A lawyer for two UK residents formerly held by the US at the Guantanamo Bay prison argued in a British court Wednesday that they should not be extradited to Spain to face terror charges. Jamil el-Banna and Omar Deghayes face transfer to that country after crusading Spanish anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzón requested that the two face charges for belonging to a Spanish al Qaeda cell. Their lawyer accused Spanish authorities of facilitating their Guantanamo detention and sending officials to interrogate them while held in US custody. He argued that they were exonerated by the US and that it would be unjust to allow Spain to continue with proceedings on the same issues. The Guardian has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

El Banna and Deghayes were released from Guantanamo in December 2007, detained by UK authorities upon arrival there, and freed on bail the next day . In August 2007, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office asked the United States to release five detainees who were legal residents in the UK prior to their detention at Guantanamo, including el Banna and Deghayes.
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The US Army said Tuesday that Army Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales will be court-martialed on charges of premeditated murder for his alleged role in the killing of an unarmed Iraqi civilian near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk . Corrales was charged in July with the premeditated murder of an unspecified "Iraqi national" on or about June 23, 2007. He later waived his right to a preliminary Article 32 hearing .

Corrales' co-defendant Specialist Christopher P. Shore had his Article 32 hearing in October, and the Army said last month that it would court-martial Shore for third-degree murder . Shore had also originally faced charges of premeditated murder. During his hearing, Shore testified that when ordered by Corrales to shoot an unarmed Iraqi civilian, he intentionally missed. If convicted, both face possible life sentences
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The president of Maldives was saved from assassination Tuesday when a boy scout grabbed the knife of an attacker who had jumped out of a crowd greeting the leader, an official said.
President Maumoon Abdul ***oom was not hurt, but his shirt was ripped when the attacker tried to stab him before the boy and security guards intervened during the event on the small island of Horafushi, said government spokesman Mohammad Shareef.

"This fellow in the crowd with a knife in his hand attempted to stab the president in his stomach," Shareef said by telephone from Male, the capital of Maldives. "But a 15-year-old boy came in the way, and grabbed the knife. One brave boy saved the president's life."

The scout was identified as Mohamed Jaisham Ibrahim, who had lined up to welcome ***oom, according to the website of the Maldives president.

The boy was injured in the hand by the knife. "His wound was stitched but later he complained that he could not move some of his fingers, so he was flown by a sea plane to Male," Shareef said.

"There was blood on the president's shirt, but it was not his but the boy's. Still we got a physician to examine him," Shareef said.

A photograph of the boy on the website of the Haveeru daily showed him wearing a blue scouting uniform with a blue kerchief around his neck waiting in line to greet the president.

Boy scouts in Maldives are similar to their U.S. counterparts, receiving training in first aid and participating in activities such as camping. Like in the U.S., their motto is "Be prepared."

The attacker had wrapped the knife in a Maldives national flag as he stood among a crowd waiting for ***oom, 70.

Shareef, speaking by telephone from Male, did not identify a suspect. He said the assassination attempt may have had a "political motive," but it was too early to say if Islamic militants were involved. Opposition to ***oom's three-decade rule has grown in recent years and there have also been concerns about increased Islamic militancy in this Muslim nation.

After the attack, ***oom addressed the nation by radio, thanking the teenager and calling for calm, according to the website of the Minivan newspaper.

"We should not resort to violence even if we have differences between the parties," ***oom was quoted as saying.

***oom has ruled this Indian Ocean atoll of 1,190 coral islands since 1978 and helped turn it into a major destination for tourists seeking a quiet vacation on virgin beaches surrounded by crystal blue waters.

However, the country of 350,000 people has also had its share of turmoil in recent months.

On Sept. 29, a homemade bomb blamed on Islamic militants exploded in a Male park, wounding 12 tourists. A week later, police and soldiers raided an island that was a reputed insurgent stronghold, sparking a battle with masked men armed with clubs and fishing spears that wounded more than 30 security officers.

Some high school graduates in Maldives have studied religion at extremist institutions in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and spread their radical beliefs across the islands, according to Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert.

While many of the fundamentalists were not violent, a Maldivian was caught trying to join the Taliban in Afghanistan, another was arrested in India seeking to buy sniper rifles, and a third was jailed by U.S. authorities in Guantanamo Bay.

***oom has also faced opposition protests to his previously unchallenged rule in recent years. Under the pressure, he legalized opposition parties and agreed to hold the nation's first truly democratic election later this year.

Meanwhile, New Maldives Movement, a new opposition coalition formed to challenge ***oom's three decades of rule in upcoming elections, condemned the attempted assassination.

"The NMM calls for an independent and speedy investigation into the attack and stresses the importance of making the results of the investigation public," the group said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

good post ,,,thnx

EGYPT: CHRISTIAN TWINS FORCED TO ‘BECOME’ MUSLIM
Hearing adjourned indefinitely; Baha’i children also struggling for religious freedom.

ISTANBUL, September 5 (Compass Direct News) – An Egyptian court on Monday (September 3) adjourned the hearing of young Christian twins legally forced to take Islamic education after their estranged father became Muslim. Mario and Andrew Medhat Ramsis unwillingly “became” Muslim after their father converted to Islam and used his legal right to change the religion on their birth certificates. The boys’ mother discovered that they had been placed in Islamic education classes at school to reflect their father’s choice, though the Muslim man was no longer living with his Christian family since his conversion and remarriage in 2002. The Ramsis twins’ future hinges on whether the court applies civil law, which allows them to remain with their mother, or certain interpretations of Islamic law, which stipulate that children belong to whichever parent is Muslim. In a related case, an administrative court yesterday postponed a verdict for another set of twins – 14-year-olds Imad and Nancy Halim of the country’s tiny Baha’i community – whose father is suing to leave the religion field on their identification papers blank.

Egyptian Muslims attack Christian-owned shops
CAIRO (AP) — Angry Muslims attacked and destroyed shops owned by Coptic Christians on Sunday in a town in southern Egypt that been witnessing sectarian tensions, a police official said.

The attackers set hurled stones and set fire to several shops, smashed windows of a church and damaged two cars in the early morning hours before the shops in Isna were opened for business, said the police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Police detained 15 people suspected of taking part in the attacks in Isna, located about 350 miles south of Cairo, he said.

The riots followed reports that two Coptic Christians pulled down the veil of a Muslim woman in a car park on Saturday evening. Dozens of Muslims started to gather in protest very early Sunday, but police managed to disperse them.

Police blocked all main streets leading to the town, but witnesses said some people managed to attack the shops in two of the town's streets. Peace returned to the town after several hours of rioting, they said.

Earlier this week, dozens of Muslims went on a rampage following rumors of an attempt of abduction and sexually assault a teenage Muslim girl by some Coptic Christians. The rioters hurled stones and smashed windows of a pharmacy were they suspected the Copts forced the girl to have *** with them.

On Thursday, police arrested two Coptic Christians suspected of taking part in the abduction of the girl. They were ordered detained for 15 days on charges related to sectarian tensions, police said.

Muslim-Coptic tensions are commonplace in southern Egypt, mostly over land or church construction disputes.

On New Year's Day in 2000, a dispute between the Muslims and Copts in the mixed village of Kosheh escalated into a clash with groups of armed villagers shooting at each other, leaving 21 Christians and one Muslim dead.

Coptic Christians make up an estimated 10% of Egypt's 76.5 million people and generally live in peace with the Muslim majority. The government is highly sensitive to public discussions of its treatment of the Coptic minority, insisting Christians enjoy the same rights as the Muslim majority.

oh there we go again .. we finished with talking trash about mexicans and now it's about muslims

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mike_2007,

We are looking to get world news from all sources to better inform us all other cultures and world news. whether negative or positive.

Thank you Coptic for your articles. It seems as though christians and muslims starting to have unrest in Egypt is escalating. Thanks for informing us.

Husband, Wife Discover They're Twins


By THOMAS WAGNER,AP
Posted: 2008-01-11 17:24:15
Filed Under: Weird News


LONDON (Jan. 11) - Twins who were separated at birth got married without realizing they were brother and sister, a lawmaker said, urging more information be provided on birth certificates for adopted children.

A court annulled the British couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord David Alton said.


"Everyone has a right to knowledge about their lineage, genealogy and identity. And if they don't, then it will lead to cases of incest," Alton told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Friday.

Alton first revealed details of the unusual case last month during a five-hour debate about a bill that would change regulations about human embryology.

"I was recently involved in a conversation with a High Court judge who was telling me of a case he had dealt with," Alton said according to a transcript of the Dec. 10 debate. "It involved the normal birth of twins who were separated at birth and adopted by separate parents.

"They were never told that they were twins. They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation."

Alton gave no additional details and would not reveal the name of the judge who told him about the case.

The High Court's Family Division declined to discuss or confirm Alton's account about the twins.

Alton, an independent legislator who works at Liverpool's John Moores University, said the siblings' inadvertent marriage raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents, including kids who were born through in vitro fertilization.

Under British law, only a mother has to be named on a birth certificate. Such certificates also are not required to identify births that result from IVF or to identify the sperm donor.

In addition, British law does not require parents to ever tell children that they were the result of donated sperm.

Alton believes this should be changed.

Alton said he favors an amendment to the Human Fertility and Embryology bill - which is still being debated in the House of Lords - that would require birth certificates of children born from donated sperm to say that and to identify the genetic father.

Referring to the twins' case, he said: "If you start trying to conceal someone's identity, sooner or later the truth will come out. And if you don't know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur."

quote:

Originally posted by 4now:
We are looking to get world news from all sources to better inform us all other cultures and world news. whether negative or positive.

Thank you Coptic for your articles. It seems as though christians and muslims starting to have unrest in Egypt is escalating. Thanks for informing us.

I tried to find something (to be balanced) showing the reverse sort of persecution but there was nothing listed through google. Odd. But there were hundreds along the lines of what coptic listed from all over. It isn't the religion. Its a few idiots interpretation and the willingness of still more idiots to beleive it.

you're right idiots to beleave just like you little davdah

Believe what? I'll tell you what I believe. That most every religion out there does NOT advocate terrorism. Not even the Muslim religion in its true form. It is the people who have an agenda and misquote their religious doctrine for other purposes. Then there are the people who blindly follow their leadership and attach to it their own anger. Now you have a zealot who feels righteous committing atrocities never intended in their belief.

Aside posting insults show me something to the contrary. Or are you too busy doing your namesake.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that NASA cannot compel low-risk contract employees working at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory to undergo intensive background checks. NASA has been conducting background checks of employees since it was founded in 1958, but contract employees were only included after the agency revised its Security Program Procedural Requirements in 2006. NASA argued that contract employees were added to the list of workers who had to undergo background checks in compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 , the Federal Information Security Management Act , and the Space Act .

In balancing the interests of NASA and the employees facing the background checks, Judge Kim Wardlaw, writing for the court, held that
The balance of hardships tips sharply toward Appellants, who face a stark choice—either violation of their constitutional rights or loss of their jobs. The district court (in this case)erroneously concluded that Appellants will not suffer any irreparable harm because they could be retroactively compensated for any temporary denial of employment.

The US Supreme Court on Friday granted certiorari in four cases , including Davis v. Federal Election Commission (07-320), in which the Court will consider whether the so-called millionaire's amendment , part of a 2002 campaign finance law that allows political candidates to accept larger contributions from supporters if an opponent is able to finance his campaign with his own money, is constitutional. The exception is intended to ensure that independently wealthy candidates do not unfairly dominate elections. New York Democrat Jack Davis challenged the law, arguing that it violated his First Amendment rights, but the Washington DC Circuit Court ruled that the law had not infringed on his right to free speech. AP has more.

In Giles v. California (07-6053) , the Court will rule on whether an accused killer can bar the the testimony of the person he allegedly killed if he did not kill her with the intent of preventing her testimony. The Supreme Court of California held that allowing the testimony did not violate the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause .

The Supreme Court also granted cert in two other cases Friday. In Taylor v. Sturgell (07-371) , the Court will rule on whether a litigant is barred from pursuing a claim if another litigant had previously pursued a similar claim.

In Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture (07-474), the Supreme Court will rule on whether a federal employee who is not a member of a protected class can sue for discrimination that was directed solely against her. The Ninth Circuit Court held that an Indian-born woman who alleged discrimination from her supervisor could not sue under a "class-of-one theory.

Mike,
These are good articles that you are posting. Can you include where they came from?
(Author, url, etc.)

hi needhelpfast.. ty and sure i will and here is the link, i really like this web http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/01/federal-a...ules-nasa-cannot.php

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a memo saying that its officers are now required to obtain a judge's approval before a deportee can be sedated in order to facilitate his or her removal from the country. The memo, written by ICE Director of the Office of Detention and Removal Operations John Torres and released Wednesday, said that in order to receive permission to sedate, officials must show a judge that a deportee has a history of physically resisting removal or that they pose a danger to themselves. ICE gave 56 deportees psychotropic drugs during a seven-month period in 2006 and 2007, 33 of whom had no prior history of mental illness.

In June the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC) brought a federal class action lawsuit [JURIST report; ACLU press release] against the US government on behalf of two immigrants who said they were forcibly drugged with sedatives during deportation proceedings. Neither of the men had a history of mental illness, and the ACLU/SC alleges the druggings were merely meant to silence them. AP has more.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The chief of the U.S. military said he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been "pretty damaging" to the image of the United States.

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"I'd like to see it shut down," Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday in an interview with three reporters who toured the detention center with him on his first visit since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last October.

His visit came two days after the sixth anniversary of the prison's opening in January 2002. He stressed that a closure decision was not his to make and that he understands there are numerous complex legal questions the administration believes would have to be settled first, such as where to move prisoners.

The admiral also noted that some of Guantanamo Bay's prisoners are deemed high security threats. During a tour of Camp Six, which is a high-security facility holding about 100 prisoners, Mullen got a firsthand look at some of the cells; one prisoner glared at Mullen through his narrow cell window as U.S. officers explained to the Joint Chiefs chairman how they maintain almost-constant watch over each prisoner.

Mullen, whose previous visit was in December 2005 as head of the U.S. Navy, noted that President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also have spoken publicly in favor of closing the prison. But Mullen said he is unaware of any active discussion in the administration about how to do it.

"I'm not aware that there is any immediate consideration to closing Guantanamo Bay," Mullen said.

Asked why he thinks Guantanamo Bay, commonly dubbed Gitmo, should be closed, and the prisoners perhaps moved to U.S. soil, Mullen said, "More than anything else it's been the image — how Gitmo has become around the world, in terms of representing the United States."

Critics have charged that detainees have been mistreated in some cases and that the legal conditions of their detentions are not consistent with the rule of law.

"I believe that from the standpoint of how it reflects on us that it's been pretty damaging," Mullen said, speaking in a small boat that ferried him to and from the detention facilities across a glistening bay.

He said he was encouraged to hear from U.S. officers here that the prison population has shrunk by about 100 over the past year, to 277. At one time the population exceeded 600. Hundreds have been returned to their home countries but U.S. officials say some are such serious security threats that they cannot be released for the foreseeable future. Only four are currently facing military trials after being formally charged with crimes.

Mullen also walked through an almost-completed top-security courtroom where the military expects to hold trials beginning this spring for the 14 "high-value" terror suspects who had previously been held at secret CIA prisons abroad. He was told that audio of the proceedings might be piped to locations in the United States where families of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and perhaps others, could hear them.

Mullen's predecessor, retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, is a defendant in a lawsuit by four British men who allege they were systematically tortured throughout their two years of detention at this remote outpost. On Friday a federal appeals court in Washington ruled against the four men.

It was six years ago that Guantanamo Bay received its first prisoners, suspected terrorists picked up on the battlefields of Afghanistan as the Taliban government was being ousted from power.

The facility is on land leased from the Cuban government under terms of a long-term deal that predates the rule of President Fidel Castro. It is commanded by Navy Rear Adm. Mark Buzby.

Gates, at a Dec. 21 news conference at the Pentagon, noted the administration's failure to settle the closure debate.

"I think that the principal obstacle has been resolving a lot of the legal issues associated with closing Guantanamo and what you do with the prisoners when they come back (to the United States)," Gates said.

"Because of some of these legal concerns — some of which are shared by people in both parties on Capitol Hill — there has not been much progress in this respect," he added.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration considered Guantanamo Bay a suitable place to hold men suspected of links to the Taliban and al-Qaida, contending that U.S. laws do not apply there because Guantanamo is not part of the United States. Lawyers for the detainees have challenged that interpretation ever since.

Before he finished his Guantanmo Bay visit and flew to Key West, Fla., Mullen got a look at a site on the eastern shore of Guantanamo Bay — opposite the terrorist detention center — where the U.S. military is building a new refugee camp that would be used in the event of a sudden, major influx of refugees in the area. Initially the camp will be designed to hold 10,000 refugees and is scheduled to be finished by June.