[An Nahar] A court in the Maldives has ordered a public flogging for a 16-year-old girl who confessed to having pre-marital sex, defying U.N. pressure to drop corporal punishment of women, officials said Tuesday.
The unnamed teenager was convicted on her confession under sharia law after her family complained that she has had sex with a 29-year-old man in July.
The man was given 10 years in jail during a court hearing in the remote Raa atoll on Sunday.
A court official said the girl, whose identity was not revealed, could refuse the public flogging and would then instead be subjected only to eight months house arrest under local laws.
The court ordered the lashing to be carried out when she reached the age of 18.
"In most cases, the offenders would accept the lashing as part of penance," a court official who declined to be named said.
The latest court ruling came 10 months after U.N. Human Rights chief Navi Pillay urged the Maldives to stop publicly flogging women for having extra-marital or pre-marital sex.
Pillay noted during a visit to the country that the Maldives had progressed in safeguarding the rights of its 330,000 Sunni Moslems, but more needed to be done to protect women.
Flogging is normally handed down as a punishment by village chiefs who also act as local judges. A cane is used.
Official sources said the girl had been tried under sharia law, which prohibits girls between the ages of 13 and 18 having pre-marital sex. The conviction was on the basis of her confession.
Her lover, on the other hand, had been tried under common law and convicted for having sex with a minor, an offence punishable with a sentence of up to 15 years in jail.
The pair had intercourse in the Raa atoll, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital island Male.
The Maldives, better known as a luxury tourist destination, adopted multi-party democracy in 2008, but faced political unrest leading to the resignation of the first elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, in February.
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09/05/2012 00:00 ||
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Julian Assange's high profile backers, including socialite Jemima Khan ...first gained notice in the United Kingdom as a young heiress, the daughter of Lady Annabel and Sir James Goldsmith. She was married to the retired Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan between 1995 and their divorce in 2004. For the next three years, from 2004 to 2007, Khan gained worldwide media attention by sharing the baloney with British film star Hugh Grant. She has nothing to do with pancakes... , are understood to have lost the £200,000 they posted for his bail as he remains holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy.
The Wikileaks founder breached the conditions by seeking political asylum before he was due to be extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault charges.
A raft of high-profile figures including socialite Jemima Khan, journalist John Pilger, film director Ken Loach and publisher Felix Dennis have all confirmed they raised the cash as security to help free him which a judge ordered be forfeited at an earlier hearing.
Nine high profile backers, including two members of the British aristocracy, a Nobel Prize winner and an academic, were today told at Westminster Magistrates Court they have a month to show why the £140,000 they promised between them if he refused to surrender to the authorities should also not be lost.
Ms Khan and the other celebrities who have confirmed they backed him financially are understood to have already handed over the cash as a security, meaning it was deposited with the court and they were not named on official documents as his supporters.
The remaining nine all promised money as sureties when he was bailed in December 2010 meaning they would only have to hand over the money if he failed to surrender.
Amongst those offering £20,000 sureties were retired Professor Tricia David; Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston, who helped unravel the human genome; former Sunday Times journalist Philip Knightley; Lady Caroline Evans, wife of former Labour minister Lord Evans; his personal friend Sarah Saunders, a catering manager; and Frontline Club founder Captain Vaughan Smith, who provided his Norfolk Country mansion as a bail address.
Marchioness Tracy Worcester, 53, the model and actress turned environmental campaigner, offered £10,000 while his Wikileaks assistants Joseph Farrell and Sarah Harrison, both agreed to £5,000.
Giving evidence DS Mel Humphreys, from the Met's extradition unit, confirmed that after the Supreme Court refused his appeal they gave Assange 14 day grace period then ordered he be extradited ten days after that.
But on June 19, during that grace, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy.
A letter was served on him asking him to surrender to Belgravia cop shoppe.
DS Humphreys said: "On June 29 11.30am came and went and Mr Assange did not surrender to the police."
When asked why they did not arrest him for breaching bail conditions including curfew and residence at a home in Kent he replied: "There was very little we could do, he was in diplomatic premises therefore we cannot enforce any breach of bail because of the protection issues that occurred within the embassy."
He agreed that he had heard the "speculation" that there were plans to storm the embassy and arrest him but added: "I am personally aware that coppers do not go storming into embassies.
"As a police officer I do not go into embassies uninvited, I was also aware of the position the UK government would take on that."
The link is to many, many graphs that Anthony Watts has on his Watts-Up-With-That site.
While the arctic ice is at a record low (at least since the polar orbiting satellite era began), Antarctic and nearby sea ice cover is higher than normal.
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/05/2012 00:00 ||
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And as in recent years, we will see record winter sea ice formation. Which of course never gets mentioned, because GHG warming theory predicts the exact opposite.
The primary cause of Arctic sea ice melt is embedded black carbon, which I explain in this WUWT thread.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Algeria's new Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal took office on Tuesday promising to push ahead with reforms, four months after parliamentary polls, and ahead of the formation of a new cabinet likely to exclude Islamists. Appointed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Monday, Sellal, 64, replaces Ahmed Ouyahia, who had held the post since 2008.
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09/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egypt's former culture minister, Farouq Hosni, was on Tuesday referred to a criminal court on charges of corruption, Deputy Justice Minister for illicit gains Assem al-Gohari said.
Hosni, who served under ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... for more than two decades, is accused of having illegally acquired 18 million Egyptian pounds (nearly $3 million), which he is now being asked to return, state media reported.
The former minister had so far escaped the wide net cast by authorities after Mubarak's overthrow in 2011 that saw dozens of ex-ministers and businessmen associated with the old regime behind bars on corruption charges.
Gohari's decision comes after a long investigation during which Hosni "could not provide legitimate sources for the wealth he accrued," the official MENA news agency said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2012 00:00 ||
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#3
D *** NG IT, ... and I'm still low on Popcorn!?
* ION DAILY TIMES.PK > CHINA WARNS US NOT TO TAKE SIDES IN SEA DISPUTE.
RELATED SAME > CHINA WARNS AGZ [US] INTERVENTION AS CLINTON VISITS ASIA.
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > JAPAN'S ILLEGAL MOVES [on Daoyus = Senkakus] WILL BE IN VAIN | CHINA WARNS/CAUTIONS JAPAN ON ISLAND DISPUTES.
CHINA = Japan must make no further infringement on Chinese sovereignty.
* SAME > PLA [led] DIPLOMACY TO EASE TENSIONS | DEFENCE MINISTRY SPEARHEADS KEY MISSION IN ASIA, vee India + ASEAN.
* TOPIX > US OWES CHINA CONVINCING EXPLANATION OF TRUE INTENTIONS OF ASIA PIVOT POLICY.
* Also from TOPIX > CHINA [literally]HAS THE PHILIPPINES ON THE ROPES, as per its quiet blocking of access/entrance into Scarbrough Shoal's [PHIL = Panatag Shoal-Reef, China = Huangyan Island]fish-rich interior lagoon wid a very very long Rope or Rope-n-Chain, etc. Buoy.
IOW, while China openly calls for a mutual diplomatic solution to its sovereignty dispute wid the Philippines, at the same time it is de facto denying Philippine fishing boats + Coast Guard, etc. formal access to the shoal. CHINA IS EFFEC WARNING THE PHILIPPINES SUBTLY THAT ANY ATTEMPT TO CUT THEIR ROPE BUOY INVITES RISK OF A CHINESE MILITARY RESPONSE, + REGARDLESS OF US SUPPORT FOR MANILA.
Also, China has allegedly kept three Maritime Surveillance ships in the area contrary to MSM-Net + Diplomatic rhetoric.
* SAME, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > VIETNAM CLAIMS [slams] SOUTH CHINA SEA OIL BLOCK, DEMANDS BIDDING [by China = CNOOC] STOP.
* WAFF > CHINA AIMS 200 MISSLES AT TAIWAN: MND, as per Taiwan's own "Chinese Military Power Report 2012".
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA CONFIRMS TAKEOVER OF GWADAR PORT: REPORT.
RELATED SAME > CHINA AGREES TO RUN PAKISTAN PORT: REPORT.
China is also repor offering to build a new deep-water port for Bangladesh.
> DF-21D ASBMS - anti-USN/NIMITZ-class CVNS.
> DF-31A ICBMS - Strategic nukes, agz CONUS-NORAM + ALLIED. DF-41 MIRV ICBMS???
> New "road-mobile" land-based DF-16 MBMS.
[An Nahar] Spanish security forces launched a night time operation lasting into the early hours Tuesday to evict 73 immigrants from a tiny islet just off Morocco, officials said.
Spain's Guardia Civil police acted after scores of immigrants landed in the past week on the bare, rocky surface of Isla de Tierra, which lies an easy swim off the beach and is as long as two football pitches.
Since the uninhabited rock is Spanish sovereign territory, Spain feared it could open a new doorway to immigrants desperate to reach Europe and escape poverty and unrest.
"The Spanish Guardia Civil evicted them," said a front man for Spanish Interior Ministry.
"Many of the immigrants did not want to go Morocco, but there was no need to use force nor any troubles," the front man said.
Sea conditions had calmed, allowing Spain to move in, he said.
The operation was completed at 4.30 am (0230 GMT).
Before the 73 were evicted, Spain's Guardia Civil had already moved 10 women and kiddies off the island to the Spanish territory of Melilla, he said.
Melilla and Ceuta are two tiny Spanish exclaves in Morocco, the only land frontier between Africa and Europe.
Spain enlisted Morocco's help in the operation, fearing that a sprinkling of uninhabited Spanish-owned rocks off the coast off Morocco could become a new destination for immigrants.
"The eviction was handled entirely by the Guardia Civil but obviously together with Morocco because the Guardia Civil handed the immigrants over to their Moroccan counterparts," the front man said.
"The object is not so much to have to act like this but to avoid more immigrants arriving on Spanish rocks."
Photos in the online editions of Spanish daily El Pais and El Mundo showed Guardia Civil apparently ferrying the immigrants to land by dinghy.
Immigrants were shown in the hands of police, some in handcuffs, wading the final few meters to the beach to waiting Moroccan security forces.
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[Dawn] The chairman of the Pakistain Ulema Council, Allama Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, demanded on Monday that a joint investigation team (JIT) of intelligence agencies should be constituted to clear confusion about the registration of a blasphemy case against a Christian girl and detention of a prayer leader on the charge of tampering with the evidence.
Addressing a news conference along with Pakistain Interfaith League chairman Sajid Essaq, he alleged that the issue was being handled in a manner that smacked of a conspiracy to do away with the blasphemy law which, he said, would never be allowed.
"To sort out truth from fiction and to identify the real culprit an investigation team comprising representatives from various intelligence agencies should be formed to carry out an impartial investigation," he said.
The case took a new turn on Friday when the muezzin of a mosque gave his second statement in police custody and asserted that the prayer leader Khalid Jadoon Chishti had added a few pages of the Koran in the evidence to implicate the poor girl in the blasphemy case and also incited people of the area to hold a protest outside the local cop shoppe.
"We support the demand of judicious use of blasphemy law but will never allow repeal of the law on flimsy grounds or under international pressure," Allama Ashrafi said.
He asked how the SHO had registered the case under pressure of a few hundred protesters when the law provided that an officer not below the rank of superintendent of police would investigate an allegation of blasphemy before registering a case.
"It means that one day cases would be registered against the president or prime minister if a few thousand people besiege a cop shoppe."
He also demanded that a medical board should ascertain if the girl was mentally handicapped. And if it was so, he said, the accusers should be proceeded against immediately.
Sajid Essaq said the Interfaith League had worked in coordination with the Ulema Council to highlight the case.
He said his organization had been able to provide protection to Christian families of Mehrabad with the help of Learned Elders of Islam and their rehabilitation was under way.
He demanded that the authorities should not spare the prayer leader if he was proven guilty of burning pages of the Koran to implicate the girl in a false blasphemy case.
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09/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... has sent PML-N leader Khawaja Asif a defamation notice over allegations of financial impropriety regarding donations for Shaukhat Khanum Memorial Hospital (SKMH), DawnNews reported.
During a presser in Islamabad, Imran Khan said that by levelling baseless allegations, the PML-N were trying to damage a highly respected institution in Pakistain.
Khan said that Khawaja Asif should either apologise for the allegations, or be prepared to pay damages worth Rs10 billion.
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[Dawn] The arrest of a Moslemholy man for tampering with evidence against a Christian girl accused of blasphemy will help stop the abuse of Pakistain's strict laws on insulting Islam, a cabinet minister said.
The young girl, Rimsha Masih, has been in jug for nearly three weeks after she was accused of burning pages containing verses from the Koran in a case that has prompted worldwide concern.
The affair took an unexpected twist on Saturday when the imam who first gave police evidence against her was accused by his deputy of adding pages from the Koran to the burnt papers taken from Rimsha.
Activists say the legislation is often abused to settle personal vendettas, and even unproven allegations can prompt a violent public response -- in July a mob stormed a cop shoppe in central Pakistain to seize and lynch a mentally unstable man accused of burning the Koran.
But it is rare to see anyone investigated for making a false allegation or interfering with evidence of blasphemy.
"It is a good omen. The deputy imam has revealed the truth and it will be helpful to deal with the future blasphemy cases," Paul Bhatti, the Minister for National Harmony told AFP in an interview on Monday.
"The disclosure about the tampering with the evidence will discourage future accusers to misuse this law."
Bhatti is Pakistain's only Christian cabinet minister. His brother and predecessor Shahbaz was bumped off last year for speaking out against the blasphemy law.
Rimsha, who is "uneducated" and has a mental age of less than 14 according to a medical report, will remain in a high-security prison until Friday at the earliest -- by which time she will have spent 22 days in jug.
Judge Muhammad Azam Khan, who has repeatedly delayed bail proceedings for Rimsha, again adjourned the matter on Monday after the lawyer for her accuser asked for a stay to show solidarity with a provincial lawyers' strike.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"Judge Muhammad Azam Khan, who has repeatedly delayed bail proceedings for Rimsha, again adjourned the matter on Monday after the lawyer for her accuser asked for a stay to show solidarity with a provincial lawyers' strike."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The link is to many, many graphs that Anthony Watts has on his Watts-Up-With-That site.
Egypt's former culture minister, Farouq Hosni, was on Tuesday referred to a criminal court on charges of corruption, Deputy Justice Minister for illicit gains Assem al-Gohari said.
The chairman of the Pakistain Ulema Council, Allama Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, demanded on Monday that a joint investigation team (JIT) of intelligence agencies should be constituted to clear confusion about the registration of a blasphemy case against a Christian girl and detention of a prayer leader on the charge of tampering with the evidence.
