Anti-terrorism act: Lawyers tested in court

New York Lawyers for the Obama administration were set to the test by a U.S. judge on Thursday to give facts why civilian activists and reporters should not fear being in custody under a novel anti-terrorism rule. Government lawyers argued in national court in New York that the plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the National Defense Authorization Act's Homeland Battlefield supplies signed into law by President Barack Obama. The lawsuit, filed in January, cited Obama's report of his serious reservations with sure supplies that control the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of supposed terrorists when he signed the act. Torrance said the plaintiffs were taking phrases out of context and that the law specially applied to those found to have ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Details of Bomb Plot: Afghan Defense department in Lockdown

According to Afghan and Western officials the defense ministry of Afghan went into a near-total lock-down following the discovery of 10 suicide vests and the arrests of more than a dozen Afghan defense force suspected of plotting to attack the ministry and blow up traveler buses for government employees. The killings have by now reached into the heart of the Afghan safety measures founding in February, in the middle of riots over American soldiers blazing Korans, an Afghan Interior Ministry employee gunshot dead two American military advisers in a restricted admission area of the organization.
Along through the standard contingent of Afghan Army guards, particular army commandos could also be seen protecting the Defense Ministry while the restrictions on movement in and out of the ministry began to ease. The Defense Ministry refused to still tolerate that a breach had occurred it vigorously deprived of any attempted bombings and said no soldiers had been arrested. No cars or people were permitted in or out of the checkpoints that control access to the street for about an hour, and Afghan safety forces were a heavier-than-usual occurrence around a main traffic circle at one end of the street.

Terrorist Attack - 47 bodies found after 'massacre' in Syria

On Monday the opposition and activists said, the bodies of 47 women and children have been found in the Syrian city of Homs, where security forces have been fighting raging battles against armed rebels.
Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist in Homs, told AFP the bodies of 26 children and 21 women, some with their throats slit and others bearing stab wounds, were found after a " massacre" in the Karm el-Zaytoun and Al-Adawiyeh neighborhoods of the besieged central city."Some of the children had been hit with blunt objects on their head, one little girl was mutilated and some women were raped before being killed," he said.

The main opposition group, the Syrian National Council (SNC), called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the "massacre", which it said took place on Sunday.The SNC stated that, “the Syrian National Council is making the necessary contacts with all organizations and countries that are friends with the Syrian people for the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting”.

And in a clear reference to Russia and China, the SNC said that allies of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad shared responsibilty for the "crimes" committed by his regime. State television blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the killings, saying they had kidnapped residents of Homs, killed them and then made video footage of the bodies in an attempt to discredit Syrian forces.

Terrorist Attacks against Christians increase 309% in Africa

A statement by Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva explains the terrorist attacks against Christians have increase to 309% in Africa, Middle East and Asia.
In a speech given by the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva, Mons. Silvano Tomasi, he noted that 2.2 billion people face this problem worldwide.

He says that Christians are not the only victims, but the numbers are hard to ignore. About 70 percent of the world's population faces religious restrictions. Terrorist attacks on Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have increased 309 percent between 2003 and 2010.Tomasi said religion is not a threat, but a resource. The problem, he says, rises when governments and extremists consider minority religions harmful and offensive because they differ from a country's main religion.

When it comes to developed countries, mostly in the West, the persecution is not necessarily violent, but cultural. It's usually seen when people face hostility, scorn and even ridicule for their beliefs. It's a situation faced by many, but above all, says Tomasi, by Christians.