Leith Community portal, edinburgh, eh16, Leith, Persevere

KUWAIT, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Kuwait has ordered local Internet service providers to block online video-sharing website YouTube over clips that could offend Muslims.

“Since the website displays the Koran in the form of songs sung with the oud (stringed instrument) … and displays disrespectful pictures of the Prophet Mohammad … please proceed with immediate effect in blocking the website www.youtube.com,” read a copy of a memo obtained by Reuters. for more click here

GENEVA (AFP) — Sudan on Wednesday denounced an independent UN human rights official as an “agent of the European Union” after she criticised Khartoum’s human rights record in the conflict-riven region of Darfur.for more click here

Hundreds of Gurkha veterans gathered outside the high court in London today as their battle to be allowed to settle in Britain began.

The former soldiers are challenging the government’s claim that Gurkhas who retired before 1997 have no close ties to the country and should not automatically be granted visas. for more click here

Civil rights organisations, advocates of religious freedom, anti-censorship groups and government in Europe and beyond are expressing alarm at a United Nations General Assembly resolution that demands respect for religion but which critics say has been used to justify suppression of religious minorities.

Some say that it is in danger of becoming a “global blasphemy law” by stealth. for more click here

Tbilisi, August 28, 2008) – The European Union should act to protect Georgian civilians from continued attacks by Ossetian militias and opportunistic violence, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the European Union to use its unprecedented summit on Russia on September 1 to make a plan for ensuring protection for civilians in Georgia. for more click here

Am I alone in my disquiet about our government’s courtship of the Scottish Islamic Foundation?

In the 1970s, young women like me embraced multiculturalism; we were engaging with our oppressed sisters everywhere around the world. Or so it seemed at the time. for more click here

Security guards and town hall workers are being armed with sweeping police-style powers, it has emerged.

For a few hundred pounds, state and private sector employees can receive Home Office accreditation. for more click here

This Wednesday, unless the UK foreign secretary takes rapid action, Britain’s High Court will hold a hearing to assess whether the UK government should be ordered to hand over secret documents to lawyers for a Guantanamo detainee. The detainee in question, Binyam Mohamed, faces possible charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism before a military commission at Guantanamo.
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Chinese troops fired on Tibetan protesters this week and 400 people have been killed since unrest erupted in March, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying in an interview published on Thursday. for more click here

(New York, August 19, 2008) – The major corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics have failed to uphold their own principles of corporate social responsibility, Human Rights Watch said today. Sponsors have failed to speak out – either individually or collectively – about human rights abuses linked to the Beijing Games, and should be prepared to support the establishment of a permanent body inside the International Olympic Committee to monitor rights abuses at future Olympics. for more click here