How Can the UK Royals Champion Women and Endorse Saudi?
New Age Islam News Bureau
12 March 2013
Arab World
• How Can the UK Royals Champion Women and Endorse Saudi?
• Saudi Preacher Calls Muslim Scholars for ‘Joint Fatwa’ Against Assad
• The new Iraq is one of the world's leading executioners
• Obligatory Courses for Those Wanting To Marry
• Supporting Assad is a ‘religious obligation:’ Syria’s Grand Imam
• Syrian government 'uses sectarian militias' for mass killings
• Army will not tolerate 'political militias': Egyptian military source
• Fighting fire with fire: Syria calls for jihad on jihadists
• Two Saudis in human rights group get 10 years in prison
• Morsi hopes for political compromise to end Egypt turmoil
Africa
• Homemade alcohol kills 51 in Libya, 378 suffer poisoning
• Libyan mufti says UN document on women’s rights counters Islamic law
• Tunisian MP stirs row after female circumcision remarks
• Mali war disrupts cocaine supply to Europe
• Mali media strike over Editor Boukary Daou's arrest
• Documentary rediscovers Morocco's Judeo-Islamic Berber culture
Southeast Asia
• Aceh Government Removes Stoning Sentence from Draft Bylaw
• Non-Hindu residents leave Bali for Nyepi holiday
• Malaysia rescues 136 Myanmar refugees
• Malaysian soldier, 3 Filipinos killed in Sabah
• Sulu Sultan, wife and brother summoned to face NBI
Mideast Asia
• Mullahs slam 'sinful' Iran Prez over link to Hugo Chavez' mother
• Ayatollah Khamenei Praises Iranian Female Athletes for Wearing Hijab in Sports Fields
• Hamas aims to re-establish ties with West
• Over 85 percent Palestinians fled Syria’s Yarmouk camp: UNRWA
• Turkey arrests four Syrians over deadly border attack
• Iran Blocks Way to Bypass Internet Filtering System
• Turks and Kurds Must Prepare for 'Truth'
Europe
• Film suggests Toulouse killer was disturbed, not hateful
• Affluent Muslim globetrotters fuelling global tourism boom
• Former Dutch Islamophobe Converts to Islam
• Syria, China worst for online spying: Media watchdog RSF
• Peres urges EU to list Hezbollah as terror organization
• Paris: 3 French men accused in terror attack plot
• Logic behind School of Ahl-ul-Bayt Encourages Swedish Society to Welcome Shi’ites
• Delegation from French Guinea visits the museum of Imam Hussein holy shrine
• Syria crisis as volatile as Somalia, warns U.N. peace envoy Brahimi
• Whole generation of Syrian children could be lost: UN
• EU sanctions target Iranian human rights violators
India
• ‘I was discriminated against because I am Muslim’
• UAE diplomat held with 37 kg gold at IGIA, New Delhi
• Do people of Kashmir have to live in India or not, asks PDP member
• Steven Spielberg plans film based on Indo-Pak border
• EC team in Maldives to help with poll preparations
• It was chance meeting with Saeed, claims Malik
• 'India wrestling with a choice of preserving its ties to Iran'
• Probes into molester's chopper ride in Kashmir
• HC blast: Charges of waging war to be framed against Wasim Akram Malik
• 'No ex-militant has returned from Pakistan'
• Uncertain future stares at 1993 blasts convicts on 20th anniversary
• Out on bail, Madani a cynosure of all eyes in Kerala politics
• Home Ministry formalities give Pakistan cycling team a harrowing time
Pakistan
• Pakistani Religious leader urges Muslims to follow teachings of Imam Khomeini
• Suicide bomb attack kills 2 police officials in Bannu
• Muslim scholars deny polio vaccine rumours
• All Pakistan Shia conference to decide about their fate in forth coming election
• Some 676 Pakistanis presumed dead, says NGO
• JUI-F chief shares peace plan with North Waziristan tribe
• Gunmen kill district election commissioner in Quetta
• Christian leaders say residents had been receiving threats
• Separate voters list for Ahmadis: Court summons AG
• Taliban wants father of Pak nuclear bomb A Q Khan in talks with govt
South Asia
• Five NATO troops die in Afghan chopper crash
• ‘Attacks kill 7 civilians, including girls, in Afghanistan’
• Cops raid BNP HQ, arrest 2 top leaders
• Bangladesh Gen Y turns into voice for the generation that sacrificed
• Maldivian sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for importing 0.8 grams of Xanax
• War crimes accused Mobarak sent to jail
• A must to avoid unintended pregnancies: UNFPA chief
North America
• Hunger strike at Guantanamo after Quran seizures
• US condemns ‘terrorist’ attack on Assad’s troops
• No response received from Iran on nuclear talks offer: US
• Crisis no longer hanging over US-Pak relationship
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
Photo: Mullahs slam 'sinful' Iran Prez over link to Hugo Chavez' mother
URL:
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Arab World
How Can the UK Royals Champion Women and Endorse Saudi?
Charles and Camilla's visit to the repressive state makes a mockery of the couple's support for female rights
Catherine Bennett
10 March 2013
In its latest human rights report, not a great read, the Commons foreign affairs committee wondered if the government attitude to "countries of concern" isn't a wee bit too "low key". Britain's relations with Saudi Arabia, for instance, would benefit from a "bolder" approach, whereby ministers somehow acknowledged, if only for appearances' sake, the contradiction between – I paraphrase – a notional distaste for torture and the regular prostrations required if influential torturers are to shop British for their weapons.
On women's rights, the committee came close to being insistent, asking the Foreign Office to explain what, if anything, it is doing to safeguard women's interests "worldwide". That this barb, at least, hit home became clear last week when ministers welcomed a delegation from the Saudi Shura council, an appointed body, which featured, for the first time, a couple of women. Moved, some believe, by his intensive study of Naomi Wolf and the Jezebel women's website, King Abdullah recently decided to place 30 women, including two of his family's princesses, in the 150-strong Shura, a change his dynasty would like to depict as reformist.
As reported by the Foreign Office, the foreign secretary, William Hague, duly applauded, in the run-up to International Women's Day, the great wisdom of these appointments: "A milestone for reform of women's rights in Saudi Arabia." And therefore, you gathered, for Britain. "We are looking with the Shura council into the means of exchanging experiences and into finding ways to benefit from them," Andrew Lansley said on a tour of Westminster. Might it be in women's interests, for instance, if Theresa May were invited to sit, more like a female Shura politician, apart from the men and behind a screen? "There are clear differences in the political regime of both countries," Lansley acknowledged, "but there are also many similarities."
Of course, the immediate problem for any British women hoping to benefit from their Saudi counterparts' experience, political or otherwise, is getting to meet any of them. How can Saudi and British women learn from one another, as Lansley hopes, when they are not allowed out alone and foreign women are not allowed to enter the country without a male protector? But this difficulty has evidently been anticipated by the Foreign Office, which recently announced that the Prince of Wales and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will be our fact-finders, an official visit to Saudi Arabia having been added to their imminent tour of the Middle East.
Far from needing any persuasion to visit this country of concern, the palace emphasised, Charles was thrilled to be strengthening "relations which are underpinned by the close personal friendship that exists between their royal highnesses and the Saudi royal family". Unaffected by regular reports about torture, intolerance and oppression and, in 2011, the country's participation in Bahrain's violent crushing of dissent, the prince's affection for Saudi Arabia's innumerable royals has blossomed over his eight official visits and intervening meetings in Britain, to the point that Highgrove is irrevocably – even if no floral roundabouts and municipal visits are involved – twinned with Jeddah.
Plainly, if you hate democracy but love all-male company, fast cars and Islamic art, Saudi princes can be a lot of fun. At any rate, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, recently in the news to protest that Forbes magazine put him as low as 26th on its rich list, has emerged as one of Charles's boon companions: one pictures him deprecating western materialism with Nicholas Soames, or taking Stephen Fry for a spin round Charles's reed bed drainage system in his crystal-covered Mercedes. Much has been written about Charles's traditionalist sympathies, but perhaps, if the Saudi trip goes well, visitors to Highgrove's gardens will not have to wait long for a mini grand canyon inspired by the one Prince Alwaleed has already installed in a "farm and resort" on the edge of Riyadh.
Both Charles and Camilla are expected to meet the first women members of the Shura, whose well-publicised appointment should not be confused with any significant relaxation in the caged conditions ordained by the ruling family for its female – and non-Saudi – population. As the Islamic Human Rights Commission reports, in evidence recently submitted to the foreign affairs committee (now investigating relations with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia), the male guardianship system still means that, as well as being banned from independent travel, driving and physical education, "in many cases women cannot even access medical treatment without permission of a brother, father or husband".
Despite being, by choice, no stranger to male guardianship systems, the duchess has recently associated herself with campaigns to improve women's lives, to the point that Jude Kelly, organiser of the Southbank Centre's Women of the World (WOW) global festival, now introduces her as someone also helping "women to recognise their true potential". If, for all the trickiness of reconciling women's empowerment with life as Charles's consort, Camilla is indeed a credible campaigner for women's rights, she will presumably register, at some point, that the recent Shura titivations have as much to tell foreigners about Saudi's equality of the sexes as did Stalin's Potemkin villages about the Soviet workers' paradise.
Anyone inclined to believe that, unlike the cardboard facades that captivated the Sidney Webbs and other fellow travellers, King Abdullah's show of female empowerment might be the real thing should recall how successfully, last summer, the Saudis persuaded Olympics enthusiasts that the inclusion of two female athletes – who had both trained abroad – amounted to more than the Saudi team's passport to future participation. Back home, Saudi women were, and are still, denied access to exercise, along with every other freedom, a condition that does not bother the Foreign Office, since, like so much female subjugation around the globe, it simply "reflects widely held conservative social values". The inequality should certainly, however, worry a WOW supporter such as the Duchess of Cornwall. Even for her spouse, human rights are not the complete mystery that his devotion to Saudi's tyrants might suggest.
Where the human rights of Tibetans are concerned, Charles has advertised his contempt for their tormentors, regardless of the diplomatic consequences, by refusing to turn up for the Chinese Olympics opening. Chinese officials, so different from the friendly Saudi princes, once struck him as "appalling old waxworks". More recently, in his own cause, he invoked his human rights – with respect to privacy – to frustrate attempts to access correspondence that might shed light on a tax exemption thought to have cost millions to the exchequer.
When he endorses the oppression of Saudi women, Charles will also, with his retinue of arms salesmen, be giving a British blessing to the country's religious and political intolerance, its torture, absolutism, imprisonment without trial, capital punishment for minors, pardons for rapist fathers, deals with al-Qaida, opposition to nearby democratic movements and executions for apostasy, homosexuality and adultery. Any of them – but perhaps, particularly, the last – might strike this enlightened royal and his wife as a good reason to remember an urgent appointment with a plant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/10/royals-women-endorse-saudi-arabia
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Saudi Preacher Calls Muslim Scholars for ‘Joint Fatwa’ Against Assad
12 March 2013
An influential Saudi preacher called Monday on Muslim scholars to issue a joint fatwa against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime – according to the United Nations – has killed more than 70,000 people since the uprising erupted two years.
Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni told Al Arabiya that the Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia and Al-Azhar University in Egypt should condemn Assad and his government, adding that the killing of the Syrian president was justified.
Qarni’s statement came following the recent announcement by Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmad Bedreddine Hassoun that it was a “religious obligation” of Muslims to support Assad.
The Saudi sheikh said that the actions of the Syrian regime go against Islamic principles, adding that Assad’s government has committed crimes against women and unarmed civilians.
“That is why all Syrians have to fight this regime. The Syrian youth should take up arms against the regime,” he told Al Arabiya.
Qarni also talked about his visit to Al-Zaatary camp in Jordan, where, he said, he heard of the “practices” of the regime.
“Syrian refugees in the camp said that officials in the Syrian army forced them to kneel in front of Bashar al-Assad’s picture and insult God.”
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/12/Saudi-preacher-calls-for-joint-fatwa-against-Assad.html
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The new Iraq is one of the world's leading executioners
The Voice of Russia
March 12, 2013
The government hanged 129 prisoners last years and holds 37,000 prisoners, of whom 21,000 have been sentenced, according to a new report named “Iraq: a Decade of Abuses” prepared by Amnesty International.
Ten years after the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein’s regime by American and British leaders, who cited its brutality and cruelty, the Iraqi legal system is resorting to torture of prisoners and forces confessions. According to the report, “thousands of Iraqis are detained without trial or are serving prison sentences imposed after unfair trials, torture remains rife and continues to be committed with impunity, and the new Iraq is one of the world’s leading executioners.”
Last year four men were arrested in Ramadi, held incommunicado and tortured by various means, including being hung up by the wrists and beatings, until they confessed. Before their trial, a local television station “broadcast film of them providing self-incriminating evidence of having committed capital crimes.” All four were sentenced to death under the anti-terrorism law ignoring, according to one of the four men, even a request by the prosecution to release him, reveals the Amnesty International report.
Tortures and secret prisoners controlled by the government’s elite are features of all the post-Saddam governments. Forced confessions are also used as a political weapon. According to the report, in 2011 three detained bodyguards of Vice President Tareq al-Hasemi confessed that he ordered them to murder government and security officials.
Voice of Russia, the Independent
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_12/Amnesty-International-the-new-Iraq-is-one-of-the-world-s-leading-executioners/
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Obligatory Courses for Those Wanting To Marry
March 12, 2013
RIYADH — Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen told Al-Jazirah daily that the Council of Ministers is studying regulations that will require any man or woman who wants to get married to pass a course on marital life and problems.
The minister added that the marriage contract would not be issued unless both spouses presented a certificate proving that they have attended such a course.
In the first stage of applying these regulations, anyone wanting to get married will initially be given the option to attend the course.
Full report at:
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130312156456
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Syrian government 'uses sectarian militias' for mass killings
The Syrian government is reportedly using local militias known as Popular Committees to commit mass killings
11 Mar 2013
The uprising in Syria erupted two years ago with largely peaceful protests but escalated into a civil war pitting mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
"In a disturbing and dangerous trend, mass killings allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees have at times taken on sectarian overtones," the U.N. commission of inquiry on Syria, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, said in its latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/2/66648/World/Syrian-government-uses-sectarian-militias-for-mass.aspx
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Army will not tolerate 'political militias': Egyptian military source
Prosecutor-general's statements inviting public to make citizen's arrests opens door to 'private militias' and 'civil war,' military source tells Ahram Online
Ahmed Eleiba
11 Mar 2013
A military source who spoke to Ahram Online on Monday slammed recent statements by the office of Egypt's prosecutor-general in which the latter gave the green light to members of the public to make citizen's arrests of anyone found committing acts of vandalism.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the move would open the door to the formation of "private militias" and raise the spectre of "civil war."
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/66626/Egypt/Politics-/Army-will-not-tolerate-political-militias-Egyptian.aspx
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Fighting fire with fire: Syria calls for jihad on jihadists
March 11, 2013
By Oliver Holmes
BEIRUT: One of the pillars of President Bashar al-Assad's leadership is secularism, but nearly two years into a fight which it says is spearheaded by hardline Islamist terrorists, Damascus has decided to employ its enemy's tactic: jihad.
The highest official Sunni Muslim body in Syria, closely linked to the government, issued a religious decree on Sunday calling on Syrians to join the military, which it called both "a national and a religious duty".
Full report at:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Mar-11/209671-fighting-fire-with-fire-syria-calls-for-jihad-on-jihadists.ashx#ixzz2NKa90cuj
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Two Saudis in human rights group get 10 years in prison
By Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN
March 11, 2013
In a case that has captured international attention, two of Saudi Arabia's most prominent human rights activists were each sentenced on Saturday to at least 10 years in prison, Saudi activists report.
They had been found guilty earlier Saturday of providing inaccurate information to foreign media, founding and operating an unlicensed human rights organization, as well as other offenses.
Full report at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/09/world/meast/saudi-arabia-activists-sentenced/
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Morsi hopes for political compromise to end Egypt turmoil
Mar 12 2013
Embattled Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is planning to reach out to the country’s main Opposition bloc and youth groups to control widespread political turmoil and discontent plaguing the nation.
Mr. Morsi plans to dispatch two of his aides to open talks with the Opposition National Salvation Front (NSF) umbrella group and political youth movements in hopes of resolving Egypt’s current political impasse, a Presidential source told the Ahram Online.
According to the source, one Presidential aide will be tasked with meeting NSF leaders in an effort to convince the latter to enter ‘national dialogue’ talks.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/morsi-hopes-for-political-compromise-to-end-egypt-turmoil/article4497642.ece
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Africa
Homemade alcohol kills 51 in Libya, 378 suffer poisoning
51 people have died in Tripoli after drinking homemade alcohol, with another 378 suffering alcohol poisoning
11 Mar 2013
Fifty one people have died since Saturday after drinking homemade alcohol, most of them in the Libyan capital Tripoli, with more than 300 others suffering from alcohol poisoning, the health ministry said on Monday.
The consumption and sale of alcohol is banned in the North African country, even though it is available on the black market.
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/66654/World/Region/Homemade-alcohol-kills--in-Libya,--suffer-poisonin.aspx
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Libyan mufti says UN document on women’s rights counters Islamic law
Libyan mufti issues edict against UN document on women’s rights, says it counters Islamic law
Mar 12, 2013
TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s supreme religious cleric is calling on Muslim nations to reject a United Nations document on women’s rights, saying that it counters Islamic law.
Mufti al-Sadiq al-Ghiryani issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against the document set to be signed by nations at the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women this month.
Full report at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/libyan-mufti-issues-edict-against-un-
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Tunisian MP stirs row after female circumcision remarks
11 March 2013
Lawmakers from Tunisia's secular opposition Monday denounced remarks attributed to an MP from the Islamist Ennahda party that female circumcisions in Africa are carried out for “aesthetic' reasons.
“It is unacceptable that a member promotes crimes against women,” lawmaker Nadia Shaaban said in the National Constituent Assembly, referring to remarks purportedly made by Habib Ellouze, an MP from the ruling Ennahda.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/11/Tunisian-MP-stirs-row-after-female-circumcision-remarks-.html
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Mali war disrupts cocaine supply to Europe
The jihadist network in Mali's north funds itself by levying a tax on smugglers running drugs from Latin America to feed Europe's ever-growing market
11 Mar 2013
France's surprise intervention in northern Mali against Islamist fighters involved in lucrative drug-running has disrupted cocaine supply to Europe but smugglers are already finding new routes, analysts said.
The former colonial power sent its jets and troops exactly two months ago to eliminate Al-Qaeda-linked groups that had been controlling northern Mali for nine months and were threatening to move south towards the capital.
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/66591/World/International/Mali-war-disrupts-cocaine-supply-to-Europe.aspx
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Mali media strike over editor Boukary Daou's arrest
12 March 2013
Mali's private media have launched a news blackout after an editor was arrested for publishing a letter about poor conditions from soldiers fighting Islamist militants in the north.
Le Republicain editor Boukary Daou was arrested last Wednesday and has yet to be charged.
The soldiers said they lacked equipment and rations - the same complaints made by those behind last year's March coup.
Mali's interim government has not commented on the arrest or strike.
The BBC's Alex Duval Smith in the capital, Bamako, says about 40 newspaper titles are published each week - and none have appeared on news stands in the city on Tuesday morning.
Full report at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21754798
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Documentary rediscovers Morocco's Judeo-Islamic Berber culture
French-Moroccan filmmaker Kamal Hachkar speaks to Ahram Online on his award-winning film 'Tinghir, Echoes from The Mellah' and his passion for rediscovering the heritage of Atlas Mountain Berbers
Farah Montasser
10 Mar 2013
Right before Egyptian filmmaker Amir Ramses made headlines with his Jews of Egypt documentary currently showing in Egyptian theatres, on the other end of Africa, in Tinghir in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, another young director, Kamal Hachkar delves into Berber origins that blends in both Jews and Muslims alike.
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/5/32/66527/Arts--Culture/Film/Documentary-rediscovers-Moroccos-JudeoIslamic-Berb.aspx
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Southeast Asia
Aceh Government Removes Stoning Sentence From Draft Bylaw
Nurdin Hasan | March 12, 2013
Banda Aceh. The Aceh government has removed a provision for the stoning to death of adulterers from its draft of the Qanun Jinayat, a set of bylaws that replaces elements of the Criminal Code with Shariah provisions for Muslims, which was endorsed by the Aceh Legislative Council in 2009.
Syahrizal Abbas, head of the Aceh Islamic Shariah Agency, said on Tuesday that the government would discuss the Qanun Jinayat and the Qanun Acara Jinayat, the criminal code procedure bylaw, with ulema, academics and other related stakeholders to perfect the bylaw of which they had all agreed to revoke the stoning sentence.
Full report at:
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/aceh-government-removes-stoning-sentence-from-draft-bylaw/579227
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Non-Hindu residents leave Bali for Nyepi holiday
2013-03-11
Thousands of non-Hindu residents of the resort island have decided to spend the Nyepi holiday outside Bali. They flocked to ferry ports, bus terminals, as well as the airport, leaving Bali.
Gilimanuk ferry port has seen passenger and vehicle numbers jump since Saturday as the annual Nyepi exodus started to pick up momentum. “We have been experiencing a surge in passenger numbers since Saturday morning, reaching its peak at night. It is likely to continue until Monday, one day before Nyepi,” Gilimanuk ferry port operational manager Wahyudi Susianto told Bali Daily on Sunday.
Full report at:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/bali-daily/2013-03-11/non-hindu-residents-leave-bali-nyepi-holiday.html
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Malaysia rescues 136 Myanmar refugees
12 Mar 2013
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities have rescued at least 136 people believed to be ethnic Rohingya Muslims fleeing strife in Myanmar aboard a leaking boat with no food or water, an official said Monday.
The rescue brings the number of boats intercepted this year to 11, marking a “big increase” in refugee arrivals, said Tan Kok Kwee of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, following deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013\03\12\story_12-3-2013_pg14_3
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Malaysian soldier, 3 Filipinos killed in Sabah
March 12, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia's army chief says a soldier and three Filipino gunmen have been killed in the latest clash over a Philippine Muslim clan's incursion into Borneo.
Security forces have waged several gunbattles since March 1 against about 200 Filipinos who began occupying a coastal village last month to revive a long-dormant territorial claim to Malaysia's eastern Sabah state in Borneo.
Full report at:
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130312156540
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Sulu Sultan, wife and brother summoned to face NBI
12 Mar 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 – The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) today served subpoenas on top members of the Sulu Sultanate in connection with its probe on the alleged “conspiracy” behind the incursion in Sabah.
According to Philippine media network ABS-CBN News, five members of the Sultanate were summoned for questioning – self-proclaimed Sulu “Sultan” Jamalul Kiram III, his wife Fatima Cecilia, daughter Jacel, brother Bantilan Esmail Kiram II and the Sultanate’s spokesman Abraham Idjirani.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/sulu-sultan-wife-and-brother-summoned-to-face-nbi/
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Mideast Asia
Mullahs slam 'sinful' Iran Prez over link to Hugo Chavez' mother
Mar 12 2013
Tehran: Senior Iranian clerics have criticised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for consoling Hugo Chavez's mother with a hug a physical contact considered a sin under the country's strict Islamic codes.
The controversy follows a widely published photo showing Ahmadinejad embracing Chavez's mother at the funeral of the late Venezuelan president.
Iranian papers today cited clerics from the religious centre of Qom who described the contact as "forbidden," inappropriate behaviour and "clowning around."
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/iranian-president-mohmoud-ahmadinejad-under-fire-for-hugging-hugo-chav.../1086929/
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Ayatollah Khamenei Praises Iranian Female Athletes for Wearing Hijab in Sports Fields
12 Mar 2013
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei lauded Iran's female athletes for respecting the Islamic code of dressing (Hijab) in sports arenas.
"The presence of sports women and girls who respect Hijab in international arenas is an extraordinary, highly important and valuable action," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Iranian athletes in Tehran on Monday.
Full report at:
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=398952
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Hamas aims to re-establish ties with West
11/03/2013
A leading figure from Gaza’s ruling Hamas has said that the group’s removal from the US and European countries’ lists of terrorism sponsors “has become a matter of time.”
Ahmed Youssef, one of the group’s leaders, told the Palestinian news agency Maan on Monday that, “There are contacts [being] made by the movement, with the help of Arab and Islamic countries such as Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, to convince major and European countries to take Hamas’s name out of the terrorism list.”
Youssef added that the contacts received positive responses from some European countries, without naming them, saying that visits from other Western countries are also positive signs.
Full report at:
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/hamas-aims-reestablish-ties-west
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Over 85 percent Palestinians fled Syria’s Yarmouk camp: UNRWA
12 March 2013
More than 85 percent of Palestinians living in Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp have been displaced due to the violence that has gripped the country for the past two years, said the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
“Out of 150,000 Palestinians living in Yarmouk, 130,000 have been displaced,” Filippo Grandi said during a press conference in New York Monday. “Only 20,000 [Palestinians] remain and are trapped in the area amid fighting between the opposition and government forces.”
He said that it has become extremely difficult to reach those in the camp, adding security is the main obstacle.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/12/Over-85-percent-Palestinians-fled-Syria-s-Yarmouk-camp-UNRWA.html
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Turkey arrests four Syrians over deadly border attack
11 Mar 2013
Turkish security forces arrested Monday four Syrians linked to President Bashar al-Assad's regime over a deadly bomb attack on the border last month, the interior minister said.
"Our security forces arrested four Syrian nationals and one Turkish citizen" in connection with the February 11 minibus bombing which killed 14 people, Muammer Guler said in televised remarks. "We proved their links with the Syrian intelligence and army."
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/66623/World/Region/Turkey-arrests-four-Syrians-over-deadly-border-att.aspx
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Iran Blocks Way to Bypass Internet Filtering System
By THOMAS ERDBRINK
12 March 2013
TEHRAN — Iran’s powerful Ministry of Information and Communications Technology has blocked the most popular software used by millions of Iranians to bypass an elaborate official Internet filtering system, stepping up a campaign to gain more control over the way Iranians use the Internet.
As of Thursday, a collection of illegal virtual private networks, or VPNs, was successfully closed off by the ministry, making visits to Web sites deemed immoral or politically dangerous — like Facebook and Whitehouse.gov — nearly impossible.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/world/middleeast/iran-blocks-software-used-to- -------------
Turks and Kurds Must Prepare for 'Truth'
By: Orhan Kemal Cengiz
March 11, 2013
As a human rights defender, I was always quite sensitive to the Kurdish question. However, I had just begun to understand how tragic and and profound it was, when I started to work for the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) in London between 1997 and 1998. KHRP back then was taking cases before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on behalf of Kurdish victims.
Full report at:
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/turkey-kurdish-human-rights-pkk-violations-ocalan.html#ixzz2NKaRjKTf
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Europe
Film suggests Toulouse killer was disturbed, not hateful
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
March 11, 2013
Four weeks before he murdered seven people in Toulouse, a cheerful Mohammed Merah was filmed laughing and showing off his skiing skills to friends at a popular Alpine resort.
The footage, televised on March 6, formed the opening sequence in a controversial documentary about the 23-year-old, French-born jihadist who murdered three soldiers and four Jews last year in a rampage that shocked the country.
Aired by public broadcaster France 3 ahead of the anniversary of the killings, the 105-minute film, titled “The Merah Affair -- The Itinerary of a Killer,” was billed as the definitive investigative work on Merah. More than 2 million viewers tuned in.
Full report at:
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2013/03/11/3121491/new-film-provokes-ire-by-suggesting-toulouse-shooter-was-insane
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Affluent Muslim globetrotters fuelling global tourism boom
MARCH 12, 2013
BERLIN, March 12 — The international tourism industry is gradually awakening to an emerging travel market that is twice the size of China’s, and bigger than that of the US — affluent Muslim holidaymakers with money to spend.
At the world’s largest travel trade show, which wrapped up in Germany over the weekend, attendees at ITB Berlin heard that Muslim holidaymakers spend more than US$126 billion (RM390 billion) annually on tourism — and that the numbers are rising.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/travel/article/affluent-muslim-globetrotters-fuelling-global-tourism-boom/
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Former Dutch Islamophobe Converts to Islam
12 Mar 2013
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - In Holland, a major Islamophobic political and social activist, former Member of Parliament from a right-wing party, Arnoud van Doorn accepted Islam.
The former Islamophobe announced his decision to accept Islam on his Twitter profile. He says it is a new beginning of his life and published the declaration of Shahadah (the words on monotheism to become a Muslim) in Arabic.
At first, other users took the news as a joke. After all, an active supporter of a notorious Dutch hater of Islam, Wilders, has repeatedly approved Islamophobic statements and public actions, and personally participated in them.
Full report at:
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=398915
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Syria, China worst for online spying: Media watchdog RSF
Mar 12 2013
Paris : Syria, China, Iran, Bahrain and Vietnam are flagrantly spying online, media watchdog RSF said today, urging controls on the export of Internet surveillance tools to regimes clamping down on dissent.
A new report entitled "Enemies of the Internet" also singled out five companies -- Gamma, Trovicor, Hacking Team, Amesys and Blue Coat -- that it branded "digital era mercenaries," who were helping oppressive governments.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/syria-china-worst-for-online-spying-media-watchdog-rsf/1086878/
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Peres urges EU to list Hezbollah as terror organization
By GREER FAY CASHMAN
03/12/2013
President Shimon Peres called on the European Union to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, in an address to the European Parliament in Strasburg on Tuesday.
Peres appealed to the Europeans to recognize terror for what it is, and to save Lebanon from such “terrorist madness”.
Hezbollah, he said, has not only divided Lebanon religiously, politically and ethnically, it is carrying out terror attacks and threatening the stability of the entire region.
Full report at:
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=306159
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Paris: 3 French men accused in terror attack plot
March 11, 2013
A Paris prosecutor says three young Frenchmen detained last week were plotting an imminent bomb attack in France. Prosecutor Francois Molins said on Monday that one of the men had caught the attention of US authorities by sending an e-mail message to the White House. Molins didn't elaborate and the US Embassy in France had no immediate comment.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/europe/Paris-3-French-men-accused-in-terror-attack-plot/Article1-1024737.aspx
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Logic behind School of Ahl-ul-Bayt (AS) Encourages Swedish Society to Welcome Shi’ites
12 Mar 2013
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Former Iranian cultural attaché in Stockholm said the Swedish society has very well received the Shia society because of the logic and reason dominating the school of Ahl-ul-Bayt (AS).
Bahman Mo’azzami made the remark in an interview, adding that there is more ground to elevate the status of Muslims, especially Shia Muslims in Sweden.
Full report at:
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=399141
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Delegation from French Guinea visits the museum of Imam Hussein holy shrine
12 Mar 2013
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A delegation from French Guinea honored by visiting the museum of Imam Hussein holy shrine. The delegation consisted of 67 figures including some college students and graduates and converted Muslim person, where he was Christian-Catholic.
They have been cognizant of the antiquities and valuables of the museum. The head of the delegation Gazaly Azgerily talked to us in an interview, "We were so excited before we would come to Imam Hussein holy shrine, and the museum to see the amount of soil taken from above the holy grave of Imam Hussein (p.b.u.h) which was bleeding on the Tenth of Ashura' month when the remembrance of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (p.b.u.h), but we haven't seen it but a picture of it was at the museum. We also saw a copy of the box of Lady Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.t), we hope we could bring the original box to the Imam Hussein museum."
Full report at:
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=399106
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Syria crisis as volatile as Somalia, warns U.N. peace envoy Brahimi
12 March 2013
U.N. and Arab League peace envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi warned on Monday that the situation in Syria resembles that of Somalia, pointing at a lingering Syrian crisis which is “worrying the world.”
“The situation in Syria resembles Somalia (and is even worse) than what the latter witnessed in the past years,” Brahimi said following his meeting with EU foreign ministers at Brussels.
“They agree with us that (Syria’s crisis) is one of the most dangerous crises (worrying) the entire world today. I came here to call on them to use their capabilities to help reach a peaceful solution,” he told reporters.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/2013/03/12/-Syria-crisis-as-volatile-as-Somalia-warns-U-N-peace-envoy-Brahimi.html
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Whole generation of Syrian children could be lost: UN
March 12, 2013
GENEVA — A whole generation of Syrian children risks being lost amid the country's spiralling civil war, the UN children's agency cautioned Tuesday, saying it was in urgent need of funds to address the crisis.
"As the crisis in Syria enters its third, tragic year without any end in sight, the risk of a lost generation grows every hour, every day and every month," UNICEF spokesman Patrick McCormick told reporters.
Full report at:
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130312156546
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EU sanctions target Iranian human rights violators
By REUTERS
03/12/2013
BRUSSELS - The European Union imposed sanctions on Tuesday on an Iranian police unit monitoring the Internet, as well on several judges and media bosses the bloc blames for human rights violations in the Islamic Republic.
The sanctions reflect mounting concerns about human rights in Iran and are separate from measures against Tehran over its nuclear program, which governments in the European Union and elsewhere suspect has a covert military dimension.
The move brings to nearly 90 the number of people targeted by EU asset freezes and visa bans over concerns about human rights in Iran.
Full report at:
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=306156
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India
‘I was discriminated against because I am Muslim’
Mar 10 2013
New Delhi: In 2008, a youth was arrested from my neighbourhood in Hubli for alleged links with the Student Islamic Movement of India. He was studying to be a doctor and had no history of indiscipline or run-ins with the law. His family was traumatised, and still is, for he continues to languish in jail. If that could happen to a young, educated Muslim like him, it could happen to me, too, I thought then. Five years later, that passing thought became an ugly reality.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-was-discriminated-against-because-i-am-muslim/1085223/
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UAE diplomat held with 37 kg gold at IGIA, New Delhi
VijaitaSingh
Mar 12 2013
New Delhi: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) nabbed a senior diplomat from the UAE for allegedly smuggling 37 kg gold jewellery, estimated to be worth about Rs 10 crore, at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Monday morning.
The counsellor-level officer was reportedly travelling with an Indian passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight SQ 406. The flight, which originated from Singapore, had stopovers in Dubai and Mumbai before landing in Delhi.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/uae-diplomat-held-with-37-kg-gold-at-igia/1086536/
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Do people of Kashmir have to live in India or not, asks PDP member
Mar 12 2013
Jammu: Issue pertaining to the body of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru continued to rock Jammu Kashmir Assembly.
In the Legislative Assembly today. agitating PDP member Nizamuddin Bhat asked the house to decide whether people of Kashmir have to live in India or not.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/do-people-of-kashmir-have-to-live-in-india-or-not-asks-nizamuddin-bhat/1086842/
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Steven Spielberg plans film based on Indo-Pak border
By Vikas Singh & Srijana Mitra Das , TNN | Mar 12, 2013
MUMBAI: The childhood prodigy who made movies on 8mm cameras grew up to become the world's most famous filmmaker a long time ago. But life can still throw up surprises for commercially and critically acclaimed producer-director Steven Spielberg. In a moment that could have been straight out of one of his iconic Indiana Jones movies, he recently came across what he describes as a "treasure trove of photographic negatives from a 35mm still camera".
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Steven-Spielberg-plans-film-based-on-Indo-Pak-border/articleshow/18916601.cms
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EC team in Maldives to help with poll preparations
TNN | Mar 12, 2013
NEW DELHI: As Maldives prepares for crucial presidential and local council elections in September, a team comprising senior officials of Election Commission of India is in Male to provide technical assistance to the country in conducting the polls.
It is imperative for India that elections are free and fair - with participation of all political parties, especially former president Mohammed Nasheed's MDP - and Indian officials look upon the visit as a positive development which suggests that engagement is still on between the two countries.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/EC-team-in-Maldives-to-help-with-poll-preparations/articleshow/18920435.cms
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It was chance meeting with Saeed, claims Malik
Toufiq Rashid, Hindustan Times
March 12, 2013
It was a chance meeting that snowballed into a controversy. That was how moderate separatist leader and former militant Yasin Malik described sharing stage last month with Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
When Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged, Malik, who was in Pakistan on a private visit, had organised a protest in Islamabad. At the protest, he had shared dais with Saeed.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/srinagar/It-was-chance-meeting-with-Saeed-claims-Malik/Article1-1024802.aspx
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'India wrestling with a choice of preserving its ties to Iran'
March 12, 2013
Amid increasing international pressure and a slew of biting economic sanctions on Iran, India is "wrestling" over to either preserve its historic, cultural and traditional ties with Tehran or join the US-led global community against it, a Congressional report has said. "As international
sanctions have increased in 2011-2012, India appears to be wrestling with a choice of preserving its ties to Iran - which has provided it with needed oil for its growing economy - or joining US and international attempts to isolate Iran," the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in its latest report on Iran.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/americas/India-wrestling-with-a-choice-of-preserving-its-ties-to-Iran/Article1-1025058.aspx
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Probes into molester's chopper ride in Kashmir
March 12, 2013
The role of the doctors at a hospital in Rajouri is the focus of two separate probes into how an alleged molester mingled with road accident victims and took a VIP chopper ride to Jammu to avail medical services, police said on Tuesday.
One of the inquiry team members said, on condition of anonymity, that "the role of doctors on duty is being probed. It is one of them who diagnosed him (molester) as critically injured and then he was put in the chopper in which two ministers had gone to see the bus accident victims".
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/IndiaSectionPage/jammusec/Probes-into-molester-s-chopper-ride-in-Kashmir/Article1-1025163.aspx
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HC blast: Charges of waging war to be framed against Wasim Akram Malik
Mar 12 2013
New Delhi : A Delhi court will tomorrow frame additional charges, including that of waging war against the country, against Wasim Akram Malik, arrested for his alleged role in the September 2011 Delhi High Court blast case.
During an in-chamber hearing, District Judge (DJ) I S Mehta today said that he will tomorrow frame the additional charges under section 121 (waging war against the country) of the IPC against Malik, court sources said.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hc-blast-charges-of-waging-war-to-be-framed-against-wasim-akram-malik/1086942/
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'No ex-militant has returned from Pakistan'
Arun Sharma
Mar 12 2013
Jammu: Over two years after giving an assurance for rehabilitation of "misguided Kashmiri youth'' staying at arms training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), who wish to leave the gun and return home in the Valley to lead a peaceful life, Omar Abdullah government has said that none of those returning from across the border after the announcement of state’s rehabilitation policy for them qualify for assistance from his government.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/no-exmilitant-has-returned-from-pakistan/1086910/
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Uncertain future stares at 1993 blasts convicts on 20th anniversary
Mar 12 2013
Mumbai : Two years back, Bashir Usman Ghani, serving life sentence in the 1993 serial Mumbai blasts, came out on parole to marry his lady love who had waited for him for two decades.
45-year-old Bashir, however, had to return to Nashik jail after expiry of parole to undergo the life imprisonment awarded to him by a TADA Court for his role in the bombings, the first in the long list of terror attacks to have rocked the city this day 20 years ago.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/uncertain-future-stares-at-1993-blasts-convicts-on-20th-anniversary/1086960/
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Out on bail, Madani a cynosure of all eyes in Kerala politics
Shaju Philip
Mar 12 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: People’s Democratic Party chairman Abdul Nasser Madani has once again become a rallying point in Kerala politics. At his daughter’s wedding in Kollam on Sunday, prominent leaders of the UDF and the LDF were seen jostling for a toehold at the dais even as Madani was being taken on a wheel-chair. An undertrial in the 2008 Bangalore blasts case, he is on a five-day bail to attend the wedding.
CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was seated next to Madani when he was addressing the marriage gathering. In 2009, Vijayan was criticised for sharing dais with Madani during the general election campaign.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/out-on-bail-madani-a-cynosure-of-all-eyes-in-kerala-politics/1086639/
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Home Ministry formalities give Pakistan cycling team a harrowing time
SANDEEP DIKSHIT
Mar 12 2013
After a long wait for visa at Indian High Commission, ordeal continued after a truncated contingent arrived here
The Union Home Ministry has come under fire from Pakistani sportsmen for “inconveniencing” them soon after they arrived here for an international event.
The travails of the Pakistan cycling team began even at the visa window of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and continued unabated after a truncated and bed-raggled contingent arrived in India.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/home-ministry-formalities-give-pakistan-cycling-team-a-harrowing-time/article4498402.ece
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Pakistan
Pakistani Religious leader urges Muslims to follow teachings of Imam Khomeini
12 Mar 2013
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Senior Vice President of Pakistan Awami Tehreek Agha Murtaza Poya said that Imam Khomeini had predicted the fall of imperialist forces.
He said that for centuries the world is witnessing hegemony of imperialist forces which has also affected the Muslims a lot.
He added that Islamic Revolution of Iran has become a ray of hope for the oppressed Muslim nations of the world. “Islamic Revolution has proved that aggressive policies of the imperialist forces have been failed and they are standing on the verge of collapse,” he said.
Full report at:
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=398517
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Suicide bomb attack kills 2 police officials in Bannu
March 12, 2013
BANNU: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Saddar Police Station in Bannu, leaving at least two officials dead and five others injured, Express News reported on Tuesday.
According to initial details, the bomber blew himself up with the help of a mobile phone.
Security forces cordoned off the area soon after the explosion.
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/519573/suicide-bomb-attack-kills-2-police-officials-in-bannu/
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Muslim scholars deny polio vaccine rumours
By Tahir Khan
March 10, 2013
ISLAMABAD: An international huddle of Muslim scholars has called for rectifying misconceptions about the polio vaccine in order to protect Muslim children from this crippling virus, according to Pakistan Ulema Council chief Allama Tahir Ashrafi.
Muslim scholars from Islamic states, including Pakistan, met earlier this week in Cairo for a two-day conference to devise strategies to protect Muslim children against poliovirus. The participants, according to Allama Ashrafi, decided to hold a meeting with the Pakistani government next month.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/518534/polio-eradication-muslim-scholars-deny-polio-vaccine-rumours/
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All Pakistan shia conference to decide about the fate of shia community in forth coming election
12 Mar 2013
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A meeting of the central executive of the All Pakistan Shia Conference held here today under the chairmanship of Dr. Ghazanfer Mehdi, Chairman of All Pakistan Shia Conference in which the political scenario of the country was reviewed.
Full report at:
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=398978
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Some 676 Pakistanis presumed dead, says NGO
By Qaiser Butt
March 12, 2013
ISLAMABAD: Some 676 Pakistanis reported to be missing in Afghanistan since 2001 are believed to have died there, said Prof Abdullah Khalil, the managing director of non-profit organisation Lego-Academic & Social Services (LASS).
Prof Khalil, who established LASS after retiring as head of the Government Area Study Centre in Peshawar, told The Express Tribune that he has been in search of the 676 Pakistani citizens since the past decade but has remained unsuccessful. He compiled a list of the missing persons after being informed of their disappearance by their friends and families.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/519465/awol-in-afghanistan-some-676-pakistanis-presumed-dead-says-ngo/
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JUI-F chief shares peace plan with North Waziristan tribe
By Zulfiqar Ali
March 12, 2013
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman shared details of a peace initiative for Federally Administered Tribal Areas with the Uthmanzai tribesmen of North Waziristan. The initiative, according to Maulana Fazl, is to be facilitated through a grand jirga.
Maulana Fazl gave details of the all parties conference (APC) hosted by the JUI-F on February 28 that had declared its trust in a more expansive grand tribal jirga and tasked its members with immediately engaging all ‘concerned parties,’ including the Taliban, for the sake of peace in the country.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/519516/jui-f-chief-shares-peace-plan-with-north-waziristan-tribe/
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Gunmen kill district election commissioner in Quetta
Syed Ali Shah
12 March 2013
QUETTA: Armed gunmen on Tuesday shot dead District Election Commissioner Muhammad Ziaullah Qasmi in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, police said.
Muhammad Tariq, the Superintendent of Police in Quetta said two armed gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire at the vehicle of the election commission official in Munir Mengal road area of the city.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/03/12/gunmen-kill-district-election-commissioner-in-quetta/
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Christian leaders say residents had been receiving threats
12 March 2013
Even as one considers the possibility of a property issue being the real motive behind the recent mob attack in Lahore’s Joseph Colony, representatives of the Christian community have not ruled it out — with some saying it was indeed the driving force behind the attack that left over a hundred houses burnt beyond recognition.
President of Pakistan Minority Front’s Lahore chapter, Saleem Shakir told Dawn.com that weeks before the incident took place, “a group from the land mafia in the city’s Misri Shah market had started threatening the colony’s residents to vacate the area”.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/03/12/lahore-arson-christian-leaders-say-residents-had-been-receiving-threats/
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Separate voters list for Ahmadis: Court summons AG
12 March 2013
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court made known on Monday its intention to take a decision, in the light of constitutional provisions and principles laid down in the 1993 Zaheeruddin case verdict, on a complaint that the election procedures discriminate against the Ahmadi community.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed was hearing a petition against an amendment to the election rules decreed by Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2002 that effectively declared ‘non-Muslim’ a candidate who, if his faith was challenged, refused to sign a declaration regarding his belief that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last of the prophets.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/03/12/separate-voters-list-for-ahmadis-court-summons-ag-over-discrimination-complaint/
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Taliban wants father of Pak nuclear bomb A Q Khan in talks with govt
Mar 12 2013
Islamabad: The Pakistani Taliban may include disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan and federal minster Makhdoom Amin Fahim in a list of persons who could act as guarantors for possible peace talks with the government, according to a media report today.
Khan had been informed about the stance of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and he "had showed his willingness to play his role to bring peace back to the country", sources close to the Taliban were quoted as saying by The Frontier Post daily.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/taliban-wants-father-of-pak-nuclear-bomb.../1086933/
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South Asia
Five NATO troops die in Afghan chopper crash
AFP | Mar 12, 2013
KABUL: Five members of the NATO-led international force fighting in Afghanistan were killed in a helicopter crash in bad weather in the country's south, the coalition and provincial authorities said on Tuesday.
Police in the southern province of Kandahar said the helicopter had come down on Monday evening during a heavy rain storm in Daman district.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) does not release the nationality of casualties, but US, British and Australian soldiers operate in the south of Afghanistan, battling an Islamist insurgency.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Five-NATO-troops-die-in-Afghan-chopper-crash/articleshow/18922871.cms
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‘Attacks kill 7 civilians, including girls, in Afghanistan’
2013/03/12
At least seven civilians including girls have been killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, Press TV reports.
In the first incident, a vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in Khashin district overnight, leaving five civilians including a woman dead, said local governor Shah Muhammad Mir on Tuesday.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/12/293164/attacks-kill-7-civilians-in-afghanistan/
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Cops raid BNP HQ, arrest 2 top leaders
By Caesar Mandal, TNN | Mar 12, 2013
DHAKA: The Awami League government on Monday proved it is not afraid of a bare-knuckle fight with Opposition parties to stop the violence raging across the city. Dhaka Metropolitan Police stormed into the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headquarters in the capital and dragged out two senior leaders after a burst of bomb attacks in the late afternoon.
The two BNP leaders detained are acting general secretary Mirza Fakrul Islam Alamgir and joint general secretary Rahul Kabir Rizvi. Also unprecedented was the search police carried out at the BNP central office at Nayapaltan after the arrests. Ten hand-made bombs were seized.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Cops-raid-BNP-HQ-arrest-2-top-leaders/articleshow/18921239.cms
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Bangladesh Gen Y turns into voice for the generation that sacrificed
ByCaesar Mandal, TNN | Mar 12, 2013
DHAKA: The retelling of a nation's history has put Bangladesh in the vortex of a mass upsurge four decades after independence that was gained through a bloody liberation war and the lives of 3 million countrymen.
The Shahbag Revolution isn't a chapter from the 'Arab Spring' - the series of mass uprisings against dictatorial regimes. The tide of millions, swelling on the streets of Dhaka, wants to sweep away the fundamentalists who gone scot free for over four decades in spite of committing horrific atrocities in the 1971 genocide - one of the worst crimes in the history of mankind.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Bangladesh-Gen-Y-turns-into-voice-for-the-generation-that-sacrificed/articleshow/18921203.cms
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Maldivian sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for importing 0.8 grams of Xanax
By MinivanNews | March 11th, 2013
A Maldivian man has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a MVR 50,000 (US$3,217) fine for importing less than one gram of a widely prescribed anti-anxiety drug.
Shafeeq Ibrahim of Seeni Hithadhoo, Soama was sentenced by the Criminal Court after confessing to importing drugs into the Maldives after arriving in Male on flight on October 7, 2012, local media reported.
Full report at:
http://minivannews.com/society/man-sentenced-to-10-years-imprisonment-for-importing-0-8-grams-of-xanax-54370
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War crimes accused Mobarak sent to jail
12 Mar 2013
The International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday sent a former local Awami League leader, Mobarak Hossain, to jail after accepting charges against him of crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
Mobarak, who was the organising secretary of a union unit of Awami League in Akhaura of Brahmanbaria for 16 years, faces five charges for genocide, murder, torture, killing and abduction.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/war-crimes-accused-mobarak-sent-to-jail/
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A must to avoid unintended pregnancies: UNFPA chief
12 Mar 2013
Young people in Bangladesh must have proper access to sexual and reproductive health information to avoid unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, UNFPA Executive Director Dr Baba Osotimehin told a consultative meeting yesterday.
“Young people must be recognised as a crucial resource for realising the post-2015 UN development agenda,” he said.
The meeting, “Post-2015 Development Agenda and International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) beyond 2014”, attended by 50 youngsters, was organised by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in a hotel in the capital.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/a-must-to-avoid-unintended-pregnancies-unfpa-chief/
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North America
Hunger strike at Guantanamo after Quran seizures
AFP | Mar 12, 2013
WASHINGTON: Detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp are staging a hunger strike to protest the confiscation of personal items, including Qurans, in early February, their lawyers and prison officials said Monday.
"My client and other men have reported that most of the detainees in Camp 6 are on strike, except for a small few who are elderly or sick," said Pardiss Kebriaei, a New York lawyer representing Ghaleb Al-Bihani, a detainee from Yemen.
Camp 6 houses the majority of the 166 detainees still incarcerated at Guantanamo — estimated at about 130 men — who usually don't pose any disciplinary problems and don't represent a "value" in terms of information or a particular risk.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Hunger-strike-at-Guantanamo-after-Quran-seizures/articleshow/18919901.cms
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US condemns ‘terrorist’ attack on Assad’s troops
12 March 2013
WASHINGTON: The United States Monday condemned what it called a “terrorist” assault on Syrian regime forces who came under fire after crossing into Iraq last week in an attack claimed by an Al Qaeda group.
“Any kind of attack like this, any kind of terrorism like this is something that we should condemn,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Al Qaeda front group the Islamic State of Iraq claimed the attack on a convoy in west Iraq that killed 48 Syrian soldiers and nine Iraqi guards, in a statement posted on jihadist forums on Monday.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/03/12/us-condemns-terrorist-attack-on-assads-troops/
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No response received from Iran on nuclear talks offer: US
Mar 12 2013
Wahington : US has said it is building international pressure on Iran as it has not received any response from Tehran against Washington's offer of holding dialogues with it over nuclear issues.
"The (US) President had made clear at the beginning of our administration that we were prepared to enter into a dialogue with Iran, (but) we did not get a response from them (Iranians) for a number of reasons," National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said in New York yesterday.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/no-response-received-from-iran-on-nuclear-talks-offer-us/1086817/
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Crisis no longer hanging over US-Pak relationship: US national security adviser
PTI | Mar 12, 2013
WASHINGTON: The US has said crisis no longer looms over its relationship with Pakistan as over the past year, both the countries have worked hard to overcome the period of strain in their ties.
"We've had, as you might imagine, as has been clear, some difficult issues, but I do think we're at a point here where we don't have a crisis hanging over the relationship. We continue to work intensively with the Pakistanis on the kinds of issues, and we'll continue to do so," US national security adviser Tom Donilon said.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Crisis-no-longer-hanging-over-US-Pak-relationship-US-national-security-adviser/articleshow/18920749.cms
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/how-uk-royals-champion-women/d/10743