Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian diplomats denounced the United Nation’s document calling for the protection of women as contrary to Islamic principles and Egypt is demanding that the resolution include an exception for countries that view the provisions are contrary to their values. The Egyptians called the document “deceitful” and the ruin of traditional families.
Category: International
A local sharia court has added a stoning death to this year’s record after a Pakistani soldier was found to have had an affair with a local woman in Northwesterd Kurram. To make matters worse, Anwar Din, 27, is a Sunni and Intizar Bibi, 19, is a Shiite girl.
We previously saw how Chinese environmental officials are struggling to pull dead pigs out of the river in Shanghai while assuring people that the tsunami of dead pigs has no effect on drinking the water. Now the body count is up from 900 to 6000 and some articles suggest the number is more like 9000. Yet, Chinese officials insist that they are unable to locate the source.
North Korea has long been an example of a clinically psychotic nation that engages in propaganda displaying wild fantasy and transference. The latest video however is truly unnerving. In a nation with extreme poverty and malnutrition, North Korea has run a video showing that (rather than it receiving aid from the U.S.) the U.S. relies on aid from North Korea and is a virtual hellscape of poverty, death, and despair. I can now understand why Dennis Rodman calls Kim Jong Un a “friend” and plans to vacation with him. It is better than eating birds and shooting children back in the states.
The bizarre world of Iranian extremism was evident again this week as clerics in Iran raised a hue and cry over a picture where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is shown consoling Hugo Chavez’s mother with a hug. Clerics called the picture a sin and abomination against Islam. They also attacked another cleric, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Mirtajeddini, who felt no moral difficulty in lying about the hug and saying that the photo was doctored.
Continue reading “Iranian Clerics Attack Ahmadinejad For Hugging Chavez’s Mother”
At first, this article sounded like a reform in the making out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: the government is considering a moratorium on beheadings. However, the reason is not some sudden modernization and rejection of medieval Sharia laws. Saudi is facing a labor crisis of sorts: there are too few swordsmen to dispatch the guilty.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Considers Halt On Beheadings . . . Due To Shortage of Swordsmen”
There is a rather disturbing poll out this week where 54% of Austrians think neo-Nazi groups could be successful in Austrian elections if a ban is lifted and 42 percent of Austrians think “not everything was bad under Hitler.” Of course, one has to focus on trains arriving on time and traffic control while forgetting about the genocide and war that left Austria and Germany in utter ruins.
Continue reading “Poll: Hitler Bad on Genocide But Good On Services?”
There’s crazy and then there is Karzai crazy. Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke this weekend and accused the United States of colluding with . . . the Taliban. It was an odd accusation from a man who said that he wished that he had joined the Taliban against the United States as American soldiers were dying in the field and the American people were pouring billions into this corrupt family and country. Notably, however, Karzai does put the lie to the Administration’s heralding how the President is trying to pull out troops from Afghanistan when reports indicated that the Administration has been trying to get Karzai to let more troops stay in the country.
Continue reading “Karzai Accuses U.S. of Colluding With Taliban on Attacks”
The hope for reforms in Saudi Arabia remain a roller coaster ride for civil libertarians. On Saturday, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced two prominent political and human rights activists to at least 10 years in prison for protesting the policies of the Kingdom and speaking with the media. Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani (shown right) and Abdullah Hamad are founding members of the banned Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, known as Acpra, which documents human rights abuses. The group also has called for a constitutional monarchy and elections. The exercise of basic rights of free speech and association that led to the banning of the group and now the sentencing of its leaders.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Sentences Two Leading Civil Libertarians To Long Prison Stints”
The environmental problems in China continue to grow worse as the regime spurs industry to keep up production numbers in an economic downturn. We have recently seen environmentalists attacked for criticizing Communist officials for the dismal condition of rivers in China. Now, one city that uses a polluted river for drinking water woke up to find more than 900 dead pigs floating down their river. Chinese officials insist that it is not a case of dumping but curiously say that they have no idea how it happened or where the animals came from.
Continue reading “Almost 1000 Dead Pigs Pulled From Polluted Chinese River”
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Recently we discussed the DHS’s self-approval of their draconian and arguably unconstitutional and unquestionably outrageous policy on searching computers within 100 miles of the border (Your Rights Under Attack: What A Difference 100 Miles Makes). This week, a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals not only showed the DHS was legally wrong in their self-approval of a policy that runs afoul of the 4th Amendment, but also illustrated the true value of the checks and balances created by the Separation of Powers Doctrine that so many in the Executive seem eager to trample these days. The case at bar was U.S. v. Cotterman. In a breath of good news for civil libertarians, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals en banc ruling held that the 4th Amendment does apply at the border despite DHS contention to the contrary.
Let’s look at this case and ruling. Bear with the long restatement of facts as they are relevant to the holding.
Continue reading “UPDATE – Your Rights Under Attack: What A Difference Judical Review Makes”
Congress is again showing its traditional contempt for the rule of law this week with members crying foul that Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, an Al Qaeda spokesman and son-in-law of Usama bin Laden, would be actually given a fair trial. Senators like Lindsey Graham (who just yesterday condemned a fellow Senator for standing against Obama kill list policy) has denounced the decision not to give Abu Ghaith a military tribunal trial where basic constitutional protections are denied to detainees.
Continue reading “Members Denounce Decision To Give Al Qaeda Spokesman Real Trial”
There is a verdict in the trial of economist Vicky Pryce, 60, the wife of former cabinet minister Chris Huhne (left). Pryce raised a “marital coercion” defense in saying that her husband coerced her to lie and take his speeding points 10 years ago. It is a bizarre case, not only because you have a successful woman claiming that she was coerced into this act, but also the level of prosecution over that taking of speeding points.
We have been criticizing President Barack Obama for years over the failure of his Administration to prosecute officials responsible for torture as well as the intentional destruction of torture tapes at the CIA. Now a high-ranking United Nations official is joining the condemnation of Obama and his Administration. Ben Emmerson, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights, has condemned the failure to prosecute a single person for the official torture program implemented during the Bush years. The Obama Administration has thrown the books at those who leaked the information on our torture program but Obama himself promised the CIA after his election that CIA personnel would not be prosecuted despite our obligations under international treaty.
Continue reading “U.N. Investigator Criticizes Obama For Record On Torture”
It appears that something borrowed and something blue is often the same item in some marriages in China. Chinese police are dealing with a rather novel crime: people digging up corpses to be buried with dead bachelors. They are called “ghost marriages” and four men have been arrested in this bizarre criminal enterprise.
Continue reading “Four Funerals and a Wedding: Chinese Police Crackdown On “Ghost Weddings””