 Sudan is accusing the upcoming Danish movie by Susanne Bier of being in the same class as the Muhammmed cartoons. Sudan's government are upset at the Danish movie Civilization ("Hævnen", literally 'the revenge'), which director Susanne Bier is shooting in Kenya and Denmark. The movie is an extension of the anti-Islam Dutch movie "Fitna" and the Danish Muhammed cartoons, says the Sudanese foreign ministry.
Susanne Bier's movie is based on the war in Sudan's Darfur region, and follows the trail from refugee camps in Sudan to life in a town in South Funen.
Sudan's foreign ministry says in a press release that the people responsible for "Civilization" intend to "represent nonexistent conditions in Darfur" and that the movie represents a "new step of the hostile forces who work to prolong the war in Darfur."
The spokesperson for Sudan's foreign ministry, Muawiya Osman Khalid, says that the 'production of this racist movie should be seen as a new extension of the notorious 'Fitna' movie and the cartoons which insult the prophet Muhammed," the official Sudanese news agency Suna reported Tuesday.
Khalid says that the Danish film crew shot in the Kukobi refugee camp in Kenya, where, according to Khalid, the crew duped the refugees to get them to play war victims from Darfur for a price of 2000-5000 Kenyan Shillings.
The spokesperson for the Sudanese foreign ministry says that they residents of the Kukobi camp launched a campaign against the movie.
Actors Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen and Swedish Mikael Persbrandt appear in the film. The Danish Movie Institute gave the movie 7 million kroner, and it is expected in movie theaters this August.
Source: Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish)
With thanks to Islam in Europe
 American authorities announced that as of Monday, anyone traveling from or through nations regarded as state sponsors of terrorism — as well as "other countries of interest" — will be required to go through enhanced screening techniques before boarding flights. The Transportation Security Administration said those heightened security measures would include full-body pat-downs, carryon bag searches, full-body scanning and explosive detection technology. The U.S. State Department lists Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism. The other countries whose passengers will face enhanced screening include Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. The new measures followed the arrest of a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to set off an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. Germany announced increased security at all airports following the failed Christmas Day attack, but authorities on Monday said no further measures have been taken since. U.S. officials in Washington said the new security measures would be implemented Monday but there were few visible changes on the ground in Europe, which has thousands of passengers on hundreds of daily flights to the United States. Large hubs such as London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt alone account for 20-30 trans-Atlantic flights a day each. In Britain, a major international transport hub, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said he was still trying to decipher the practical implications for Britain of the new U.S. rules. He refused to give his name due to the sensitivity of the subject. In Switzerland, authorities were studying the new U.S. security measures, but so far the old controls were still in place, said Jean-Claude Donzel, spokesman for Swiss International Air Lines. And a security official in Spain, who spoke on condition on anonymity in line with agency rules, said U.S.-bound passengers from countries on the new watch list were not being singled out for body frisks. Muslim advocacy groups bristled at the new TSA rules and urged the agency to consider alternatives. “It comes pretty close to across-the-board profiling of Muslim travelers,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic relations, adding that it would unfairly single out not just foreigners but Muslim Americans traveling to see their families in the selected countries. “It only serves to alienate those whose hearts and minds we’re trying to win.” Alejandro Beutel, government liaison for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the ruling would cast such a wide net as to ultimately be ineffective. “We do see this as profiling, and profiling is very poor policing,” he said. Elsewhere in the world, there has been a general ramping up of security since Christmas. In Jordan, a key U.S. ally, security was beefed up at Amman's main international airport since the Christmas Day bombing attempt. An official at Queen Alia International Airport said "enhanced techniques" were being applied, especially in screening passengers bound for the United States. He declined to elaborate. Pakistan's national airline said it was intensifying security checks for U.S.-bound passengers, even though there are no direct flights to the States from Pakistan. Screening was also stepped up for those flying to the U.S. from other parts of Asia and the Middle East. "It is beyond my imagination what more they could do," said Nadim Umer, 40, a Karachi-based linen merchant who said he was subjected to a strip search when he arrived in New York last June. "Those who are dying to go to America at any cost can put up with all this inhuman behavior, but I cannot." A spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines said the company began applying the new security standards Jan. 1 on U.S.-bound passengers. Sultan Hasan said the passengers are subjected to special screening, including full body searches, in a designated area of the departure lounge. He said the airline had run advertisements in newspapers to warn prospective passengers of the increased safety measures. maintaining strict security standards at all airports for all flights. "We are already carrying out all possible security arrangements at our airports which can be compared with any Western airport," Pervez George, spokesman for Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority. "Safety of the airliners and passengers as well as security at the airports is a top priority and we are maintaining it irrespective where the flight is going." In South Korea, an official at Seoul's Incheon International Airport, Lee Ji-hye, said U.S.-bound passengers are now required to go through additional security before boarding their flights, and security officials also compile lists of "suspicious" passengers to monitor based on their nationalities, travel patterns and ticket purchases. Australian Transport Ministry spokeswoman Moksha Watts said all passengers flying to the U.S. would continue to be patted down and have all their cabin luggage searched. Baghdad's International Airport already has extremely tight security, with passengers having their luggage sniffed by dogs and getting patted down before entering the airport. "Our security procedures at the airport are more intensified than that in any other airport in the world," said security official Umran Idris. Maayan Malkin, spokeswoman for Israel Airports Authority, declined to discuss security arrangements. The Ben-Gurion International airport is considered one of the safest in the world. FoxNews 
 By Nina Lakhani Hundreds of British schoolgirls are facing the terrifying prospect of female genital mutilation (FGM) over the Christmas holidays as experts warn the practice continues to flourish across the country. Parents typically take their daughters back to their country of origin for FGM during school holidays, but The Independent on Sunday has been told that "cutters" are being flown to the UK to carry out the mutilation at "parties" involving up to 20 girls to save money. The police face growing criticism for failing to prosecute a single person for carrying out FGM in 25 years; new legislation from 2003 which prohibits taking a girl overseas for FGM has also failed to secure a conviction. Experts say the lack of convictions, combined with the Government's failure to invest enough money in education and prevention strategies, mean the practice continues to thrive. Knowledge of the health risks and of the legislation remains patchy among practising communities, while beliefs about the supposed benefits for girls remain firm, according to research by the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development.
As a result, specialist doctors and midwives are struggling to cope with increasing numbers of women suffering from long-term health problems, including complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Campaigners are urging ministers to take co-ordinated steps to work with communities here and overseas to change deep-seated cultural attitudes and stamp out this extreme form of violence against women. The author and life peer Ruth Rendell, who has campaigned against FGM for 10 years, said: "When I helped take the Bill through Parliament seven years ago, I was very hopeful that we'd get convictions and that would then act as a deterrent for other people. But that has never happened and my heart bleeds for these girls.
This mutilation is forever; nothing can be done to restore the clitoris, and that is just very sad for them. I have repeatedly asked questions of ministers from all departments about why there has never been a prosecution and why we still do not have a register of cases. But while they are always very sympathetic, nothing ever seems to get done. Teachers must not be squeamish and must talk to their girls so we can try and prevent it from happening." FGM is classified into four types, of varying severity; type 3 is the most mutilating and involves total removal of the clitoris, labia and a narrowing of the whole vagina. An estimated 70,000 women living in the UK have undergone FGM, and 20,000 girls remain at risk, according to Forward.
The practice is common in 28 African countries, including Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria, as well as some Middle Eastern and Asian countries such as Malaysia and Yemen.
It is generally considered to be an essential rite of passage to suppress sexual pleasure, preserve girls' purity and cleanliness, and is necessary for marriage in many communities even now. More at the Independent
 An economy in meltdown, a President of the Republic indicted for crimes against humanity, and a ruling clique fighting among themselves as piranhas in a pool. The last thing the Sudan, one of Africa's martyred nations, wanted was a new round of violence shaking its foundations. Yet, this is what happened on Monday as demonstrators took to the streets to call for an end to a despotic regime imposed with a military coup in 1989. Although spearheaded by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a southern outfit campaigning for independence from Khartoum, the demonstrations attracted a range of opposition parties from across the country.
Protestors sacked President General Omar al-Bashir's offices in a number of key cities in the south, the west and the north. By mid-week, it had become clear that the movement enjoyed support from a broad spectrum of political groups, from the secular left to the Islamists led by Hassan al-Turabi, a former ally and, later, a prisoner of al-Bashir's. Even the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), an artificial concoction designed to offer despotism a democratic fig leaf, is now split. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the president and his entourage no longer enjoy any significant support base. President al-Bashir has always tried to justify his rule with the claim that he is the man who ended the north-south civil war that started in the 1950s, reaching its most intense phase from 1983 to 2005. According to estimates by the United Nations, this was Africa's longest war and, having claimed 2.5 million lives, the costliest in human terms. With almost 12 years of fighting, General al-Bashir's regime was responsible for at least half of those victims. Add to that the estimated two million believed to have died in the Darfur tragedy, and the general's record emerges as one of the bloodiest in modern African history. There are times when history dictates the closing chapters even of the longest surviving rulers. Today, it seems that General al-Bashir's rule is becoming the subject of precisely such a final chapter. The NCP regime may have reached the end of the line not only because of its disastrous political record, massive and well-documented corruption, and sheer brutality. The main reason it is in trouble is its perceived incompetence, its obvious inability to offer a roadmap for the major problems the nation faces. Today, the general looks like the Wizard of Oz at the end of the saga when he has to admit that he does not know how to lead Dorothy back to her home in Kansas.
It no longer matters whether he is a good man. What matters is that he is a bad wizard. More at Asharq Alawsat
 By Ryan Mauro The rationale for pushing forward in Afghanistan is that it is the “right” war, the “war of necessity,” the true base of the terrorists that attacked us on 9/11 and would try to attack us again. Essentially, those opposing the war in Iraq while supporting the war in Afghanistan try to frame the latter conflict as justified in every way the former is not.
As the war in Iraq ever so slowly comes to a close and the history books begin being written, new evidence has emerged to challenge the narrative that the war in Iraq was something different than the war on terror. The timing, justification, and prosecution of the war in Iraq will forever be debated, but a fair assessment of documents, studies, and testimony will show that Saddam Hussein’s regime was a supporter and active participant in radical Islamic terrorism. The lead prosecutor of Saddam Hussein, Ja’far al-Musawi, says that he has seen official documents that prove that his regime was involved with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Last year, a Kurdish newspaper published an Iraqi intelligence document from 2002 referencing a proposed meeting with al-Zawahiri to discuss a “revenge operation” against Saudi Arabia at Saddam Hussein’s request. If previous ties had not been maintained and if there was such hostility between the secularist government of Saddam and al-Qaeda as is assumed, such a plan would never have been hatched by Saddam or been acted upon by his intelligence service. A source at the Iraq Memory Foundation, which is going through thousands of files to document Saddam Hussein’s reign, has reported that they have seen documents showing a link between Saddam and al-Qaeda.
One document dated December 12, 1994, reveals that Uday Hussein received a message from Osama bin Laden via a Sudanese politician requesting an alliance. A meeting between bin Laden, an Iraqi government representative, and the Sudanese official then happened on January 11, 1995, where cooperation in attacking foreign forces in Saudi Arabia was discussed.
The foundation said another file shows that Iraqi intelligence suggested to bin Laden that he leave Sudan for security reasons and that the ties continued after he moved to Afghanistan. Another document dated March 28, 1992, describes bin Laden as being “in a good relationship” with Iraqi intelligence in Syria. Other documents have provided immense detail of the Saddam-terror connection. Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister of Iraq, said that his government collected proof of such ties. He said that Ayman al-Zawahiri attended the Popular Islamic Conference in Baghdad in 1999, an event chaired by the Iraqi vice president that brought together representatives of terrorist groups from around the world.
Allawi said that Iraqi intelligence facilitated the travel of Ansar al-Islam operatives in the north, and he confirmed that the U.S. gave intelligence to Iraq via Jordan about the location of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq in 2002, but the Iraqis did not take any action. Mark Eichenlaub of RegimeOfTerror.com did an interview this summer with Matthew Degn, a former senior advisor to the Iraqi Interior Ministry and a U.S. Army civilian interrogator, about this topic. Degn said that Saddam’s government used the hawala system, which is an unofficial banking system involving a network of brokers to transfer funds with no documentation, to fund elements of al-Qaeda that were willing to work across ideological lines.
Degn said that al-Qaeda had at least two training camps in Iraq, specifically in Anbar Province and the western part of the country, and that at least two cells operated, one loyal to Zarqawi and another to Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
Degn also said there is evidence that Iraq sponsored attacks on American forces in Kuwait. Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com and the director of intelligence at the Asymmetrical Warfare and Intelligence Center (AWIC). He’s also the national security researcher for the Christian Action Network and a published author. He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com. More at Pajamas Media
 'Ambassadors' to fight against female genital mutilation were appointed by the deputy health minister Jet Bussemaker on Wednesday.The ambassadors, who were appointed at an international conference to fight female genital mutilation in The Hague, are from African communities in the Netherlands. They will pass on information on the dangers of female genital mutilation to parents who originally come from countries where the custom is practiced, such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. In a TV interview on Tuesday, Bussemaker stressed that apart from causing terrible pain, female genital mutilation, also referred to as female circumcision or genital cutting, deprives women of their sexuality and carries grave lifelong health risks. (..) Bussemaker also used the conference as a platform to launch a scheme after a French model whereby parents from high-risk countries are invited to sign a contract in which they undertake not to subject their daughters to genital mutilation. The scheme is aimed at helping parents resist pressure from relatives by showing them the signed contract. It states that female genital mutilation is illegal in the Netherlands, and the parents risk prosecution if they allow it to be performed on their daughters. ( more)
 PARIS - She managed to leave Sudan hidden beneath a niqab. The journalist who was put in jail in her country, Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, for dearing to wear "indecent" pants arrived in Paris with a "courageousness that is important for Arab and African women", underlined French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, who received her on the eve of the World Day against Violence Against Women.
"The article of the penal code, which according to the judges that sentenced me, bans women from wearing pants does not exist, it exists only in their heads," underlined the journalist who was put in jail in July together with other women who were wearing pants. Since they pled guilty, the women were whipped as punishment. Lubna refused and ended up in jail.
She was released from jail on parole and in the meantime wrote a book, "40 coups de fouet pour un pantalon" (40 lashes for a pair of pants) published by Plon, which will presented tomorrow morning to Cape, the foreign press association in Paris, for the initiative of the Arab press club and the association for the defence of women, Ni Putes Ni Soumises (neither whores nor subjects).
In the book, in addition to telling her story, Lubna writes about the condition of women in her country where sharia law is applied.
 At least 47 people have been killed in tribal clashes that followed an attempted cattle raid in South Sudan. Armed men from the Mundari ethnic group launched attacks on Monday on two villages that belong to the Dinka Aliap tribe, part of the south's largest ethnic group, an army spokesman said on Wednesday. "On the side of the Dinka 10 were killed and 16 wounded. From the side of the Mundari 37 bodies were found on the ground," Kuol Deim Kuol, a southern army spokesman, said. "They [the Mundari] did not manage to take any cattle." The two groups have a long and bloody history of tit-for-tat cattle raiding.
Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for South Sudan, said that she was hearing reports that up to 10,000 people could have been displaced by the latest violence.
"This particular raid comes on top of five other raids, the most recent in September. In that raid about 5,000 people were displaced and at least 10 were killed," she told Al Jazeera.
"What you have is a spiralling attack and counter-attack, this being the most recent unfortunate incident."
The sharp rise in tribal violence in recent months has killed more than 2,000 people, including many women and children, and displaced another 250,000 people, the United Nations has said.
The website of the UN-funded Miraya FM radio station confirmed Monday's incident, reporting that it disrupted voter registration for national and presidential elections due to be held in April next year.
The process, which the south's leading party has said has been slow and underfunded by Sudan's National Electoral Commission, has already been hindered by tribal fighting this month.
The Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has also blamed at least some of the inter-tribal fighting on interference by Khartoum, which they say is arming civilians and militias to cause unrest ahead of the elections and a 2011 referendum on southern independence. Others have said the blame should be partly put on rivalry between southern leaders, complicated by the 20-year war that often pitched southern ethnic groups against each other. Al Jazeera (English)
 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Israel on Sunday as he came to the defense of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who faces worldwide condemnation for the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of his country. Addressing members of his party, Erdogan said he preferred meeting with Bashir over meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “I wouldn't be able to speak with Netanyahu so comfortably as I would with Bashir,” he was quoted by Turkish media as saying. “I would say to [Bashir's] face, 'What you've done is wrong.'” Erdogan's remark joined several other recent anti-Israel statements that have led to a cooling of ties between Israel and Turkey in recent months. Erdogan claimed to know that Bashir is innocent, and that there is no genocide taking place in Sudan. “A Muslim can never commit genocide,” he said in explanation. “It's not possible.” The Turkish PM added that he had visited Darfur and did not see evidence of genocide during his trip. Bashir announced Sunday that he would postpone a planned visit in Turkey, where he was to attend a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
While Turkish media reported that Bashir may come on Monday or Tuesday instead of Sunday, the Reuters news service reported that Bashir's visit had been canceled due to an international arrest warrant against him for crimes against humanity. The United Nations and international activist groups believe that up to 300,000 people have been killed in fighting in Sudan's Darfur regions, where they say government-backed Arab Muslim militias are slaughtering local black African Muslims.
The Sudanese government denies committing genocide. Source: INN
 Southern Sudan may secede from the Muslim-dominated north of the country in an upcoming referendum because unity has become "unattractive," the south's leader said Monday. Salva Kiir accused the Khartoum government of never making "unity an attractive option" for the mostly Christian and animist southerners. Sudan's savage two-decade civil war ended in a 2005 peace agreement that included a provision for a 2011 referendum for the southerners to choose if they wanted to remain in the country. A southern decision to secede could well reignite one of Africa's worst conflicts, claiming 2 million lives. "There is hope that Sudan may stay united if the other party is serious," Kiir told reporters after a meeting Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss Sudan's conflicts. Kiir also accused the northern government of failing to implement fully the peace agreement including the demarcation of the oil-rich border region between the north and the south. He said the maps should be ready next month. The peace deal put an end to the 21-year-old civil war between the mostly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south that left 2 million people dead and 4 million displaced. But the deal is plagued by distrust between the two sides and has repeatedly threatened to unravel, bringing to the two sides to the brink of war. Under the deal, Sudan is to hold key parliamentary and presidential elections in April — the first national elections to include all of South Sudan in four decades — as well as the referendum. In both cases, smooth elections are seen as crucial for keeping peace. But disputes have arisen between north and south over census results, which are the basis for drawing election constituencies. The two have also yet to agree on north-south borders, an already explosive issue because it also involve dividing oil and grazing rights. The U.S. has been actively pushing the two sides to iron out their differences over the votes, considered vital to prevent a return to war. A disagreement over how to conduct the referendum has been settled recently. But southern lawmakers are now boycotting parliament to pressure the northern government to discuss election-related laws, such as press freedom and a security bill, ahead of the vote. In Monday's statement Kiir refused to postpone both the election and the referendum. "So far we have agreed to hold the elections in 2010. I hope this happens." Source: FoxNews
 From Reuters, via iol.co.za: Two Sudanese women were on Thursday sentenced to 20 lashes and fined for committing an act of indecency by wearing trousers, weeks after a similar case sparked worldwide controversy.
The two women were arrested at the same party as Lubna Hussein, a former journalist who was also charged with wearing trousers and publicised her case as part of a campaign against Sudan's public order laws, Hussein told Reuters.
Judge Hassan Mohamed Ali sentenced each woman to 20 lashes and a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds in Khartoum East court on Thursday afternoon.
The women's supporters told journalists the punishment, often carried out immediately after a conviction, was postponed after the women launched an appeal.
Hussein, who was at the court on Thursday said the latest sentencing showed her campaign still had a long way to go.
"The campaign has succeeded in showing the world that there are unfair laws against women in Sudan. But we will keep on fighting," she said.
The two women, one aged 25, the other 27, both of them Muslim, would not give their names to journalists.
Lawyers and supporters at the trial also said they would not release the names as the women came from conservative families.
Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan, where there is a cultural gap between the mostly Muslim north and the south, dominated by Christians and followers of traditional beliefs.
Many women activists complain Sudan's public order regulations are vague and give individual police officers undue latitude to determine what is decent clothing for women.
Hussein was arrested by Sudan's public order police at a Khartoum party in July with 12 other women, 10 of whom pleaded guilty to similar charges and were flogged, she has said.
Hussein was jailed in September after refusing to pay a fine for the same offence but released after a day in prison after the country's journalists' union came up with the payment.
 CAIRO — Security guards thwarted an attempted hijacking Wednesday on an EgyptAir flight from Istanbul to Cairo by overpowering a man who threatened crew with a knife, a security official for the airline said. A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.
Guards on the flight were able to detain the man and no one was hurt, he said. The flight landed safely at Cairo airport, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not an official spokesman. Turkish aviation authorities did not immediately have any information on the incident. Source: FoxNews
 The US has said it will renew tough economic sanctions against Sudan soon, but also promised broad engagement with Khartoum in an effort to end the "ongoing dire human consequences of genocide" in Darfur. Barack Obama, the US president, said that if the government of Sudan acted to improve the situation on the ground, there would be "incentives". But if Sudan did not act, "then there will be increased pressure imposed by the US and the international community". The UN estimates that as many as 300,000 people have died and more than two million have been driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, when mostly non-Arab fighters took up arms against the Khartoum government. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said genocide was taking place in the region and that Washington's focus would be on protecting civilians, helping displaced persons and ensuring that fighters were disarmed. In his statement on Monday, Obama said: "Sudan is now poised to fall further into chaos if swift action is not taken. "First, we must seek a definitive end to conflict, gross human-rights abuses and genocide in Darfur. "Second, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South in Sudan must be implemented to create the possibility of long-term peace." Clinton said the new Obama policy toward Sudan would include "a menu of incentives and disincentives" but refused to specify what they might be. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, has ordered an immediate end to state censorship of the media ahead of the country's first elections in almost 25 years. In a decree carried by the official Suna news agency on Sunday, al-Bashir put an end to "pre-censorship", the system where newspapers are screened by state censors before being available to the public. "We had a meeting with President al-Bashir. He ordered a stop to censorship from today," Ali Shomo, the chairman of Sudan's national press council, the state regulator, said. Editors gave the announcement a cautious welcome, but some said they would still face pressure over sensitive stories. Sudan's Ajras al-Huriya newspaper, which is linked to the former southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement, warned that journalists would still face pressure when writing about Darfur and other highly charged topics. "There is no way they [the security services] are going to tolerate anything about security, about the International Criminal Court," said Faisal Silaik, the paper's deputy editor-in-chief. Sudan's journalists have complained of regular censorship, saying security officers often visit their offices to check and sometimes remove articles ahead of publication, despite constitutional guarantees of a free media. Editors say print-runs have been seized and titles shut down, particularly when writers tried to tackle controversial subjects such as the Darfur conflict and the International Criminal Court's war crimes case against al-Bashir. Fadlallah Mohamed, the editor of independent al-Khartoum newspaper, said the move was "important" ahead of the national election due in April 2010 under the terms of a faltering 2005 peace deal that ended the country's north-south civil war. "Censorship is contrary to free press in Sudan," he said. "We are expecting the general election. It is very important to have a free press in such circumstances." Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 More than 100 people have been killed in clashes in the Jonglei state in southern Sudan, officials have said. The extent of the clashes, which erupted one day earlier when fighters from the Lou Nuer tribe raided a rival village, emerged on Monday after officials reached the remote settlement. Kuol Diem Kuol, a spokesman for the South's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said a total of 51 villagers and 28 soldiers, police and national security officers had been killed. "From the attackers, 23 bodies were found on the ground. These attackers were found in uniform with arms and organised in a military organisation in platoons with G3 rifles," Kuol said. Mayen Ngor, the commissioner of Duk County, said the attackers had burned down 260 huts, the police station and local government buildings. "This is a campaign against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [the 2005 accord that ended Sudan's north-south civil war] and against the people of Duk," he said. The attack injured 46 people and forced thousands to flee, according to Ngor. David Gressly, a regional co-ordinator in south Sudan for the United Nations Missions in Sudan, said the attack appeared to have targeted SPLA forces based in the village. "It is quite clear that the focus of the attack was on the organised forces themselves," he said. "It is way too early to call this a civil war, but it is a significant law and order problem and one that the government of southern Sudan needs to stand up and address," he told the AFP news agency after visiting the area. A surge of tribal killings this year has sparked fears for the stability of Sudan's under-developed south. The United Nations estimates more than 1,200 people have died in ethnic attacks this year. The Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which heads an autonomous regional government in the south, fought a two decades long civil war with the northern National Congress Party (NCP), now headed by Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president. The two parties signed a peace treaty in 2005, but tensions have remained. Read more here,,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 CAIRO — Egypt's top Islamic authority has defended women's rights to wear trousers in public following a high profile court case in neighboring Sudan were women were flogged for dressing in pants. Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa said in a public lecture Monday that trousers covering women's bodies are permitted, emphasizing they should be loose and not see through. Gomaa's remarks were published Wednesday in the Egyptian daily al-Shorouk as well as other newspapers. His answer was in response to a question from the audience. Sudan caused a stir when it flogged 10 women for wearing trousers. One contested penalty and was let off with a fine for public indecency in a trial that garnered international attention. Source: FoxNews
 Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal visiting Sudan on Wednesday said that his group produces and smuggles weapons despite the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip. "Your brothers in Palestine, despite the blockade and the closing of border passages ... despite the fleets from east and west, despite all of this, we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms," AFP quoted Masshal as saying in a recording of a speech to young members of Sudan's ruling party. According to the report, Mashaal, who arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday, did not elaborate on the type of arms produced or the suppliers of weapons. In May, foreign media outlets reported an Israeli air strike in January on a convoy of trucks in Sudan, which was carrying weapons bound for Gaza. American news station ABC reported at the time that the airstrike that destroyed the trucks and killed at least 39 people was not an isolated incident, but was rather one of at least three attacks. According to the report, a US official told the station that two of the strikes took place in the Sudan, while a third occurred in the Red Sea. Israel has yet to offer an official response to the allegations. Source: JPost
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Support counterjihad heroine in her time of need... STOPShariaLAWnow is the victim of a new flagging campaign on YouTube. This time they're targeting her video about slavery in Sudan, "My Slave, My Infidel." Video/Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjmPVwG5jAk Watch it, rate it and subscribe... Source: http://occidentalsoapbox.blogspot.com/2009/09/support-counterjihad-heroine-in-her.html
 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)
 A Sudanese woman arrested for wearing trousers has been found guilty of flouting Sudan's decency laws, but spared the expected punishment of 40 lashes. Sudanese officials on Monday instead ordered Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein to pay a fine of about $200 following a court hearing in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. As al-Hussein made her way to the courtroom, scores of female supporters, some of them wearing trousers, rallied around her, some shouting: "Freedom, freedom!" Police rounded many of them up and marched them away. Asked about the verdict, al-Hussein said that she would refuse to pay the fine. "I won't pay. I'd rather go to prison," al-Hussein told the AFP news agency by telephone following the trial. Witnesses who attended the trial said the court had ruled she should be jailed for a month if she failed to pay. Her lawyers said they would try to persuade her. Al-Hussein had faced a sentence of 40 lashes following her arrest for public indecency, alongside 12 other women, during a raid at a restaurant in Khartoum in July. Ten of the women accepted a punishment of 10 lashes, but al-Hussein and two other women opted to go to trial. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
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Sudan is accusing the upcoming Danish movie by Susanne Bier of being in the same class as the Muhammmed cartoons. 
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