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Thread: Today's Top Islamic News (DAILY)

  1. #1101
    UN condemns rape crisis in Congo
    Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:31:16 GMT

    The Lord's Resistance Army of Uganda -- which has been called one of the world's most brutal armed groups -- also operates in the eastern Congo, where its troops have been accused of committing rapes and other war crimes.
    The United Nations has expressed serious concern over a growing wave of rapes committed by the warring parties in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

    The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that South Kivu Province, near Rwanda, was an increasingly dangerous place for civilians, and especially for women.

    "Once again, we're condemning violations of human rights by the warring parties in Congo. It seems that this rape madness is continuing," a spokesperson for the office said in Geneva.

    Nearly 5400 cases of rape against women were reported in the province in the first six months of the year.

    The UN has said 90 percent of the rapes have been committed by armed groups or regular forces in the volatile region.

    Human rights activists say rape is being used as a weapon of war and 200,000 women and girls have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998.

    Life has truly become hell for women and girls in the eastern Congo.

    According to some reports, even UN peacekeepers have raped women and girls in the war zone.

    In addition, thousands of people in the east of the country have been driven from their homes due to the incessant fighting.

    The eastern Congo has experienced interminable cycles of violence since 1998.

    The war in the Congo has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.4 million people dead.

    JR/HGL

  2. #1102
    UN investigator decries horrors of world's prisons
    Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:18:45 GMT

    A United Nations investigator who has travelled to dozens of countries says he is a witness to the inhuman treatment of inmates, including children, in prisons.

    Talking to reporters after submitting his report to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Manfred Nowak, an Austrian human rights lawyer and the UN special rapporteur on torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment, said that there are at least one million children, some as young as 9 or 10, among the 10 million humans currently behind bars worldwide.

    Most detainees are held in unacceptable conditions in many of the countries' prisons he visited, like the one in Uruguay where inmates spend years in "tin cans" or small metal boxes, where temperatures rise to 60 degrees C (140 degrees F).

    He also reported of a prison in Nigeria where women and children are confined to a "torture room” and of prisoners who live in conditions that violate "human dignity”.

    Some prisons, he said, were overcrowded. The detainees were not only deprived of food and medicine, but were sometimes forced to pay a daily fee for their accommodation in prison cells, he added.

    Children in many countries were not segregated from adult prisoners during prolonged periods of pretrial detention, leaving them open to abuse. He also said that he found corporal punishment was being used to discipline child detainees in some countries and found boys locked up for 22 hours a day with no toilets.

    He also criticized the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba for harsh treatment of terrorism suspects, adding that he doubted US President Barack Obama would be able to shut it down as planned by January 2010.

    However, some countries have responded positively to Nowak's criticism.

    Uruguay is shutting down its “tin can” prisons, and Jordan - one of the few Arab countries that allowed him access to its prisons - has closed a prison where Nowak had noted cases of torture.

    FTP/ZAP/HGL

  3. #1103
    Poverty in America revised to 1 of 6
    Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:44:01 GMT

    One of six American live in poverty, a new report finds, leading to the implication that the US poverty level is even worse than first believed.

    The National Academy of Science (NAS) formula calculates the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to new estimates released this week. That's higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original US government formula, the Associated Press reports.

    That government formula was created in 1955 and does not factor in the rising costs of medical care, transportation, child care or the geographical variations of living. Nor does it consider the non-cash governmental aid when calculating income.

    According to the revised NAS formula, nearly 18.7 percent of Americans, 65 and older, or nearly 7.1 million, live in poverty, compared to the 9.7 percent, or 3.7 million figure, under the traditional formula. Approximately 14.3 percent of people 18 to 64, or 27 million, live in poverty in the US, compared to 11.7 percent under the traditional calculations. Many of the new poor are the low-income, working people with transportation and child-care costs.

    Food stamp assistance is currently at an all-time high of about 36 million.

    VA/MB

  4. #1104
    Sudan: New Obama strategy not tangible
    Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:59:51 GMT

    Analysts say it is hard to know what is new in the US policy announced by Clinton (right) and US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, because the administration is keeping many details secret.
    The Sudanese Government says the new US carrot-and-stick policy aimed at engaging the largest African nation, lacks practical and tangible steps.

    "The strategy lacks practical steps that the American administration can commit to. It has assumed that actions only come from Sudan and Washington's role is only to evaluate," Gazi Salaheddin, Sudan's top presidential advisor said on Monday.

    He added that Khartoum hopes that the implementation of the details of the new strategy would turn out better then its theoretical content.

    The remarks came hours after the US President Barack Obama said that his country would offer Sudan incentives to end the crisis in Darfur.

    Obama has, however, threatened that Washington would increase pressure on the impoverished nation, if the Sudanese government fails to respond.

    "Words alone are not enough," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on Monday, adding that assessments based on "verifiable changes in conditions on the ground" would be taken into consideration as progress.

    For example, the Obama administration would watch for 'credible elections,' scheduled for next year under a fragile 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the 22-year civil war in the south.

    The elections, which have already been postponed twice, are scheduled for February 2010, while a historic independence referendum is due in 2011.

    Obama believes that his new approach will ensure that Sudan does not become a 'safe haven for terrorists' and that the CPA peace deal is fully implemented.

    However, aid groups expressed reservations Monday about the new US policy.

    "The key issue is what kind of diplomatic energy is the administration putting into this? Is it a piece of paper or a strategy?" Sam Bell, who heads the Genocide Intervention Network, told AFP.

    Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition, an umbrella group for more than 100 organizations, has also said that some issues remain unclear in the policy's implementation.

    John Prendergast, a co-founder of the 'Enough Project,' an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity, has also said that the outlook for the troubled country "is not optimistic, as the Obama administration announces its new policy".

    Analysts believe that the Obama administration, which began a review of its Sudan policy in March, faces a complicated situation over Darfur, and also over an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against President Omar al-Bashir.

    FF/MB

  5. #1105
    US scientist nabbed over attempted 'spying' for Israel
    Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:58:38 GMT


    An American scientist with military and aerospace industry know-how has been arrested over charges of 'espionage' for Israel.

    The US Department of Justice announced the arrest of former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Department of Defense scientist, Stewart David Nozette, for his "attempts" to hand over Pentagon papers to an unnamed Israeli secret service agent.

    In a Monday statement, the Justice Department confirmed the 52-year-old scientist's detention for "attempted espionage for knowingly and willfully attempting to communicate, deliver, and transmit classified information relating to the national defense of the United States to an individual that Nozette believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer," AFP reported.

    "From 1989 through 2006, Nozette held security clearances as high as top secret and had regular, frequent access to classified information and documents related to the US national defense," the statement read.

    Nozette offered to "answer questions about this information in exchange for money," the report adds.

    "In addition, Nozette allegedly offered to reveal additional classified information that directly concerned nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, and other major weapons systems," the US legal body noted in the statement.

    Meanwhile, David Kris, a legal official for US national security deemed the behavior as a serious offense and said, "The conduct alleged in this complaint is serious and should serve as a warning to anyone who would consider compromising our nation's secrets for profit," AFP quoted him as saying.

    Nozette was detained in Washington on Monday and is due to stand trial on Tuesday.

    The accused scientist, who also worked on a NASA moon project and accessed the Department of Energy's documents on atomic materials, might get a life sentence if convicted.

    GHN/MMA

  6. #1106
    White House hesistant to Pardon a dead boxing champion
    Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:45:15 GMT

    Jack Johnson, African-American Boxer
    The White House refuses to stipulate whether President Obama will issue a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the African-American boxing champion convicted in 1913 for dating a white woman, a “crime against nature,” as the US government prosecutors argued at the time.

    Johnson, the first African-American to win the heavyweight title, was convicted for violating the 'Mann Act,' which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for "immoral" purposes.

    Johnson was first arrested for breaking the Mann Act in 1912, four years after winning the heavyweight crown. That case fell apart, but investigators then charged him with a similar offense involving a woman he had dated years earlier.

    An all-white jury convicted Johnson in less than two hours.

    Senator John McCain and Representative Peter King, both republicans with history of their own in racism and bias against African Americans, introduced resolutions calling for a presidential pardon in 2005 and last year, CNN reported.

    Johnson served 10 months in prison on charges "brought forward clearly to keep him away from the boxing ring, where he continued to defeat his white opponents," McCain said.

    "The Jack Johnson case is an ignominious stain on our nation's history," he said on the Senate floor in the spring. "Rectifying this injustice is long overdue," McCain boosted.

    McCain's seemingly heroic remarks defending the rights of a dead African American came in the face of his long history of voting against African American rights and welfare. For instance, McCain is well known for being among many republicans that voted against the federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., a major African American leader who was assassinated for his civil rights campaigns.

    It is also quite questionable why, after all these years, an African American president is asked to right a long overdue wrong. Is it because no white US president is up to such task?

    VA/MB

  7. #1107
    Australia reconsidering Afghan mission
    Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:03:25 GMT

    Australian soldiers carry one of the 11 soldiers lost to date during the war in Afghanistan.
    Australia shows signs it may withdraw its forces from Afghanistan as soon as it is appropriate, despite US and NATO calls for a surge in troops deployed.

    Australian Defense Minister John Faulkner said on Wednesday Canberra was weighing options to complete operations in the 'shortest time-frame possible'.

    "I've certainly asked the Australian Defense Force for any recommendations they have about ensuring we do complete that important role," Faulkner told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

    Faulkner admitted that Australia's decision would affect the strategy of the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

    "There will be impacts on the approach that NATO and ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] partners will be taking as a result of Gen. McChrystal's 60-day assessment," he said.

    Australia has the largest non-NATO presence in Afghanistan with 1,500 troops deployed.

    McChrystal warned last month that the coalition forces would lose ground within a year if extra troops are not deployed.

    US President Barack Obama is considering plans to boost US troops by 40,000 to more than 100,000.

    The Australians have lost 11 soldiers in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of 2001.

    About 100,000 international troops are currently based in Afghanistan.

    MVZ/SC/AKM

  8. #1108
    LONDON — Going undercover as an Asian husband and wife, two British Muslim reporters have documented the scale of resurgent racism and abuse, both verbal and physical, in the British city of Bristol, filming themselves while being bullied, attacked and racially-abused.

    "From the moment that my colleague Amil Khan and I drove onto the road that would become our home for the coming months, we were subjected to the coldest glare I have ever experienced," said Tamanna Rahman, a reporter of Asian origins.

    Rahman and Khan, posing as an Asian husband and wife, moved on to an estate in Bristol earlier this year and used hidden cameras to record people attitude towards them.

    During their eight-week stay, they recorded more than 50 separate incidents of racist attacks, both for their race and their religion.

    "I haven't faced as much racism in my life as I have during these eight weeks," said Rahman.

    "Over the course of our investigation I would have glass, a can, a bottle and stones thrown at me,” she added.

    "On my second day on the estate I had a rock thrown towards me as I returned from a shopping trip.”

    In one scene, stones are thrown at Rahman and she is told to get out of the area.

    A young boy has also threatened to kill her and tried to steal her purse.

    Another clips showed her being called “Raghead” and being told “Go away. Iraq’s that way.”

    "I was called "Paki" and had obscenities muttered at me as I walked by."

    The word "Paki" is derogatory slang for an immigrant or descendant of Pakistani background.

    "I just didn't think humans could be like that," Rahman said.

    Britain has a sizable Muslim minority of more than two millions, mostly of Pakistani, Bengali and Indian origins.

    Hellish
    Tamanna spoke about the painful adventure she had to endure in Bristol.

    "Pretty much every time I left the house, and from many people I met, I would get frowns and generally be made to feel unwelcome- whether they were on the street, in their gardens, looking out of their bedroom windows or in their cars."

    She said the abuse experience ranged from physical attack to muttered insults.

    ”I’m sorry the thing that is going to stay with me the most is the absolutely hellish time I have every time I’ve walked out of the door.”

    Bristol is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city.

    It is the largest centre of culture, employment and education in the region.

    In the 2001 Census, 60 percent of Bristol's population said they were Christian, and 25 percent stated they were not religious.

    Islam accounts for 2 percent of the population and the Muslim community is served by at least three mosques.

    Britain’s ethnic minorities are racked by the pain of racism with an estimated 87,000 members of ethnic minorities being a victim of racially motivated crimes.

    Figures also show that ethnic minorities have the worst unemployment and housing crises in the country.

    Some 70 percent of all ethnic minorities live in the 88 most deprived areas, compared to 40 percent of the general population.

    Source: IslamOnline

  9. #1109
    CAIRO — The government's exploitation of an anti-terror program to spy on innocent Muslims has stirred furor across Britain, prompting MPs to launch an investigation while civil liberty groups are considering legal action.

    "We will be inquiring into these allegations," Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the parliament's home affairs committee, told the Guardian on Monday, October 19.

    "We have the power to offer private sessions to those who wish to bring to parliament's attention issues concerning Prevent and its alleged gathering of sensitive information on the innocent."

    The Guardian revealed on Friday that the government is using its “Prevent” anti-terror strategy to spy on innocents Muslims.

    Sources close to the program said it is being used to gather sensitive information about Muslims who are not involved in criminal activity, including political and religious views, mental health, sexual activity and associates.

    The gathered information can be stored until the people concerned reach the age of 100.

    Launched by the Home Office in 2003, the “Prevent” strategy is an updated version of the government counter-terrorism strategy (called Contest).

    The government says the strategy aims to prevent Muslims from being lured into extremist ideologies.

    "Combating radical Islamist ideas is one thing; gathering and keeping intelligence on the innocent is another, stressed Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman.

    "Prevent must not become an intrusive spying program that destroys relationships within the Muslim community and between Muslims and the rest of society."

    Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of more than two millions, mostly of Asian backgrounds.

    They have taken the brunt of anti-terror laws since 9/11 and particularly after the 7/7 bombing attacks.

    Many Muslims complain of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim.

    Legal actions
    Human rights activists said the government's actions breach a guarantee of a right to privacy in the Human Rights Act.

    "Not only is it morally reprehensible to treat law-abiding Muslim citizens as a subversive threat, it is also hugely counter-productive," said Robert Lambert, who headed a special branch unit countering extremism by working with Muslims.

    "If ministers continue … they will begin to jeopardize social cohesion as well as effective and legitimate counter-terrorism in the UK."

    Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, dismissed Prevent as the biggest spying program in Britain in modern times and an affront to civil liberties.

    "We're inviting people who feel they may have been affected to come forward to us, and we will consider litigation," she told the Guardian.

    "We also invite anyone who has been working on these projects and has concerns."


    Source: IslamOnline

  10. #1110
    Many 'missing' after China riots

    By Michael Bristow
    BBC News, Beijing


    The riots in July were the worst ethnic unrest in decades Dozens of ethnic Uighurs have disappeared since being detained in the wake of the riots in China's Xinjiang region, a human rights group has said.
    Human Rights Watch said the 43 men and teenaged boys were taken in police sweeps of Uighur districts of Urumqi, and had since vanished without a trace.
    The riots and protests in the city in early July left nearly 200 people dead.
    China's central government declined to answer questions about those detained by the authorities in Xinjiang.
    It referred questions about the ethnic unrest to the regional government, which also did not respond to enquiries from the BBC.
    'Not global leadership'
    "The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
    The rights group is calling for the Chinese government to give details of everyone it is holding in detention.
    In a report on the disappeared people, HRW said the police had searched two Uighur areas of Urumqi immediately after the riots. At least 43 people were taken away and had not been heard of since, it added.
    "According to witnesses, the security forces sealed off entire neighbourhoods, searching for young Uighur men," the group said.

    The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg
    Brad Adams
    Human Rights Watch
    HRW said most of those taken away were young Uighur men in their 20s, although the youngest are reported to have been 12 and 14.
    In many cases, families had been unable to find out what had happened to their relatives, said Human Rights Watch, whose report was based on interviews with local people.
    "China should only use official places of detention so that everyone being held can contact family members and legal counsel," said Mr Adams.
    "Disappearing people is not the behaviour of countries aspiring to global leadership."
    Ethnic Uighurs, the original inhabitants of Xinjiang, went on the rampage after reports of Uighur deaths in southern China.
    They mainly targeted Urumqi's Han Chinese community - a group that has moved into the western region more recently - killing scores of people.
    Uighurs say their culture has been undermined since the arrival of millions of Han people from other parts of China.
    Two months after the riots by Uighurs, Hans staged their own protests.
    Afterwards, a confused pictured emerged about exactly how many people had been arrested, partly due to a reluctance by the authorities to provide detailed figures.
    At one point the authorities said more than 1,500 people were in detention, but so far only a handful have been prosecuted.
    The first trials began last week. A total of nine people have been sentenced to death for their involvement in the riots.
    Critics claim the trials do not meet international standards.

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