KABUL: Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked a law today that aimed to protect women’s freedoms, with some arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles or encourage women to have sex outside of marriage. The failure highlights how tenuous women’s rights remained a dozen years after the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam kept Afghan women virtual prisoners in their homes. Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for Herat province, said the legislation was withdrawn shortly after being introduced in parliam...
Published On: 2013-05-18

YANGON: Myanmar’s president has pardoned at least 20 political prisoners just ahead of a historic visit to the United States that will highlight the two sides’ improved relations brought about by the former pariah nation’s democratic reforms. State media reported today that 23 prisoners were freed, though it did not call them political offenders. Ye Aung, a member of the government’s political prisoner scrutiny committee, said at least 20 political detainees were freed yesterday. President Thein Sein will visit the White House on Monday, the first state visit by a Mya...
Published On: 2013-05-18

KANO: Residents of an insurgent stronghold in northeast Nigeria fled their homes today as military fighter jets and helicopters carried out heavy air strikes on Boko Haram Islamist camps. Nigeria launched a massive offensive against Boko Haram this week, deploying several thousand troops across three states where President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency after the Islamists seized territory and chased out the government. Dozens of insurgents have been killed in the fighting, the military has said, without offering a specific figure. A security source told AFP that a helic...
Published On: 2013-05-18

PARIS: French President Francois Hollande has signed a law authorising gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, after months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate. His signature means the first gay marriages may be celebrated in France within about 10 days. Hollande’s office said he signed the bill Saturday morning, a day after the Constitutional Council struck down a challenge to the law. Hollande, a Socialist, had made legalising gay marriage one of his campaign pledges last year. ...
Published On: 2013-05-18

BEIRUT: Rebels in Syria have seized control of four deserted Alawite villages in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today. President Bashar al-Assad hails from the Alawite community, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while the rebels are predominantly Sunni Muslims. “Late last night, the rebels took complete control of Tlaissiyeh, Zoghbe, Shaata and Balil, after the withdrawal of the army following several weeks of fighting,” the Observatory said. “The residents abandoned the villages at the beginning of the fighting,” it ad...
Published On: 2013-05-18

SEOUL: North Korea today launched three short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, apparently as part of a military drill, South Korea’s defence ministry said. US and South Korean forces had been on heightened alert for a medium-range ballistic missile test in recent weeks amid tensions triggered by North Korea’s nuclear test in February. “North Korea launched two guided missiles in the morning and another one in the afternoon,” a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. “The missiles landed in the East Sea (Sea of Japan),” he said. South Korea was maintaini...
Published On: 2013-05-18

KABUL: Motorcycle-riding gunmen assassinated a police chief in front of his house after he led an anti-Taliban campaign in western Afghanistan, an official said Saturday. Police Chief Abdul Ghani was leaving his driveway in his car outside his home in Farah province when the two raced up and opened fire. Provincial spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandai said that Ghani was rushed to hospital after the attack Friday night but died of his wounds. Ghani had recently launched a crackdown against insurgents in his district of Khaki Safad that resulted in the killing and capture of several Taliban leaders...
Published On: 2013-05-18

BAGHDAD: Police officials say gunmen have kidnapped eight Iraqi policemen who were guarding a post on the main highway to Jordan and Syria. Two officials say the abductions happened Saturday on the desert road west of Baghdad. Violence has spiked in Iraq in recent days, with bombings and other attacks killing scores of Sunni and Shiite civilians. Sunni discontent with the Shiite-dominated government is also high, raising fears of a return to the widespread sectarian bloodshed of 2006-2007 that brought the country to the edge of civil war. ...
Published On: 2013-05-18

KABUL: Afghanistan's parliament failed to pass a law on Saturday banning violence against women, a severe blow to progress made in women's rights in the conservative Muslim country since the Islamist Taliban was toppled over a decade ago. President Hamid Karzai approved the law by decree in 2009 and parliament's endorsement was required. But a rift between conservative and more secular members of the assembly resulted in debate being deferred to a later date. Religious members objected to at least eight articles in the legislation, including keeping the legal age for women to marry at 16, th...
Published On: 2013-05-18

BAGHDAD: Gunmen killed the entire family of an anti-terrorist policeman in Baghdad and a Sunni cleric in the Shiite-majority south on Saturday, part of a wave of attacks across Iraq that left eight dead, said officials. The attacks follow three days of bombings and other violence across the country that killed 130 people. A market, a mosque and bus stops in both Shiite and Sunnis areas were targeted in scenes reminiscent of the retaliatory attacks between the two groups that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007. The recent spike of violence has raised fears that the coun...
Published On: 2013-05-18