Steven Tyler Proposes New Senate Bill in Hawaii

02/08/2013 at 10:45 AM EST

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Bieber have spoken out about the need for rules and regulations surrounding the paparazzi – most recently after a paparazzo was killed in a tragic accident.

Now, Steven Tyler is adding his voice to the mix.

The rock star and American Idol alum, 64, has proposed Hawaii Senate Bill 465 – now dubbed the Steven Tyler Act – which the would provide a legal remedy for celebrities photographed while engaged in "personal or familial activity" and have a reasonable expectation of privacy, according to a press release obtained by PEOPLE Friday.

"The paradise of Hawaii is a magnet for celebrities who just want a peaceful vacation," says Tyler. "As a person in the public eye, I know the paparazzi are there and we have to accept that. But when they intrude into our private space, disregard our safety and the safety of others, that crosses a serious line that shouldn't be ignored."

The bill will be presented in a Senate hearing in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is currently being endorsed by two-thirds of the Senate.

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.

It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.

Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.

"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.

In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.

"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.

Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:

—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.

—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.

—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.

—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.

—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.

"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.

Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.

There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.

There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.

The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.

Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.

"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.

"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Wall Street advances after stream of economic data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index rose on Friday after a batch of positive economic data points, but gains were checked with the benchmark S&P index at five-year highs as investors looked for strong catalysts to push the market further upward.

Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand, while German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.

Another positive sign was U.S. economic data which showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.

But wholesale inventories unexpectedly fell 0.1 percent in December as auto dealers and agricultural suppliers drew down their stocks.

The S&P 500 <.spx> has risen for five straight weeks and is up 6.3 percent for the year. Its advance was helped by legislators in Washington averting a series of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes earlier in the year, as well as better-than-expected corporate earnings and data that pointed to modest economic improvement but no immediate change in the Federal Reserve's stimulus plans.

The index, hovering near five-year highs, has found it tougher to climb in recent days as investors await strong trading incentives to drive it further upward.

"We are going to have this churn and this consolidation, which actually isn't a bad thing - it's actually good the market isn't being so volatile and is actually consolidating because it is building a base," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

"If it builds a base, from there it is easier to make the argument that you move ahead."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 67.62 points, or 0.48 percent, to 14,011.67. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> climbed 7.82 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,517.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> rose 27.34 points, or 0.86 percent, to 3,192.47.

McDonald's Corp said January sales at established hamburger restaurants around the world fell 1.9 percent, a steeper decline than analysts expected. Still, shares edged up 0.5 percent to $94.11.

Healthcare stocks were among the best performers, with the Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index <.hmo> up 2.3 percent. Molina Healthcare Inc surged 12.1 percent to $32.36 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.

LinkedIn Corp jumped 19.3 percent to $148.02 after announcing blow-out quarterly profits and a bullish forecast for the year that exceeded Wall Street's already lofty expectations.

According to Thomson Reuters data through Friday morning, of 339 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 69.9 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.

Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies grew 5.2 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Violence mars funeral of slain Tunisian opposition leader

TUNIS (Reuters) - Police and mourners clashed at the mass funeral on Friday of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid, whose assassination has plunged Tunisia deeper into political crisis.

Braving chilly rain, at least 50,000 people turned out to honor Belaid in his home district of Jebel al-Jaloud in the capital, chanting anti-Islamist and anti-government slogans.

It was Tunisia's biggest funeral since the death of Habib Bourguiba, independence leader and first president, in 2000.

Violence erupted near the cemetery as police fired teargas at demonstrators who threw stones and set cars ablaze. Police also used teargas against protesters near the Interior Ministry, a frequent flashpoint for clashes in the Tunisian capital.

Tunisia, cradle of the Arab uprisings, is riven by tensions between dominant Islamists and their secular opponents, and by frustration at the lack of social and economic progress since President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in January 2011.

Belaid's assassination has shocked a country which had hitherto experienced a relatively peaceful political transition.

"The people want a new revolution," shouted mourners in Tunis, who also sang the national anthem.

Crowds surged around an open army truck carrying Belaid's coffin, draped in a red and white Tunisian flag, from a cultural center in Jebel al-Jaloud towards the leafy Jallaz cemetery, as a security forces helicopter flew overhead.

"Belaid, rest in peace, we will continue the struggle," mourners chanted, holding portraits of the politician killed near his home on Wednesday by a gunman who fled on a motorcycle.

Some demonstrators denounced Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party. "Ghannouchi, assassin, criminal," they chanted. "Tunisia is free, terrorism out."

Police fired teargas to disperse anti-government protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs in the southern mining town of Gafsa, a stronghold of support for Belaid, witnesses said.

Crowds there had chanted "The people want the fall of the regime", a slogan first used against Ben Ali.

CRADLE OF REVOLT

In Sidi Bouzid, the southern town where the revolt against the ousted strongman began, about 10,000 marched to mourn Belaid and shout slogans against Ennahda and the government.

Banks, factories and some shops were closed in Tunis and other cities in response to a strike called by unions in protest at Belaid's killing, but buses were running normally.

Tunis Air suspended all its flights because of the strikes, a spokesman for the national airline said. Airport sources in Cairo said EgyptAir had canceled two flights to Tunisia after staff at Tunis airport joined the general strike.

After Belaid's assassination, Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali, an Islamist, said he would dissolve the government and form a cabinet of technocrats to rule until elections could be held.

But his own Ennahda party and its secular coalition partners complained they had not been consulted, casting doubt over the status of the government and compounding political uncertainty.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing of Belaid, a lawyer and secular opposition figure.

His family have blamed Ennahda but the party has denied any hand in the shooting. Crowds have attacked several Ennahda party offices in Tunis and other cities in the past two days.

"Hope still exists in Tunisia," Fatma Saidan, a noted Tunisian actor, told Reuters at Belaid's funeral. "We will continue to struggle against extremism and political violence."

She called for national unity, saying: "We are ready to accept Islamists, but they don't accept us."

SECULAR SYMBOL

While Belaid had only a modest political following, his criticism of Ennahda policies spoke for many Tunisians who fear religious radicals are bent on snuffing out freedoms won in the first of the revolts that rippled through the Arab world.

Secular groups have accused the Islamist-led government of a lax response to attacks by ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists on cinemas, theatres and bars in recent months.

The economic effect of political uncertainty and street unrest could be serious in a country which has yet to draft a new constitution and which relies heavily on the tourist trade.

Mohamed Ali Toumi, president of the Tunisian Federation of Travel Agencies, described the week's events as a catastrophe that would have a negative impact on tourism, but he told the national news agency TAP no cancellations had been reported yet.

France, which had already announced the closure of its schools in Tunis on Friday and Saturday, urged its nationals to stay clear of potential flashpoints in the capital.

The cost of insuring Tunisian government bonds against default rose to its highest level in more than four years on Thursday and ratings agency Fitch said it could further downgrade Tunisia if political instability continues or worsens.

(For an interactive look at Tunisia please click on http://link.reuters.com/tub85t)

(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz in Cairo and Brian Love in Paris; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Facebook Broke the Internet

A weird thing happened on Thursday night. Anytime you clicked on a link — or most of the time anyways — some strange Internet force directed you to an error page on Facebook. The URL is full of weird randomly generated code, but it’s definitely a Facebook page. You can even check your notifications even though you didn’t even want to visit Facebook. No, this is not a conspiracy. In all likelihood, it’s a bug that will be fixed within the hour. (Unless, it’s not, in which case things will get very interesting.) If you need to use the Internet before then, simply log out of Facebook, and you should be good to go.

RELATED: Are Facebook Users Higher Class?

Folks that understand how these Internet things work have quickly surmised that the bug must be related to Facebook Connect, the ubiquitous, one-click log-in feature that you’ve been using much more than you though you were. If true this would mean that every time you’re redirected by this bug or whatever it is, you’re heading to a site that’s controlled by Facebook. We couldn’t have said anything so dramatic yesterday, but today it’s become painfully apparent. Facebook rules the Internet. There are few corners that it does not touch, and whether you read your News Feed or not,  Facebook can ruin your Thursday night of Internet surfing any time it wants to. 

RELATED: Happy Hour Vid: Mashable CEO Sees Society Growing Tolerant of Less Privacy

This is a developing story, so check back soon for more details.

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Diem Brown Reacts to Cancer-Free News

In her PEOPLE.com blog, Diem Brown, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestant recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the second time, opens up about her desire for a child and the ups and downs of cancer and fertility procedures.

Getting the call that changes your life ... literally!

I have been in this intense limbo ever since Jan. 4 when my CT Scan showed signs of a mass in my liver, which meant that there was a possible cancer spread.

Being a "veteran" of this now, I understood the doctors' concern because if cancer had spread into my liver, it was more than likely transferred by a lymph node – meaning the cancer could also be in other parts of my body.

Having that much cancer spread seemingly all throughout your body is terrifying! I felt as if I was placed in some sort of cancer maze, where as soon as I was close to an exit, a wall would quickly slam down keeping me stuck inside.

As each day passed and I hadn't gotten an answer from my liver scan, I could feel the light get dimmer and my cancer maze felt never ending.

But then the call came – the call that made me feel like I had a map leading me out of my maze, doors started lifting up and I was finally let free.

The spot in my liver caused some major havoc in my world but who the H-E-double hockey sticks cares ... because with that call I came to find out that the MRI showed it wasn't cancerous! Ahhhhh thank God!!!!

That first breath you let out when you get good news feels almost stolen. Your entire body gets weak as if you were holding up this 100-lb. weight over your head and you've finally been told you could drop it. You feel free! Absolutely freaking free!

You are so used to getting the call that starts with "sorry to tell you this but I have some bad news..." that you then desperately scramble for ways to pump yourself back up to fight. However, this time my doctor's call was different and the call became my release button – my permission to breathe and to keep on breathing!

When you're battling cancer and you hear that your blood results haven't moved since day one of chemo and a scan shows the possibility of a spread, you start thinking, "Come on! Who upstairs doesn't want me down here? Um, God, we need to have a talk!" I'm just playing, but I find I can joke with God when I pray so he doesn't mind that line of questioning.

I've learned so much through all of this and it's so weird how much clarity you can have looking back. I remember back in April 2012 when I first acknowledged the cyst – I was talking to my girlfriends and flat out said, "I'm scared ... I don't wanna do this again. I can't do this again."

I wasn't trying to be dramatic as I honestly felt I didn't have it in me to go through it all again. In 2011, I had finally felt back to my pre-2005 cancer self and then boom, I find out I have to start the whole "cancer thing" all over again ... really?

Overwhelmed but Optimistic

Everything seemed overwhelming, everything seemed too much to take in. The road seemed like this never-ending trail of bad news of things I was scared to do or confront. Realizing your mortality, undergoing more surgeries, coping with the loss of fertility, menopause, and my dreaded relationship with chemo's side effects.

I saw all of the above as an overwhelming and life-altering mountain standing smack dab in front of me. Wishing that cancer mountain wasn't there wouldn't make it go away. I knew that the best way to climb any impossible looking mountain is with small steps not giant leaps. So I tried to NOT combine all of the tasks in my head but instead address the most pressing issues one at a time.

Fertility was my first concern and now I'm happier than I was BEFORE I even had cancer in 2005. I have 10 eggs in some freezer somewhere and no matter what happens in my future no one can take those away from me – they're all mine, dang it, and I will have me some babies!

My situation is not uncommon as we have all been there, standing before what seems an impossible overwhelming battle. We have all gotten to today by pressing forward through our own hardships.

I know some, if not most, of you have experienced getting to the top of your impossible mountain and felt that euphoric rush overcome your body. You can't help but smile with the goofiest grin in the world because you accomplished something you never wanted to do or ever wanted to do again ... but you didn't break. You beat it!

I love the quote, "The strongest steel has to go through the hottest fire." I repeated that quote to myself whenever the questions of "why me?" started to creep into my mindset.

You might not like the cards you have been dealt, but you are who you are because of them. You get a bad hand and it's your choice how you can play it, but I promise if you choose not to fold, you will come out better than you could ever possibly imagine.

The feeling I have right now, at this very moment ... of finally getting my good news is the BIGGEST high in the world and the best reward for all the turmoil of a bad hand.

I want to scream, "I am cancer free!" but second-time-around cancers are a trickier bird. I won't have that specific 100 percent clear moment because of the type of cancer I have. However, that doesn't mean I can't celebrate.

Celebrating My Remission

Would I like to have had some sort of marker or test that showed the chemo fought off everything? Of course! I remember the first time I had cancer, I loved seeing my CA125 blood test numbers go from 500 to 23 by the end of all my chemo treatments because it showed me the progress of it killing the cancer.

Would I like to have a CT scan of my ovary area that showed a change from before and after chemo? Of course! But, as a result of my four surgeries, there is so much scar tissue in that area that a clear ovary scan is impossible.

So although there is no actual test to give me that gives me the 100 percent cancer-free assurance that I had back in 2006, I feel I can celebrate remission just the same. I have done every treatment the doctor has ordered, done every test, every scan and with these clear liver results, I have faith that my treatment worked.

I'm confident in my "cancer-free version" even without a test that exactly proves so. I am celebrating this moment and am ecstatic to say I'm in remission! I may have a few treatments here and there but I'm done with the fear ... I beat the sucker once again!

I know other patients still in their fight can't wait to hear those four glorious words: "You are in remission." Those four lil' words make you feel like you got a new clean slate and are free to do whatever you want in life.

I think of y'all fighting and I promise I'm not just taking my good news liver results and peace out of the patient world. My goal in life has shifted and I want nothing more than to make the road of the patient and the caregiver less ominous. I want to help and I won't stop until I accomplish my goal.

I know how lucky I am and I do not take that for granted! I started a company for patients and their loved ones called MedGift back in 2006 while going through my first battle with ovarian cancer. Now in 2013, I have found things I want to do to make MedGift better and it's all because of the experiences I have had during this second cancer fight. I am on fire with a passion that has never been more intense. I can't wait for y'all to see what I'm up to!

This is my cancer-free version! I am not living in the fear of "What if they didn't get it all?" or "How do they know if there is no test I can do?"

Instead I'm looking out in front of me, clean liver scan in hand screaming, "I'm done! Hello, you beautiful remission you! Now let's go kick some booty because I'm free."

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.

An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.

The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.

In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.

The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.

In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.

"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.

The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.

___

JournaL: http://www.nejm.org

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Wall Street extends losses as retail, housing stocks fall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street extended losses on Thursday with housing and retail stocks leading the decline.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 101.72 points, or 0.73 percent, at 13,884.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 9.65 points, or 0.64 percent, at 1,502.47. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 25.16 points, or 0.79 percent, at 3,143.32.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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Khamenei rebuffs U.S. offer of direct talks

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct talks made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden this week, saying they would not solve the problem between them.

"Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problem," Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran's air force carried on his official website.

"If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them," he said.

"American policy in the Middle East has been destroyed and Americans now need to play a new card. That card is dragging Iran into negotiations."

Khamenei made his comments just days after Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership. "That offer stands but it must be real and tangible," Biden said in a speech in Munich.

With traditional fiery rhetoric, Khamenei lambasted Biden's offer, saying that since the 1979 revolution the United States had gravely insulted Iran and continued to do so with its threat of military action.

"You take up arms against the nation of Iran and say: 'negotiate or we fire'. But you should know that pressure and negotiations are not compatible and our nation will not be intimidated by these actions," he added.

Relations between Iran and the United States were severed in 1979 after the overthrow of Iran's pro-western monarchy and diplomatic meetings between officials have since been very rare.

ALL OPTIONS STILL "ON THE TABLE"

Currently U.S.-Iran contact is limited to talks between Tehran and a so-called P5+1 group of powers on Iran's disputed nuclear program which are to resume on February 26 in Kazakhstan.

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said he was skeptical the negotiations in Almaty could yield a result, telling Israel Radio that the United States needed to demonstrate to Iran that "all options were still on the table".

Israel, widely recognized to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has warned it could mount a pre-emptive strike on Iranian atomic sites. Israel sees its existence as directly threatened by the prospect of an nuclear-armed Iran, given Tehran's refusal to recognize the existence of the Jewish state.

"The final option, this is the phrasing we have used, should remain in place and be serious," said Meridor.

"The fact that the Iranians have not yet come down from the path they are on means that talks ...are liable to bring about only a stalling for time," he said.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful but Western powers are concerned it is intent on developing a weapons program.

Many believe a deal on settling the nuclear issue is impossible without a U.S.-Iranian thaw. But any rapprochement would require direct talks addressing many sources of mutual mistrust that have lingered since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Moreover, although his re-election last November may give President Barack Obama a freer hand to pursue direct negotiations, analysts say Iran's own presidential election in June may prove an additional obstacle to progress being made.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by William Maclean and Jon Boyle)

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Indian police arrest 3 for threatening Kashmir girl band on social media

SRINAGAR, India – Three people have been arrested in Indian-controlled Kashmir for allegedly threatening the first Kashmiri all-girl rock band, which disbanded after its debut concert following abusive comments on social media and a demand from a top Muslim cleric that they stop performing, police said Thursday.

The three have been booked for criminal intimidation and violating internet laws, police officer Afadul Mujtaba said. If convicted, they could be jailed for up to seven years each. They were arrested Wednesday night

The controversy over the band Pragaash, or “First Light” in Kashmiri, highlights the simmering tension between modernity and tradition in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where an armed uprising against Indian rule and a crackdown by government forces have killed more than 68,000 people since 1989.

Police are looking for at least a dozen other people whose comments were abusive. However, no action has been taken against the cleric for describing the girls’ band as a non-Islamic activity.

The arrests came as one of the band members told India’s CNN-IBN channel that the group had decided to stop singing because of the cleric’s edict, and not merely because of the online abuses. “Everything was going fine till the fatwa was issued,” she said, referring to the cleric’s order.

The TV channel did not identify the band member, who also said the band members respected the cleric’s decision because he was “more aware of our religion.” She urged the media to stop reporting on the case.

Pragaash performed in public for the first time in December in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. It won third place in an annual “Battle of the Bands” rock show organized by an Indian paramilitary force as part of a campaign to win hearts and minds in the region.

Soon after the show, Kashmiri pages on social networking sites like Facebook hotly debated the band. Some wondered whether the performance was appropriate in Muslim-dominated Kashmir, while others raised broader questions on the Islamic approach to music and the role of women in the society.

Many commenters backed the girls, but others were abusive, calling them “sluts” and “prostitutes” and calling for them and their families to be expelled from the region.

The controversy deepened Saturday after Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, promised a police probe into the threats and wrote on Twitter that “the talented teenagers should not let themselves be silenced by a handful of morons.”

The all-girl band then came under the scrutiny of various groups.

Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir’s state-sponsored cleric, issued a fatwa on Sunday ordering the girls to “stop from these activities and not to get influenced by the support of political leadership.”

Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, also did not approve of the band, calling the band “a step toward westernization of young girls.”

However, the alliance also distanced itself from the cleric’s edict, and denied the girls were under threat. It said the Indian media was “blowing up a small issue with a purpose to defame the Kashmiri freedom struggle.”

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