Source : AP
JAKARTA | 23 May 2011

Amnesty International is urging Indonesia to stop the growing use of caning as a punishment in Aceh province.

The London-based rights group says at least 21 people have been publicly caned in Aceh this month for gambling. Sixteen people were caned last year.

The group's director for Asia and the Pacific, Sam Zarifi, said Sunday that caning is a cruel and inhumane punishment that can cause permanent injury. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that permits caning.

Source : Reuters
ANKARA | 23 May 2011

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi should quit in order to allow a peaceful transition of power, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday, standing alongside the head of Libya’s revolutionary movement.

A major Muslim partner in NATO, Turkey earlier this month proposed a timetable for a cease-fire that could allow a political transition to take place.

Source : Arab News
RIYADH | 21 May 2011

Saudi Arabia has pledged $4 billion in aid to Egypt, the chief of Egypt's ruling military council said Saturday. The aid will be in the form of soft loans, deposits and grants, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the council, was quoted by Egypt's MENA news agency as saying. The agency did not provide a time frame or other details.

Source : Rebecca Santana | AP
BAGHDAD | 23 May 2011

A rapid-fire series of explosions in and around Baghdad killed 18 people Sunday, including 12 people who died when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police officers, officials said.

In total, at least 12 bombs exploded as Iraqis were headed to work in a reminder of the dangers Iraq still faces despite a drop in violence since the height of the war.

Source : Joseph Logan | Reuters
TRIPOLI | 19 May 2011

The head of the NATO military alliance said on Thursday that military and political pressure were weakening Muammar Qaddafi’s hold on power in Libya and would eventually topple him.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen delivered his message as Libya’s government denied persistent rumors that Qaddafi’s wife, daughter and top oil official had left the country.

Source : Arab News
RIYADH | 18 May 2011

Executives from more than 20 US defense and security companies came to Riyadh May 14-17 in search of investment opportunities.

“The size and quality of the delegation demonstrate the eagerness of US companies looking to expand their role in developing the Saudi defense industry, ” said US-Saudi Arabian Business Council (USSABC) President and Managing Director Edward Burton.

Source : AP
MOSCOW | 20 May 2011

An Israeli military attaché to Moscow who was expelled from Russia last week was carrying secret information when he was detained, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Vadim Leiderman was apprehended in Moscow on May 12, caught red-handed receiving classified information from a Russian citizen, the statement said.

Leiderman was declared persona non grata and given 48 hours to leave the country, which he did, the statement said.

Source : Islam Today
Stockholm | 19 May 2011

Stockholm's Muslims pray in overcrowded mosques. The Stockholm region presently has only two mosques to accommodate all of its Muslim residents.

Now six new mosques are being planned for the metropolitan area. Three mosques are planned for the city itself: in Skärholmen, Rinkeby and Tensta. A three further mosques are planned to be built in the Stockholm suburbs of Haninge, Botkyrka and Nacka.

Source : Xinhuanet
Ankara | 19 May 2011

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is heading toward an easy victory in the upcoming June 12 elections as an opinion poll showed Wednesday that 45.5 percent of voters support the party.

The AKP, led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saw its votes decrease by one percentage point from the votes its scored in the last general elections in 2007, the daily Aksam ( Evening) reported, citing the survey of polling company IKSara.

Source | Reuters
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON : 19 May 2011

Muhammad Farooq waits by his truck outside the Pakistani border town of Chaman, the main crossing into southern Afghanistan. He has driven several hundred kilometers from the port city of Karachi carrying supplies for NATO forces, along with a couple of dozen other tankers and trucks.

“We will start moving soon in a convoy,” says Farooq. “We are regularly attacked in this area. We are attacked with sticks, stones and even fired upon.”

Source : Karin Laub | AP
RAMALLAH : West Bank | 17 May 2011

Palestinian activists are calling it a preview of new tactics to pressure Israel and win world support for statehood: Masses of marchers, galvanized by the Arab Spring and brought together by Facebook, descending on borders and military posts — and daring Israeli soldiers to shoot.

Source : Arab News
JEDDAH | 17 May 2011

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) on Monday launched a master’s degree program in Islamic finance and banking in cooperation with Malaysia’s Insaniah University.

IDB President Ahmed Muhammad Ali, who launched the program, said it was aimed at training qualified manpower required for the Islamic banking industry.