Death sentence against Iranian ‘porn site’ programmer suspended
Sunday, 02 December 2012
Iran has suspended the death sentence for a computer programmer convicted on charges of running a pornographic website after he “repented for his actions,” his lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday. Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian citizen and Canadian resident, was arrested in 2008 while visiting relatives in Iran, according to ... Read More
U.S. Senate approves new sanctions on Iran
Saturday, 01 December 2012
The U.S. Senate unanimously approved new economic sanctions Friday aimed at further crippling Iran's energy, shipping and port sectors, a year after Congress passed tough restrictions against Tehran. The amendment, tacked onto a sweeping defense spending bill being debated by the chamber, passed 94-0 and should sail ... Read More
Al Qaeda battle in Afghanistan to stretch for years: U.S.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Al Qaeda fighters are still trying to make inroads into Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, cautioning that battling the group would be a core U.S. mission there for years to come. Panetta made the comments as the United States weighs how large a military force to keep in Afghanistan when the ... Read More
Iran’s ethnic minorities tell their plight at United Nations
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Iranian minority groups slammed the Iranian authorities for persecuting non-Persian ethnicities, particularly Arabs, Kurds, and Baluchis at the United Nations. In a conference organized by the United Nations Human Rights Council and held in Geneva this week, representatives of Iranian minority groups said that the Iranian ... Read More
Afghan girl’s throat slit over refusing to get married
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Two men have been arrested for slitting the throat of a 15-year-old Afghan girl after her family refused a marriage proposal, police said Thursday. The girl was carrying water from a river to her village home in northern Kunduz province on Wednesday when she was murdered, police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini ... Read More
Clinton sued over Palestinian aid
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department are being sued for allegedly allowing American aid money meant for the Palestinian Authority to be used by terror groups like Hamas. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Washington on behalf of 24 U.S. citizens living in Israel by the Israel Law ... Read More
Britain to vote ‘Yes’ to Palestinian bid if Israel peace talks resume
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Britain is prepared to back a key vote recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations on Thursday, but only if Palestinians agree to re-enter peace talks with Israel, British newspapers reported. Foreign Secretary William Hague will reportedly tell members of the British parliament that the UK is “willing to vote in ... Read More
British pomp as Kuwait Emir begins state visit
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Queen Elizabeth II welcomed the Emir of Kuwait to Britain on Tuesday with a gilded carriage ride at the start of a three-day state visit. The trip, aimed at cementing the strong relations between London and its oil-rich Gulf ally, kicked off with a traditional display of ceremonial pomp in Windsor, west of ... Read More
U.N. committee condemns Syria, Iran for rampant rights abuses
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
A U.N. General Assembly committee on Tuesday condemned Syria and Iran for widespread human rights abuses, but both Damascus and Tehran dismissed the separate votes as politically motivated. The draft resolution on Syria, which was co-sponsored by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Britain, France and other Arab and ... Read More
French Muslims face job discrimination: Stanford study
Monday, 26 November 2012
Muslim French citizens face job discrimination compared to their Christian peers who receive two-and-a-half times more opportunities with equal qualifications, concluded a new research conducted by Stanford political science professor David Laitin. Published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study ... Read More
Nations seek to extend Kyoto protocol, despite dwindling support
Monday, 26 November 2012
Despite mounting alarm about climate change, almost 200 nations meeting in Doha from Monday are likely to pay little more than lip service to the need to rein in rising greenhouse gas emissions. A likely failure to agree a meaningful extension of the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, a legally binding plan for cutting emissions by ... Read More
DC historians dig up details of America’s earliest Muslims
Saturday, 24 November 2012
For most Muslims, what happens to the body of a deceased person is not quite as important as what happens to that person’s soul. Still, historians of all backgrounds are scrambling to locate the body and belongings of a Muslim buried in Washington, DC nearly 200 years ago, for it touches the soul of early American history. ... Read More
Ankara tells Moscow that patriots are ‘strictly for defense’
Friday, 23 November 2012
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday that Moscow has no reason to worry about the Patriot missiles Ankara has asked NATO to deploy on its troubled border with Syria. “Patriots are strictly a measure of defense, as Russia and other countries already know,” Davutoglu told reporters after a ... Read More
Talking tough, Netanyahu walks cautiously in Gaza conflict
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Just hours after a bomb exploded on a Tel Aviv bus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a truce with the very people his government blamed for the blast -- the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza. Wednesday’s decision to pull back from the brink of a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip despite the attack, which ... Read More
Two of four U.S. terror suspects were Islamic converts
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Three of the young men swept up in a federal terrorism probe grew up in the Southern California suburbs where they played pick-up basketball and sparred in video games with neighborhood kids - a far cry from the aspiring terrorists described by the FBI. Two of the men converted to Islam less than two years ... Read More
Pakistan attacks kill 35 as leaders meet for summit
Thursday, 22 November 2012
A suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim procession in Pakistan overnight killed 23 people in the deadliest assault in the country for five months as Muslim leaders gathered for a rare summit in Islamabad. Police in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the capital said the bomber blew himself up when he was stopped ... Read More
France eyes Middle East influence, image with Syria gamble
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
President Francois Hollande’s decision to recognize Syria’s new opposition bloc aims to secure long-term French interests in the region and boost his foreign policy image but, with few allies following suit, Paris may risk isolation. With his economic policies under harsh scrutiny at home and abroad, Hollande’s hesitant ... Read More
India executes last surviving Mumbai attacker in secret
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
India secretly executed the lone survivor of a Pakistan-based militant squad on Wednesday, just days before the fourth anniversary of an attack that killed 166 people in a rampage through the financial capital Mumbai. Pakistan national Mohammad Ajmal Kasab was the enduring image of the bloody assault, which traumatized India ... Read More
EU, rights groups condemn Afghan executions
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
The European Union and international rights groups on Wednesday condemned Afghanistan's execution of eight prisoners and urged Kabul to drop plans to hang more soon. President Hamid Karzai has approved the execution of 16 people after their death sentences were confirmed by three courts, presidential ... Read More
Al-Qaeda chiefs decimated, but U.S. must persist in fight: Panetta
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
U.S. forces have decimated al-Qaeda’s leadership and made gains against some of its affiliates, but the fight has shifted in new directions that will require persistent U.S. efforts to truly end the threat, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday. Despite blows dealt to al-Qaeda, including the killing of its leader ... Read More