http://www.salaam.co.uk/news Salaam News - the muslim spin on the events that matter The slow process of holding Washingtom accountable for its wanton terrorism is just starting. The ACLU today announced that it was filing a lawsuit aimed at enforcing a previous FOIA request about information pertaining to the massive US drone program, including how many civilians have been killed in the attacks and what the legal basis is for the government killing people with unmanned attack vehicles. Meanwhile, mercenaries and regualar armies are taking their cue from the glorification of torture and murder and indulging in their own orgies of killings. Wednesday 17th March 2010 Law http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257073 With the annual AIPAC fealty season approaching Washington affirms its unquestioned committment to brutal Zionist ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Only the timing of the announcement of a further ratcheting up of the barbarity by Israel has irked Unce Sam. Hilary Clinton affirms that the ethnic cleansing itself is very much in line with US values! President Obama is already being seen as a poodle of the Zionist lobby and in sync with the White Zionist vision of a ethnically cleansed Jewish Palestine based on a flawed reading of the Bible. Wednesday 17th March 2010 Law http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257074 Staff at IslamOnline have gone on strike. But is it about workers' rights, religious principles or national rivalries? As the IslamOnline workers prepare themselves for a second night of occupation in an attempt to assert their editorial independence over those that bankroll them, a broader upheaval is under way in every corner of the Arab media world, one that could prove dangerous for cultural pluralism. "There is an Egyptian taste to IslamOnline at the moment which is very discernible; if the site packs up and moves to Qatar the spirit and attitude of the site will change," says Khalil al-Anani, an expert on political Islam at Durham University. "That would be a big loss to the Muslim community globally, because we are facing a wave of Salafist media at the moment – on the internet, on satellite TV, and elsewhere – and IslamOnline was one of the key outlets resisting that trend." Wednesday 17th March 2010 Religion http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257075 Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this week made the first official visit by a Brazilian president to Israel. Brazil is emerging as a potential "bridge" between Iran and those countries that seek to punish Tehran over its nuclear program. Lula stepping into this arena is a further instance of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) acting as a new rival power to an increasingly disoriented US, as well as to Washington's ally, Israel. Wednesday 17th March 2010 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257076 At the seven-year mark, the United States-led invasion of Iraq has failed to bring about most of the expected results, from building democracy in the Middle East to increasing US national security. There are, however, encouraging prospects for democracy within Iraq, even if that development favors expelling the troops that made representative government possible. Will Washington accept "victory" by writing itself out of the Iraqi political dispensation? Wednesday 17th March 2010 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257077 Despite ongoing calls from the United States for Syria to sever its ties with Iran, Damascus and Tehran continue to assert the robustness of their relations, highlighted by the recent lifting of visa restrictions. Wednesday 17th March 2010 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257078 Since the news came to light in the last few weeks about the disproportionately harsh sentencing of the young men and women who took part in the protests in London against the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009, many people have voiced their shock and concern for those individuals who seem to have been unjustly targeted by the authorities and overzealously persecuted by the courts in order to "set an example" and "send a message" to those in the wider community. However, the groups who you would expect to be at the forefront of the campaign for justice, namely human rights organisations, seem instead to have adopted a stony silence on the issue and in most cases claim to be completely unaware of the situation. Tuesday 16th March 2010 Law http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257070 Islamabad and Tehran have signed an operational agreement on the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project, a month after the signing was delayed because Pakistan was unable to arrange funds for the project. The countries signed a "heads of agreement" and certain "condition precedents" to make the gas sales purchase agreement (GSPA) signed last June effective. The signing of these agreements was required for the flow of Iranian gas towards Pakistan to begin in three to four years. Wednesday 17th March 2010 Business http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257079 The West's favourite Arab despot has come up with a fix for Nigeria, Africa's most populous Muslim majority nation. Col Gaddafi's suggestion is unsurprising given his past form. Last year, he called for Switzerland to be abolished and for its land to be divided between Italy, Germany and France. for good measure he described the partition of India as a "historic, radical solution" which saved the lives of "millions of Hindus and Muslims". Tuesday 16th March 2010 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257072 Faced with growing demand for food and increasingly unpredictable weather, many developing nations are debating whether to relax restrictions on the use of genetically modified crops. Seed developers promise that a coming generation of genetically modified (GM) food crops will have climate-resilient features, from drought resistance to saltwater tolerance. But widespread adoption of GM varieties by small farmers would be "suicidal in terms of climate change," said Vandana Shiva, an Indian social activist, environmentalist and proponent of small-scale farming. "The (GM) system is more about companies making money from farmers than food security," she told AlertNet in an interview in London. Monday 15th March 2010 Politics http://www.salaam.co.uk/news/index.php#257066