Blogging for a free world

The Inquirirer reports (via VH) on this story, in which the real reason was that the woman had not given birth to a baby boy:

A man in a small Pakistani town killed his Danish sister-in-law because he suspected her of having a “bad character“, police Tuesday said.

Faisal Bashir shot dead 31-year-old Tahira Bibi, who was of Pakistani origin, local police official Mohammad Shahbaz Cheema told Agence France-Presse.

“It’s a case of honor killing as Faisal suspected his brother’s wife had bad character,” Cheema said.

He added that police arrested Faisal, his two brothers and father after a complaint by the parents of Tahira, who settled in Kharian — 150 kilometers (93 miles) northwest of Lahore — after marrying Mohammad Shehbaz 10 years ago.

Her parents accused Shehbaz of asking his family to kill Tahira for not delivering him a baby boy.

“However, Faisal told us during interrogation that he shot dead his brother’s wife in June after receiving numerous anonymous phone calls that she had a bad character,” Cheema added.

Sometimes I receive phone calls telling me you have a bad character. So I kill you.

Another moron. Absolutely stupid (not fool, this man knew perfectly well what he was doing). And yes, I believe as much more probable reason to kill her that thing about not delivering a baby boy. Do they know something about genetics? Because it’s the men’s sperma the one who decides the sex of the baby. Oh, yeah, I know, she had a bad character.

Technorati Tags: Mohammad+Shehbaz, Tahira+Shehbaz, honor+killing, honor+killing+in+Pakistan, honor+killing+because+of+woman’s+suspected+bad+character, Islamism, violence+against+women

From The American Thinker via Sons of Apes and Pigs:

From Nigeria to Indonesia, Christians are under siege in virtually every single country in the Muslim world, the victims of countless acts of discrimination, depredation, brutality, and murder that are so widespread and systematic that it can rightfully be called the new Holocaust. This time, however, the perpetrators of this Holocaust aren’t wearing swastikas, but kufi skull caps and hijabs.

Some of the oldest Christian communities in the world are subject to relentless attack and teeter on the brink of extinction at the hands of the “Religion of Peace”: Palestinian Christians in Gaza and the West Bank; Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians in Iraq; Coptic Christians in Egypt; Evangelical and Orthodox Christians in Eastern Ethiopia and Eritrea; Armenian Orthodox Christians in Turkey; and Maronite Christians in Lebanon.

(…) The global war on Christianity by Islam is so massive in size and scope that it is virtually impossible to describe without trivializing it. Inspired by Muslim Brotherhood ideology and fueled by billions of Wahhabi petrodollars, the religious cleansing of Christians from the Muslim world is continuing at a break-neck pace, as the following recent examples demonstrate.

Then it gives several examples of the religious cleasing of Christians in Islamic states, some of them truly underreported.

Technorati Tags: Christianity, religious+persecution, Global+War+against+Christianity, Islamism, violence, religious+violence, religious+cleasing

NYT reports it:

Several Turkish news outlets have speculated that Al Qaeda was involved in the attack, with claims that at least one of the gunmen received arms training in Afghanistan.

NTV, a private news television, said that Erkan Kargin, 26, one of the gunmen who was killed at the consulate, had been sentenced for his membership to IBDA-C, an illegal fundamentalist group here.

The two other assailants, Bulent Cinar, 23, and Raif Topcil, lived on the same street in Istanbul, and the police confiscated a number of publications and documents with unidentified religious content at their apartments, the same report said.

Video thanks to Vicki.

From Los Angeles Times:

Their profiles are similar to those of young men involved in Al Qaeda-inspired attacks: uneducated, poor, not known to be devout until they met a charismatic ‘elder brother.’

(…) Officials said they were looking at the possibility that Kargin, 26, the oldest of the three attackers, had recruited the younger two and organized the assault. But his distraught family said they doubted he had been the ringleader.

“He was mentally unbalanced — he was having treatment at the mental health clinic,” said a man who answered the door at the family home. He identified himself as an older brother but did not want his name used. “I don’t believe he was responsible for planning this.”

Technorati Tags: Turkey, terrorism, Al-Qaeda, attack+on+US+embassy, Islamism

CNN has the video (via Jawa Report).

Related posts:

Children’s marriage in Islam: some comments.

Social movement against child brides in Yemen.

Technorati Tags: Nujood+Ali, Yemen, child+brides, marriage+in+Islam, social+movement+against+child+brides+in+Yemen

From La Razón: Combats which began on Tuesday night in Tripoli between supporters of the Parlament’s majority and of the opposition caused yesterday 4 dead and 53 hurt, according to police sources. According to the MSM, the combats still continue but not persistently, even after the deployment of the Army and Police.

This is the result of not stopping Iranian support to Hizbullah, just because they were also attacking Israel.

Will the new “Unity Government” succeed? I guess not:

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman announced the formation of a national unity government Friday that gives the Syrian-backed Hezbollah movement effective veto power over major decisions but keeps in place Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is supported by the United States.

Disgusting.

Technorati Tags: Lebanon, violence, Tripoli

Yahoo News:

Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. will submit new offers for a disputed $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, and the Pentagon will pick a winner by the end of the year.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that his office — not the Air Force — will oversee the competition between Boeing and the team of Northrop and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.

The plan, which hands control to Pentagon acquisition chief John Young and sets up a dedicated source-selection committee, is the latest illustration of senior Defense Department civilians lack of confidence in the Air Force’s ability to manage the contract.

Many lawmakers embraced the action, but analysts questioned the Pentagon’s aggressive timetable.

The Government Accountability Office last month detailed “significant errors” the Air Force made in the original award to the Northrop team. The GAO said Chicago-based Boeing, which protested the deal, might have won had the service not made mistakes in evaluating the bids.

The Pentagon now will conduct a limited rebid that looks only at eight issues where government auditors found problems in the initial process, Gates said.

Technorati Tags: Boeing, EADS, European+Aeronautic+Defence+and+Space+Co., US+Government+Accountability+Office, Defense+Secretary+Robert+Gates, Pentagon, John+Young, Air+Force, Europe, USA

14 immigrants died two days ago, among them 9 children, in a boat who was sailing to Spain from African coasts with dozens of “subsaharans” travelling on it, according to Spanish National Radio, which quoted the survivors. The boat was intercepted by a police’s sea patrolling boat, just off Almería coast, with 35 survivors on it, three of whom were pregnant women. The survivors also stated other 14 immigrants died during the trip, nine of them children of ages between 12 months and 4 years.

921 illegal immigrants died in 2007 trying to get to Spanish coasts, according to APDH-A, an organization for the defense of Human Rights in Andalucía. 732 of them died at the beginning of the trip, near African coasts and 189 near Spanish coasts. Most of the dead, 629, came from the “Subsaharan” countries, 287 from Maghreb and 5 from Asia.

Technorati Tags: immigration, Spain, immigration+in+Spain

And the world continues doing nothing about it:

At least seven soldiers from the joint U.N. – African Union peacekeeping force in the Darfur region of western Sudan are dead after gunmen ambushed a patrol. From VOA’s East Africa bureau in Nairobi, Derek Kilner reports.

Sudan Liberation Movement leader Minni Minnawi (File)

The attack occurred in Um Haqiba, in North Darfur. According to U.N. officials, there have been recent disputes in the area between Arab militias and forces loyal to Minni Minnawi, a former rebel leader who joined the government after signing a 2006 peace agreement.

At least 40 vehicles were involved in the attack. A U.N. spokesperson said about 22 peacekeepers were also injured in the ambushed.

The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on the peacekeeping force, since it took over from an African Union mission in January. A patrol was ambushed by gunmen in May, and in June a Ugandan peacekeeper was killed.

But the problem is persistent or even worsening by the day:

Undermanned, the mission has been vulnerable to attacks. But in a vicious cycle of sorts, the mission’s struggles may be discouraging countries from contributing resources.

The Darfur region has grown increasingly chaotic in recent months, with a growing number of rebel factions and Arab militias, along with a increase in banditry. The identity of Wednesday’s attackers is not yet known. But Mohammed says that it would not be surprising if members of the Janjaweed militia, which has been armed by the government in Khartoum, were responsible. The government, he says, is worried that the U.N. force could be used to go after officials wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes in Darfur.

Vicious cyrcle indeed. And nobody wants to stop it.

Technorati Tags: Sudan, Darfur, UN+peacekeepers, Janjaweed, Minni+Minnawi, Sudan+Liberation+Movement+Leader, Islamism, violence+on+non-Muslims

Burmanet.org:

Author and blogger Nay Phone Latt, in custody for six months, was charged again under the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act under section 5(j), a switch from the previous charge under section 32(b) of the Video Act.

“His case has been changed to section 5(j) of Emergency Provisions Act. The Special Branch (SB) of Police informed him about it in prison on July 2, he said. He was previously charged under section 32(b). The hearing is now fixed for July 16. But he also said that he will not be produced before the court on July 16 but will be remanded again,” Aye Aye Than, his mother, who met him in prison yesterday told Mizzima.

(…) “He is suffering from eye disease and I requested the prison authority to let him have treatment. My son said tears come to his eyes at night and he cannot read books, his sole companion in prison. I worry about his eyesight. He must get proper treatment before it is too late. The doctor can prescribe him medicine and vitamins for his eye disease. The eye is the most delicate part of the human body,” his mother said.

Technorati Tags: Burma, Military+Junta, Human+Rights, Abuses+of+Human+Rights, persecuted+bloggers, freedom+of+speech

Both countries have VETOED sanctions on Mugabe’s regime. This is outrageous, but tragically it is also something I know it would happen: both countries (specially China) have a lot of economic interests in Zimbabwe.

Technorati Tags: Mugabe, Zimbabwe, Human+Rights, Russia, China, UN