Dec 2, 2012
With Aid, Afghan ‘Honor’ Victim Inches Back
With Aid, Afghan ‘Honor’ Victim Inches Back: The story of Gul Meena, who was accused of adultery and struck by an ax 15 times, is also the story of a society struggling with shifting attitudes about women.
Jacob Lew, Low-Key Power Broker
Jacob Lew, Low-Key Power Broker: Quiet, religious and fiercely meticulous, President Obama’s chief of staff, Jacob J. Lew, may be the most unassuming power broker in Washington.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Hit Record in 2011, Researchers Say
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Hit Record in 2011, Researchers Say: Emissions continue to grow so rapidly that an international goal of limiting the warming of the planet to 3.6 degrees is on the verge of becoming unattainable, researchers said.
Syrian Merchants Protest by Closing Their Shops
Syrian Merchants Protest by Closing Their Shops: Widespread closings of merchants’ shops were an attempt to keep the country’s nonviolent protest movement alive as the government stepped up its attacks on rebel-held areas near Damascus.
Rumblings In The Republics: New Russian Nationalities Policy Sparks Outcry
Rumblings In The Republics: New Russian Nationalities Policy Sparks Outcry: A new nationalities policy sets guidelines for policies affecting Russia's nearly 200 ethnic groups. Its drafting has provoked intense concern among them that the status of non-Russian nationalities could be diminished.
RFE/RL's Tajik Site Blocked In Tajikistan
RFE/RL's Tajik Site Blocked In Tajikistan: The website of RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Ozodi.org, has been blocked on the Internet in Tajikistan since late on November 29.
The Cash-Only Doctors Club
The Cash-Only Doctors Club: Concierge doctors don't take insurance, but do make house calls. Once an option only for the rich, they may change health care for everyone
Dec 1, 2012
Al-Qaeda urges Mali to reject foreign troops
Al-Qaeda urges Mali to reject foreign troops: In a taped message, the head of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb warns Malians against "foreign invading crusaders".
US denounces Israeli settlement plans
US denounces Israeli settlement plans: US secretary of state says the decision to build 3,000 settler homes in occupied territories is a set back for peace.
Middle-income Singaporeans feel the squeeze, survey finds
Middle-income Singaporeans feel the squeeze, survey finds: A survey of Singaporeans' happiness and well-being has reinf .....
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Thailand criticises Islamic agency's assessment of insurgency
Thailand criticises Islamic agency's assessment of insurgency: Thailand's Foreign Ministry yesterday expressed its disappoi .....
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Replace Gmail Attachments With Google Drive Files
Replace Gmail Attachments With Google Drive Files: I was complaining in a recent post that Gmail doesn't properly integrate with Google Drive and doesn't let you upload files to Google Drive instead of sending attachments. The new compose interface added this feature and you can now click "insert files using Drive", upload a file or select an existing one.
It's still not a seamless experience, you have to click a separate button and deal with permission issues, but it encourages users to upload files to Google Drive and use the Google Drive apps. Gmail tries to solve permission issues by prompting with the option to change sharing settings.
Why would you upload files to Google Drive instead of using attachments? You can send bigger files (10 GB files vs 25 MB attachments), you can edit documents collaboratively, write comments, upload new versions of the files and manage revisions, you can delete the file or change permissions.
Unfortunately, when you send links to Google Drive files, it's more difficult to download the files and you can no longer download them with one click.
There's another problem: Gmail offers 10 GB of free storage, while Google Drive offers 5 GB of free storage, excluding Google Docs/Sheets/Slides files. More free storage would make GDrive more attractive.
Google says that GDrive integration is "rolling out over the next few days and is only available with Gmail's new compose experience".
{ via Gmail Blog }
It's still not a seamless experience, you have to click a separate button and deal with permission issues, but it encourages users to upload files to Google Drive and use the Google Drive apps. Gmail tries to solve permission issues by prompting with the option to change sharing settings.
Why would you upload files to Google Drive instead of using attachments? You can send bigger files (10 GB files vs 25 MB attachments), you can edit documents collaboratively, write comments, upload new versions of the files and manage revisions, you can delete the file or change permissions.
Unfortunately, when you send links to Google Drive files, it's more difficult to download the files and you can no longer download them with one click.
There's another problem: Gmail offers 10 GB of free storage, while Google Drive offers 5 GB of free storage, excluding Google Docs/Sheets/Slides files. More free storage would make GDrive more attractive.
Google says that GDrive integration is "rolling out over the next few days and is only available with Gmail's new compose experience".
{ via Gmail Blog }
Google Shows Flight Notifications
Google Shows Flight Notifications: Back in August, Google released an experiment that integrated Google Search with Gmail. Besides returning results from Gmail, Google also detects flight-related confirmation messages so that it can show additional information for your upcoming flights. You can try this feature by searching for [my flights], as documented here.
What Google doesn't mention is that it also shows flight notifications. They look just like the Google+ birthday reminders.
Flight notifications aren't a new feature (someone spotted it in September), but I thought it's worth mentioning it. There's a lot of valuable information that can be obtained from Gmail messages, as you can see from the latest Google Now update, which shows cards for flights, packages, hotel reservations, event bookings and more. Maybe Google Now will have a desktop interface and it will replace some of the iGoogle features.
{ Thanks, Matt. }
What Google doesn't mention is that it also shows flight notifications. They look just like the Google+ birthday reminders.
Flight notifications aren't a new feature (someone spotted it in September), but I thought it's worth mentioning it. There's a lot of valuable information that can be obtained from Gmail messages, as you can see from the latest Google Now update, which shows cards for flights, packages, hotel reservations, event bookings and more. Maybe Google Now will have a desktop interface and it will replace some of the iGoogle features.
{ Thanks, Matt. }
YouTube's New Interface, Closer to Launch
YouTube's New Interface, Closer to Launch: YouTube continues to test new user interfaces, but it looks like one of these versions will be finally rolled out to everyone.
There's a new message on the experimental homepage that welcomes users to the new YouTube and explains one of the new features: "What to watch shows you new activity from your subscriptions, recommendations based on videos you've watched and your taste in videos, plus the most popular videos on YouTube". YouTube also links to a page that was used the last time when YouTube was redesigned. You can see the old page in Google's cache, but now the page returns a 404 error message.
YouTube has constantly tested new versions of the sidebar from video pages. This time there's a new sidebar section that shows other related videos. You can "get the search results, feeds, and channel videos you were just looking at". For example, you can perform a search, click one of the results and see the list of results by clicking "more results" in the sidebar, instead of going back to the search results page.
The sidebar is the most important thing about the new YouTube interface because it's always there: on the homepage, the settings page, the search results page and can be expanded when you watch videos.
To try the new YouTube interface, check the instructions from this post.
There's a new message on the experimental homepage that welcomes users to the new YouTube and explains one of the new features: "What to watch shows you new activity from your subscriptions, recommendations based on videos you've watched and your taste in videos, plus the most popular videos on YouTube". YouTube also links to a page that was used the last time when YouTube was redesigned. You can see the old page in Google's cache, but now the page returns a 404 error message.
YouTube has constantly tested new versions of the sidebar from video pages. This time there's a new sidebar section that shows other related videos. You can "get the search results, feeds, and channel videos you were just looking at". For example, you can perform a search, click one of the results and see the list of results by clicking "more results" in the sidebar, instead of going back to the search results page.
The sidebar is the most important thing about the new YouTube interface because it's always there: on the homepage, the settings page, the search results page and can be expanded when you watch videos.
To try the new YouTube interface, check the instructions from this post.
North Korea Unveils Rocket Plan
North Korea Unveils Rocket Plan: 
North Korea announced Saturday that it plans to launch a rocket this month in defiance of an international ban and raising tensions ahead of the presidential elections in South Korea.
Two days after the U.N. Security Council warned Pyongyang that going ahead with the launch would be "extremely inadvisable," North Korea's state news agency announced the decision to blast its second long-range rocket this year between Dec. 10 and 22.
In April, North Korea tried but failed to launch an Unha-3 rocket to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
The latest test will take place close to the Dec. 17 date of the death of former leader Kim Jong Il and the South's presidential election on Dec. 19.
Pyongyang's Korean Committee for Space Technology said the rocket would carry a "polar-orbiting earth observation satellite" for "peaceful scientific and technological" purposes after scientists had studied mistakes made during the botched April attempt, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Washington and its allies insist the launches are disguised technology tests for long-range missiles that may be aimed at the United States.
Such tests are banned by the United Nations and the Security Council had on Thursday warned Pyongyang that going ahead with another launch would be "extremely inadvisable."
U.S. warning
Hours after the North Korean announcement, the United States condemned the planned move and said it is consulting closely on the "next steps" with China and Russia and other nations that had been involved in talks aimed at pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
"A North Korean 'satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act that threatens peace and security in the region," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland in a statement.
"Any North Korean launch using ballistic missile technology is in direct violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions," she said.
The resolutions bars North Korea from testing ballistic missile technology.
And Nuland reminded that an unanimously adopted U.N. Security Council Presidential Statement had strongly condemned North Korea's April 13 failed launch and expressed its determination to take action accordingly in the event of a further launch.
"We call on North Korea to comply fully with its obligations under all relevant [U.N. Security Council resolutions]," she said, warning North Korea, which faces a chronic food shortage, of further international isolation.
"Devoting scarce resources to the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles will only further isolate and impoverish North Korea. The path to security for North Korea lies in investing in its people and abiding by its commitments and international obligations," Nuland said.
The United States, she said, is consulting closely with China, Russia, Japan and South Korea—which were involved in Six-Party talks with North Korea to end its armed nuclear drive—on steps that should be taken following Pyongyang's action.
Last month, North Korea said it already possessed rockets capable of striking the U.S. mainland, a claim mostly dismissed by analysts as hollow.
China
North Korea's announcement Saturday came just a day after young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met a senior delegation from Beijing's ruling Chinese Communist Party in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
There was no immediate comment from China, North Korea's key ally, which refuses to endorse further international sanctions against Pyongyang to contain its defiant actions.
"North Korea wants to tell China that it is an independent state by staging the rocket launch and it wants to see if the United States will drop its hostile policies," said Chang Yong Seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Affairs at Seoul National University, according to Reuters news agency.
Pyongyang's announcement also came after weeks of speculation, based on satellite image analysis, that it was laying the groundwork for a new rocket launch from its Sohae satellite launch station.
South Korea
South Korea had repeatedly warned in recent months that the North would seek to destabilise the situation on the Korean peninsula ahead of the South's presidential election.
"We sternly warn if the North goes ahead with the launch, it will face strong countermeasures from the international community," the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported.
In the closed contested election, conservative Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, is facing liberal Moon Jae-in, who has suggested a return to an accommodating policy of engagement and aid for Pyongyang that has been missing during the five years of President Lee Myung-bak's rule, which ends in February when his single term expires.
The North and South remain technically at war after an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, ended their 1950-53 conflict.
In Tokyo, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided to postpone rare bilateral talks with North Korea scheduled in Beijing on Dec. 5-6 following the planned rocket launch, Kyodo news agency reported.
Reported by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
North Korea announced Saturday that it plans to launch a rocket this month in defiance of an international ban and raising tensions ahead of the presidential elections in South Korea.
Two days after the U.N. Security Council warned Pyongyang that going ahead with the launch would be "extremely inadvisable," North Korea's state news agency announced the decision to blast its second long-range rocket this year between Dec. 10 and 22.
In April, North Korea tried but failed to launch an Unha-3 rocket to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
The latest test will take place close to the Dec. 17 date of the death of former leader Kim Jong Il and the South's presidential election on Dec. 19.
Pyongyang's Korean Committee for Space Technology said the rocket would carry a "polar-orbiting earth observation satellite" for "peaceful scientific and technological" purposes after scientists had studied mistakes made during the botched April attempt, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Washington and its allies insist the launches are disguised technology tests for long-range missiles that may be aimed at the United States.
Such tests are banned by the United Nations and the Security Council had on Thursday warned Pyongyang that going ahead with another launch would be "extremely inadvisable."
U.S. warning
Hours after the North Korean announcement, the United States condemned the planned move and said it is consulting closely on the "next steps" with China and Russia and other nations that had been involved in talks aimed at pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
"A North Korean 'satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act that threatens peace and security in the region," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland in a statement.
"Any North Korean launch using ballistic missile technology is in direct violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions," she said.
The resolutions bars North Korea from testing ballistic missile technology.
And Nuland reminded that an unanimously adopted U.N. Security Council Presidential Statement had strongly condemned North Korea's April 13 failed launch and expressed its determination to take action accordingly in the event of a further launch.
"We call on North Korea to comply fully with its obligations under all relevant [U.N. Security Council resolutions]," she said, warning North Korea, which faces a chronic food shortage, of further international isolation.
"Devoting scarce resources to the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles will only further isolate and impoverish North Korea. The path to security for North Korea lies in investing in its people and abiding by its commitments and international obligations," Nuland said.
The United States, she said, is consulting closely with China, Russia, Japan and South Korea—which were involved in Six-Party talks with North Korea to end its armed nuclear drive—on steps that should be taken following Pyongyang's action.
Last month, North Korea said it already possessed rockets capable of striking the U.S. mainland, a claim mostly dismissed by analysts as hollow.
China
North Korea's announcement Saturday came just a day after young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met a senior delegation from Beijing's ruling Chinese Communist Party in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
There was no immediate comment from China, North Korea's key ally, which refuses to endorse further international sanctions against Pyongyang to contain its defiant actions.
"North Korea wants to tell China that it is an independent state by staging the rocket launch and it wants to see if the United States will drop its hostile policies," said Chang Yong Seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Affairs at Seoul National University, according to Reuters news agency.
Pyongyang's announcement also came after weeks of speculation, based on satellite image analysis, that it was laying the groundwork for a new rocket launch from its Sohae satellite launch station.
South Korea
South Korea had repeatedly warned in recent months that the North would seek to destabilise the situation on the Korean peninsula ahead of the South's presidential election.
"We sternly warn if the North goes ahead with the launch, it will face strong countermeasures from the international community," the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported.
In the closed contested election, conservative Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, is facing liberal Moon Jae-in, who has suggested a return to an accommodating policy of engagement and aid for Pyongyang that has been missing during the five years of President Lee Myung-bak's rule, which ends in February when his single term expires.
The North and South remain technically at war after an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, ended their 1950-53 conflict.
In Tokyo, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided to postpone rare bilateral talks with North Korea scheduled in Beijing on Dec. 5-6 following the planned rocket launch, Kyodo news agency reported.
Reported by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
New Law Limits Religious Freedom
New Law Limits Religious Freedom: 
A new decree on religion in Vietnam gives the one-party communist state greater control of people’s beliefs and undermines religious freedom in the country, a rights group said Thursday.
The Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau said it was “deeply concerned” that the newly issued Decree 92 will give authorities broader leeway to sanction and restrict religious activities.
“Decree 92 simply adds to the framework of legislation used to give a ‘veneer of legality’ to a policy of religious repression, planned at the highest levels of the Communist Party and state, and methodically implemented throughout the country, which aims to crush all independent movements and place religions under strict Communist Party control,’ the group said in a statement Thursday.
The decree spells out directives and measures for implementing the Ordinance on Beliefs and Religion governing religious practice in Vietnam.
It lays out procedures by which religious organizations can register their activities, places of worship, and clerics to operate openly or to apply for official recognition.
Religious activity is strictly monitored in Vietnam, where groups must operate under government-controlled management boards.
The government recognizes 31 religious organizations representing 11 different religions including Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Cao Dai, and Hoa Hao traditions.
But members of non-recognized groups, such as Christian house churches or the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam that is affiliated with IBIB, are banned, with some of their members living under house arrest for practicing religion outside state-sanctioned groups.
Decree 92 was issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Nov. 8 and will come into force on Jan. 1, replacing an earlier decree issued in 2005.
The new decree, in addition to preserving the restrictive provisions of its predecessor, adds new obligations and “vaguely-worded provisions” that that give authorities greater powers over religious activities, IBIB said.
One article in the decree, the group said, stipulates that in order to receive full legal recognition, a religious group must prove that it has operated for 20 years without violating the law, including “infringing of national security.”
But this can put organizations in a Catch-22 situation, because simply operating without having received legal recognition could count as an infringement of national security, the group said.
Chapters of the decree outlining what activities religious groups must register show the extreme scrutiny required by political authorities, the group said.
“Vietnam is not seeking to promote greater freedom of religion, but to implement the Vietnamese Communist Party’s directives to ‘increase state management of religious affairs,’” IBIB said.
Reported by Rachel Vandenbrink.
A new decree on religion in Vietnam gives the one-party communist state greater control of people’s beliefs and undermines religious freedom in the country, a rights group said Thursday.
The Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau said it was “deeply concerned” that the newly issued Decree 92 will give authorities broader leeway to sanction and restrict religious activities.
“Decree 92 simply adds to the framework of legislation used to give a ‘veneer of legality’ to a policy of religious repression, planned at the highest levels of the Communist Party and state, and methodically implemented throughout the country, which aims to crush all independent movements and place religions under strict Communist Party control,’ the group said in a statement Thursday.
The decree spells out directives and measures for implementing the Ordinance on Beliefs and Religion governing religious practice in Vietnam.
It lays out procedures by which religious organizations can register their activities, places of worship, and clerics to operate openly or to apply for official recognition.
Religious activity is strictly monitored in Vietnam, where groups must operate under government-controlled management boards.
The government recognizes 31 religious organizations representing 11 different religions including Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Cao Dai, and Hoa Hao traditions.
But members of non-recognized groups, such as Christian house churches or the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam that is affiliated with IBIB, are banned, with some of their members living under house arrest for practicing religion outside state-sanctioned groups.
Decree 92 was issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Nov. 8 and will come into force on Jan. 1, replacing an earlier decree issued in 2005.
The new decree, in addition to preserving the restrictive provisions of its predecessor, adds new obligations and “vaguely-worded provisions” that that give authorities greater powers over religious activities, IBIB said.
One article in the decree, the group said, stipulates that in order to receive full legal recognition, a religious group must prove that it has operated for 20 years without violating the law, including “infringing of national security.”
But this can put organizations in a Catch-22 situation, because simply operating without having received legal recognition could count as an infringement of national security, the group said.
Chapters of the decree outlining what activities religious groups must register show the extreme scrutiny required by political authorities, the group said.
“Vietnam is not seeking to promote greater freedom of religion, but to implement the Vietnamese Communist Party’s directives to ‘increase state management of religious affairs,’” IBIB said.
Reported by Rachel Vandenbrink.
NRP Threatens Poll Boycott
NRP Threatens Poll Boycott: 
Cambodia’s leading opposition party said Thursday that it would boycott general elections in 2013 if the government does not reform the electoral process and refuses to allow its president to return to the country where he has been barred from running on the grounds of his criminal conviction.
The country’s National Election Committee (NEC), which critics say lacks independence from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), removed exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy as a voter and disallowed him from standing as a candidate in next year’s elections in a ruling earlier this month.
The decision was made on the grounds that Sam Rainsy was convicted on charges of incitement and damaging property while leading a 2009 Vietnam border protest, among other crimes—charges he denies and says are politically motivated.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and one of the founders of Sam Rainsy’s National Rescue Party (NRP), said the NEC ruling was part of a plan to secure a win for the CPP in next year’s elections.
The NRP is a united opposition coalition, consisting of the SRP and the Human Rights Party (HRP), aimed at challenging Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP in next year’s polls.
“The NRP will boycott if Sam Rainsy can't come to Cambodia [to compete in the elections]," Yim Sovann said, referring to the 11-year jail sentence the opposition leader faces if he returns from his self-imposed exile in Paris.
“[The boycott would aim] to fight for NEC reform from the top to the local-level and to allow Sam Rainsy’s return.”
The NEC has been accused by rights groups and opposition parties of bias toward the CPP. They have called for independent members on the committee, whose headquarters is situated in the Ministry of the Interior compound.
A number of opposition candidates have said that the 2013 election would not be regarded as free and fair if there is no reform of the NEC and if Sam Rainsy is not permitted to participate in the polls.
Last week, during the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Cambodia, Barack Obama spoke with Hun Sen about the need for measures to ensure that the country’s general elections are contested fairly.
The 60-year-old Hun Sen has held power since 1985 and has said he has no plans to step down until the age of 90.
Elections to ‘proceed’
NEC Secretary General Tep Nytha said the committee will “do its best” to organize a free and fair election for 2013.
He said the NEC will continue to hold the polls “as scheduled,” regardless of the NRP threat of boycott.
“If the two merged parties [SRP and HRP] don’t join the election, it is their right to do so. But the election will proceed as scheduled and all political parties will have the right to participate,” he said.
The NEC recently announced that it will accept the registration of political parties for the 2013 general elections from March-April next year.
Six political parties have also registered to monitor the voting registration process.
Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL) Director Koul Panha underscored the importance of allowing Sam Rainsy to return home to participate in the election.
“In order to make this election more meaningful and just, Sam Rainsy must be present,” he said.
On Wednesday, Sam Rainsy accused Cambodia’s election officials of practicing double standards by banning him from the elections based on the charges against him, saying that others convicted of crimes, including prominent criminals, have not faced the same restrictions.
In a statement, the NRP said that by sidelining Sam Rainsy, Hun Sen is trying to avoid a “fair fight” in the July 2013 election.
Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Cambodia’s leading opposition party said Thursday that it would boycott general elections in 2013 if the government does not reform the electoral process and refuses to allow its president to return to the country where he has been barred from running on the grounds of his criminal conviction.
The country’s National Election Committee (NEC), which critics say lacks independence from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), removed exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy as a voter and disallowed him from standing as a candidate in next year’s elections in a ruling earlier this month.
The decision was made on the grounds that Sam Rainsy was convicted on charges of incitement and damaging property while leading a 2009 Vietnam border protest, among other crimes—charges he denies and says are politically motivated.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and one of the founders of Sam Rainsy’s National Rescue Party (NRP), said the NEC ruling was part of a plan to secure a win for the CPP in next year’s elections.
The NRP is a united opposition coalition, consisting of the SRP and the Human Rights Party (HRP), aimed at challenging Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP in next year’s polls.
“The NRP will boycott if Sam Rainsy can't come to Cambodia [to compete in the elections]," Yim Sovann said, referring to the 11-year jail sentence the opposition leader faces if he returns from his self-imposed exile in Paris.
“[The boycott would aim] to fight for NEC reform from the top to the local-level and to allow Sam Rainsy’s return.”
The NEC has been accused by rights groups and opposition parties of bias toward the CPP. They have called for independent members on the committee, whose headquarters is situated in the Ministry of the Interior compound.
A number of opposition candidates have said that the 2013 election would not be regarded as free and fair if there is no reform of the NEC and if Sam Rainsy is not permitted to participate in the polls.
Last week, during the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Cambodia, Barack Obama spoke with Hun Sen about the need for measures to ensure that the country’s general elections are contested fairly.
The 60-year-old Hun Sen has held power since 1985 and has said he has no plans to step down until the age of 90.
Elections to ‘proceed’
NEC Secretary General Tep Nytha said the committee will “do its best” to organize a free and fair election for 2013.
He said the NEC will continue to hold the polls “as scheduled,” regardless of the NRP threat of boycott.
“If the two merged parties [SRP and HRP] don’t join the election, it is their right to do so. But the election will proceed as scheduled and all political parties will have the right to participate,” he said.
The NEC recently announced that it will accept the registration of political parties for the 2013 general elections from March-April next year.
Six political parties have also registered to monitor the voting registration process.
Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL) Director Koul Panha underscored the importance of allowing Sam Rainsy to return home to participate in the election.
“In order to make this election more meaningful and just, Sam Rainsy must be present,” he said.
On Wednesday, Sam Rainsy accused Cambodia’s election officials of practicing double standards by banning him from the elections based on the charges against him, saying that others convicted of crimes, including prominent criminals, have not faced the same restrictions.
In a statement, the NRP said that by sidelining Sam Rainsy, Hun Sen is trying to avoid a “fair fight” in the July 2013 election.
Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Buddhist Leader Slams New Decree
Buddhist Leader Slams New Decree: 
A prominent Vietnamese Buddhist leader on Friday called a new religious decree issued by the one party communist state “harsh” and said authorities were working tirelessly to disband his organization.
Head of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Thich Quang Do, 84, who is currently under de facto house arrest, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service in a telephone interview that the newly issued Decree 92 will seriously curtail religious freedom in the country.
“Decree 92 is harsh,” he said. “It is much more restrictive than previous decrees.”
The decree, which was introduced earlier this month, spells out directives and measures for implementing the Ordinance on Beliefs and Religion governing religious practice in Vietnam.
It lays out procedures by which religious organizations can register their activities, places of worship, and clerics to operate openly or to apply for official recognition.
Religious activity is strictly monitored in Vietnam, where groups must operate under government-controlled management boards.
The government recognizes 31 religious organizations representing 11 different religions including Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Cao Dai, and Hoa Hao traditions.
But members of non-recognized groups, such as Christian house churches or Thich Quang Do’s UBCV, are banned, with some of their members living under house arrest for practicing religion outside state-sanctioned groups.
In a Friday statement from the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB), which is affiliated with the UBCV, Thich Quang Do said that authorities had “systematically repressed” his organization since the North Vietnamese took control of the South in 1975 and united Vietnam under communist rule.
During a rare meeting on Thursday with Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Hugh Borrowman in Ho Chi Minh City, Thich Quang Do said the UBCV has since been forbidden to conduct religious activities, open schools or launch humanitarian operations.
“The authorities are seeking every pretext to disband the UBCV. When they find one, they will not hesitate to suppress us,” he told Borrowman during their talk at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, where the Buddhist leader has been under house arrest without charge since 2003.
The UBCV was effectively banned in 1981 and supplanted by the state-sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS), which is controlled by the Communist Party’s Fatherland Front.
Thich Quang Do said that since his house arrest, he has “lived like a prisoner” in the monastery, where he is forbidden from preaching or reciting prayers on anyone’s behalf, and all of his visitors are monitored.
Decree 92 was issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Nov. 8 and will come into force on Jan. 1, replacing an earlier decree issued in 2005.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
A prominent Vietnamese Buddhist leader on Friday called a new religious decree issued by the one party communist state “harsh” and said authorities were working tirelessly to disband his organization.
Head of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Thich Quang Do, 84, who is currently under de facto house arrest, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service in a telephone interview that the newly issued Decree 92 will seriously curtail religious freedom in the country.
“Decree 92 is harsh,” he said. “It is much more restrictive than previous decrees.”
The decree, which was introduced earlier this month, spells out directives and measures for implementing the Ordinance on Beliefs and Religion governing religious practice in Vietnam.
It lays out procedures by which religious organizations can register their activities, places of worship, and clerics to operate openly or to apply for official recognition.
Religious activity is strictly monitored in Vietnam, where groups must operate under government-controlled management boards.
The government recognizes 31 religious organizations representing 11 different religions including Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Cao Dai, and Hoa Hao traditions.
But members of non-recognized groups, such as Christian house churches or Thich Quang Do’s UBCV, are banned, with some of their members living under house arrest for practicing religion outside state-sanctioned groups.
In a Friday statement from the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB), which is affiliated with the UBCV, Thich Quang Do said that authorities had “systematically repressed” his organization since the North Vietnamese took control of the South in 1975 and united Vietnam under communist rule.
During a rare meeting on Thursday with Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Hugh Borrowman in Ho Chi Minh City, Thich Quang Do said the UBCV has since been forbidden to conduct religious activities, open schools or launch humanitarian operations.
“The authorities are seeking every pretext to disband the UBCV. When they find one, they will not hesitate to suppress us,” he told Borrowman during their talk at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, where the Buddhist leader has been under house arrest without charge since 2003.
The UBCV was effectively banned in 1981 and supplanted by the state-sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS), which is controlled by the Communist Party’s Fatherland Front.
Thich Quang Do said that since his house arrest, he has “lived like a prisoner” in the monastery, where he is forbidden from preaching or reciting prayers on anyone’s behalf, and all of his visitors are monitored.
Decree 92 was issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Nov. 8 and will come into force on Jan. 1, replacing an earlier decree issued in 2005.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
A Muslim Divide in China
A Muslim Divide in China: 
China says its laws provide equal religious freedom for Uyghurs and the country’s other main Muslim group, the Hui, but Uyghurs face stricter controls on religious education and worship and how they dress because of Islam’s links to their political identity, analysts say.
Islam flourishes in China’s Ningxia and Gansu provinces, home to many of the country’s 10 million Hui Muslims, where mosque-based schools offer religious teachings to adults and children.
Hui Muslims in other parts of China as well are also allowed to run religious schools.
But in the Xinjiang region in China’s far west, where the mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs form an ethnic group 9 million strong, government policies bar women and anyone under age 18 from attending mosques.
Uyghur parents are forbidden to teach religion to their children at home, and private religious education is subject to harsh crackdowns.
Many Uyghurs believe China is practicing a double standard in its religious policy toward Uyghur and Hui Muslims.
Although the laws on the books were the same, in practice, policies vary for both groups, said Dru Gladney, an anthropologist at Pomona College in California.
“Chinese laws about religious freedom are very clear. But like any other good Chinese law, there is uneven enforcement,” he said.
“Xinjiang has strict religious freedom because the political situation of the region is much different than other regions.”
But officials maintain Uyghurs are not getting the short end of the stick.
The head of the government-sanctioned Islamic Association of Urumqi, in the Xinjiang capital, said this month that China allows equal religious freedom for Uyghurs and Hui Muslims.
“There is no difference in religious policy,” Keram told RFA’s Uyghur Service.
“Uyghurs enjoy the same religious freedoms as Hui Muslims do,” he said.
But he refused to comment on crackdowns on Uyghurs’ religious freedom, including harsh sentences for unauthorized Islamic study and police raids on illegal schools in the region.
Crackdowns and police raids
Six teenaged Uyghur boys who were arrested for studying the Quran on their own after school are now serving sentences of 8 to 14 years in jail, a Uyghur farmer in the area who wished to remain anonymous told RFA this month.
The boys, who were between the ages of 14 and 17 at the time, had been arrested in April 2010 in Keriye prefecture, and are now being held in jails in Aksu and Yarkand far from their hometowns, he said.
In May this year, an 11-year-old Uyghur boy died under suspicious circumstances in police custody after being detained when police raided his teacher’s home in Korla prefecture where he had been studying the Koran with two other boys when police took him away.
In a separate incident weeks later, a dozen children in Hotan prefecture suffered burns after police using teargas and stormed a religious school where some 50 children were studying under “illegal preachers.”
Aside from restrictions on Islamic education and worship, Uyghurs are also subject to restrictions on traditional Islamic dress.
Chinese officials have denied there were such restrictions, which in theory are prohibited by laws protecting religious freedom.
Earlier this month, a Uyghur member of the Xinjiang delegation to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s 18th congress in Beijing, Kurex Kanjir, said there is “absolutely no ban” on Uyghurs wearing traditional Islamic dress, according to the Hong-Kong based South China Morning Post.
Political identity
Hui Muslims, on the other hand, are much freer to practice Islam, although Hui Muslims in Ningxia suffered persecution during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Hui Muslims do not suffer the same level of repression as faced by Uyghurs because they have been much more assimilated into Chinese culture, says Uyghur writer Ghulam Osman.
“Hui Muslims are Chinese Muslims, but Uyghurs are not. Uyghurs are of a different race than the Chinese.”
“Hui Muslims have never been a nation-state; they always lived together with the Chinese, because they belong to the same ethnic group as the Chinese,” he said.
The Hui, whose forefathers hundreds of years ago were traders from Central Asia or other places who practiced Islam, live throughout China and, unlike the Uyghurs, many of them speak Chinese as their mother tongue.
The Hui are counted as one of China’s 55 distinct ethnic minorities, but are unique in that they are the only group to be defined solely on the basis of their religion, rather than language or genealogical differences. By definition, China’s Hui minority includes all historically Muslim communities in the country who are not members of other ethnic groups.
“Uyghurs are different; they had their own land and were invaded by China,” Ghulam Osman said, referring to Xinjiang’s past before it came under Chinese control following two short-lived East Turkestan Republics in the 1930s and 1940s.
China, fearing a separatist movement in Xinjiang, represses Uyghurs’ religious freedom because Islam is significant in the survival of their identity, he said.
But if China is worried about an independence movement blossoming among Uyghurs, such a movement would be more likely to be spurred in reaction to repressive religious policies than religion on its own, Gladney said.
“All the Uyghur movements against the Chinese government were caused by frustration that resulted from the heavy-handed repression of the Chinese government in the region, not by radical religious forces,” Gladney said.
But the political role of Islam in allowing Uyghurs to maintain an identity separate from the rest of China should not be underestimated, Ghulam Osman said.
“It is true that all political movements of Uyghurs are caused by the heavy handed policy of China and not by radical religious forces.”
“However, this does not mean religion does not play a significant role in Uyghur survival and Uyghur political movements,” he said.
“Islam and the Uyghur language are deeply embedded in Uyghur identity. They strengthen our racial and historical differences with Han Chinese.”
Reported by Rukiye Turdush for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
China says its laws provide equal religious freedom for Uyghurs and the country’s other main Muslim group, the Hui, but Uyghurs face stricter controls on religious education and worship and how they dress because of Islam’s links to their political identity, analysts say.
Islam flourishes in China’s Ningxia and Gansu provinces, home to many of the country’s 10 million Hui Muslims, where mosque-based schools offer religious teachings to adults and children.
Hui Muslims in other parts of China as well are also allowed to run religious schools.
But in the Xinjiang region in China’s far west, where the mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs form an ethnic group 9 million strong, government policies bar women and anyone under age 18 from attending mosques.
Uyghur parents are forbidden to teach religion to their children at home, and private religious education is subject to harsh crackdowns.
Many Uyghurs believe China is practicing a double standard in its religious policy toward Uyghur and Hui Muslims.
Although the laws on the books were the same, in practice, policies vary for both groups, said Dru Gladney, an anthropologist at Pomona College in California.
“Chinese laws about religious freedom are very clear. But like any other good Chinese law, there is uneven enforcement,” he said.
“Xinjiang has strict religious freedom because the political situation of the region is much different than other regions.”
But officials maintain Uyghurs are not getting the short end of the stick.
The head of the government-sanctioned Islamic Association of Urumqi, in the Xinjiang capital, said this month that China allows equal religious freedom for Uyghurs and Hui Muslims.
“There is no difference in religious policy,” Keram told RFA’s Uyghur Service.
“Uyghurs enjoy the same religious freedoms as Hui Muslims do,” he said.
But he refused to comment on crackdowns on Uyghurs’ religious freedom, including harsh sentences for unauthorized Islamic study and police raids on illegal schools in the region.
Crackdowns and police raids
Six teenaged Uyghur boys who were arrested for studying the Quran on their own after school are now serving sentences of 8 to 14 years in jail, a Uyghur farmer in the area who wished to remain anonymous told RFA this month.
The boys, who were between the ages of 14 and 17 at the time, had been arrested in April 2010 in Keriye prefecture, and are now being held in jails in Aksu and Yarkand far from their hometowns, he said.
In May this year, an 11-year-old Uyghur boy died under suspicious circumstances in police custody after being detained when police raided his teacher’s home in Korla prefecture where he had been studying the Koran with two other boys when police took him away.
In a separate incident weeks later, a dozen children in Hotan prefecture suffered burns after police using teargas and stormed a religious school where some 50 children were studying under “illegal preachers.”
Aside from restrictions on Islamic education and worship, Uyghurs are also subject to restrictions on traditional Islamic dress.
Chinese officials have denied there were such restrictions, which in theory are prohibited by laws protecting religious freedom.
Earlier this month, a Uyghur member of the Xinjiang delegation to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s 18th congress in Beijing, Kurex Kanjir, said there is “absolutely no ban” on Uyghurs wearing traditional Islamic dress, according to the Hong-Kong based South China Morning Post.
Political identity
Hui Muslims, on the other hand, are much freer to practice Islam, although Hui Muslims in Ningxia suffered persecution during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Hui Muslims do not suffer the same level of repression as faced by Uyghurs because they have been much more assimilated into Chinese culture, says Uyghur writer Ghulam Osman.
“Hui Muslims are Chinese Muslims, but Uyghurs are not. Uyghurs are of a different race than the Chinese.”
“Hui Muslims have never been a nation-state; they always lived together with the Chinese, because they belong to the same ethnic group as the Chinese,” he said.
The Hui, whose forefathers hundreds of years ago were traders from Central Asia or other places who practiced Islam, live throughout China and, unlike the Uyghurs, many of them speak Chinese as their mother tongue.
The Hui are counted as one of China’s 55 distinct ethnic minorities, but are unique in that they are the only group to be defined solely on the basis of their religion, rather than language or genealogical differences. By definition, China’s Hui minority includes all historically Muslim communities in the country who are not members of other ethnic groups.
“Uyghurs are different; they had their own land and were invaded by China,” Ghulam Osman said, referring to Xinjiang’s past before it came under Chinese control following two short-lived East Turkestan Republics in the 1930s and 1940s.
China, fearing a separatist movement in Xinjiang, represses Uyghurs’ religious freedom because Islam is significant in the survival of their identity, he said.
But if China is worried about an independence movement blossoming among Uyghurs, such a movement would be more likely to be spurred in reaction to repressive religious policies than religion on its own, Gladney said.
“All the Uyghur movements against the Chinese government were caused by frustration that resulted from the heavy-handed repression of the Chinese government in the region, not by radical religious forces,” Gladney said.
But the political role of Islam in allowing Uyghurs to maintain an identity separate from the rest of China should not be underestimated, Ghulam Osman said.
“It is true that all political movements of Uyghurs are caused by the heavy handed policy of China and not by radical religious forces.”
“However, this does not mean religion does not play a significant role in Uyghur survival and Uyghur political movements,” he said.
“Islam and the Uyghur language are deeply embedded in Uyghur identity. They strengthen our racial and historical differences with Han Chinese.”
Reported by Rukiye Turdush for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Freedom of Speech Roundup
Freedom of Speech Roundup:
In the weekly Freedom of Speech Roundup, Sampsonia Way presents some of the week’s top news on freedom of expression, journalists in danger, artists in exile, and banned literature.
Zainab Alkhawaja, Bahraini activist and daughter of human rights activist Abdulahadi al-Khawaja, has been in prison since August for tearing up a photo of Bahrain's king, taking part in an illegal demonstration, and entering a prohibited area. Photo: Conor McCabe, 2011.
New York Times. In this week’s “Letter from China” Didi Kirsten Tatlow explains the financial impact that censorship and government intervention have had on the Chinese film industry, and how such regulations have stifled filmmakers’ creativity. Read here.
In the weekly Freedom of Speech Roundup, Sampsonia Way presents some of the week’s top news on freedom of expression, journalists in danger, artists in exile, and banned literature.
Zainab Alkhawaja, Bahraini activist and daughter of human rights activist Abdulahadi al-Khawaja, has been in prison since August for tearing up a photo of Bahrain's king, taking part in an illegal demonstration, and entering a prohibited area. Photo: Conor McCabe, 2011.
Zanib Alkhawaja: Bahraini Twitter Activist and One-Woman Protester
IndexUNCUT. November 23 was the International Day to End Impunity; as part of their recognition of journalists and activist affected by impunity in their countries of operation, Index on Censorship presents a profile of 28 year-old Bahraini activist Zanib Alkhawaja, who has been imprisoned and harassed multiple times in the past two years. Read here.The Legacy of Murderous Regimes
New York Review of Books. Hor Nam Hong, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Cambodia speaks about the lasting effects of the Khmer Rouge and the country’s social, political, and historical recovery process. Read here.India: Comment is not Free
The Hindu. A slideshow highlighting litigation taken against cartoons, investigation of government corruption, and comments on social media in India, where making a “comment is not free.” See here.Watch: Julian Assange on Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, Cypherpunks, and the Surveillance State
Democracy Now. In this exclusive video interview Julian Assange speaks to Democracy Now! from inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has been holed up for nearly six months. Read the transcript here.China: A Literary Genre with “Chinese Characteristics” ; State Meddling Stifles Film Industry
Words Without Borders. Chinese nonfiction writers are incorporating literary elements into journalistic works, and claiming their writings are pure fiction. In this way, they can skirt government censorship and get sensitive works published. Read here.New York Times. In this week’s “Letter from China” Didi Kirsten Tatlow explains the financial impact that censorship and government intervention have had on the Chinese film industry, and how such regulations have stifled filmmakers’ creativity. Read here.
Leveson Urges New Independent Regulator for UK Press
CNN. In light of Rupert Murdoch’s recent wire tapping scandal, British Judge Brian Levinson suggested that the media industry set up a private press regulator. This regulator would be backed by legislation from the British parliament so that it meet standards that ensure independence and effectiveness. Read here.Myanmar Author Explores New Literary Freedom
AFP. As Myanmar’s censors loosen their grip, acclaimed author Nu Nu Yi plans to republish her novel about two gay lovers next year, restoring sex-laced passages once deemed too risque for readers. Read here.Anti-Censorship Manifesto
Huffington Post. In a new move to fight censorship around the world Reporters Without Borders has developed a new website, WeFightCensorship, for posting content that has been censored, banned, or has given rise to reprisals against the content creator. Read here.
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