Kuwaiti women MPs refuse to wear hijab in parliament

In Kuwait, the issue has arisen as part of a campaign by Dr Dashti, one of the country’s leading economists as well as a women’s rights activist and politician, against what she regards as unconstitutional implementation of sharia. As with all four women MPs, she has a doctorate from the United States.

When electoral law was changed in 2005 to allow women in Kuwait to vote and stand for parliament, Islamists inserted a law-minute rider that “women as voters and MPs” would have to follow sharia. It did not specify precisely where or how.

Three Islamist MPs immediately protested when Dr Dashti and a second MP, Aseel Al-Awadhi, turned up at the Assembly without a hijab, the simple head-scarf that covers the hair and is compulsory for women in public in Saudi Arabia and Iran but optional across most Gulf nations.

One MP sought a ruling from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, whose “fatwa department” last week decreed that hijab was an obligation for Muslim women, without referring directly to the electoral law.

Uighurs sentenced to death over China’s deadliest riots which killed 200

Four Sudanese to hang for murder of U.S. official

“Under Islamic sharia and Sudanese law, all religions, nationalities and ethnicities are considered equal,” the judge said.

Defendant Mohaned Osman shouted: “This sentence is not credible,” and said America had murdered Muslims.

Victim’s parents help with Iran execution: report

“There were a lot of efforts put in to bring about reconciliation in this case, but they proved to be ineffective and Behnoud’s retribution verdict was carried out this morning,” Fars News Agency quoted Jaffarzadeh as saying.

ISNA news agency said, without giving a source or details: “The father and mother of Ehsan Nasrollahi acted themselves in implementing the punishment at Evin prison.”

Iran defiant as three more given death penalty over election protests

Gore upbeat on climate bill

In what organizers said was a rarity, Gore took half a dozen questions from journalists, including one from Phelim McAleer, an Irish filmmaker who asked Gore to address nine errors in his film identified by a British court in 2007.

Gore responded that the court ruling supported the showing of his film in British schools. When McAleer tried to debate further, his microphone was cut off by the moderators.

SILENCE! He keeel you. (thanks to Irish Ho for the link)

Actually, goracle…

A judge was asked to adjudicate between Stewart Dimmock and the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Mr Justice Burton ruled that the film could be sent to schools, but only if it was accompanied by new guidlines to balance the former US vice-president’s “one-sided” views

The judge said some of the errors were made in “the context of alarmism and exaggeration” in order to support Mr Gore’s thesis on global warming.

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And of course…

N.Korea Test-Fires 5 Short-Range Missiles