Forum Topics

Primary tabs

Arab health ministers to ban elderly, young from pilgrimage

published by You on 24 July, 2009 - 03:50

CAIRO — Arab health ministers agreed on Wednesday to ban certain people including the elderly and young children from pilgrimage to Mecca in an effort to contain the spread of swine flu.

"Hajj and umrah will continue with some conditions," Ibrahim al-Kerdani, World Health Organisation spokesman in Egypt, said after a meeting of Arab health ministers in Cairo.

"Some groups will be excluded from hajj: people over the age of 65, people under the age of 12 and people with chronic illnesses," he told reporters.

The decision to keep the vulnerable groups away from the pilgrimage is yet to be ratified by the health ministers' governments, he said.

Ever thought you had a glowing personality?

published by You on 23 July, 2009 - 20:42

Well, it may be true!

Humans Glow in Visible Light

he human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal.
Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals.

(This visible light differs from the infrared radiation — an invisible form of light — that comes from body heat.)

Enforced marriage law forces couple apart

published by You on 23 July, 2009 - 19:59

Nineteen-year-old Canadian Rochelle Wallis married her Welsh husband Adam in November 2008, two years after they first met and fell in love.

But now Rochelle is about to be deported from the UK and has been told that she will not be able to come back to see Adam until she is 21.

She has become the first unintended victim of changes to UK immigration laws which were designed to protect young British Asian women from being subjected to forced marriages.

In a letter to Adam's MP, Mark Williams, to whom the couple turned for help, the UK Border Agency described Rochelle being forced out of the country for the next year and a half as just an "inconvenience"...

...

Know your enemy

published by You on 23 July, 2009 - 05:14

Why isn’t the trial of a man charged with preparing for terror attacks using tennis-ball bombs being reported? He’s not a bearded Muslim

Imagine, for a moment, that Neil Lewington, who is on trial at the Old Bailey for preparing for a “campaign of terrorism” using tennis-ball bombs, was a British Muslim. The story would be splashed across the front page of every newspaper in Britain, and Sky News would be rolling a loop of images of his scowling, bearded, dark face.

Afghan man held over murder 'in the name of the Koran'

published by You on 22 July, 2009 - 19:35

Afghan man held over murder 'in the name of the Koran'

Munich - Munich police are questioning a 27-year-old Afghan man suspected of stabbing his former wife to death "in the name of the Koran," police sources said Tuesday. A Munich police spokesman said the 24-old Afghan woman Nesima R., whose full name was withheld for legal reasons, had been stabbed some 20 times, and that the suspect had given the Koran as a justification for the attack.

The woman received stab wounds to the heart and died Monday in hospital.

The pair are believed to have been married while in Afghanistan, although when Zafar, a 27-year-old unemployed painter, came to Germany in 2008, he found the woman in a new relationship with a cousin.

Apostasy and Islam?

published by You on 21 July, 2009 - 16:59

I hear the punishment for this is not death.

The Ottoman Caliphate, the supreme representative of Sunni Islam, formally abolished this penalty in the aftermath of the so-called Tanzimat reforms launched in 1839. The Shaykh al-Islam, the supreme head of the religious courts and colleges, ratified this major shift in traditional legal doctrine.

It was pointed out that there is no verse in the Qur’an that lays down a punishment for apostasy (although chapter 5 verse 54 and chapter 2 verse 217 predict a punishment in the next world). It was also pointed out that the ambiguities in the hadith (the sayings of the Prophet) suggest that apostasy is only an offense when combined with the crime of treason.

Longest Solar Eclipse of the Century

published by Highland on 21 July, 2009 - 16:17

Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009

The solar eclipse that will take place on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 will be a total eclipse of the Sun. It will be the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting at most 6 minutes, 39 seconds. It has sparked tourist interest in eastern China and India.

The eclipse is part of series 136 in the Saros cycle, like the record setting Solar eclipse of July 11, 1991. The exceptional duration is a result of the moon being near perigee, with the diameter of the moon 8% larger than the sun (magnitude 1.080).

This is second in the series of three eclipses in a month. There was a lunar eclipse on July 7 and now a solar eclipse on July 22 and then a lunar eclipse on August 6...

Serbian warlord gets life for crimes against humanity

published by You on 20 July, 2009 - 17:50

Milan Lukic guilty of massacring Muslims in Bosnian war during reign of terror under Radovan Karadzic

One of the most notorious Serbian mass murderers and paramilitary chiefs from the war in Bosnia was sentenced to life in prison today, 17 years after he helped turn the ancient town of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia into a morgue for Muslims.

...

He was sentenced to life for six separate incidents of war crimes, entailing murder, extermination, cruelty, persecution and inhumane acts. His cousin and co-defendant, Sredoje Lukic, received 30 years...

Read more @ The Guardian

Pages