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Middle East News | Kuwait calls on UN not to lift Iraq sanctions Kuwait urged the United Nations on Thursday not to lift sanctions on Iraq before Baghdad paid back its debt and made war reparations for Saddam Hussein's invasion of the Gulf state nearly two decades ago. The Gulf state said outstanding issues include the fate of the missing and prisoners of war, payment of war reparations, the return of stolen property and the demarcation of land and maritime borders between the two neighbors. We understand the Iraqi desire to exit from Chapter 7 Kuwait Foreign Ministry "We understand the Iraqi desire to exit from Chapter 7," Kuwaiti foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah was quoted as saying by al-Qabas newspaper. Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, which is invoked in case of threats to international peace and security, can open the door to sanctions or even military action. "But there are obligations (on Iraq) and outstanding issues that are illogical to be left unresolved," Jarallah said. Chapter seven Foreign Ministry The U.N. U.N.

Islamists protest women's inheritance law REUTERS, DHAKA - Hundreds of members of a Islamic group in Dhaka clashed with police on Friday over a plan to give women the same inheritance rights as men. Police fired teargas and used batons to break up the protests after members of the Islami Constitution Movement (ICM) threw rocks and stones as they emerged from Friday prayers at a mosque in the centre of the capital Dhaka, witnesses said. This reporter said at least 100 people were injured in the protests that took place despite a ban on such gatherings under a state of emergency imposed after an army-backed interim administration took power in January last year. Among the injured were cameramen of local television channels filming the protests and policemen, officials said. All roads around the Baitul Mokarram mosque in the city centre were filled with white robed Muslim devotees since before noon despite strong presence of police," a witness said.

Middle East News | Kuwait arrests former MP for criticizing roya Kuwaiti police on Thursday arrested a former Islamist opposition MP for saying a senior member of the ruling family was "not fit" to become the next prime minister, his lawyer and witnesses said. MP Daifallah Buramia was a member of the outgoing parliament, which the emir dissolved last month following a bitter standoff between the government and deputies. What happened today is a violation of the principles of democracy and freedom and of the criminal law Lawyer Nawaf Sari Security forces besieged Buramia's house, west of Kuwait City, before he emerged and handed himself over, lawyer Nawaf Sari said. Earlier this week, Buramia told an election rally that Defence Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah, a senior member of the al-Sabah family, was "not fit" to become prime minister, witnesses said. He also said Sheikh Jaber's appointment to the post would trigger a new political crisis in the country because he was "too weak." A violation of principles Nawaf Sari

Barbaric 'honour killings' become the weapon to subjug The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone. Her "honour killing" is just one in a grotesque series emerging from Iraq, where activists speak of a "genocide" against women in the name of religion. In the latest such case, it was reported yesterday that a 17-year-old girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was stabbed to death last month by her father for becoming infatuated with a British soldier serving in southern Iraq. In Basra alone, police acknowledge that 15 women a month are murdered for breaching Islamic dress codes. Campaigners insist it is a conservative figure. Violence against women is rampant, rising every day with the power of the militias. Du'a Khalil Aswad, 17, from Nineveh, was executed by stoning in front of mob of 2,000 men for falling in love with a boy outside her Yazidi tribe. "My daughter did nothing wrong," he said.

Wealth disclosure bill OK'd by panel KUWAIT: The legal and legislative committee yesterday passed a landmark anti-corruption draft law that requires top government officials and bureaucrats to disclose their wealth before and after assuming their posts. Rapporteur of the committee MP Maassouma Al-Mubarak said the bill was unanimously passed in line with the principle of fighting corruption. She told reporters that the 18-article bill constitutes a qualitative transformation for the protection of public funds and that it places top officials under its umbrella. The bill was submitted several times in previous assemblies but never discussed by the panels. It requires that top government officials and bureaucrats including ministers, undersecretaries, assistant undersecretaries and similar ranks in government institutions to disclose their wealth before assuming their posts and after resignation or retirement. It also covers members of the National Assembly. By B Izzak © Kuwait Times 2009 © Copyright Zawya.

Middle East | Yemeni child bride gets divorce A Yemeni court has annulled an eight-year-old girl's marriage to a man in his 20s, after she filed for divorce. The girl, Nojoud Mohammed Ali, took a taxi to a judge’s office on her own, after running away from her husband. Lawyer Shatha Nasser told the BBC she heard about Nojoud by chance and instantly decided to represent her. "Child brides are common in parts of Yemen, but this case received wider attention because it reached court," she said. Yemen is one of the world's poorest countries. Although it has no legal minimum age for marriage, the wife is only allowed to live with her husband once she has reached puberty. Nojoud's unemployed father and husband were also present at the hearing. The courtroom was packed with members of the press and human rights activists, who are using the case to highlight the need for more child protection in Yemen. "But a week after signing, my mother and father forced me to go and live with him." Marriage consummated

Middle East News | Kuwaiti gays and lesbians want association The Kuwaiti Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has received a request for the establishment of an association to protect the rights of homosexuals and transsexuals, press reports said Monday. The request is the latest sign of defiance by Kuwait's growing gay community, which has upset some in the Muslim country, Kuwait's An-Nahar newspaper reported. According to press reports, gays no longer avoid public places and are starting to seek recognition and equal rights despite the traditional aversion to their lifestyle by mainstream society. Gay rights activists have lashed out at a recent statement by the Kuwaiti National Council, and its Commission for Upholding Ethics, which condemned sex changes. The Council's legislative committee has proposed an amendment to Article 198 of the penal code, which deals with acts of debauchery. The paper also said the Kuwaiti government has allocated two million dollars to combat the growing phenomenon of gays and transsexuals in the Gulf emirate.

Sisters to the rescue Fathima was living a nightmare for two years. Married at 17, her husband would come home drunk every night, beat and then rape her. Going back to her poor parents was not an option, nor was taking her problem to the local all-male Sharia court. For Anees, 39, the dilemma was different. Her 19-year-old daughter, working at a BPO, frequently got herself bleached and waxed. Was it Islamic? Deliverance came in the form of the first all-female Sharia court in Hyderabad in 2003. “On an average, we receive three to four letters per day and try to dispose them the same day,” says head mufti Nazima Aziz. The muftis say that they have begun receiving queries from young, upwardly mobile women for divorce using the Qula provision in the Kurla.

Violations of 'Islamic teachings' take deadly toll on As order slides, Palestinian women face honor killings | csmonit By Ilene R. Prusher, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / November 20, 2007 All the women in the family say Wafa Wahdan was wonderful. Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition But her sisters-in-law add that they noticed a few little things. A few weeks ago, the body of the young mother of four was found in a garbage dump east of town. Wahdan's brutal murder devastated her husband and immediate family, who say that the rumor mill's tales of Wahdan having an affair were untrue. According to local organizations, such murders have risen in the Palestinian territories to nearly 50 this year – a fact that many here blame on the absence of any true law and order, which allows individuals to enforce their own version of justice. "When the sentence is only six months, the consequence is that [perpetrators] encourage others to do the same," says Dr. Tribal traditions are often a motive

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