashire became the first public university to apply to become a private company.

Rachel Wenstone, NUS vice-president for higher education, said: "If you're looking to make profit from frontline student services then you're doing the wrong thing. Part of a university's responsibility is to ensure their students are happy and healthy while on campus. This means certain things, like good housing and food, are fundamental and you shouldn't be making a profit from either – unfortunately that's exactly what private companies will do."

"Universities are public institutions, they provide services not only to students but also to the public. If universities are profit-driven, this destroys the possibility that they have any level of community responsibility – and it means students will not have the opportunity to shape what that looks like."

Support for the Sussex occupiers can be seen aAcross the Sussex campus, yellow squares – an image used by the occupiers – are displayed in windows and worn by sympathetic staff and students, while chants reproaching the university vice-chancellor Michael Farthing are heard at protesters' demonstrations.

The dispute shows no sign of abating. While a university meeting with the occupiers ended in deadlock, the University and Colleges Union says staff have been stopped from wearing badges to show their support for the campaign.

A senior academic from the School of English said the censorship put Sussex's reputation as a free-thinking academic institution at risk. "This behaviour is clearly at odds with management's repeated claims to the national press that it is open to staff and faculty views, and most crucially it undermines the role of the university as an open marketplace of ideas."

Adriano Marola, a third-year international relations and development studies student, said staff and students should be involved in the running of universities. "No one in the community apart from the university management knows what's going on. On the one hand people's livelihoods are being undermined, but on top of that, the abilities of students and long-standing staff members are being undermined because their arguments are being completely disregarded. Students aren't just consumers buying degrees, as the government suggests. Our opinions should be listened to."

Brown hopes the negative publicity will force management to back down. "The occupation is costing them money because they rent Bramber House [the building being occupied] out as a conference centre, so it's a drain on resources, but we're also highlighting their privatisation plans, which are an embarrassment to the university."-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: The Guardian

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Disgruntled students took to the streets of downtown Montreal Tuesday night to voice their displeasure over tuition hikes that will see their fees increase by about $70 a year.

In a scene reminiscent of the nightly demonstrations that brought parts of downtown Montreal to a standstill last spring, students gathered in Parc Émelie-Gamelin and marched into the night with police keeping a close eye on their movements.

The march began peacefully, but was broken up by police about 10:15 p.m. after several acts of vandalism were committed by troublemakers who had infiltrated the boisterous crowd.

A masked vandal broke a window at a Scotiabank branch on René Lévesque Blvd. and University St. A short time later, several students booed as the same group of troublemakers smashed windows at a Desjardins branch on Viger St.

After warning students to disperse, police charged the crowd, sending two large groups of students running in opposite directions on Viger St.

Police then set off sound bombs and sprayed CS gas in the direction of students who refused to move quickly enough.

Many students left the demonstration covering their mouths with their coats. Montreal police said a large group of students made their way back to Parc Émelie-Gamelin.

Police had made one arrest for mischief by 11 p.m.

With former premier Jean Charest now out of the picture, the students were turning their anger toward the Parti Québécois government, which had supported their campaign and promised to scrap the Liberal’s tuition increases.

Marching behind a banner that said: “Social peace is behind us,” the students chanted anti-capitalist slogans and mocked the police, who were closely monitoring the demonstration as it made its way through downtown.

Several students said they felt betrayed by Premier Pauline Marois, who campaigned on a promise to scrap the former Liberal government’s tuition hike.

“She profited from the support of the students and she has betrayed us,” said student Jean-François Nadon. Other students said they turned up because they support free tuition.

The protesters are livid with a PQ decision to increase tuition fees by about three per cent annually, roughly $70 a year. The increase will be indexed to the growth of disposable family income and was announced last week during the PQ’s much-hyped Summit on Higher Education.

The PQ hoped the modest increase would bring social peace to Quebec and would take steam out of the protest movement that wreaked havoc on the streets for several months last year.

But student leaders claim they are not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

“There is a lot of anger toward the Parti Québécois,” said Jérémie Bédard-Wien, spokesperson for the Association pour un solidarité syndicate étudiante, the student group that boycotted the Summit on Higher Education because the PQ refused to consider rolling back tuition altogether.

Many of the students who protested Tuesday night belong to associations affiliated with the ASSÉ, which is not only campaigning for an end to the tuition hikes, but is now advocating for free university education for Quebec students.

Even after paying an additional $350 in fees over five years, Quebec university students will still be paying less than half of what students in Ontario pay for third-level education.

Bédard-Wien said it is too early to say what long-term strategy the students may adopt to fight the tuition hikes.

He said his group did not organize Tuesday night’s demonstration, although it promoted it on its Facebook page.

“The students have taken it upon themselves to continue the movement,” he said.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Montreal Gazette

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Our prisoners are dying.” said Gaza student Khaled Shehab from the Islamic University. “We won’t wait till the death of another prisoner to move in solidarity with all the detainees.” Khaled was joining the thousands attending the growing number of demonstrations in the Gaza Strip right now.

It is not lost on young people in Palestine acting in support of Palestinian prisoners that many who have spent years in Israeli jails were at the same age when they were originally imprisoned. While there has recently been a spotlight on the 219 Palestinian children currently detained by Israel, it is often forgotten that the majority of detainees arrested are youths or in their early twenties. Some have spent the entire decade of their twenties removed from their parents, their families and communities, a young person’s life defined by Israeli prison walls.

Mohammed Al Adini explained his story late at night in the tent erected outside the Red Cross offices in the Gaza Strip, where some Palestinians were on hunger strike in support of those striking in Israeli prisons. He was arrested aged 20 in June 2003, just short of concluding a two year office management course at a college in Deir El Balah, central Gaza. He was imprisoned for nine years and released in the prisoner swap deal after which he was able to complete his course at the University of Gaza aged 31.

“There were some classes in prison but we were often prevented from going. So we organized our own “internal education” where any prisoners with an academic background such as languages, history and law would teach the other prisoners. It depended on the cell we were in but classes were generally around ten to twelve students. I taught history and Palestinian issues.”

Mohammed knew many students and academics on long term prison sentences. Yassir Namrouiti visits the solidarity tent in Gaza regularly. He was studying at the University of Al Quds when he was arrested in 1987. He didn’t see freedom again until 24 years later when he was released with Mohammed in the Gilad Shalit swap deal 24 years later. Karim Younis who remains incarcerated after 31 years, was a student when arrested in 1983 and was attending classes at Ben Gurion University on the day the Israeli army raided his house. He is now a prison representative and the author of two books. His personal and historical writings from prison have reached and inspired many who support him and the other 4800 Palestinian detainees.

Mohammed does not appear bitter that his education was taken away and is enthusiastic about the rise in student solidarity. “I am so pleased that students in Gaza have rallied around the cause of the prisoners.” said Mohammed. “They are using different languages to express our cause through facebook and other media, which is something we have never been able to do before.”

Khaled shares Mohammed’s certainty that the youth of Palestine have a crucial role to play in the resistance against occupation, which is why many student leaders have been a target for Israeli arrests and incarceration. “Youth and young people are strongly involved in resistance against occupation. Israel arrests them to stop resistance. They want to destroy the educational life for the students. They are aware that students can expose them and their crimes to the world, especially now that so many are communicating directly to Western audiences.”

He cites other Palestinian students from Gaza such as Malaka Mohammed and Shahd Abusalama whose blogs and reporting on the prisoners in the English language have amassed many followers globally, with frequent updates on the individual stories of prisoners and the ordeals and injustices facing them.

The day after 30 year old Arafat Jaradat was killed after six days of Israeli detention last Monday, Majeda Sabbah, Khaled and other students immediately organized a demonstration, calling for united support for all Palestinian prisoners.

“Arafat didn’t just die” said Majeda. “He was killed under the systematic torture that takes place in Israeli Jails.”

We are here to show our support for all the hunger strikers and all the political prisoners. The sons of Palestine sacrificed their freedom and belief for others, like Samer Issawi who is now in a critical condition after a hunger strike of over six months. We young people in Gaza support them, which is why we mobilized quickly as soon as we heard about Arafat. We can’t wait for the parties to move. If we didn’t act for a united struggle then no one would.”

Most Palestinian families contain someone who has been detained in Israeli Jails or is currently incarcerated. “My uncle was a prisoner.” said Khaled. “He spent 25 years in Israeli prisons and was recently freed in the swap deal. He joked that over time they changed the prison door three times while he remained in the same room.”

For relatives of current detainees in Israel the struggle can never go away. It is a double agony – for those on the inside and those on the outside. The last hunger striker who won his freedom was Akram Rikhawi, who in his ninth year of incarceration refused food for 104 days. “When I was released I could not recognize Samah, my eleven year old daughter” Akram told us. Samah was just two years old when he had last laid eyes on her. “My wife was allowed to visit me once in that time and my mother also once. I learned of my mother’s passing on prison radio a month after she had died.”

Mohammed Al Adiny said that it was being away from his family and friends that hurt most in prison. “I would send letters to my mother. I would tell her that if she wants me to be okay, just smile. Your smile is what gives me strength is what I would tell her.”

The fight of the hunger strikers goes on. Samer Issawi, now weighing just 44 kg was recently moved to Haifa hospital after a serious deterioration in his health. Ayman Sharawna was moved to the Soroka Israel hospital in Beersheba last month, briefly falling into a coma after which for a period he was unable to move, suffering severe pain to several parts of his body.

Hana Shalabi, a female detainee released after a 43-day hunger strike in March 2012 was in attendance at Sunday’s demonstration and she described to some of the students what Samer and Ayman were going through. “I’m sorry for the death of Jaradet, sorry for his family in the West Bank. Sadly I’m not surprised, this is not a new thing with over 210 prisoners who have been killed in Israeli prisons since 1967. By my experience on hunger strike I feel what they feel. You can’t sleep because of the pain, you can’t speak, you can’t move, there’s hair loss, pains in the stomach and joints, you can’t see well, there are heart irregularities, palpitations and migraines. Soon your body, like mine, can’t accept water.”

At the time of writing Samer Issawi and Ayman Sharawna are among 178 prisoners who are being held under what Israel defines as “Administrative Detention” . This open ended imprisonment without a formal charge has been condemned by major international human rights groups. This self-sacrifice of Samer, Ayman and the other detainees has struck a chord with young people across Palestine who are absorbed in the struggle for life and dignity of the hunger strikers. They want immediate action.

“When students and young people become more aware and start writing about israel’s crimes it’s like a disaster for Israel. We want to deliver our message all over the world. Palestinian prisoners don’t have basic human rights or dignity. They’re not treated as human beings. We demand the Israeli government release the hunger strikers.”

Adie Mormech is a Gaza-based activist with International Action for Palestine and a teacher at Al Aqsa University in Gaza City.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Palsolidarity

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - A man in northern China has rammed a car loaded with a gas tank and firecrackers into a group of middle school students, injuring 13.

The official Xinhua News Agency says the man attempted to set off an explosion after running down 23 students at Fengning No. 1 Middle School in northern China's Hebei province on Monday. The man is in police custody.

Xinhua did not identify the man in its report Tuesday, but said his daughter was killed in a suspected murder case three years ago and he has a history of lodging complaints with authorities. Xinhua said the man did not act under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

China has had a half-dozen school attacks in less than three years.- www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: ABC News

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - The number of homeless students in America topped one million for the first time last year as a result of the economic recession, a number that has risen 57 percent since 2007.

The US Department of Education found that of these 1,065,794 children, many lived in abandoned homes, cheap hotels, stations, church basements and hospitals. Some spent their time sleeping over at the houses of various friends whenever they could. Others fell victim to drugs and sexual abuse, in some cases trading sexual acts for food, clothing and shelter or selling illegal drugs.

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 requires pubic schools to register homeless children. The Department of Education report was only able to compile data from those currently enrolled in school, which indicates that there may be many more homeless children or infants living on the streets without an education.

The southern US state of Georgia has in recent years always had the highest number of homeless children. As many as 45,000 homeless kids and teens are on the street or in a temporary shelter each night in Georgia, 14,000 of which are in Atlanta.

But the states that reported the largest year-to-year increases in the June report were Kentucky at 47 percent, Utah at 47 percent, Michigan at 38 percent, West Virginia at 38 percent and Mississippi at 35 percent. In Michigan, where unemployment is above the national average, every county reported an increase in the number of homeless students.

“The severe lack of affordable housing for families has yet to be addressed, and over one million children are paying the price,” Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty said in the report. “Everyone has a human right to safe, decent, affordable housing. And until we make that right a reality for all Americans, the number of homeless students will continue rising.”

Increases in the number of homeless students from 2010 to 2011 has hit 44 US states, reaching as far as small towns like Frederick, Md. In the months leading up to Christmas, Frederick Public Schools have been struggling to deal with the rising homeless student population, which has tripled since the 2004/2005 academic school year.

“It is pretty much what is happening around the state and around the nation,” Zoe Carson, the school system’s homeless education program coordinator told The Gazette. “It is a phenomenon that is happening everywhere.”

In Frederick County, homeless families are often referred to as the “former middle class”, Carson said. Children struggling with homelessness also tend to fare worse in school, making it more difficult for them to rise out of poverty in the future.

“They know exactly what is going on with their family. When you are going home to a hotel, the last thing on your mind is homework,” Carson said.

Frederick is neither unique with its rising number of homeless students, nor the most severe. The growth in the number of homeless students can be seen in both wealthy counties in Virginia and poor neighborhoods in Detroit. Fairfax County, Va. – one of the nation’s most affluent counties – reported that 2,500 homeless students are attending public schools this year, which is 10 times the number reported 15 years ago.

The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth strives to help homeless children escape their situations, but currently lacks the funding to seriously address the problem.

“Unfortunately, funding for the program has remained flat, while the numbers of homeless children and youth have grown exponentially,” said Barbara Duffield, policy director of the organization.

With Christmas only a week away, a record number of students will have no home to go to and will be forced to fend for themselves until the US economy improves.- www.shfaqna.com/English