Jay Leno jibe sparks Sikh anger

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23 January 2012 Last updated at 07:31 GMT The Sikh community has launched an online petition against Leno India has condemned a comment by US comedian Jay Leno on the holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple of Amritsar.

A Leno skit showed the temple as the summer home of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Mr Romney has faced taxation questions over his huge wealth and many Sikhs are angry the temple has been depicted as a place for the rich.

The Sikh community has launched an online petition and an Indian minister called the comments "objectionable".

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi told reporters: "It is quite unfortunate and quite objectionable that such a comment has been made after showing the Golden Temple."

Mr Ravi said the Indian embassy would take up the matter with the US state department, the Press Trust of India reported.

He said: "The Golden Temple is the Sikh community's most sacred place... The American government should also look at this kind of thing.

The Golden Temple is the holiest Sikh shrine

"Freedom does not mean hurting the sentiments of others... This is not acceptable to us and we take a very strong objection for such a display."

The skit appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC television on 19 January.

The online petition organised by members of the US Sikh community says Leno has been guilty of derogatory comments on Sikhs before. It adds that "Jay Leno's racist comments need to be stopped right here".

Petition signatory Simran Kaur says: "Jay Leno must apologise and promise not to make any direct or oblique references to Sikhs or their places of worship."

Leno has not yet commented on the matter.

Mr Romney has been criticised by rival presidential candidates over his reluctance to release taxation records, which will reveal his earnings and the taxes he pays.

On Sunday he agreed to release his income tax records for 2010 and estimates for 2011.

Source BBC

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2,000 march in Cairo unity rally, anger at army

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CAIRO | Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:06pm EDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - At least 2,000 people rallied in Cairo on Friday in a show of unity between Muslims and Christians and to express anger at the ruling military council after 25 people died when a protest by Coptic Christians led to clashes with the army.

Sunday's violence, the worst since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February, prompted criticism that the council was resorting to the same brutal tactics that Mubarak's police force had used against dissenters.

Activists said armored vehicles had sped into crowds on Sunday and that troops had used live ammunition to disperse the protest in Cairo which took place after an attack on a church building in southern Egypt.

The incident sparked nationwide fears of growing sectarian tension in the Muslim-majority country.

The army, which was initially praised when it took control after Mubarak was ousted for its restraint in handling protests,

denied its troops had opened fire.

On Friday the marchers in Cairo were mostly Muslims with some Christians. They waved Egyptian flags and chanted, "this is not sectarian strife, it's a military conspiracy."

Anger toward the military has been growing as the transition to civilian rule has dragged on.

Some participants wore black t-shirts with printed images of Mina Daniel, a young Coptic Christian activist who died during the clashes.

"We are all Mina Daniel" shouted the demonstrators, echoing the popular anti-torture Facebook group called "We are all Khaled Said" which was named after a Muslim activist who rights groups said was beaten to death by police during Mubarak's era.

"Muslims, go on, tell your fellow Christians that we are all in the same boat."

"Muslims and Christians, hand-in-hand," they called out.

The rally ran from Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque to the Cathedral of Abbasiya, Egypt's biggest church, before heading to Tahrir Square, the epicentre of protests that toppled Mubarak and now a central gathering point for many demonstrators.

Tension between Muslims and minority Coptic Christians has simmered for years but has worsened since the anti-Mubarak revolt, which gave freer rein to Salafist and other strict Islamist groups that the former president had repressed.

In Sunday's protest, Christians who took to the streets accused Muslims of partially demolishing a church in Aswan province at the end of September. Muslims in the village say the building did not have a license, but deny attacking it.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million people, say Islamists have been using disputes over the legal status of some church buildings to stir up sectarian conflict.

(Writing by Shaimaa Fayed; Editing by Matthew Jones)

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Sirte residents turn anger on Libya's new rulers

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By Rania El Gamal

SIRTE, Libya | Wed Oct 5, 2011 5:46am EDT

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Many residents of Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's birth-place, blame Libya's new rulers and their Western allies for the death and destruction unleashed on their city by weeks of fighting.

Most are reluctant to talk openly about their allegiances, for fear they will be branded as members of a pro-Gaddafi fifth column. Yet their anger and bitterness is clear.

"This country has been built around one man. If he is over, Libya will be over," said a resident who gave his name as al-Fatouri, standing outside his home on the outskirts of Sirte.

"Gaddafi is like a picture frame. When part of the frame is hit, the whole picture will be destroyed, Libya will be destroyed," he said.

Sirte is the sternest test yet of the ability of the interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC), to win over Gaddafi's tribe and prevent it from mounting an Iraq-style insurgency that would destabilize Libya and the region.

While most cities captured by NTC forces have rejoiced, or at least given that impression, Sirte is different because it is home to members of Gaddafi's tribe who genuinely back him.

"Let them look for Muammar, but do not kill 50,000 people to change the regime," said Fatouri. "It is not worth it that thousands die in Sirte for Muammar. This is what saddens us."

Fatouri said he, like thousands of other people from this city on the Mediterranean coast, had fled his home days ago because of the fighting. He decided later to come back.

"We refuse to leave, we don't want to suffer... We would rather die here than leave our houses and suffer," he said.

As he spoke, the sound of shelling and heavy machine guns reverberated around him and a crowd of locals gathered.

"They (NTC forces) used to start their day with bombing us, and finish it with bombing us... The kids used to hear the shelling like music," said another resident standing nearby.

FEAR OF SLAUGHTER

NTC forces say they are mounting a final push to seize Sirte after pausing to let civilians leave. They say the only people left are mercenaries, die-hard fighters and, they believe, one of Gaddafi's sons, Mu'atassem, a military commander.

NTC fighters, whose offensive is backed by NATO air strikes, say they are treating fleeing residents well, giving them food and water, and detaining only suspected Gaddafi fighters.

Several residents said that was not the true picture.

"There are no Gaddafi brigades, they are volunteers inside," said a 23-year-old who gave his name only as Bassem. He fled Sirte two days ago with his uncle, but left his parents behind.

"They didn't want to leave," he said. "Some people are scared of being slaughtered by the rebels, and some people do not want to leave their house."

Many residents fear NTC forces will exact revenge on Sirte because of its links with Gaddafi, who developed it from a fishing village to a city of 100,000 that hosted state events.

Sirte, one of Gaddafi's last bastions in Libya since the fall of Tripoli on August 23, sits on the main coastal highway between the capital and the eastern city of Benghazi.

Some of the fighters trying to capture Sirte are from Misrata, a city where thousands of people were killed by Gaddafi's forces and where hatred of his rule runs high.

"The rebels from Misrata say they will destroy Sirte because Misrata was destroyed," said Ali, another fleeing resident.

"NATO has brought destruction, and the revolution has brought destruction," he said.

As he spoke, bystanders began shouting at him that such talk would just spread "chaos and havoc." Ali retorted that they were not telling the truth and walked away in dismay.

Another angry resident shared Ali's view.

"What did America and NATO bring to us? Did they bring apricots?" he demanded. "No, they brought us the shelling and the strikes. They terrorized our kids."

(Editing by Christian Lowe and Alistair Lyon)

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Anger over China tourist beating

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24 September 2011 Last updated at 15:23 GMT A Chinese tourist was badly beaten up after being mistaken for a petitioner who wanted to lobby the authorities in Beijing, state media report.

Zhao Zhipei and three others were dragged from a hotel and bundled into a van before being dumped in their home province of Henan.

Mr Zhao was later found unconscious on a road in Luoyang city. The case caused anger on China's social media sites.

Six local officials have been punished for the beating, state media said.

Millions of people petition government offices across China every year to try to resolve disputes or complain about official misconduct.

They are often treated as a nuisance and many are rounded up by police to stop them complaining.

The Beijing News said Mr Zhao had checked into a Beijing hotel and ended up sharing a room with three other people, who were genuine petitioners.

The following day unidentified men dragged them out of the hotel and they were taken back to their home province, Henan, in central China.

"Perhaps the wrong person was caught," police in Luoyang told the newspaper.

Officials quoted by Xinhua news agency said employees of a Beijing security firm hired by the Luoyang Letters and Calls bureau had carried out the beating.

One official at the Letters and Calls bureau has been removed from his post and another suspended, Xinhua reported.

Four others have been given warnings, while a senior official has apologised to Mr Zhao.

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