VIENNA, 12 January 2010 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, welcomed today Ireland‘s amended Defamation Act which went into effect at the start of the year, but criticized the introduction of a new “blasphemy” provision. Continue reading
Washington. President Barack Obama ruled out that the U.S. would again include North Korea on its list of states that sponsor terrorism, RIA Novosti disclosed.The U.S. president said in a letter to Congress that a classified report on the communist state’s activities from June 26, 2008 through November 16, 2009 indicates that “the DPRK does not meet the statutory criteria to again be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.” Continue reading
AFP/Washington
US counter-terrorism officials may try to kill American citizens embroiled in extremist groups overseas with “specific permission” from higher up, the top US intelligence chief said.
“We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community,” director of national intelligence Dennis Blair told the House Intelligence Committee in a rare admission that Washington sometimes targets US citizens.
If “we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that,” Blair said in response to questions from the panel’s top Republican, Representative Pete Hoekstra. Continue reading
Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:27:10 GMT
Berlin – Alleged Islamists can have their passports removed to prevent them from travelling from Germany to attend terrorist training camps, a Berlin court announced on Friday. The ruling came in a case brought by three men who were stopped as they attempted to board planes to Istanbul last September, since there was reason to believe they aimed to reach Pakistan or Afghanistan to join jihad, or holy war.
It was acceptable to confiscate a passport if there was reason to suspect that German interests were under threat, the administrative court said. Continue reading
