“A Turkish court ordered access to YouTube’s Web site blocked on Wednesday, after a prosecutor recommended the ban because of videos allegedly insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk… Over the past week, Turkish media publicized what some called a ‘virtual war’ between Greeks and Turks on YouTube, with people from both sides posting videos to belittle and berate the other. The video prompting the ban allegedly said Ataturk and the Turkish people were homosexuals, news reports said. The CNN-Turk Web site featured a link allowing Turks to complain directly to YouTube about the ‘insult. On its front page on Wednesday, the newspaper Hurriyet said thousands of people had written YouTube and that the Ataturk videos had been removed from the site. ‘YouTube got the message,’ the headline said.”

“A U.S. Army medic who refused to return to Iraq because he believes war is morally wrong was convicted of desertion Tuesday and sentenced to an eight-month prison term – far short of the maximum seven-year sentence. Specialist Agustin Aguayo, 35, of California and his attorneys turned to each other and smiled after Judge Col. R. Peter Masterton read out the sentence. Aguayo, a U.S. citizen born in Guadalajara, Mexico, had been jailed for 161 days awaiting trial and his attorney, David Court, said he did not expect him to serve more than about six more weeks. ‘We’re grateful that the military judge gave a light sentence,’ Court said, adding that he believed Aguayo convinced the judge he was sincere and that ‘the judge is concerned with justice’. “

“Aligning himself with congressional Democrats in the debate on the Iraq war, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reiterated Sunday that the U.S. needs to set clear timelines for bringing troops home, lest Iraq devolve into a quagmire with no end in sight. Republican Schwarzenegger, speaking on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation,’ said Americans won’t support a war that becomes an open-ended commitment — a point, he said, that needs to be made to the Iraqis. ‘We should let the Iraqis know that we are here until this time. And then we’re going to draw back,’ Schwarzenegger said. ‘We’re going to draw our troops out of Iraq. I think a timeline is absolutely important because I think that the people in America don’t want to see another Korean War, another Vietnam War, where it’s an open-ended thing’. “

“The city’s decision to publish its first completely bilingual election manual featuring Persian side-by-side with English has generated hundreds of complaints. The pamphlets for the March 6 city election were mailed out early this month to 21,000 voters. They were printed cover-to-cover in English and Persian, also known as Farsi… The city of 35,000 has a large and growing Persian population that began with wealthy emigres who fled the Iranian revolution in the late 1970s. City Clerk Byron Pope said his office received about 300 complaints within a week of sending out the new ballots… ‘The majority of them want an English-only sample ballot,’ Pope said. ‘They prefaced their comments with: `I’ve been a 20-year or 30-year or 40-year or 50-year resident . . . when my family came here, we had to learn English’. “

“Korean American community leaders who met with a top official at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles on Friday said they were disgusted by anti-Semitic depictions in a comic book by a popular South Korean author and vowed to mobilize community resources to launch a protest against the publisher. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, met with the group and said he would visit Seoul on March 15 to raise concerns about the comic book. He said its publisher has an obligation to pull the book from the market and replace it with one that depicts Jews accurately. The controversial book, written by Lee Won-bok, a South Korean university professor, is one in his series designed to teach youngsters about other countries in a comic book format. The series, “Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries” in English translation, has sold more than 10 million copies, Cooper said. The images ‘echo classic Nazi canards like those found in [Nazi newspaper] Der Sturmer and ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ by recycling various Jewish conspiracies, like Jewish control of the media and money, Jews profiting from war, and even the reason for the 9/11 attacks,’ Cooper said.”

“In a blow to Israeli venture capital… Grove Street Advisors will no longer manage investment for California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). Grove Street managing partner Clinton (Clint) P. Harris is considered one of the main and most highly regarded gatekeepers of Israel’s venture capital industry. Centinela Capital Partners and Oak Hill Investment Management LP will take over the CalPERS account. Since 1998, through Grove Street Advisors, CalPERS has invested $70 million in Israeli venture capital funds and an additional $60 million in direct investments, making it the largest single investor in Israeli venture capital.”.

The California Senate passed a resolution Monday urging Congress and President Bush not to escalate U.S. involvement in the Iraq war. The 22-14 vote was along party lines with all Republicans voting against the measure, and all but one Democrat voting in favor. During a contentious hour-long debate Democrats said they continued to support American troops fighting in Iraq, but they disapproved of Bush’s request for more troops and money. Republicans argued that the measure could harm troop morale or embolden terrorists. Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) even seemed to say that those who voted for Democrats in the last election were terrorist sympathizers, “This resolution emboldens our enemies,” he said “This resolution simply tells Al Qaeda and other state sponsors of terrorism, ‘We’ve got the Americans on the run. First, we had the election in November and now … all we have to do is hold out a while longer. They are crumbling in Washington and they are crumbling in state legislatures all over the country.’ Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat, responded: “Balderdash. If anything is supporting and emboldening our enemies, it is this war…. This war was a mistake, and the rest of the world knows it.”

“The world’s eighth-richest man is in talks with other investors to build a Disney theme park in Bahrain, according to a report from Bahrain’s al-Waqt newspaper. Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is leading the charge for the first Disney park in the Middle East, which would have a price tag of $8 billion and would be termed ‘Disney Bahrain’.” The Los Angeles Business Journal reports that Kuwait Finance House, the second-largest Islamic bank in the Persian Gulf region by market value, is one of the potential investors. Work on the park is proposed to begin in May and would take six years to complete.

UAE national Salem Bin Dasmal has been appointed Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for Tatweer, the managing company of Dubai Holding entities in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai Holding is a holding company that belongs to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. Mr. Bin Dasmal was previously the Chief Executive Officer of Dubailand- a huge entertainment complex being built in that country. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Northrop University, as well as a Masters in Public Administration and a Masters of Accounting from the University of Southern California.

“Two Los Angeles-area groups are planning protests against a talk by former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Monday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and two performances in early February by the Israel Philharmonic at Disney Hall. A Los Angeles affiliate of the international Women in Black organization held one demonstration outside Disney Hall on Jan. 14 and plans a second one for 1 p.m. Sunday before the scheduled 2 p.m. L.A. Philharmonic performance of Schumann’s Second Symphony. Other protests will coincide with the Israel Philharmonic’s scheduled concerts Feb. 5 and 6. The group earlier had petitioned the L.A. Philharmonic to cancel the concert as part of its attempt to bring international pressure on Israel to change its policies toward Palestinians, including its occupation of Gaza. In a letter to WIB-LA, Deborah Borda, president of the L.A. Philharmonic Assn., rejected calls for a boycott of the Israeli orchestra. ‘We will never support the silencing of artists from any culture as a means of political action’, Borda wrote. ‘Whenever this unfortunate course of action has been pursued by governments and political entities, it is always to the detriment of society at large, and certainly the artists’. “