| With asylum grant, did the US just reward hate speech? Posted: 25 Mar 2017 02:07 PM PDT ![With asylum grant, did the US just reward hate speech?]( "With asylum grant, did the US just reward hate speech?") When Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, passed away in 2015, 16-year-old Amos Yee made an obscenity-filled YouTube video denouncing the late leader as a "tyrant." That and other postings earned him a four-week jail sentence for "wounding religious feelings and obscenity." Not long after, he earned another six-week sentence for derogatory comments on Islam and Christianity. On Friday, US Immigration Judge Samuel B. Cole granted asylum to Mr. Yee, now 18, who flew to Chicago in December. "His prosecution, detention, and general maltreatment at the hands of the Singapore authorities constitute persecution," Judge Cole ruled.
|
| Airstrikes in Mosul kill civilians: Are US rules of engagement getting slacker? Posted: 25 Mar 2017 10:27 AM PDT ![Airstrikes in Mosul kill civilians: Are US rules of engagement getting slacker?]( "Airstrikes in Mosul kill civilians: Are US rules of engagement getting slacker?") Residents of the Iraqi city of Mosul say a series of airstrikes carried out there in recent weeks by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State could have killed as many as 200 civilians, in what would be the highest civilian death toll in a US-led air campaign since the peak of the Iraq war. Iraqi rescue workers Saturday were combing through the rubble of a building where residents say as many as 137 civilians were killed in a single airstrike last week, in a part of the city now under coalition control, reported the Washington Post. Iraqi Brig. Gen. Mohammed Mahmoud, Mosul's civil defense chief, told the Washington Post that the building was clearly hit by an airstrike.
|
| Erdogan's tussle with Europe, The shame of the world, Regional support for Venezuela is vital, Scotland's place in the United Kingdom, US reengagement in the Middle East Posted: 25 Mar 2017 03:00 AM PDT ![Erdogan's tussle with Europe, The shame of the world, Regional support for Venezuela is vital, Scotland's place in the United Kingdom, US reengagement in the Middle East]( "Erdogan's tussle with Europe, The shame of the world, Regional support for Venezuela is vital, Scotland's place in the United Kingdom, US reengagement in the Middle East") "It is a matter of grave concern that, according to a UN estimate, twenty million people are facing starvation in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria...," states an editorial. "It is indeed disturbing to note that man-made disasters like war and famine continue to bleed nations while international politics fails to come to a consensus on how to reach a stasis in parts of the Middle East, Northeast Nigeria and vast swathes of Somalia.... We urge the international community to infuse immediate aid to these four war-torn and famine ravaged countries.... It is indeed appalling that in this era of globalisation and scientific breakthroughs, fellow human beings should die of hunger.... The shame is on us all.
|
| Readers write: Immigration path, talent at home, science knowledge Posted: 25 Mar 2017 03:00 AM PDT ![Readers write: Immigration path, talent at home, science knowledge]( "Readers write: Immigration path, talent at home, science knowledge") Regarding the Feb. 22 editorial, "Trump's mixed message on immigration: An opening for a deal?" (CSMonitor.com): Three cheers for the Monitor editorial staff. Immigration was not my priority issue. Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test?
|
| Rep. Nunes' charge of Trump team surveillance – why it's key Posted: 24 Mar 2017 03:38 PM PDT ![Rep. Nunes' charge of Trump team surveillance – why it's key]( "Rep. Nunes' charge of Trump team surveillance – why it's key") A number of former top National Security Agency (NSA) officials were standing around Friday, chatting prior to an academic conference in Washington. Talk turned to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R) of California, whose panel has been investigating Russian interference in the US election, and his charge this week that President Trump's transition team had been subject to surveillance by US intelligence. The charge, and the fact that Representative Nunes conveyed that information to Mr. Trump before making it available to his panel, caused a sensation after a drumbeat of testimony that there was no evidence to support Trump's explosive accusation that he had been subjected to wiretapping at the direction of his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
|
