Reports

Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera is being used as a “bargaining tool” by Qatar to further its position internationally, US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks claim. Qatar-based Al-Jazeera has, however, described it as an American assessment only. In a cable sent on November 19, 2009, Ambassador Joseph E LeBaron wrote that the station could be used "as a bargaining tool to repair relationships with other countries, particularly those soured by al-Jazeera's broadcasts, including the United States"...

The pain shot up to his head faster than he could think. It seemed like a powerful electric shock. Hussain, a 26-year-old, still doesn't have words for it. He got just one, and couldn't take it. Hussain is a victim of Malaysia's judicial caning. Across the Southeast Asian country, government officials rampantly resort to this tactic for torture. The metre-long rattan canes, swishing into the flesh of prisoners up to 160 kilometres per hour, tears into the naked flesh of prisoners, turning the...

Two more walls collapsed on Wednesday inside Pompeii's 2,000-year-old archaeological site, the second such incident in as many days. The two walls collapsed early Wednesday morning, in all likelihood because of heavy rains over the past several days, the office of Pompeii's archaeological superintendent said in a statement. The collapse involved an area 2m high and 3m wide of the wall along one of the site's main streets, the Via Stabiana. Another small chunk of a side room in the "House of the...

Twenty-year-old Nita was caught on an isolated road on a motorcycle with her boyfriend. She was whisked away by the Sharia police. The next morning the head lecturer at her campus lectured her, and told her mother that Nita should be stoned to death. Nita blurted out, “Sir, I was only trying to look for a shortcut, and I should be stoned for that? What about the officers who raped me last night?” Nita was apprehended by the Sharia police (Wilayatul Hisbah, WH) in January 2010 for the crime of...

Interpol has placed Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, on a red notice wanted list over allegations of sexual misbehavior by a Swedish prosecutor, the police organisation has announced on its website. The notice said Assange, 39, is wanted for “sex crimes” on an arrest warrant brought by the international public prosecution office in Gothenburg, Sweden. Interpol is based in Lyon, France. The Red Notice does not amount to an arrest warrant. It asks people to contact...

Dow Chemical, chemical manufacturer Sasol North America and their contractors hired private investigators to spy on the environmental group Greenpeace, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. The 56-page lawsuit, filed by Greenpeace in federal district court in Washington, alleged that the companies and public relations firms Dezenhall Resources and Ketchum hired investigators who stole documents, tapped phones and hacked into computer networks between 1998 and 2000. "We believe it is every citizen...

Exorbitant medical bills are pushing over 100 million people into poverty every year. In some countries, 5 percent of the population is forced into poverty every year because they have to pay for health services. The findings are from the World Health Organization's World Health Report 2010 which has just been released. The WHO report says that in countries like India people who pay for their health care services suffer "catastrophic costs." While millions suffer and die because they do not have...

The Myanmar junta has suspended nine weekly news journals which accorded prominent front-page coverage to the release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division under the Ministry of Information suspended publication of the top sports journal First Eleven and the Hot News journal for two weeks while other journals 7 Days News, The Voice, Venus News, Pyithu Khit, Myanmar Post, The Snap Shot, and Myanmar Newsweek were suspended for one week, according to...

Less than one in 10 Afghan men know of the 9/11 attacks and their impact of the war in Afghanistan. A survey by an international think tank shows that 92 percent of those surveyed had never heard of the attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001. A report based on a survey by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) also shows that four in 10 Afghans believe the US is on their soil in order to "destroy Islam or occupy Afghanistan." The findings are based on interviews conducted...

"That's All Right Mama" by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup is the world's oldest rock-and-roll song. Southeastern Louisiana University rock historian Joseph Burns claims it was the first to contain all of the elements that are associated with rock and roll. Burns, who hosts the weekly radio program "Rock School" on Southeastern’s KSLU 90.9 FM radio station, cites the following elements to be identified as a rock and roll number: * It is music that draws heavily from blues and country in a hit form that...