CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Kathmandu Post (ekantipur.com); BBC News America;
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| Beloved daughters of Burma must be protected from feared minority? It's racist discrimination. Sandalwood paste is used on many children to lighten and keep skin clear (Dietmar Temps/Deepblue66/flickr) |
Proposed law is discriminatory
(KP) Burma’s human rights record will hit a new low if a proposed marriage
bill becomes law. Couched in an idiom that merely seeks to give
“protection and rights” to Buddhists, the proposed law targets the
country’s Rohingya Muslim minority and forbids Muslims from marrying
into the majority community.
Spearheaded by a monk, Ven. Wirathu, the move,
it seems, has officialdom’s blessings. President Thein Sein, succumbing
to pressure from the extremist lobby, asked parliament to consider
enacting such a law, which proposes a 10-year jail sentence for a
Rohingya marrying a girl from the Buddhist community without obtaining
her parents’ permission.
Vaguely worded, the proposed law, which bans
polygamy, would “balance the increasing population” -- of whom, the
legislation doesn’t specify. The proposal has also been criticized by
Aung San Suu Kyi, who called it “a violation of women’s rights and human
rights.”
Already subjected to a discriminatory two-child policy, the
Rohingya community is considered by the UN as the world’s most
persecuted group. The state doesn’t recognize the Rohingyas as Burma’s
citizens [regarded as rightly belonging in neighboring Muslim Bangladesh, who rejects them] even though most of them have been living in Burma for
generations. They are not allowed to own land, and they cannot travel
without permission. More
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| US Army prosecutor accused of groping |
A top prosecutor of sexual assault cases in the US Army has himself been accused of groping a female colleague, military officials say. [What chance was their for justice for victims of rape and sexual assault in the US military?]
Campaigning begins in Quebec after Premier Pauline Marois of
Parti Quebec dissolved the legislature and launched a bid for a
majority.
Claims by Newsweek to have found the man who invented the Bitcoin virtual cash system have drawn criticism and skepticism.
- Bitcoin dogged by tech troubles
- Mt. Gox gives bankruptcy details
- "Two years" to overcome Snowden's NSA leak It will take the US two years and billions of dollars to overcome the harm done by the Snowden leaks, the top-ranking US military officer claims. [We've been enormously harmed by our lying, which Snowden exposed. It's going to cost us a lot to cover up again. We should imprison that man.]
- Staples closes North American stores American stationer Staples says it will close 225 stores in the US and Canada as sales in the fourth quarter fell 10.6%
- DoJ probes Comcast-Time Warner deal
- US men convicted of China espionage
- Bin Laden son-in-law's trial begins
- Second US HIV-positive baby "cured"
- CIA probes Senate staff monitoring
- Facebook tightens rules on gun posts
- US Senate blocks Obama nominee
- Money, music, and why LORDE matters New Zealand's biggest popstar represents a cultural turning point in a society exhausted by consumerism
- Inflation soaring? Currency crumbling? Not now, I’m eating While Argentina’s economy totters, the president lunches with Fidel Castro.
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| Wall Street's Reefer Madness |
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