IDEALS

PORT OF SPAIN, (Aug. 10, 2009) IPS/GIN – The Trinidad and Tobago
government is finding itself against the wall amid allegations that
it is attempting to curb press freedoms in this oil rich twin
island republic.

At the centre of the allegations are the outcome of a meeting the
Patrick Manning government held late last month with the Media
Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT).

At the end of the one-hour deliberation both parties issued
separate statements, which contradicting each other left the media
asking the question “who is telling the truth.”

MATT requested the meeting after Prime Minister Manning used a
so-called “public education” rally to criticise the media over its
role in educating the public. Read the rest of this entry →

WASHINGTON, (Aug. 10, 2009) IPS/GIN – The United States Supreme
Court will hear the U.S. government’s appeal on a lower court
ruling requiring the release of photos showing the abuse of
prisoners held in overseas facilities.

The government is appealing a 2008 decision by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit which ruled that the government must
release the photos to comply with an American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

The Obama Administration initially agreed to release the photos -
and decided not to appeal the courts decision – but they reversed
their position on May 28 when the government asked the appeals
court to recall its order for the photos release since an appeal
was to be filed in the Supreme Court. Read the rest of this entry →

ATLANTA, Georgia, (Aug. 21, 2009) IPS/GIN – Following a seven-day
trial, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, was convicted in a U.S. federal
court earlier this month on several counts of providing material
support to terrorists and the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET), a designated
foreign terrorist organisation.

However, activists and the Sadequee family say that Shifa -
Sadequee’s nickname – was just a teenager with a vivid imagination
who had no real intention of harming the U.S.

In addition to chatting online with friends about “jihad” in
radical online forums, Sadequee made amateur videotapes of dozens
of Washington, DC-area landmarks. Read the rest of this entry →

NEW YORK, (Aug. 21, 2009) IPS/GIN – The man who boasts he is
“America’s Toughest Sheriff” – and who is being investigated by the
U.S. Justice Department for civil rights violations – this week
added another lawsuit to thousands already pending against him.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona are
suing the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Joe Arpaio, and
several of his 164 deputies for the illegal arrest and detention
of a U.S. citizen and a legal resident.

The ACLU suit contends that Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO)
deputies racially profiled the father and son, Julian and Julio
Mora, as they drove their pickup truck on a busy public road and
illegally arrested and detained them, violating the U.S.
Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law and
prohibition on unreasonable seizures. Read the rest of this entry →

LILONGWE, (Aug. 21, 2009) IPS/GIN – Malawi’s president, Bingu wa
Mutharika, has come under severe pressure from civil society groups
who are demanding he scrap a newly-passed bill allowing
16-year-olds to marry with the consent of their parents.

Although the new bill is a slight improvement from the previous
law – which puts the legal age of youth to marry with parental
consent at 15 – activists, including children, say 16 is still far
too young to get married and call for the minimum age to be raised
to 18. Read the rest of this entry →

DENPASAR, Indonesia, (Aug. 24, 2009) IPS/GIN – Women’s rights
groups who are campaigning for widening the scope of abortion in
Indonesia are calling for an amendment to a colonial era law that
puts poor women at risk.

Tini Hadad, secretary general of the Association for Women’s
Health, says Indonesia has one of the world’s highest rates of
deaths from unsafe abortions. “This is because the current laws are
totally inadequate,” she told IPS.

The Association for Women’s Health is part of the Women’s Network
for a National Legislation Program, a coalition of some 30 women’s
rights groups that has been campaigning for improved family
planning services since 2005. Read the rest of this entry →

Prominent Jewish intellectuals
living in Europe have begun denouncing the Israeli policy of
allowing settlements to be built on Palestinian territories as
“morally and politically wrong.”

In a collective declaration presented in Brussels, the Belgian
capital, on May 3, hundreds of prominent European Jews also said
that the main danger to the state of Israel “lies in the occupation
and the continuing pursuit of settlements in the West Bank and in
the Arab districts of East Jerusalem.”

Read the rest of this entry →

BEIJING, (May 1, 2009) IPS/GIN – The global financial crisis is
proving a boon for a resurgent China, which is poised to exert ever
greater influence in Southeast Asia.

While drawing neighboring countries back into China’s economic
orbit has been part of Beijing’s strategy for restoring what it
sees as the country’s rightful place on the global stage, recent
months of recession have furnished Beijing with new opportunities
to further its leadership ambitions in the region. Read the rest of this entry →

KAMPALA, Uganda, (May 2, 2009) IPS/GIN – Gender activists met here
to discuss ways of strengthening the women’s movement against
gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict Africa.

Increased cases of rape and sexual abuse of women and girls is
closely associated with armed conflict and its aftermath in Africa.

“Rape has been used as a weapon of war by militia, and this hurts
women forever, because even in peacetime you find little response
in terms of repairing the effects and providing justice,” Marie
Jalloh said. Read the rest of this entry →

NEW YORK, (May 4, 2009) IPS/GIN – Unpunished crimes against women,
detainees in Iraqi prisons, and others, have the future of Iraq in
peril, according to a new United Nations report.

According to investigators, Iraqi prisons were torturing detainees,
locking people up for months without charges and, in most cases,
allowing the perpetrators of these human rights abuses to escape
justice.

“Security may not be sustainable unless significant steps are taken
in the area of human rights such as strengthening the rule of law
and addressing impunity,” warned the report, issued on April 29. Read the rest of this entry →