Labour caught napping over bedroom tax
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband Labour has been tackling the government over the bedroom tax. Ed Miliband has raised it at Prime Minister's Question Time. He and other MPs have exposed the iniquities of the new legislation. However, comments from the shadow employment minister pose the question as to whether Labour is opposed to it in princip…
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Arab Spring-style protests take hold in Iraq
This restive Sunni town, the first to rebel against U.S. troops a decade ago, is rising up once again, this time against the government the Americans left behind. In an echo of the Arab Spring protests that have overturned regimes elsewhere in the region, angry residents have been staging weekly demonstrations against the Shiite-led government of Pr…
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Iraq backs off media outlets closure
Iraq has suspended orders to close 44 media operations in the country, including the BBC and Voice of America, after an outcry by press freedom advocates, an official said Tuesday. The Communications and Media Commission that regulates the news media in Iraq will give the targeted organizations more time to pay outstanding fees and renew lapsed lice…
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Media freedom deteriorating
Violence against journalists and restrictions on media have worsened in the past year in Iraq, a local rights group said, in a country already thought to have among the least press freedoms in the world. The Journalism Freedoms Observatory (JFO), ahead of Thursday’s World Press Freedom Day, voiced concern over arbitrary arrests, curbs on movement an…
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Iraq dreaming of Brazil 2014
It is almost ten years since war returned to Iraq, and although the situation has improved since then, the country remains plagued by high levels of violence. Hardly ideal conditions for sport to thrive, but football has retained its strong roots and the national team now boasts a realistic chance of reaching the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™. A delegation…
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Baghdad books refuse to die
Saad Tahr Hussein rushes me through the narrow alleyway towards Mutanabbi Street, where the concrete wall in front of the central bank hems in the pedestrians. About a thousand Iraqis briefly see – or don't notice – the sly shade of a Brit as he stumbles down the alley. Then, in the square where the statue of old Marouf al-Rasafi, poet and histo…
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All going swimmingly for Ahmed
Swimmer Ahmed Kelly has drawn praise from Greg Hartung, President of the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC), after closing in on his ambition of competing at the London 2012 Paralympic Games for his adopted country. The 20-year-old (pictured) was born in Iraq with significant deficiencies in all four limbs and was spent the majority of the firs…
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Healing Injuries Through Sports
The ability to ride a bike or swing a golf club are simple pleasures that most of us take for granted. But for severely injured veterans, athletic activities can often provide the opportunity to heal and prove to themselves, that they can still do things they possibly imagined impossible. Adaptive sports programmes are such an important part of what…
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Widower addresses Alawadi death
The husband of an Iraqi-American woman who was found bludgeoned to death with a threatening note beside her made his first public remarks Tuesday and demanded to know what motivated her killer. Kassim Alhimidi addressing reporters at a mosque east of San Diego after a memorial service for 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi. "The main question we would like to…
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Paralympian Inspiration to Vets
As disabled veterans gathered at the base of Snowmass Mountain to tackle their first ski runs on adaptive skis during the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, they had an unexpected cheering squad: U.S. Paralympians, including two training for the 2012 Summer Games in London. Positioned slopeside yesterday to encourage their fellow veterans sat…
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How Mohammed Merah took up Jihad
Mohammed Merah had plenty of stamps in his passport, according to French intelligence officials. He traveled through at least seven Middle Eastern and central Asian countries on his way to Afghanistan in 2010. It was a meandering journey that might have been a metaphor for a young man in search of a purpose and identity. But it's also clear that by the…
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US Muslims want NYPD Investigation
Thirty-two civil rights groups from around the country filed a complaint with the New York attorney general Friday over police documents that showed the New York Police Department recommending increased surveillance of Shiite mosques based solely on their religion. The complaint urged Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate NYPD's surveillanc…
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