Thousands of protesters marched in cities across Europe to demand an end to Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people took to the streets in Germany, Britain, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey to protest Israel\'s air raids on the Gaza Strip and demand an end to the military action. One of the biggest rallies was held in London, where police said more than 10,000 turned out for a march that began peacefully but ended in a string of arrests. Many pe...

An Oakland mosque in the USA was the target of a vandal when someone splashed red paint across the front steps leading to the Islamic Centre of Pittsburgh. The paint, splattered across the front steps and railings, greeted an estimated 1,000 worshippers today as they turned out for prayer. Houses in the neighbourhood were unaffected by the vandalism and children held a snowball battle on the building lawn as parents worshipped inside this afternoon. A mother fed her baby in the building lobby...

On the heels of a bipartisan US congressional report blaming high-level officials of President George W. Bush\'s administration for employing harsh interrogation techniques on detainees captured in the "global war on terror," many of the world\'s most respected civil libertarians are calling for the establishment of an independent commission to investigate the alleged abuses. One of them, Amnesty International, has also released a detailed plan to close the US prison at Guantanamo B...

An unmanned drone plane crashed in southern Somalia Local residents consider that the  device belongs to the U.S. military. The unmanned drone crashed in Baidoa, a southwestern town that serves as the Horn of Africa country\' s seat of parliament. Ethiopian troops rushed to the crash site, which is located somewhere between the Baidoa airstrip and the ADC Hall, home to the Somali parliament, according to local reports. The witness described the aerial device as "too small to cause m...

Germany is considering granting asylum to freed inmates from the US-military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A government spokesman in Berlin said the foreign ministry had been asked to look into the possible political and legal implications that this would entail. He said one matter to be closely considered was the situation of stateless prisoners or those not allowed or unwilling to return to their home country. Of the around 250 inmates being held at Guantanamo, 60 have been cleared f...

Several cars and other vehicles were torched, while homemade explosives and stones were thrown at police in overnight clashes with youths in the Swedish city of Malmo as a result of the recent closure of a basement used as a mosque in the Rosengard district. There were no injuries and some 20 people were briefly detained. The protests became violent after police evicted youths who for three weeks had occupied the basement, which also was being used as an Islamic centre. The city of Malmo has ...

After decades of suppression under the Soviet rule, Muslims are proudly showing off their faith in Tajikistan, a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. "We\'re Muslims," proud Marhabo, a 25-year-old mother of three, told The New York Times on Sunday, January 4. "Now there\'s no limiting. Before, there were no mosques. Now there are many." Akbar, a young man in his 30s, recalls being chased by Soviet police after they caught him praying. The incident was ...

The Society for Caring for Saudis Abroad (Awassir) is in the process of completing three studies on Saudis marrying abroad. The studies will be submitted to the Ministry of Interior upon completion. Abdullah Al-Hamoud, the society’s chairman, said the studies focus on problems emanating from marrying foreign women abroad, curtailing the phenomenon of such marriages and handling the difficulties Saudi families face in adapting themselves to the new environment on their return to the King...

Iran warned Iraq  that an ‘intensely treacherous’ United States habitually broke pacts like one it recently concluded on American troops quitting Iraq by 2011. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued the warning to Iraq’s visiting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose country last year reached the agreement on the pullout of U.S. troops now numbering more than 140,000. Maliki met Khamenei in Tehran a few days after U.S. forces in Iraq came under an Iraq...