UN fears 'deteriorating' human rights in Afghanistan
The UN human rights chief on Tuesday expressed fears that progress made in Afghanistan since the fall of the hardline Taliban regime in 2001 was draining away as NATO-led troops withdraw.
Navi Pillay said on a visit to Kabul that she had heard growing evidence of a sharp reversal in human rights, especially for women, despite more than a decade of international intervention and billions of dollars of aid. Keep reading
Islamist Nour party walks out of Egypt's constitution talks
Egypt's second biggest Islamist party on Monday walked out of a committee amending the constitution, to protest against moves to curb the influence of Islam in state affairs.
The Salafist al-Nour party, which backed the army's overthrow of the more moderate Islamist Mohamed Mursi from the presidency in July, said it was not quitting the committee but wanted to show its anger.
Amending the constitution pushed through by Mursi last year is part of the plan to return Egypt to elections after the army ousted the government on July 3, installing an interim administration. Keep reading
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Egyptian security forces storm Islamist -controlled town
Egyptian security forces stormed a town controlled by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi on Monday and arrested 56 residents as part of a crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood, officials said.
The forces entered the town of Delga in Minya province, about 300 km (190 miles) south of Cairo, early in the morning, clearing barricades that had been erected by the Mursi supporters, security officials said.
Gunshots were exchanged but there were no official reports of injuries. Keep reading
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Roadside bomb hits police bus in Egypt's Sinai
Egypt attacks suspected hideouts of Islamic militants
Wave of Car Bombs Kills 20 in Baghdad
A new wave of car bombs rocked commercial streets in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing 20 in the latest apparent attack by hard-line Sunni insurgents aiming to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government.
Meanwhile, Sunni leaders in Basra said unknown gunmen had shot dead 17 Sunnis in the Shiite-dominated city over the past two weeks, following threats to retaliate against them for attacks on Shiites in other parts of Iraq.
Sunnis in Basra were frequently targeted during the widespread 2004-2008 sectarian killings that pushed the country to the brink of civil war. The shootings in the southern port city are likely to raise fears that Iraq may be drifting back toward the cycle of violence in those years that left thousands dead every month. Keep reading
Pakistani 'Father of Taliban' keeps watch over loyal disciples
He is known as the Father of the Taliban, a radical Pakistani cleric who calls the Taliban's one-eyed leader an "angel" and runs a seminary described as the University of Jihad.
Bespectacled and soft-spoken, Maulana Sami ul-Haq is a revered figure in Pakistan and Afghanistan whose views carry enormous weight among the Taliban on both sides of the border.
Tucked away in a dusty Pakistani town off the main motorway to the Afghan border, his Darul Uloom Haqqania university was the launching pad for the Taliban movement in the 1990s and is still often described as the incubator for radical Islamists. Keep reading
Philippine army says Muslim rebels fleeing southern city
Philippine forces freed scores of civilian hostages on Tuesday as fighting subsided in a port city where hundreds of rogue Muslim guerrillas have been battling for more than a week.
The fighting, in which nearly 100 people have been killed, has highlighted lingering grievances in the Catholic-majority country despite its growing economy and an agreement with the biggest Muslim rebel group that was meant to bring peace.
The guerrillas who stormed into the city of Zamboanga on Monday last week belong to a breakaway faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
They object to a deal aimed at ending 40 years of conflict signed last October with the main Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and are trying to derail it. Keep reading
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Philippine aircraft attack rebels in bid to end standoff in city
Islamists in Sahara issue video of foreign hostages
Al Qaeda's north African arm, AQIM, has issued a video of seven foreign hostages, including four French citizens, held in the Sahara urging negotiations for their release, France's foreign ministry said on Monday.
The video also showed a Dutchman, a Swede and a South African, kidnapped in Mali or Niger and some held for up to three years, Mauritania's ANI news agency, which received the video, said earlier on its website.
"It (the video) is in the middle of being verified," said French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot in a statement.
"After initial analysis, this video appears to be credible and constitutes a new proof of life of the four hostages kidnapped in Arlit on 16 September 2010." Keep reading
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Al-Qaeda releases 'credible' hostage video
Sudan says seeking US visa for wanted President Bashir
Sudan confirmed on Tuesday it had applied for a U.S. visa for its president to let him attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York, despite international arrest warrants out against him over charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur.
Washington earlier said it had received the application, calling the move "deplorable, cynical and hugely inappropriate" due to Omar Hassan al-Bashir's indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A trip to the United States could be risky for Bashir, who has limited his travel mostly to African neighbours and Arab allies since the court asked member countries to detain him if he entered their territories.
The United States is not a member of the Hague-based ICC so would not be legally bound to hand the president over.
But Washington has led calls for Bashir to face international justice over the bloodshed in the now decade-old conflict in the western region of Darfur. Keep reading
Zanzibar police snare suspected militants, acid attack suspects
Fifteen people, including suspected Islamist militants and individuals linked to an acid attack on a clergyman, have been arrested in Tanzania's semi-autonomous Zanzibar islands, a senior police officer said.
The Indian Ocean islands are growing headache for the Tanzanian government as they struggle with religious tensions and deep social and economic divides.
Friday's acid attack on a Roman Catholic priest came a month after two men threw a corrosive liquid over two British teenagers in Zanzibar, an attack that hit Tanzania's image as a tourist-friendly destination. Keep reading
Contentious Turkish mosque project stirs sectarian unrest
Billed as a symbol of peace between two faiths, a new place of worship has turned a poor suburb of Ankara into a battleground and exposed wider sectarian tensions within Turkey.
The project's blueprint envisages a Sunni mosque rising side by side with a new cemevi, or assembly house, to be used by Alevis, Turkey's biggest religious minority.
But with its concrete foundations barely set, Alevis suspect an attempt to assimilate their community into the Sunni Muslim majority and youths from the minority are battling riot police nightly. Keep reading
British judge says Islamic adherent may not testify wearing full veil
Judge Peter Murphy wants more clarity in the lines between religion practice and state laws.
A British court on Monday ruled that a Muslim woman facing criminal charges of witness intimidation must remove her face veil while on the stand giving evidence in court, but that she can wear it while sitting in the dock.
The ruling comes amid shifting sentiments in the UK and across Europe about how far to accept some Islamic cultural practices when they clash with a secular state.
Judge Peter Murphy, of the Blackfriars Crown Court in south London, ruled it is “crucial” for jurors to see the face of the 22-year-old woman when she testifies in her trial on charges of intimidating a witness at a London mosque in June. Keep reading
Yemen urged not to amputate robber's hand and foot
Amnesty International has urged Yemen to commute a sentence of hand and foot amputation meted out to a man convicted of robbery, slamming the Islamic law-compliant verdict as "cruel".
A Sanaa court on Sunday ordered the amputation of the right hand and the left foot of a man found guilty of attacking another man and robbing him of cash he was transporting in a vehicle belonging to a money exchange firm.
"Amputation is a cruel punishment that amounts to torture and accordingly is a crime under international law," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director in a statement.
"The Yemeni authorities must immediately take steps to abolish this brutal punishment," he added. Keep reading
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