 A JOURNALIST sacked from a leading Arab news channel says she was dumped for following up Australian media reports stemming from a near miss involving an Emirates Airlines jet at Melbourne airport last year. American journalist Courtney Radsch wrote a report that mentioned the incident -- in which an Emirates jet almost failed to take off due to incorrect payload data -- and subsequent safety concerns for Al Arabiya's English site. Her article drew on a Sunday Herald Sun story revealing that Emirates pilots complained about fatigue to air safety authorities months before the near disaster. Radsch, who was the associate editor of the site, said she immediately came under internal pressure from management at the Dubai-based channel to withdraw the article. "One of the heads of the channel came over and said that this article was causing problems and it needed to be taken down," she said. "I said to them: `There is supposed to be a separation between editorial and business' and they kind of laughed it off," she said. "In the end my colleagues were urging me to take the story off. It wasn't worth going to jail for or being fined thousands of dollars for, so I decided that if Al Arabiya wasn't going to stand up for the story then I wasn't either." She said new media laws in Dubai meant journalists could be imprisoned or fined for writing stories that had on impact on Dubai's economy.
Despite taking the article down, Radsch was then told she had lost her position due to a "restructure". She believes it was actually as a result of pressure from Emirates over the story. An Emirates spokesman denied the claim, saying: "Emirates does not interfere with the operations of Al Arabiya." The airline's Australian-based public relations firm -- PPR -- also supplied a statement the airline released following Radsch's report, claiming inaccuracies. Al Arabiya did not respond to requests for comment. The Australian 
 Nadin al-Badir for taking a stand against established norms of polygamy for Women in Islam.
 Following are excerpts from an interview with Kuwaiti journalist Fuad Al-Hashem, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on September 25, 2009. Interviewer: "First of all, I'd like to talk to you about a provocative article which you wrote during the war on Gaza, under the title: 'Use Chemical Weapons, Olmert.' In that December 2008 article, you called upon Olmert to intensify the torment of the people of Gaza, and you used the well-known slogan: 'Use chemical weapons, Olmert.'1 [...] "Do you believe in that slogan – 'Use chemical weapons, Olmert'?" Fuad Al-Hashem: "It's not my slogan. It's [a paraphrase] of a slogan used by the Palestinians themselves in the days of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, when missiles were falling on Riyadh, on Khobar, and on Kuwait itself. They are the ones who coined this slogan..." Interviewer: "Missiles did not fall on Kuwait, because it was occupied..." Fuad Al-Hashem: "That's right. Instead of standing alongside [the Saudi city of] Al-Dammam, which later suffered from the Iraqi invasion as well, they chanted ['Use chemical weapons, Saddam, from Kuwait to Al-Dammam']. I just wanted to see how they would feel, what their reaction would be, if somebody were to utter a similar slogan." Interviewer: "But you do not subscribe to this slogan." Fuad Al-Hashem: "I don't control the button for the Israeli nuclear weapons. I never said I did. Olmert controls the nuclear button." Interviewer: "True, but as a journalist, you express your opinions. Were you hoping that Olmert..." Fuad Al-Hashem: "No, I just wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine." [...] Interviewer: "During that same war, you wrote about the killing of Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader. That article was provocative too, because you talked about a struggle 'from between eight thighs.' You were criticized in the wake of that article." Fuad Al-Hashem: "Yes. Strongly criticized." Interviewer: "You don't regret writing this?" Fuad Al-Hashem: "No. The people who criticized me should ask themselves one question. In a time of war, when Israel is killing fighters on the streets of Gaza – what is a leader doing at home? He was among his wives when he was killed. What does a fighter do, in wartime..." Interviewer: Maybe he was strategizing... Fuad Al-Hashem: "Strategizing from between eight thighs is not appropriate for revolutionaries. In all the revolutions throughout history – the Cuban revolution, the Bolivian revolution..." Interviewer: "Don't you think that if someone is killed by the weapons of the Israeli occupation, it is inappropriate for a journalist to talk about [his wives'] thighs?" Fuad Al-Hashem: "He's the one who married eight..." Interviewer: "Four wives." Fuad Al-Hashem: "Four wives – that makes eight thighs. I got it right. I just translated the number of wives into the number of thighs." Interviewer: "But don't you think that was offensive?" Fuad Al-Hashem: "If that was offensive, I wish they had offended us in such a trivial way during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and had accused us of something, or objected to something that way. But they supported the Iraqi invasion, and that is something we will never forget. [...] "The Al-Watan newspaper has many Palestinian workers, and I help many of them..." Interviewer: "You help them personally?" Fuad Al-Hashem: "Yes, I help pay for their children's schooling. They are wretched people. They are the victims of their leaders and their regime, who flung them into this wilderness. Look at the price that the Palestinian people paid for the position taken by the late Arafat regarding the invasion of Kuwait. Look what happened to the Palestinians in the Gulf." More at MEMRI
 A CANADIAN journalist freed by Somali kidnappers today with Australian Nigel Brennan says she was beaten and tortured during her 15 months in captivity. Ms Lindhout said they were released today after a ransom "was paid by our families" to the kidnappers, she told Canadian television in a telephone interview from the hotel in Mogadishu were they were taken by Somali officials. "I believe they are taking that money and, as far as I understand, they plan on leaving the country," Ms Lindhout told CTV News Channel. "It's a long story. It's been sort of going on for the last couple of weeks, and tonight finally everything came together and the men who had kidnapped us turned us over to the federal government in Somalia." Ms Lindhout said she was beaten and tortured while in captivity. "It was extremely oppressive. I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day," she said. "There were times that I was beaten, that I was tortured. It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation." She said the kidnappers told her they were beating her because the money "wasn't coming quickly enough". "They seemed to think that if they beat me enough, then when I was able to speak to my mother - which they would put me on the line with her every couple of months - that I would be able to say the right thing to convince her to pay the ransom for me, which was $1 million," she said. "Of course, my family didn't have $1 million and it didn't matter what I said to them. But they didn't really understand that. They thought: She's Canadian, everyone in Canada is rich. She must have $1 million." One of the kidnappers, who refused to identify himself, said that a ransom of $US1 million ($1.08 million) had been paid for the pair's release. Their release was confirmed by an independent source in the Somali capital Mogadishu to an AFP journalist. Ms Lindhout and Mr Brennan were in a Mogadishu hotel today, pending their departure from Somalia tomorrow. A hotel employee said the two journalists were "very tired" following the end of their ordeal, one of the longest-running of many kidnappings in the lawless country. Mr Brennan has told Australia's Channel 7 network he is relieved and safe and looking forward to going home. A Somali journalist and two drivers were also taken hostage but were freed after 177 days in captivity. They were unable to identify their captors or the motives for the kidnappings. The Australian
 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's king waived a flogging sentence on a female journalist charged for involvement in a risque TV show, the second such pardoning of such a high profile case by the monarch in recent years. King Abdullah's decision to waive 22-year-old journalist Rozanna al-Yami's sentence of 60 lashes by a judge in Jiddah follows intense international media attention. The journalist was charged with helping coordinate a talk show on a Lebanese channel featuring a Saudi man describing what appeared to be his active sex life. Though the charges against her were dropped, the judge ordered the flogging as a "deterent" al-Yami said. In November 2007, the king waived a flogging sentence of 90 lashes against a rape victim for being alone in a car with an unrelated man shortly before the two were attacked. The case also evoked international outrage over the Saudi judiciary. On Monday, Information Ministry spokesman Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza told The Associated Press that the king waived the sentence and ordered al-Yami's case and that of another journalist — a pregnant woman also accused of involvement in the program — be referred to a committee in the ministry. Al-Hazza said the king made his decision after he was briefed by Information Minister Abdel Aziz Khoja. The committee, which usually has a Justice Ministry representative but no judges sitting on it, deals with media-related violations, al-Hazza said. Al-Yami, 22, worked as a coordinator for the program but has denied involvement in the sex-related episode. The case started in July, when the Lebanese LBC satellite channel aired the sex talk episode as part of its program entitled "Bold Red Line." In the episode, a divorced Saudi father of four who works for the national airline, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station in the footage shown on TV. The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad. The same judge at the Jiddah court also sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes. Three other men who appeared on the show were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each. The man's lawyer, Sulaiman al-Jumeii, maintains his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded. On Monday, he urged Khoja to intercede with the king to include all those involved in the case under the same Information Ministry committee. "They are being tried by a court that is not specialized in this issue and has not even summoned LBC or watched the raw film," he said in a statement. "Justice should not be divided as long as it is one case," he added. Source: Foxnews
 A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes. Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment.
The charges against her included involvement in the preparation of the program and advertising the segment on the Internet. Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and Information, told The Associated Press he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it. In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes. The man's lawyer, Sulaiman al-Jumeii, maintains his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded. On Saturday, he told the AP that not trying his client or al-Yami before a court specialized in media matters at the Ministry of Culture and Information was a violation of Saudi law. "It is a precedent to try a journalist before a summary court for an issue that concerns the nature of his job," he said. The case has scandalized this ultraconservative country where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly segregated. The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad, who works for the national airline. Three other men who appeared on the show, "Bold Red Line," were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each. Source: YNet
 VIENNA: Iranian negotiators last night agreed to consider a draft deal that - if accepted by the Tehran leadership - would delay its ability to make nuclear weapons by sending most of the material it would need to Russia for processing. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed that representatives of Iran and its three interlocutors -- the US, Russia and France -- had accepted the draft, which still has to be finalised by the four nations' capitals. He hoped that would occur by tomorrow night. "I have circulated a draft agreement that in my judgment reflects a balanced approach to how to move forward," he told reporters, suggesting that all four parties had worked hard to overcome differences exacerbated by suspicions that Iran may be interested in nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its activities are peaceful and meant only to generate energy. "Everybody who participated at the meeting was trying to look at the future, not at the past, trying to heal the wounds," Dr ElBaradei said. "I very much hope that people see the big picture, see that this agreement could open the way for a complete normalisation of relations between Iran and the international community." He gave no details of what was in the package. But diplomats said it was essentially the original proposal drawn up by the IAEA that would commit Tehran to shipping 75 per cent of its enriched uranium stockpile to Russia for further enrichment. After that material is turned into metal fuel rods, it would be shipped back to Iran to power its small research reactor in Tehran. While essentially technical, such a deal would have significant political and strategic ramifications. It would commit Iran to turn over more than 1200kg of low-enriched uranium. That would ease fears about Iran's nuclear program, since 1000kg is the amount of low-enriched uranium needed to produce weapons-grade uranium. Meanwhile, Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was detained for nearly four months in Iran, has been released to rejoin his pregnant wife. Bahari, 43, was one of hundreds arrested on June 21 during the crackdown that followed the country's disputed presidential election. Source: The Australian
 TEHRAN: An Iranian-American man has been sentenced to 15 years in an Iranian prison for his role in protests after the disputed presidential election in June, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Tuesday. The United States is "deeply concerned" that Kian Tajbakhsh has been sentenced to prison, spokesman Ian Kelly said. "Mr. Tajbakhsh poses no threat to the Iranian government or its national security," Kelly said. "Given the groundless nature of charges against him we call on Iran to grant his immediate release.
As an independent, internationally respected academic, Mr. Tajbakhsh has always sought to foster better understanding between Iran and the United States and Iran and the international community." Kelly said the prison sentence is for 15 years. Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA, reported that Tajbakhsh had been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. Tajbakhsh's attorney said he plans to appeal the verdict from Iran's Revolutionary Court, IRNA reported. Tajbakhsh was arrested in July and was one of more than 1,000 people detained following a massive government crackdown. He was tried along with nearly 100 others, including journalists, reformist leaders and former government ministers. Exactly what Tajbakhsh was convicted of was unclear. He had been accused of numerous charges, including plotting a "soft revolution" against the Iranian regime through his work with George Soros' Open Society Institute, according to IRNA. Tajbakhsh resigned from his position with the institute after he was arrested and detained for four months in 2007 on unspecified charges. He holds dual citizenship in Iran and the United States. Tajbakhsh was the only American among the nearly 100 people on trial for their role in the post-election unrest. The State Department has expressed its deep concern over Tajbakhsh's detention and trial and has called on Iran to release him. The protests were primarily against a decision by Iran's election authority, which declared incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner of the June 12 race. Opposition supporters accused the government of fraud. The mass trial included Tehran-based Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was released from prison on Saturday. Bahari, who is an Iranian and Canadian national, arrived in London, England, on Tuesday to witness the upcoming birth of his first child, the magazine reported. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the mass trial a "sign of weakness" that shows that the Islamic republic "is afraid of its own people." "It is a show trial, there's no doubt about it," Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria on his "GPS" program. "It demonstrates I think better than any of us could ever say that this Iranian leadership is afraid of their own people, and afraid of the truth and the facts coming out." Source: CNN
 An Iranian-Canadian journalist arrested during the protests that followed Iran's disputed presidential election has been freed, his magazine says. US magazine Newsweek said the journalist, Maziar Bahari, had been released on bail on Saturday. Mr Bahari was arrested on 21 June and put on trial with reformists accused of plotting against the Iranian regime. Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency reported that his bail had been set at 3bn rials ($300,000). Iranian TV also said Mr Bahari had been freed, citing a judicial statement. It was not immediately clear if the journalist was free to leave the country. Newsweek said in a statement that Mr Bahari was expecting his first child on 26 October and that the mother had experienced serious health complications. Humanitarian considerations were presumed to have played a role in the decision, it said. Mr Bahari, 42, is a reporter and documentary maker who had been accredited to work in Iran for more than a decade. He was arrested during the mass protests that took place after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner in June 12 elections. Opponents said the vote was rigged. According to reports on Newsweek's website he had been held in Evin prison without access to his family or lawyers. The ILNA report said he had been charged with plotting against the regime by sending false election reports, disrupting public order by participating in illegal gatherings, and holding classified documents. Other reports have said the charges against him included espionage and acting against Iran's national security. After trial hearings, Mr Bahari told a press conference that Western media had tried to foment a "velvet revolution" in Iran. Critics have dismissed the trials that followed the Iranian demonstrations as show trials, arguing that any confessions that followed are without value. Source: BBC
Morocco-France: Mysterious disappearance of an anti-fasting journalist
Wednesday 23 September 2009 / by Stéphanie Plasse Zineb El-Rahzoui’s disappearance, Thursday, has innondated the Moroccan media. For some six days now, members of her family and the Moroccan Association of Human Rights are desperately seeking the founder of the Movement for alternative civil liberties (MALI). September 13, the activist took part in a "non-fasters" demonstration in Morocco to protest against a law that punishes "public non-observation of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan." Read more: http://en.afrik.com/article16203.html H/T: WomenAgainstShariah.blogspot.com
 By Khaled Abu ToamehFor decades, the profession of journalism has been one of the most dangerous in the Arab world. The truth and facts are often sacrificed for the sake of “preserving the higher national interests of the people” and “to avoid playing into the hands of the enemies of the people.” A journalist is taught that his main mission is to be loyal first and foremost to his president or monarch and then to his government and homeland. In this world, Arab dictators are above any form of criticism. When was the last time one read an article in a newspaper published in an Arab capital that criticized the leader of that country? Not only are journalists and editors banned from criticizing their leaders, they are also prohibited from publishing any material that may, God forbid, be interpreted as “offensive” to His Excellency or His Majesty. The official media in the Arab world is often under the control of the Ministry of Information, which appoints editors and journalists, and pays their salaries. Under the Arab dictatorships, there has never been room for freedom of expression. These dictatorships have their own media, which actually serve as a mouthpiece for the ruler and his family and close friends. In Morocco, for instance, five local journalists will go on trial later this month after they published articles about King Mohammed VI’s health. The journalists work for Al-Jarida, Al-Ayam, Al-Oula and Al-Mishaal newspapers. Read more here ...Source: Hudson New York
 THE Iraqi journalist who was jailed for throwing his shoes at George W Bush says he wants to move to Switzerland and rally Iraqis to take the ex-US president to court. "I really want to go to Switzerland because it is a neutral country and because it is a country that did not support the occupation of Iraq," Muntazer al-Zaidi told TSR television in an interview broadcast overnight. "Switzerland hosts many international organisations, including some that fight for children, and Switzerland is a country that has a great democratic tradition. It is an example for the world," he said in an interview taped on Thursday from an undisclosed location. Mr Zaidi, who says he was tortured while in prison, was freed last week after being jailed for nine months for hurling the shoes at Mr Bush last December during a Baghdad press conference one month before he stood down as US president. His employer, Al-Baghdadia TV station in Baghdad, and a family member have said that Mr Zaidi had left Iraq for Syria and would travel on to Greece for medical treatment. Mr Zaidi told TSR that he wants to launch a "vast operation" to rally Iraqi families in order to lodge a legal complaint against Bush. Mr Bush and his collaborators should face trial in an international tribunal for "war crimes committed during the occupation of Iraq," he said. Mr Zaidi told the Swiss broadcaster that he was beaten with metal bars, tortured with electric cables and endured simulated drowning during his detention. A lawyer in Geneva said in February that he had lodged a political asylum application on Mr Zaidi's behalf. But one of Mr Zaidi's brothers had denied this at the time, calling it a "lie." The newsman was initially sentenced to three years for assaulting a foreign head of state, but had this reduced to one year on appeal. His sentence was cut further for good behaviour. Source: The Australian
 Richard Kerbaj Muntazer al-Zaidi has been behind bars ever since he shouted "It is the farewell kiss, you dog", at Mr Bush on December 14 last year, then hurled his size-10s at the man who ordered Iraq be invaded and occupied 6 1/2 years ago. Mr Zaidi's three-year sentence for assault was cut to one year on appeal because he had no criminal record. He was released three months early for good behaviour. The 30-year-old's eldest brother, Uday, claimed yesterday that prison doctors repeatedly injected "unknown substances" into his body, and that he was burnt with cigarettes and had his nose and ribs broken. Uday said hospital specialists in Greece were expecting the reporter's arrival after his visa was recently approved. "We decided as a family for him to go for physical and psychological treatment in Greece," Uday said at his brother's flat in central Baghdad. One of Mr Zaidi's three brothers will accompany him. Uday alleged that his brother, a television journalist, was given injections by prison staff against his will. He said doctors told his brother they were treating him for migraines and stress. Mr Zaidi was imprisoned at an Iraqi military compound at the former al-Muthanna airport in Baghdad. Uday said his brother had been burned with "cigarettes behind his ears, had his ribs and nose broken".
He said the torture was the result of Mr Zaidi's refusal to write and sign a letter of apology to Mr Bush and to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was standing next to Mr Bush during the incident. The attack made Mr Zaidi a hero across parts of the Arab and Muslim world, where shoe-throwing is considered a very grave insult. Although Mr Bush, who successfully ducked to avoid the speeding footwear, laughed off the attack, the incident caused acute embarrassment to him and Mr Maliki. Mr Zaidi's boss at al-Baghdadia Television has promised the previously little-known reporter a new home as a reward for loyalty and the publicity that his actions generated for the station. There was also talk of plum job offers from bigger Arab networks, lavish gifts such as sports cars from businessmen, guaranteed celebrity status, and reports that many Arab women want his hand in marriage. But Mr Zaidi did not wish to return to journalism, nor enter politics, and planned instead to set up a human rights group, his brother said. "He wants to do something to help the Iraqi people," Uday said. "And he has done more to help Iraqi people with his defiance than any politician has." Source: The Australian
 The British journalist recently freed in a NATO military operation described his Taliban hostage-takers as "hopelessly inept," and praised his Afghan colleague who died in the rescue.
New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell described his four days in captivity in a blog on the newspaper's Web site, posted late Wednesday just hours after he was freed. Taliban militants kidnapped Farrell and Afghan journalist, Sultan Munadi, on Saturday. During a pre-dawn raid Wednesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force plucked Farrell to safety, but did not retrieve the body of Munadi, who died during a fierce firefight between troops and Taliban militants.
A British commando was also killed, as were a woman and child. There has been criticism about the rescue operation as well as the initial decision to go into the region which Farrell points out in his blog, "was becoming more troubled by insurgents." International troops, including British forces, have expressed their unhappiness about having to extract a Western journalist from the area, a Western military source in Kabul told CNN.
Meanwhile, NATO has come under fire from a coalition of Afghan journalists working for foreign news outlets who called the pre-dawn raid "reckless and double-standard behavior." The Media Club of Afghanistan issued a statement Thursday saying it "holds the international forces responsible for the death of Mr. Munadi because they resorted in military action before exhausting other nonviolent means." "There is no justification for the international forces to rescue their own national, and retrieve the dead body of their own soldier killed in action, but leave behind the dead body of Sultan Munadi in the area. The MCA deems this action as inhumane." Read more here,,,, Source: CNN
 The killing of an Afghan journalist in a rescue operation to free him and a colleague from Taliban capture has sparked calls for an inquiry into his death. Sultan Munadi was killed during a British Special Forces raid on the compound where they were being held early on Wednesday morning. Stephen Farrell, a reporter for The New York Times, was rescued unhurt. Vincent Brossel, regional head at Reporters Without Borders, told Al Jazeera: "It is not clear at all what happened and that is why we asked the Afghan Journalists Organisation to appeal to the British government to launch an investigation. "We must know exactly what happened because it is not clear; We don't have any clear hypothesis, and we need the truth because there is a lot of anger amongst Afghan journalists. "He was a very respected and senior journalist in Afghanistan, so we must know the truth." Farrell, in a report on the newspaper's website, said: "We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid. "There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices." Farrell said Munadi went forward shouting "Journalist!" but fell in a burst of gunfire, which Farrell said could have been from the rescuers or the kidnappers. Farrell, a 46-year-old with dual Irish-British nationality, is the second New York Times journalist to be captured in less than a year. David Rohde was held in Afghanistan and Pakistan for seven months until June, when the newspaper says he escaped from captivity in Pakistan. Farrell and Munadi were abducted earlier this month while attempting to visit the scene of a Nato air attack in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. Read more here,,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 A Sudanese woman who was imprisoned for wearing trousers deemed "indecent" has been released after the country's journalist union paid a $200 fine on her behalf. Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who had been found guilty of flouting the country's decency laws, said after being released on Tuesday that the fine had been paid without her permission. "I am not happy. I told all my friends and family not to pay the fine," she said. A Khartoum court on Monday ordered al-Hussein to pay a fine or face a month in jail, but she was spared a possible penalty of 40 lashes. Al-Hussein refused to pay, preferring to go to jail as a means of challenging Sudan's public order act. Al-Hussein, a former reporter working for the United Nations at the time of her arrest, said she believed there had been political pressure to free her and bring an end to the case, which has brought attention from media and rights organisations worldwide. Mohieddin Titawi, the chairman of the journalists' union, said his group had paid the fine because it had a responsibility to "protect journalists when they are in prison". Al-Hussein was arrested during a raid at a restaurant in Khartoum in July for wearing a pair of green slacks which she later wore in the court hearings. Ten other women arrested along with al-Hussein have already been whipped for their offence. Al-Hussein and two others decided to appeal in protest of Article 152 of the Sudanese penal code, which decrees up to 40 lashes for anyone "who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing". Al-Hussein has said her clothes were respectable and that she did not break the law. She has also said Article 152 "is both against the constitution and sharia [Islamic law]" and that nothing in the Quran says that women should be flogged over what they wear. Last year nearly 43,000 women were detained for indecent clothing offences in Khartoum region, according to al-Hussein's supporters. Women's groups have complained that the law gives no clear definition of indecent dress, leaving the decision of whether to arrest a woman up to individual police officers. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 By Kim Sengupta in Kabul Conservative and religious groups in Afghanistan reacted with fury yesterday to the news that Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to death for promoting women's rights, has been freed. After President Hamid Karzai secretly pardoned the 24-year-old student, hardliners called for an urgent ulama, a meeting of Islamic scholars, to organise protests against the decision. Mr Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, said he was "very glad, very happy" at what had happened, and human rights organisations and a number of liberal parliamentarians welcomed the news. The fate of Mr Kambaksh became a cause célèbre after his plight was revealed by The Independent. A petition to secure justice secured more than 100,000 signatures and the Afghan government came under pressure from Western leaders to free him. Mr Kambaksh's original death sentence was set aside by Afghanistan's Supreme Court. But the judges ruled that he must serve at least 20 years in prison. Following the presidential amnesty he is now starting a life with a new identity in another country after 20 months of incarceration. Mr Ibrahimi said: "We are all very happy that so much progress has been made with Pervez and I want to thank all the people who have helped in this. I have to be careful about what I say but, of course, Pervez should never have been put in that position, it was wrong. The family is very glad he is out." Read more here,,,, Source: The Independent H/T: JihadWatch
 by Khaled Abu Toameh The article in the Swedish tabloid that suggested that Israel has been killing Palestinians to harvest their organs has caused huge damage to the Palestinians’ cause and the profession of journalism. If the tabloid’s goal was to help the Palestinians, then it is clear that the article has had a boomerang effect.
As one Palestinian journalist put it, “This is a nice story, but it’s harmful to the Palestinians because it’s not based on any evidence. Who’s going to believe us the next time we cry ‘Wolf!’” The “investigative report,” which is based on a rumor that has been circulating among Palestinians for many years, makes it more difficult for Palestinians to market their perspectives and views to the world. The journalist who wrote the report has since admitted that he does not have any proof to back up his allegations.
Even the family at the center of the article, the Ghanems from the village of Imattin in the West Bank, say that they do not recall that they had ever complained to a Swedish journalist that the organs of their son, Bilal, had been removed after his death.
 By Alan Caruba According to the August 6 DEBKAfile, the three American hostages that Iran is now holding are all likely to be declared “Israeli spies” and put on trial as such. That’s a hanging offense.Frankly, my first thought was this: How STUPID do you have to be (a) American, (b) Jewish, and (c) hiking along an unidentified area close to the border or possibly in Iran? My second thought was: Since all three have writing credits with legitimate publications, might they, like the two Chinese-American girls, also be considered “journalists”? And, if so, is there a private plane warming up to send former President Clinton to do some official or unofficial groveling on behalf of the greatest superpower in the world? That’s not going to happen. The three hostages are Shane Bauer from California who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, and New American Media, all liberal to the core. I suspect young Bauer will return, if he is not hung, a conservative. His partner, Sarah Short, also from California, writes for Matador, whatever that is, and Joshua Steel Petel, from Oregon, a former yeshiva student, writes for Jewish Week. Oy! They range in age from 27 to 30. How does one reach the age of 30 and not know that Iran has been hostile to the United States and Israel since its Islamist Revolution in 1979? Read more here ...
As millions of Iranians struggle to overthrow their regime, the U.S. makes a humiliating and dangerous concession to the mullahs.I’ll Give You Dozens of Terrorists,
You Give Me One Journalist, OK?It’s a bit more complicated than that, but the bottom line is that we are turning loose Iranian terrorists in exchange for the release of Roxana Saberi, plus, probably, three British hostages. The first payment arrived today in Tehran, to a triumphant reception. Ugh. The terrorists in question are officers in the Iranian Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards Corps. They were captured in Irbil, Iraq, in January, 2007, as the “surge” was getting under way. A few weeks earlier, other Iranians had been arrested in Baghdad. For our military leaders, it was an open and shut case. The Iranian military officers had been involved in several operations in which Americans had been killed, and, even though they claimed “diplomatic status,” the evidence against them was thoroughly convincing. One American official who saw the documentation at the time told me “they are not just enemies; they’re criminals.” Nonetheless, from the very beginning, powerful American officials argued that the Iranian terrorists should be handled on an “arrest and release” basis, because to hold them for any significant length of time would enrage the mullahs. Read more ... Source: PJM
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