BRAZIL
Anti-Islam video clips banned from YouTube
RIO DE JANEIRO | A judge in Brazil has ordered YouTube to remove clips of the movie that has touched off deadly protests across the Muslim world, the court said in a statement.
Judge Gilson Delgado Miranda gave the video-sharing site 10 days to remove videos of the film, “Innocence of Muslims.”
After that, YouTube’s parent company, Google, will face fines of $5,000 a day for every day the clips remain accessible in Brazil, according to the statement posted on the court’s website late Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed by a group representing Brazil’s Muslim community, the National Union of Islamic Entities, which claims the video violates Brazil’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom for all faiths.
In a statement on the group’s website, Mohamad al Bukai, the head of religious matters for the Sao Paulo-based group, hailed the ruling as a victory.
“Freedom of expression must not be confused with giving disproportionate and irresponsible offense, which can provoke serious consequences for society,” Mr. al Bukai said.
Iran
President’s press aide jailed for publications
TEHRAN | President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s top press adviser has been taken into custody to serve a six-month jail sentence after he was convicted of “publishing materials contrary to Islamic norms.”
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, who is also the head of the state-run IRNA news agency, is one of dozens of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s allies detained since April 2011 after the president briefly challenged an order from the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over the choice of intelligence chief.
The semiofficial Fars news agency said security officers from the Tehran prosecutor’s office detained Mr. Javanfekr on Wednesday. IRNA said Mr. Javanfekr was arrested as Mr. Ahmadinejad began his speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York
An Iranian court convicted Mr. Javanfekr in November and banned him from journalism activities for three years.
Netherlands
Doctor-assisted suicides on rise, study says
AMSTERDAM | The number of doctor-assisted suicide cases reported in the Netherlands grew by 559 from 2010 to 2011, a commission reported Wednesday.
The government-appointed Euthanasia Commission found that doctor-reported cases made up about 2.7 percent of all deaths in the Netherlands in 2011, up from 2.3 percent in 2010.
Nicole Visee, secretary general of the commission, said her organization investigates whether doctors followed the law, and she could only speculate about reasons for the increase.
They might include better reporting by doctors, more deaths from terminal illness as a result of an aging population, and changes in ethical views.
Euthanasia was decriminalized in the Netherlands in 2002 for patients who are terminally ill, are in great pain and ask to die.
united kingdom
Court blocks extradition of radical cleric to U.S.
LONDON | A British court issued an interim injunction Wednesday blocking the extradition of a radical Muslim cleric to the United States on terrorist charges, granting a court hearing for an appeal.
Mustafa Kamal Mustafa challenged his extradition on charges that include helping set up a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon. The appeal marked another legal twist in a case that has wound its way through the courts for eight years.
Judicial authorities said in a statement that a date for the hearing would be decided shortly.
Khaled Al-Fawwaz, a second terrorist suspect, also has mounted a legal challenge before Britain’s High Court. No date has been set for his hearing.
Britain’s Home Office immediately challenged the appeals. British authorities will seek a court hearing as soon as possible to clear the way for the extradition.
The Egyptian-born former nightclub bouncer, who claimed he lost his eye and hands fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, used north London’s Finsbury Park Mosque as a base to persuade young Muslims to take up the cause of holy war.
united arab emirates
Al Qaeda leader hosts bin Laden video
DUBAI | Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri resurfaced for the second time in a month on Wednesday in an online video on the life of his late predecessor Osama bin Laden who, he said, was blind in one eye.
In the almost hourlong video, the third in a series titled “Days with the Imam,” al-Zawahri narrates stories about bin Laden, who was killed by elite U.S. Navy SEALs in May 2011 at his compound in Pakistan.
Al-Zawahri revealed “for those who do not know” that Saudi-born bin Laden was left blind in the right eye after an accident in his youth.
He also said bin Laden was a former member of the Saudi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood before he was evicted for insisting on jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Al-Zawahri’s latest video posted on a jihadist forum appeared to be about 2 months old as he offered greetings to Muslims for the start of the fasting month of Ramadan, which ended Aug. 20.
From wire dispatches and staff reports
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