17/08/2012
Cairo, 17 August – A controversial ‘fatwa’ issued by a prominent Muslim cleric sanctioning violence against anti-Muslim Brotherhood activists planning demonstrations in Cairo on 24 August, has sent shockwaves throughout Egyptian society, triggering public outcry and angry denunciations by political activists and rights groups.
**Mohamed Morsi | Jonathan Rashad
The ‘fatwa’ [a non-binding juristic ruling by Islamic scholars] comes at a time of increasing fears of an Islamist crackdown on freedom of expression as well as reports of physical assaults against journalists critical of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Speaking at a seminar at the Diplomatic Club in downtown Cairo on Tuesday [14 August], Shiekh Hashem Islam, a member of the Fatwa Committee of Al Azhar — Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, told a gathering of intellectuals, activists, civil society members and journalists that it was a “religious duty” to fight protesters planning to rally against the Muslim Brotherhood next week outside of the presidential palace.
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17/08/2012
By IRIN* – Human rights groups have condemned recent police crackdowns in Greece on undocumented migrants, inhumane detention conditions, and hate crimes committed with impunity.
**Photo: Rafael Alvez/Flickr. Greek police treatment of migrants under scrutiny.
The Greek authorities began a crackdown on irregular migrants in the capital, Athens, in early August, when the Hellenic Police – the Greek police force – arrested 7,754 migrants, 1,656 of whom were taken to detention centres for being in the country illegally.
“Greece has the right to enforce its immigration laws and after a fair process, to deport people with no legal basis to stay in the country,” said Benjamin Ward, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
“But it doesn’t have the right to treat people like criminals, or to presume irregular immigration status just because of their race or ethnicity.”
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17/08/2012
By IRIN*, Manila, – The Philippine government’s state-run breast milk bank is intensifying collection efforts to boost breastfeeding among the poor and help women return to work immediately after giving birth if they want to do so.
Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN. A mother breastfeeds one of her twin babies at Jose Fabella Medical Hospital
Hundreds of women come to have their babies at the Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, the busiest maternity institution in Manila, the capital, where more than 12 million people live.
Many women are barely able to afford even the minimal payment, and to help cover their costs some of them donate breast milk to the hospital’s milk bank, which is used to feed babies whose mothers have lactation problems.
Esmeraldo Ilem, head of the hospital’s family planning unit, said the milk is also sold at up to US$10 for four litres to other hospitals and individuals, with mothers as a first priority.
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17/08/2012
The UN expressed “serious concern” over Palestinians living in the southern Hebron Hills region who have been “forced to leave their houses after Israeli authorities designated the area as a fire zone for military training.”
A woman and her children collect firewood and paper for baking bread in Ezbet Abd Rabbo. Photo: Shareef Sarhan.
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“These are already some of the most vulnerable families in the West Bank – forcibly displacing them from their homes and lands would have a serious immediate and long-term impact on their physical, socio-economic and emotional welfare” said on 16 August the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory Maxwell Gaylard.
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16/08/2012
By Shahira Amin*
Cairo — The month-long suspension of a privately-owned Egyptian TV channel for “defamation and incitement to violence” has triggered an outcry in Egyptian media circles amid fears of regression in freedom of expression gained after the country’s January 2011 revolution.
Tawfik Okasha
Al-Faraeen was closed down last week as Egyptian authorities threatened to revoke its license for “inflammatory language” used by the station’s presenters.
The channel’s controversial talkshow host and owner Tawfik Okasha is now under investigation by the public prosecutor after a lawsuit was filed against him by Islamists who claimed he had repeatedly “defamed, slandered and incited violence” against them.
During his programme, he aired a video allegedly showing Muslim extremists executing a Christian in Tunisia, and asked “how such people will govern” in an obvious reference to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In June, newly-elected President Mohamed Morsi also filed a lawsuit against Okasha, accusing him of “defamation and slander” after the host devoted an entire episode of his programme to criticising the Muslim Brotherhood and the president.
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15/08/2012
By IRIN*, Sana’a – Under a staircase, clinging to a wall of Sana’a’s Grand Mosque, groups of women and children lug plastic canisters to the leaky spigots of a public fountain. Some small children struggle with canisters nearly their size as they weave slowly between the fountain and the pushcarts used to wheel the water back home.
**Photo: Annasofie Flamand/IRIN.
Whether in cities or villages, this is how millions of Yemenis secure their day’s supply of water.
Since few can afford to pay for water to be pumped to their building, public urban fountains, which are free, remain the only option for most. Umm Husein, a resident of the capital Sana’a, said she has tap water only once or twice a week.
Trips to the communal fountain – taking time out of work or studies – involve her whole family. “The women, the children, every day we go to the fountain to get water,” she said.
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15/08/2012
By Jean Shaoul, WSWS* – Scandals emerging from the financial services industry on an almost daily basis point to the ongoing criminal practices of British banks.
**Branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Islington, London. Credit: David Edgar | Wikimedia Commons.
They expose the complicity of the regulators—the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Bank of England (BoE), who famously practice “light touch” regulation—and successive governments that function as the advocates and protectors of these financial gangsters.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced half-year losses of £1.5 billion—double that of the same period last year. It cited the cost of charges for the “mis-selling of financial products.” This loss is before any charge for RBS’s role in rigging the interbank lending rate, Libor.
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14/08/2012
By RT* — As analysts around the world question whether the US is losing its superpower status, China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region is strengthening. But a new report has set out a strategy for America to increase its military presence in the area.
**Recruitment poster, United States Navy, 1918. Author: Henry Reuterdahl
The paper, entitled “US Force Posture Strategy in the Asia-Pacific Region: An Independent Assessment,” suggests America is preparing for a possible conflict with China, one warship at a time.
The report was written by the Centre for Strategic and Independent Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank. CSIS is a non-government body, but its assessment was commissioned by the US Defense Department.
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14/08/2012
‘A recent report by a United Nations Special Committee on Money Laundering found that US and European banks laundered over $300 billion a year, including $30 billion just from the Mexican drug cartels, including $30 billion just from the Mexican drug cartels […] Meanwhile, they intensify political repression of citizens and immigrants who have not committed any crime against public safety and order.”
**Large door to an old bank vault. Author: Jonathunder
By Prof. James Petras – TRANSCEND* – Never in the history of the United States have we witnessed crimes committed on the scale and scope of the present day by both private and state elites.
An economist of impeccable credentials, James Henry, former chief economist at the prestigious consulting firm McKinsey & Company, has researched and documented tax evasion.
He found that the super-wealthy and their families have as much as $32 trillion (USD) of hidden assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax revenue!
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12/08/2012
By J C Suresh, IDN-InDepth News*, Toronto — The two long-time South Asian rivals, India and Pakistan, are engaged in the world’s most active nuclear arms race. India is estimated to have produced as many as 100 atomic weapons, and Pakistan is believed to have stockpiled a similar number if not more.
**Image: Indian and Pakistani national flags | Credit: paktribune.com
But, according to nuclear analysts, Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris, Islamabad is understood to be increasing its stockpile of warhead-grade nuclear material at a faster rate than any other country; it could in fact reach as many as 200 weapons over the next decade.
Added to this is the fact that years of talks between Pakistan and India on incremental military and nuclear confidence-building measures (CBM) have failed to prevent a regional weapons race and occasional flare-ups in bilateral relations.
India and Pakistan have agreed to alert each other subsequent to any atomic mishap. The countries have also promised not to attack each other’s nuclear installations and once a year exchange secret lists of such sites. But those limited assurances have not stopped the two sides from continuing the arms race.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 