Human rights advocate killed in Honduras

Tegucigalpa - A human rights activist who worked on behalf of the rights of homosexuals has been killed in the nation's capital, reports said Wednesday. Walter Trochez, who worked for the human rights center Ciprodeh, was killed in the open on a street and buried on Tuesday. The background to the killing was unclear.

The National Resistance Movement that has worked against the coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya said Wednesday that Trochez had been detained by police two weeks ago because he demanded the return of Zelaya to power.

New Israeli law will give transplant priority to donor cardholders

Tel Aviv - Israel is to implement a new law in January 2010 whereby people prepared to sign organ donor cards receive priority if in need of an organ transplant, The Lancet medical journal has reported. The law also allows for increased priority to be given to first- degree relatives of those who have signed donor cards, first-degree relatives of those who have died and donated organs, and to live donors of a kidney, liver lobe or lung lobe who have donated for as- yet-undesignated recipients.

Only 10 per cent of Israeli adults hold donor cards, a figure much lower than the more-than-30-per-cent average in many Western countries.

In addition, the Lancet pointed out, the consent rate for organ donation in Israel - defined as the proportion of actual donors out of the total number of medically eligible brain-dead donors - has consistently been 45 per cent during the past decade, far fewer than the 70 to 90 per cent consent rate in the West.

US applauds Brazil court decision on child's release

Washington - The United States Wednesday welcomed the decision by a Brazilian appeals court to return a young American boy to his father in the United States, a years-old case that has garnered frequent headlines. The child in question is Sean Goldman, 8, who was taken by his Brazilian mother to Brazil about five years ago. She divorced her American husband, David Goldman, while in Brazil, remarried there and then died during the birth of a second child, leaving the child with his stepfather in Brazil.

David Goldman has been trying since then to regain custody, but the Brazilian courts have consistently decided for the stepfather.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was "pleased" to hear that the Brazilian Appellate Court in Rio de Janeiro had upheld a lower court decision that Sean should be reunited with his father, David, in New Jersey.

"We appreciate the assistance and cooperation of the government of Brazil in upholding its obligations under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction," Clinton said in a statement. "It is my hope that this long legal process is now complete and that the Goldman family will be reunited quickly. "

US President Barack Obama in March was to have pressed Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about the boy's release, and the US House of Representatives has passed a resolution unanimously calling on Brazilian authorities to return Sean to his native country.

Colombian military says 11 rebels were killed

Bogota - The Colombian military Wednesday said it had killed 11 rebels, including a top commander, in an air attack in northwestern Colombia. The Government Secretary of the province Antioquia, Andres Rendon, identified the dead leader as Ruben Garcia, alias Danilo, a commander in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

There was no confirmation from independent sources.

President Alvaro Uribe, who is in Copenhagen at the climate change summit, congratulated the police and military for "the killing of 11 FARC rebels."

FARC, the largest and oldest rebel group of the South American country, have been fighting against the state for 45 years with no end in sight.

Nepal Maoists agree to release thousands of child soldiers

Kathmandu - Nepal's former Maoist rebels on Wednesday agreed to release nearly 3,000 former child soldiers who have been living in United Nations camps for the past three years. The release of minors is a key component of the peace accord signed between the government and the Maoist rebels just over three years ago.

"This is a historic step in Nepal's peace process," said Karen Landgren, chief of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). "We hope that it will encourage other steps to unblock the current political stalemate."

The minors will be released starting on December 27. The process will be completed over 40 days, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the special representative of the UN secretary general for children and armed conflict.

"Today, the minors who have spent the last three years in Maoist army cantonment with their lives on hold will finally be able to take the next step towards a more positive future," Coomaraswamy said.

Once released, the children will be able to choose between various training programs supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). They include general education, vocational or business training.

The UN will also monitor the children to make sure they do not return to violence or are recruited by other groups.

The peace process between between the Maoists and other political parties had been at an impasse during the past six months.

Another 1,000 Maoist combatants remain in the camps.

"I believe the agreement will open the door for all Maoist combatants to leave the Maoist camps," said peace minister Rakam Chemjong.

Nearly 14,000 people died in Nepal's communist insurgency which formally ended in November 2006.

Moldovan leader orders removal of barbed wire at Romanian border

Chisinau - Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat on Wednesday ordered barbed wire removed from the former Soviet republic's border with Romania, the Infotag news agency reported. "It is a shame to maintain barbed wire up against a friendly nation in the 21st century, when borders of all Europe should be transparent and people move freely," Filat said.

The Moldovan prime minister, a senior member of Moldova's newly installed pro-Europe ruling coalition, made the remarks at a ceremony in the capital Chisinau while formally appointing a new commander of Moldova's border troops.

Moldova's border troops command should have a plan for dismounting and carrying away all barbed wire stretching along a 450-kilometer common border with Romania "by the end of the week," Filat said.

Moldovan voters in July parliamentary elections gave a narrow majority to a four-party alliance of pro-Europe parties.

Leaders of the alliance, called "The Coalition for European Integration," have pushed for rapid Moldovan integration into EU economies and better relations with Moldova's western neighbors, particularly Romania.

Relations between Chisinau and Bucharest were strained during Communist control of Moldova's government from 2000 until the middle of this year. Moldova's Communist Party, now in the opposition, supports close Moldovan relations with Russia, Moldova's largest trading partner.

Three captured journalists in Afghanistan freed, says Guardian

London- A reporter working for Britain's Guardian newspaper and two Afghan journalists held hostage for six days in Afghanistan have been released, the Guardian reported on its website Wednesday. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi, and his two Afghan colleagues were captured last week by an armed gang in Kunar province, a mountainous region bordering Pakistan.

The Guardian said the three men were "exhausted but in good spirits."

The journalists spent much of the six days on the move in cold and snowy conditions, surviving on soup, tea and bread, according to the paper.

"It has been an ordeal for them, and difficult for all involved, including their families. We are very relieved that the three hostages have been released," said Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/299661,three-captured-journalists-in-afghanistan-freed-says-guardian.html.

Military observers to remain on Golan Heights until June

New York - The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday extended the UN mission's mandate on the Golan Heights until June 30, 2010, because of continued tensions in the Middle East. The UN Disengagement Observer Force has been monitoring a ceasefire agreement that ended the conflict between Israel and Syria in 1974. The force is composed of military personnel from Austria, Canada, Croatia, India, Japan, the Philippines and Poland.

The council said it decided to extend the six-month mandate in response to "the situation in the Middle East, which is tense and likely to remain so, unless and until a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East problem can be reached."

In first, Spain grants asylum based on sexual orientation

Madrid - A 36-year-old Iranian citizen has been granted asylum by Spain based on his sexual orientation, the first time Spain has made use of a new asylum law, Spanish state broadcaster RNE reported Wednesday. The man, who is gay, had fled for Spain after being arrested at a homosexual party with his partner in Tehran one year ago, he told a press conference in Malaga in southern Spain.

The two men had been tortured and insulted before paying to be released. When his partner received a subpoena to appear before a court, he decided to flee Iran, the man said.

Spain's new asylum law allows those persecuted based on their sexual preference to apply for asylum.

Rohingya boatpeople relocated to Medan

Local immigration office in Aceh has relocated 195 Rohingya boatpeople, who have been staying in two different locations in the province since early this year, to Medan, North Sumatra.

Bambang Widodo, head of the office, told Antara news agency Thursday that they were going to relocate 183 Rohingyas from a shelter in Sabang and 13 others from another shelter in Idi Rayeuk.

The relocated Rohingyas were all men. They were carrying only one travel bag each and each wore an identity tag.

Foreign Ministry had said that the boatpeople were supposed to be repatriated to Bangladesh once their identity verification was cleared by their original country.

There are a total of 388 Rohingya people in Aceh, all escaped their home countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh because of alleged persecution by the governments.

Muslim revival brings polygamy, camels to Chechnya

GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds he might soon take a fourth.

"Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They (the wives) spend time together, but do not always see eye to eye," said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name.

Hardline Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov is vying with insurgents for authority in a land ravaged by two secessionist wars with Moscow. Each side is claiming Islam as its flag of legitimacy, each reviles the other as criminal and blasphemous.

Wary of the dangers of separatism in a vast country, Moscow watches uneasily as central power yields to Islamic tenets. It must chose what it might see as the lesser of two evils.

Though polygamy is illegal in Russia, the southern Muslim region of Chechnya encourages the practice, arguing it is allowed by sharia law and the Koran, Islam's holiest book.

By Russian law, Adam is only married to his first wife of 28 years, Zoya, the plump, blue-eyed mother of his three children, with whom he shares a home on the outskirts of the regional capital Grozny.

His "marriages" to the other two -- squirreled away in villages nearby -- were carried out in elaborate celebrations and are recognized by Chechen authorities.

The head of Chechnya's Center for Spiritual-Moral Education, Vakha Khashkanov, set up by Kadyrov a year ago, said Islam should take priority over laws of the Russian constitution.

"If it is allowed in Islam, it is not up for discussion," he told Reuters near Europe's largest mosque, which glistens in central Grozny atop the grounds where the Communist party had its headquarters before the Soviet Union fell in 1991.

"As long as you can feed your wives, and there's equality amongst them, then polygamy is allowed in Chechnya," he added.

Islam is flourishing in Chechnya which, along with its neighbors Dagestan and Ingushetia, is combating an Islamist insurgency which aims to create a Muslim, sharia-based state separate from Russia across the North Caucasus.

Though Islam first arrived in the North Caucasus around 500 years ago, in Dagestan's ancient walled city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea, religion under Communism was strongly discouraged.

Kadyrov, like most of his region's one million people, is Sufi, a mystical branch of Islam which places a greater focus on prayer and recitation.

Political analysts say that in exchange for successfully hunting out Islamist fighters, the Kremlin turns a blind eye to Kadyrov's Muslim-inspired rules.

Today Grozny's cafes hold men sipping smuggled beer out of teacups as alcohol has been all but banned, single-sex schools and gyms are becoming the norm and women must cover their heads in government buildings.

Clad in a tight hijab, Asya Malsagova, who advises Kadyrov on human rights issues and heads a state council dealing with the rights of Chechen prisoners, told Reuters: "We believe every woman should have a choice -- but we prefer she covers up."

Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, Islam's revival has also brought violence against those who do not live by sharia law in the North Caucasus -- a region the Kremlin has described as its biggest political domestic problem.

Islamist militants, who label Kadyrov and other regional bosses as "infidels" for siding with Moscow, have been behind attacks on women they say worked as prostitutes in Dagestan and murders of alcohol-sellers in Ingushetia.

In Chechnya and Ingushetia, rebel fighters who regularly carry out armed attacks on police are celebrated as "martyrs" by Islamist news sites with links to the insurgency.

HOLY CAMELS

Dirt roads lead the way to Chechnya's first camel farm, about 55 km (34 miles) northwest of Grozny, where 46 of the two-humped creatures munch on salt and grass while they are groomed to be gifts for dowries and religious holidays.

Considered holy animals in Islam, they sell for 58,000 roubles ($1,886) each, said Umar Guchigov, the director of the farm, which opened just over a year ago under Kadyrov's command, and plans are in place to build three more in Chechnya.

"So many people, simple people, congratulated us for bringing back this ancient tradition," Guchigov said.

Animals are also being used to reintroduce Islam at Chechnya's round-the-clock Muslim television channel, where 60 young bearded men and headscarved women create children's programs in large studios adorned with photos of Mecca.

A bevy of bumble bees joyfully scream "Salam Alaikum" (Peace be with you) upon entering the studio of Ruslan Ismailov, who is making a full-length cartoon on hi-tech Apple computers for the channel, which is called "Put," meaning "The Way" in Russian.

"The bees appeal to children, and they will teach them how to live properly by the Muslim faith," Ismailov said.

Set up two years ago by the state and broadcast to thousands across the North Caucasus, instantly becoming one of the top channels in the region, it also features programs for women on how to keep home and reading of the Koran throughout the night.

"It's no secret what Chechnya has been through," said the channel's general director Adam Shakhidov, sporting a ginger beard and traditional black velvet cap.

"Two wars, the Soviet Union and today's Muslim extremism... it's time to show the true beauty of Sufism and install the basis for sharia," he said.

Israeli rightists plan Al-Aqsa intrusion

Bethlehem - Ma’an/Agencies - Hundreds of right-wing Jewish Israelis are expected to descend on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Thursday, groups told the Jerusalem Post.

A report published on Tuesday in the Israeli daily cited an unnamed group of activists saying they hoped hundreds would show up for a day of organized tours and prayers at the Western Wall and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The event is being termed a “mass pilgrimage” honoring the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

Palestinian analyst and reporter Amjad Abu Arafeh addressed concerns over the event on Palestinian radio, saying “It seems this is now a usual event in Jerusalem, threatening the Al-Aqsa Mosque. These groups try to invade Al-Aqsa daily to make their prayers there.

“Only yesterday several settlers invaded the yards of Al-Aqsa mosque but the Waqf guards and the guards of the mosque were able to get them out,” he noted.

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Al-Husayni confirmed to Ma’an that the compound faces ongoing threats, and noted officials expected a challenge this week as groups of Jewish worshipers are expected to attempt enter the area. He said right-wing groups issued a call weeks ago for Jews to pray inside Al-Aqsa.

Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Jerusalem and a focal point of Palestinian national feeling. A visit by Israeli leader Ariel Sharon in 2000 sparked the second Palestinian uprising, known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

The compound sits atop what is believed to be the site of the first and second Jewish Temples. Mainstream custom forbids Jews from visiting the compound. A few extremist groups, however, call for Israel to conquer the area and build a third temple.

Intrusion could reignite fall fires

Any attempt by right-wing Jewish groups to enter Al-Aqsa could spark a return to the protests, heavy Israeli military and police presence seen in Jerusalem in September during the last week of Ramadan. The Muslim holiday coincided with the start of the Jewish High Holiday season. Israel also closed Jerusalem to many Muslim faithful from the West Bank and Gaza.

Palestinians responded to the heavy military presence in the Old City and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque with protests, which often spilled over into nearby areas including the Shufat Refugee Camp inside Israeli-annexed Jerusalem, as well as the Ramallah-Jerusalem checkpoint at Qalandiya.

Throughout the Jewish holidays and what officials called an increased threat against Al-Aqsa, dozens of Palestinians were holed up in the mosque. Hundreds of others were prevented from entering at various points during the period, and dozens were arrested by Israeli forces for their participation in the protests.

Somalia: AMISOM shell Mogadishu districts

Dec 15, 2009

African Union peacekeeping troops in Somalia, AMISOM have reportedly shelled several parts of the restive capital Mogadishu, causing the deaths of civilians, eyewitnesses said.

The shelling and heavy bombardment, which happened on Monday night and
concentrated in Mogadishu’s northern districts of Daynile and Hodan, erupted after rebel fighters carried out attacks on the troops’ base in Mogadishu’s Warshadaha road.

According to eyewitnesses, the bodies of four civilians including an old man were seen on Tuesday in the neighborhoods while at least five others injured.

Although Somali and AU officials have not commented about the midnight shelling, the act becomes one of its kinds with the peacekeepers using heavy machines to target the civilian areas.

AU officials usually claim that their forces respond fire only targeting the rebel strongholds in the restive capital.

The shellings are inline with the on-going clashes between rebel forces and pro-government troops, which claimed the lives of mostly
innocent civilians.