Pakistan businessman accused by film protesters of blasphemy for not closing shops

Pakistani lawyers chant anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration, near an area that houses the U.S. Embassy and other foreign missions in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. The demonstration in Islamabad followed three days of violent protests against an anti Islam film in Pakistan in which two people were killed. Over two dozen more have been killed in protests in other parts of the Muslim world over the past week, including the U.S. ambassador in Libya. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

ISLAMABAD - Demonstrators angry over an anti-Islam film accused a local businessman in southern Pakistan of blasphemy, forcing the police to open a case and driving him and his family into hiding, following an argument that broke out when he refused to join their protest, officials said Wednesday.

The incident demonstrates the potential for abuse of the country's strict blasphemy laws as well as the intense feelings the film, which denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammed, has unleashed in Pakistan.

At least two people have died in protests against the film, which has generated widespread animosity across the Muslim world.

The incident in the city of Hyderabad began when hundreds of protesters rallied Saturday. Some protesters demanded that businessman Haji Nasrullah Khan shut his roughly 120 shops in solidarity, said police officer Munir Abbasi.

When Khan refused, one of his tenants said his decision supported the film, the officer said.

The protesters claimed Khan insulted the Prophet while arguing with them, said city police chief Fareed Jan. But he said there was no evidence to suggest the insults really occurred and that police only opened a blasphemy case because they were pressured by the mob. Opening such a case doesn't mean the person is necessarily charged with the crime but that police are investigating him or her.

Protesters ransacked Khan's house, and surrounded a police station, refusing to go away until officials opened a blasphemy case, Abbasi said.

The situation became even more inflamed when religious leaders from one of the biggest mosques in the city issued an edict calling for Khan's death and announced from the mosque's loudspeakers that he should be killed, Abbasi said.

The police officer said Khan and his family members had gone into hiding in fear for their lives.

Under Pakistan's blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of defiling the holy book, or Qur'an, or insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad can face life in prison or death.

Critics say the laws are often abused to harass non-Muslims or to settle personal rivalries. Radical Islamist groups have also been behind some of the blasphemy accusations.

In this case, Abbasi said, police suspect some of the complaints against Khan by other shopkeepers may have been sparked more by his desire to evict some of them for late payment as opposed to any actual insults.

Abbasi said a prominent pro-Taliban religious party, Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan, and an al-Qaida linked militant group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, had been advocating against the shopkeeper.

Despite the potential for abuse, efforts to amend or repeal the blasphemy laws have failed in the past.

Last year, a minister and a governor were assassinated when they spoke out about misuse of the laws and suggested changing them. The governor was shot and killed by his own guard.

Rights activists and critics of the laws had hoped that the recent case of a 14-year-old girl charged with insulting the Qur'an would help bring about changes in the laws, or at least help curb abuse.

The case gained widespread attention and sympathy both in Pakistan and internationally due to her young age and questions about her mental capacity.

She was granted bail after a religious cleric was accused of planting evidence to incriminate her, and her lawyers have said they will move to throw the case out entirely.

But a blasphemy accusation, even an unproven one, can be a death sentence in Pakistan.

A report by the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies said that since 1990, 52 people have been killed by vigilantes after being implicated in blasphemy cases.

Earlier this summer a mob in one Pakistani city dragged an accused blasphemer from a police building, beat him to death and burned the body.

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Associated Press Writer Adil Jawad in Karachi contributed to this report.

© The Canadian Press, 2012

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/World/pakistan+businessman+accused+by+film+protesters+of+blasphemy+for+not+closing+shops/6442718080/story.html
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Syrian rebels seize border crossing with Turkey; 2 bombs hit Damascus suburb

Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, left, speaks to reporters, as UNHCR representative to Jordan, Andrew Harper, right, listens during his visit to the Zaatari Refugees Camp for Syrians who fled the civil war in their country in Mafraq, Jordan, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

AKCAKALE, Turkey - Syrian rebels seized control of a border crossing on the frontier with Turkey on Wednesday, ripping down the Syrian flag as the rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad expand their control of the country's north.

Two bombs also exploded in a Damascus suburb, causing civilian casualties, according to Syria's state news agency SANA. The first blast went off near a secondary school in the Damascus suburb of Qudsayya, followed by a second explosion about 200 metres (yards) away, SANA said. The agency said school students were not among those hurt but had no further details.

Although the bloodshed prompted international sanctions that have isolated Assad's government, the regime still has the support of Russia, Iran and China. On Wednesday, Assad met with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in the capital Damascus, Syria's state-run news agency reported.

Salehi arrived in Syria after a visit to Cairo as part of an Egyptian-sponsored Syria peace initiative grouping Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt — all supporters of the rebels — with Iran.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi warned Iran on Tuesday that its support for the Syrian regime was hurting chances of better relations between Iran and Egypt. The promise of greater rapprochement with Egypt is part of a package of incentives and efforts by Morsi to lure Iran, Syria's staunchest regional ally, away from Damascus and find an end to the bloodshed.

After meeting with Assad on Wednesday, the Iranian foreign minister pledged his country's "unwavering support" to Syria to end the fighting, according to SANA.

Assad, in turn, said "the success of any initiative is the truthful intention to help Syria," the Syrian news agency said. SANA also quoted Assad as saying that the "current battle targets resistance as a whole not only Syria," an apparent reference to hardline groups and countries opposed to Israel's existence.

The capture of the border crossing with Turkey was a strategic boost for the rebels, allowing them to ferry supplies into the country as the fighters try to tip the balance in the civil war.

Syria's rebels have captured several other crossings into Turkey, as well as one on the border with Iraq. The seizure on Wednesday is believed to be the first time they have overrun a frontier post in the northern province of Raqqa, which could help in the fight for control of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) away.

"I am a free Syrian!" Zisha Bargash shouted, throwing his hands in the air as he watched the takeover from the Turkish side. "This is the beginning of the end Assad. Game over."

Bargash was among a dozen people — some jubilant, some wounded — who managed to crawl under a barbed wire barrier between the countries. Some replaced the national flag with a rebel banner, sparking loud cheers and applause.

Turkish officials cordoned off the area on the Turkish side of the border, and police prevented a crowd of people from trying to storm the area and cross into Syria.

Although the rebels appeared firmly in control of the crossing, scattered gunfire was heard on the Syrian side and a government flag was flying in the distance, suggesting government forces were not far away.

The takeover of the Tal Abyad crossing comes after a day of fierce clashes as rebels and regime forces fought for its control. Turkey's private Dogan news agency said earlier Wednesday that the rebels had surrounded the customs building and engaged in an intense firefight with Syrian snipers inside the building.

Civilians fleeing the violence reported that several people were killed in the fighting around Tal Abyad, Dogan reported. Several others were wounded in the battles and were taken to Turkey for treatment, the report said without giving specific numbers.

The 18-month-old conflict began with peaceful protests that were attacked by government security forces and has since evolved into a civil war. Activists say at least 23,000 people have been killed. Rebel factions have also been accused of summary executions and other abuses.

The conflict has sent refugees pouring into neighbouring countries. Some 83,000 refugees have found shelter in 12 camps along the Turkish border with Syria.

Also Wednesday, Amnesty International said the Syrian government has carried out indiscriminate air bombardments and artillery strikes on residential areas that do not target opposition fighters or military objectives, and instead appear aimed solely at punishing civilians perceived to be supporters of the rebels.

Much of the recent fighting has centred on the contested city of Aleppo, but the London-based group said hundreds of civilians in other parts of northern and central Syria have been killed or wounded in recent weeks. Many of the victims were children, who were killed in attacks on people's homes, cities' streets or while trying to take shelter from the bombings.

The conclusions were published in an Amnesty report that followed a visit to Syria by senior crisis researcher Donatella Rovera, who travelled to 26 towns and villages in the Jabal al-Zawiya area and other parts of the northern Idlib and north Hama regions between Aug. 31 and Sept. 11.

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Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

© The Canadian Press, 2012

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/World/syrian+rebels+seize+border+crossing+with+turkey+2+bombs+hit+damascus+suburb/6442717848/story.html
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Canadian man pleads guilty to conspiracy and gambling charges in NY Internet poker crackdown

NEW YORK, N.Y. - A Canadian man who was the payment-processing director for two online poker companies has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and gambling charges in the government's crackdown on the businesses.

The plea Wednesday by Nelson Burtnick came in federal court in Manhattan.

The 41-year-old Burtnick admitted he knew he was breaking the law when he disguised payments from U.S. customers of Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars to make it seem that they were not gambling proceeds. Prosecutors say he committed the crimes between December 2006 and April 2011.

Burtnick was among nearly a dozen people charged in a case that shut down the U.S. operations of the three largest poker companies.

His sentencing is set for Dec. 19. The charges carry a potential penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

© The Canadian Press, 2012

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/World/canadian+man+pleads+guilty+to+conspiracy+and+gambling+charges+in+ny+internet+poker+crackdown/6442718263/story.html
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Italy's high court upholds convictions of 23 Americans in Egyptian terror suspect abduction

ROME - Italy's highest criminal court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 Americans in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

The ruling marks the final appeal in the first trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA's practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries where torture is permitted.

The 23 Americans all were convicted in absentia following a three-and-a-half-year trial, and have never been in Italian custody. They risk arrest if they travel to Europe and one of their court-appointed lawyers suggested that the final verdict would open the way for the Italian government to seek their extradition.

"It went badly. It went very badly," lawyer Alessia Sorgato said. "Now they will ask for extradition."

The Americans and two Italians were convicted last year of involvement in the kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003 — the first convictions anywhere in the world against people involved in the CIA's practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries where torture was permitted. The cleric was transferred to U.S. military bases in Italy and Germany before being moved to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. He has since been released.

Those convicted include the former Milan CIA station chief, Robert Seldon Lady, whose original seven-year sentence was raised to nine years on appeal. The other 22 Americans, all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents, face seven-year terms.

Previous Italian governments had declined to act on prosecutors' request to extradite the American suspects, most of whom had court-appointed lawyers the defendants never met. While some of the defendants in the case were known figures attached to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in Milan, many of those named in the trial are believed to have been aliases, impeding any formal extradition.

Among those whose sentence was upheld was Air Force Col. Joseph Romano, who was head of security at the Aviano Air Force base where the Egyptian cleric was driven from Milan before being taken by plane to Germany and eventually Egypt.

Romano's lawyer, Cesare Bulgheroni, said he would appeal the verdict to the EU human rights court in Strasbourg on the basis that Romano was never formally notified of the charges against him, and that lower courts had rejected some witnesses. Romano was one of only two Americans who received permission to hire his own lawyer during the original trial.

The court also ordered new appeals trials for five Italian intelligence agents, including the former head of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari. They had been acquitted by lower courts because of state secrets.

During the original trial, three other Americans were acquitted: the then-Rome CIA station chief Jeffrey Castelli and two other diplomats formerly assigned to the Rome Embassy. Prosecutors appealed the acquittal, as they can in Italy. The appeal is still pending in Milan.

© The Canadian Press, 2012

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/World/italys+high+court+upholds+convictions+of+23+americans+in+egyptian+terror+suspect+abduction/6442718216/story.html
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A look at the latest Mideast protests and calls for action by opponents of an anti-Islam film(2)

Publishing director of the satyric weekly Charlie Hebdo, Charb, holds the newspaper as he talks to the media in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. Police took up positions outside the Paris offices of the satirical French weekly that published crude caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on Wednesday that ridicule the film and the furor surrounding it. The provocative weekly, Charlie Hebdo, was firebombed last year after it released a special edition that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a "guest editor" and took aim at radical Islam. (AP Photo/MIchel Euler)

Here's a look at protests and events across the world on Wednesday connected to an anti-Muslim film. Several European countries beefed up security at their embassies a week after angry crowds began assaulting a string of U.S. diplomatic missions in the Mideast.

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FRANCE

A satirical French weekly, Charlie Hebdo, published vulgar caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The magazine's crude cartoons played off the film and ridiculed the violent reaction to it. The government ordered embassies and schools abroad to close on Friday, the Muslim holy day, as a precautionary measure in about 20 countries. The French embassy and a French school in Tunisia were immediately closed.

The foreign ministry issued a travel warning urging French citizens in the Muslim world to exercise "the greatest vigilance."

The government defended Charlie Hebdo's right to publish the caricatures, but banned a demonstration against the film, planned for Saturday. France has the largest Muslim population in western Europe.

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GERMANY

The renewed debate in France about the limits of free expression spread to neighbouring Germany as a group dropped plans to show extracts of the film "Innocence of Muslims" because of the outcry it has caused.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on all those "who rightly invoke the right of freedom of speech, to also act responsibly." Speaking in Berlin, Westerwelle said, "the one who now puts more oil on the fire on purpose, with obvious effect, is not the greatest thinker."

The German Embassy in Sudan, which was attacked last week, remains closed and security at the country's embassies in other countries has been beefed up.

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INDONESIA

The United States temporarily closed its consulate in the country's third largest city of Medan because of demonstrations. It was the third consecutive day of protests in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. About 300 members of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a pan-Islamic movement, rallied peacefully in front of the consulate in Medan. About 50 Muslim students also protested there a separate rally. Both groups called on Washington to punish the makers of the film.

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PAKISTAN

Several hundred lawyers protested the anti-Islam video in the capital Islamabad, forcing their way into an area that houses the U.S. Embassy and other foreign missions. The protesters shouted anti-American slogans and burned an American flag after they pushed through a gate, gaining access to the diplomatic enclave before police stopped them. They called for the U.S. ambassador to be expelled from the country, and then peacefully dispersed.

Pakistan officials opened an investigation into a businessman who has been accused of blasphemy after refusing to join protests over an anti-Islam video and allegedly trying to convince others also not to take part. Blasphemy is punishable by life imprisonment or death.

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SRI LANKA

About 300 Muslims protested against the film in the capital Colombo, calling for its U.S.-based creators to be hanged. They carried signs and banners that read, "Ban anti-Islamic film all over the world. U.S. should apologize to Muslims," and chanted, "Hang the producer and director of the film." Protesters also spit upon and walked on U.S. and Israeli flags during the demonstration, which was organized by an Islamic group called Sri Lanka Thaweed Jamath.

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AFGHANISTAN

Hundreds of university students in the eastern city of Jalalabad staged a protest and burned an effigy of President Barack Obama before dispersing peacefully.

© The Canadian Press, 2012

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/World/a+look+at+the+latest+mideast+protests+and+calls+for+action+by+opponents+of+an+anti-islam+film2/6442717310/story.html
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China says estrangement after Briton's murder drove ex-police chief to seek US asylum

BEIJING, China - Hours after she poisoned a British businessman, Gu Kailai reached out to a trusted ally: Wang Lijun. Gu was the wife of Bo Xilai, the Communist Party boss in the inland Chinese megalopolis of Chongqing; Wang was Bo's chief of police and longtime collaborator.

According to an account released Wednesday by the government's Xinhua News Agency, when a panicked Gu turned to Wang for assistance following the murder, Wang helped her cover up the crime.

Within weeks, his relations with Gu became strained. He approached "the Chongqing party committee's main responsible person at the time" — an apparent reference to Bo himself — to tell him about the murder. For that, Wang "received an angry rebuke and was boxed in the ears," Xinhua said.

Only then, according to the account, did Wang flee to the U.S. Consulate in nearby Chengdu and request asylum from American diplomats.

Wang's flight in February set off the seamiest political scandal China has seen in decades. The fallout included an end to Bo's career as a rising star in party politics, his wife's conviction for murder, and serious complications for an insular Chinese leadership attempting to transfer power to a new generation this fall.

Xinhua's account is a sanitized version of Wang's trial that ended Tuesday on charges of bribery, abuse of power and defection, but is the fullest explanation by the government of how the scandal unfolded in its early days. It also conflicts with statements by U.S. officials and diplomats that Wang, a potential source on China's opaque high-level politics, never sought asylum before he voluntarily left the consulate into the custody of Chinese authorities.

The account is the latest sign that after seven months of debate, Bo's fellow leaders are nearing a resolution on his fate — whether merely to expel him from the party or prosecute him on criminal charges.

A flamboyant, telegenic son of a revolutionary leader, Bo was a rare politician with a popular national profile and deep connections in the top rungs of the party, government and military. Since being suspended from the leadership in April, his name had not been mentioned in previous statements about the scandal — not even obliquely.

In the Xinhua account, Bo's Chongqing comes across as a place where Wang reigned as police chief unbridled by the law and where the powerful traded favours, even over murder.

It said Wang took money from two businessmen to buy and rent housing in Chongqing and Beijing. In return, when they asked, he ordered suspects released from police detention. He put people under electronic surveillance without authorization.

Bo's wife, Gu, confided in Wang last year that she and her son were in a business dispute with Briton Neil Heywood, and that he had allegedly threatened her son's life, Xinhua said. Wang and Gu first met in 2007 and had maintained close relations since. Wang put Heywood under surveillance.

On Nov. 13, the night she poisoned Heywood in a Chongqing hotel room, Gu called Wang and said she and the Briton had been drinking. About 12 hours later, Gu confessed the murder to Wang, Xinhua said.

"He told me not to think about it, that from now on I shouldn't concern myself," the account quoted Gu as saying at her trial last month, at which she received a suspended death sentence. Gu testified that "I said 'I'm a bit worried.' He said, 'It will be fine in a week or two.'"

Unknown to Gu, Wang recorded the conversation. He then sent police officers to remove and destroy evidence, including hotel surveillance videos of her on the night of the murder, Xinhua said. He had Heywood declared dead by excessive drinking.

After the body was cremated, Wang called Gu and told her, "It's all gone up in smoke, flown on a crane to paradise," the account said.

Then, they grew estranged. Gu invited the four police subordinates Wang had put in charge of the Heywood case to a banquet. The favour angered Wang, whose cross words soon made their way back to Gu. She stopped seeing Wang. Four of his aides then found themselves under investigation, escalating the conflict between Wang and Gu, Xinhua said.

That led Wang on Jan. 28 to confront the party boss — presumably Bo — about Gu's role in the murder. "After Wang Lijun got slapped, the conflict became public," one of Wang's investigators in the coverup, Guo Weiguo, later told interrogators.

With strains growing, Wang ordered other subordinates to gather up blood samples from Heywood and other evidence of the murder and had them store the materials and his secret recordings for safekeeping, Xinhua said. Wang was soon shunted aside, relieved of his police duties and reassigned as a vice mayor for the environment, education and other fields. Three more of his aides fell under investigation.

It was in his new vice mayor's role that Wang got an appointment to meet U.S. diplomats at the Chengdu consulate on Feb. 6. He began to talk about his new duties but then said "his personal security was threatened because of his investigation of criminal cases. He asked the United States to provide shelter for him and filled out an application for political asylum," the account said.

It does not say what else Wang told the diplomats. Diplomats in Beijing have said he only discussed the Heywood murder and offered to provide evidence, though he did not carry any, and he spent much of the time on the phone with Chinese officials. On Bo's further involvement, the account is silent.

At Wang's trial, prosecutors acknowledged that his later co-operation helped convict Gu, known in official accounts as Bogu Kailai, a combination of her and her husband's surnames.

It was because of her, Wang told the court, that he covered up the murder.

"After coming to Chongqing, I visited Bogu Kailai's home often, and I thought she treated me quite well. I knew if the case was treated as a homicide, it would be huge. However, to avoid antagonism with Bogu Kailai, I shunned the case," the account quoted Wang as confessing.

© The Canadian Press, 2012

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/World/china+says+estrangement+after+britons+murder+drove+ex-police+chief+to+seek+us+asylum/6442717930/story.html
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Syria's state news agency says 2 blasts strike Damascus suburb, causing casualties

Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, left, speaks to reporters, as UNHCR representative to Jordan, Andrew Harper, right, listens during his visit to the Zaatari Refugees Camp for Syrians who fled the civil war in their country in Mafraq, Jordan, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/World/syrias+state+news+agency+says+2+blasts+strike+damascus+suburb+causing+casualties/6442717848/story.html
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