Society's Child
Media watchdog Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, has called out US-based Shia Imam Bassem Al-Sheraa over his lesson on wife beating at the Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre in Detroit. The group published a clip with subtitles from the lecture that was reportedly uploaded on the centre's YouTube channel in May, in which the cleric is seen dwelling on punishing wives and its interpretation in the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
According to the translation of Bassem Al-Sheraa's speech, made by MEMRI, Islam's teaching refers to beating as something that is not supposed to cause pain because it should be done with a teeth cleaning twig to teach a woman a lesson.
Prosecutors said that they had grave concerns about the investigative approach and legal theories embraced by the former Office of Special Counsel (OSC) that oversaw the investigation, according to a press release issued by the Michigan Department of Attorney General. The OSC was appointed by former Attorney General Bill Schuette.
The OSC entered into agreements that gave private law firms that were representing the accused a role in deciding what information would be turned over to law enforcement, according to the release.
"We cannot provide the citizens of Flint the investigation they rightly deserve by continuing to build on a flawed foundation," said Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy, who are now leading the criminal cases.
Aalst, a member of the Party for Freedom in the house of representatives, expressed hope that podium girls will take part in next year's event in Zandvoort as the Dutch Grand Prix returns to the F1 calendar for the first time in 35 years.
"The decision that the FIA has taken is the umpteenth form of female patronization. Grid girls belong just as much to Formula 1 as the cars," Aalst said.
When police arrived at the scene in the town of Pajeczno on Thursday night, they found the Soviet-era tank casually parked on a central roadway with its two occupants nearby, one of whom was an intoxicated 49-year-old man who had been in the driver seat.
As it turns out, he had been authorized to drive the vehicle - although his superiors presumably only wanted him to move it off and on the damaged trailer on which it was being transported, rather than driving it through the city center. They also likely expected him to remain sober while operating the 36-ton armored combat vehicle. To make matters worse, local media report that there was no insurance policy on the tank.
Police were unable to get the tank off the street and onto a trailer until 5am.
The report released Friday says almost two million people are near starvation nine months after a peace deal ended a five-year civil war. The report stops short of declaring a famine.
The deteriorating situation is attributed to food shortages exacerbated by delayed rainfall, South Sudan's economic crisis and years of strain from a conflict that killed almost 400,000 people.
Some South Sudanese, including children, have told The Associated Press they eat only once a day.
Dakota Pratt, 28, was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison, after a jury at Brandon's Court of Queen's Bench found him guilty in April of manslaughter in the attack that killed Vincent Bunn.
Court heard Bunn, 21, entered Pratt's home on the Birdtail Sioux First Nation, about 115 kilometres northwest of Brandon, Man., in the early morning of Sept. 2, 2016.
Pratt, who was asleep in a basement bedroom, awoke to a "feeling of being stabbed" in the head, court heard. He got up and found a knife-wielding intruder in his room and - not knowing who the person was - chased him into the hallway.
Leyla Cox, 53, of New Brighton, New York, was found dead reportedly of a heart attack in her hotel room in June, according to her son William Cox, the Staten Island Advance reported.
"I am overwhelmed and confused and in shock," William Cox, 25, told the news outlet Thursday. "I have a right to be suspicious."
Leyla Cox joins a growing list of U.S. tourists who have died in the Dominican Republic under similar circumstances over the past year. She was vacationing alone, according to her son, having arrived on June 5 to celebrate her 53rd birthday. It is not known what hotel resort she was staying in.

Police retreat under a cloud of tear gas as protesters disperse from the scene of a standoff Wednesday in Memphis.
A driver wanted on multiple felony warrants attempted to ram law enforcement vehicles when officers with a regional U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force attempted to arrest him in Memphis' Frayser community at about 7 p.m., Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Keli McAlister said.
The man then got out of the vehicle with a weapon, according to McAlister.
"The officers fired, striking and killing the individual," she said. No officers were injured in the incident, she said.
The man was later identified as Brandon Webber, 20, state law enforcement officials told NBC affiliate WMC-TV.

People protest outside the court, where Julian Assange was sentenced, in London. May 1, 2019.
"I don't believe that the press in this country believes in free speech. This is one of the most compliant presses in the world, especially when it comes to foreign policy," Kovalik said on Thursday. "They are unquestioning of the US' eternal war footing and that is exactly what Assange has challenged and that is why they have taken great umbrage at Assange."
Pointing out that the American press was responsible for spreading the "weapons of mass destruction" and Gulf of Tonkin disinformation that served as pretexts for wars in Iraq and Vietnam, he added that Assange's own willingness to "challenge those types of lies" makes US journalists "ashamed," so they attack him at every opportunity.
Speaking outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Friday following the decision to open a new, full US extradition hearing in February 2020, Pilger insisted that the motivation of the American authorities in pursuing Assange was clear to see.
... [It] is quite clear that on a wider level this is an attempt to shut down WikiLeaks and put Assange away, but it's also about shutting down dissent. It's mainly about shutting down investigative journalism.
Comment: See also:
- 'Assange extradition should be warning to liberals who believe in American democracy' - Zizek
- Julian Assange's father comforts his son in emotional jail visit - will be moving to UK to support the WikiLeaks founder
- It's happening: UK Home Secretary approves extradition request for Assange to stand trial in the USA on charges of 'spying'













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