Source : Reuters
BAGHDAD | 26 May 2011

Anti-US Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr brought thousands of Shiite supporters onto the streets of Baghdad on Thursday in a show of force against any extension of the US military presence in Iraq past a year-end deadline.

Sadr’s threats to revive his Shiite militia and protests by his Sadrist bloc are testing Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s fragile coalition government over the divisive issue of whether American troops should remain on Iraqi soil.

Source : Mohamed Elshinnawi | VOA
Cairo | 24 May 2011

As political Islam grows as a force in post-revolution Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is forming its first political party and getting ready for a good showing in upcoming parliamentary elections. And this has liberal and secular parties scrambling.

Source | Reuters
Sanaa | 25 May 2011

Yemenis fled the capital on Wednesday to escape escalating clashes between loyalists and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who said he would make no more concessions to those seeking his ouster.

Sporadic machinegun fire rang out for the third day in the sandbagged streets around the mansion of an influential tribal leader who has backed protesters seeking to overthrow the longtime ruler after repeated international mediation failed.

Source : Edward Stourton | BBC
25 May 2011

Turkey's Gulen movement, which promotes service to the common good, may have grown into the world's biggest Muslim network. Is it the modern face of Islam, or are there more sinister undercurrents?

From Kenya to Kazakhstan, a new Islamic network is attracting millions of followers - and billions of dollars.

Source : Dr. Syed Ahmed | Two circles
Manipur : India | 25 May 2011

Source | Reuters
ISLAMABAD | 23 May 2011

Pakistan’s intelligence chief has reportedly asked the United States to stop its drone strikes in the country, a newspaper reported on Sunday, touching on an issue that has become more sensitive since the killing of Osama Bin Laden strained ties.

The local Express Tribune said Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Ahmad Shuja Pasha made the request in a meeting on Saturday with CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell.

Source | AP
NEW DELHI | 24 May 2011

A new study shows that an increasing number of Indian families with one girl are aborting pregnancies when prenatal tests reveal another female.

The study to be published in the medical journal Lancet on Tuesday says the decline in the numbers of girls is larger in richer and better-educated households. It says a 1996 law that bans revealing the gender of a fetus has been largely ineffective.

Source | Reuters
TBILISI | 23 May 2011

Georgia's parliament has branded the 19th-century killings of the Muslim Circassian minority by Russia's tsarist forces as genocide in a resolution likely to further strain Tbilisi's ties with Moscow.

Originally from the northwest Caucasus, Circassians say 1.5 million of their ancestors were systematically killed in a 1860-64 military campaign to conquer the Caucasus Mountain area on the southern border of today's Russia.

Source : Ahmed Al-Haj | AP
SANAA | 23 May 2011

Security forces and opposition tribal fighters battled with automatic weapons, mortars and tanks in the Yemeni capital on Monday, blasting buildings and setting government offices on fire in violence that hiked fears of an armed confrontation after the collapse of efforts to negotiate a peaceful exit for President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

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.