Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:11am EDT – http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLN387568
RIYADH, March 23 (Reuters) – A group of hardline Saudi clerics have called on the Islamic state’s new minister of information to halt efforts to liberalise the media by taking Saudi women off state television.
In a statement posted on Saudi websites, the 35 clerics including leading independent Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak argued that the Saudi government was violating its own rules on religion and morals. Read the rest of this entry »
Last Updated: Monday, March 23, 2009 |
India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party leader Varun Gandhi speaks to media outside his residence in New Delhi, India, on March 18. (Manish Swarup/Associated Press)
Despite India’s Election Commission finding him guilty of hate speech and inciting violence against Muslims, the country’s main Hindu nationalist party refuses to drop Varun Gandhi as a candidate.
“The commission has no authority to give such a direction to a political party,” a defiant Balbir Punj of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) told reporters after consulting party leaders Monday.
Gandhi made controversial comments at campaign rallies on March 6 and 8 that were caught on film. Read the rest of this entry »
March 23, 2009
By REUTERS 0 http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/03/23/world/international-uk-un-rights-israel.html?pagewanted=print
Filed at 3:46 p.m. ET
GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations investigators said on Monday Israel violated a range of human rights during its invasion of Gaza, including targeting civilians and using a child as a human shield.
The accusations came in reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council which also called for an urgent end to Israeli restrictions on humanitarian supplies to Gaza and a full international investigation into the conflict.
“Civilian targets, particularly homes and their occupants, appear to have taken the brunt of the attacks, but schools and medical facilities have also been hit,” said one report by Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Read the rest of this entry »
By DAVID STRINGER – 6 hours ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFL180sgT0Tc4CKGXoo6U3U59w_gD973RJ100
LONDON (AP) — U.S. authorities asked a Guantanamo Bay detainee to drop allegations of torture and agree not to speak publicly about his ordeal in exchange for his freedom, according to British court documents.
A ruling by two British High Court judges, issued in October but released only on Monday, said the U.S. offered former detainee Binyam Mohamed a plea bargain last year — six years after he was first detained as an enemy combatant. Read the rest of this entry »
