From the BBC

Afghan on trial for Christianity
By Robert Pigott
BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Sharia law
An Afghan man is being tried in a court in Kabul for his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

He could be sentenced to death for the act and his refusal to recant.

The trial of Abdul Rahman reflects the struggle between religious hardliners and reformists over what shape Islam will take in Afghanistan.

Mr Rahman was arrested last month after his estranged family - with whom he was in dispute over the custody of his two children - denounced him as a convert.

Mr Rahman, who is 41, was found to be carrying a Bible and was charged with rejecting Islam.

From the ABC

US support call for new Belarusian poll
By Correspondent Emma Griffiths and wires

The United States has rejected the results of the election in Belarus, saying the campaign that re-elected President Alexander Lukashenko was conducted in "a climate of fear".

The White House says it supports the Belarusian opposition call for a new poll.

The European Union (EU) has also been critical of the way the vote was conducted and is expected to impose sanctions on Belarus.

The EU has criticised the weekend's presidential election in the former Soviet state as severely flawed.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed any complaints about the election process as absurd.

He has been returned to a third term in office with more than 80 per cent of the vote.

"First of all, I want to say that the revolution which some people have talked about so much and which some even worked to prepare has failed in Belarus," he said.

"It could not have been any other way. The Presidential election has been held in strict compliance with our constitution in a fair and democratic manner."

The main opposition candidate won just 6 per cent. Alexander Milinkevich has called for a re-run.

He has also urged Belarusians to take to the streets in protest.

Election monitors from the European Union say the poll in Belarus failed to meet international standards.

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Gus would argue that of all election sytems and processes, the US election machine is the least fair of many. Tampering of electronic voting is not to be excluded (all one needs is to shift a few votes across the line and it has been proven it can be done despite the "secure" nature of the electronic programs) and the electoral roll is often loaded against the Democrats by republican run states like florida.

From the ABC

Aust to raise convert trial concerns with Afghanistan

The Federal Government says it is concerned a man in Afghanistan may be facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity.

An Afghan judge has warned 41-year-old Abdul Rahman could be executed if he refuses to become a Muslim again.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, says everyone should be able to exercise their freedom of religion.

He says he does not believe it is a sign the country is slipping back to the repression experienced under the Taliban regime.

"The country is obviously massively improved from what it was under the Taliban," he said.

"But here is a particular case that's come up in the courts.

"Apparently some of the judiciary are still very conservative and we hope the Afghan Government will be able to deal with this."

Mr Downer says he intends to raise the matter with the Afghanistan Government.

"We obviously wouldn't want to see anybody face execution just for exercising their freedom of religion," he said.

Read more at the ABC

From Al Jazeera

Afghan convert's trial put in doubt

Wednesday 22 March 2006, 15:15 Makka Time, 12:15 GMT

An Afghan man facing a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity may be mentally unfit to stand trial, a state prosecutor has said.

Abdul Rahman has been charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under Afghanistan's sharia or Islamic law.

His trial started last week and he confessed to becoming a Christian 16 years ago. If convicted, he could be executed.

But Sarinwal Zamari, a prosecutor, said questions have been raised about his mental fitness.

"We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person," he told The Associated Press.

Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, said Abdul Rahman would undergo a psychological examination.

"Doctors must examine him," he said. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped." Read more at Al Jazeera...

Gus is confused:

We've bombed the crap out of these guys under the pretense to help them fight against the Taliban that we used to support against the Russians, while the Taliban — horrible to women — used to stop poppy farming which now we don't support but can't stop and it ends up as massive truckloads of heroin in most Western countries, but our new friends show religious intolerance beyond belief and are not much kinder to women than the Taliban and, under the reconstruction program, we build them a fantastic super expensive commercial centre in the middle of Kabul where no Afghan can go since they do not have any money to buy French perfume which would not be of much use anyway while in the countryside the warlords are doing what they know best: fight. pillage, drink tea and control their little kingdoms and the Americans and the Aussie troops with their Pommy companions are still searching for the idea of Bin Laden in mountains where nothing much grows,,, but haha... we can now build this huge pipeline across Afghanistan and

And the answer is ....

‘Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was detained at a Washington
airport yesterday after attending a meeting of Irish leaders with US President
George Bush, causing him to miss a scheduled St. Patrick’s Day appearance in
Buffalo, a congressman said. 

Adams’ name, and that of a
travelling companion, appeared on a terror watch list at Reagan National
Airport, triggering a lengthy inspection, said Congressman Brian Higgins, a New
York Democrat who had invited Adams to speak at the Buffalo Irish Centre.’ 

Gerry
Adams Detained In US 'Terror Watch'