INTER PRESS SERVICE

Rukhsana Ahmed finds comfort visiting her husband Ahmed Ali Najfi’s grave. "I feel at peace there," says the 60-year-old widow, mother of four and member of the Shia Hazara community.

PAKISTAN: Democracy Follows Drones

Along with the devastating drone strikes the United States-led ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan is bringing changes to punitive laws imposed by British colonialism on Pakistan’s Pashtun areas more than a century ago.

Part of a drone that killed 20, including women and children, on Aug. 23, 2010 in North Waziristan. Credit: Noor Behram/IPS

PAKISTAN: Videogames Pictured Killing the Innocent

‘Gaming in Waziristan’, a current photo exhibition, graphically supports charges that drone strikes carried out by the United States military and intelligence in Pakistan’s tribal areas kill more civilians than Taliban.

The outwardly calm Swat Valley. Credit: Shabina Faraz/IPS.

PAKISTAN: Tourism Takes On Taliban

Standing in the busy main market place of Mingora, it is hard to think that just two years ago this city in Swat district was under the tyranny of the Taliban.

At a protest in Tunis. Credit: Giuliana Sgrena/IPS.

Tunisian Women Fear the Algerian Way

A women’s group begins campaigning near La Marsa beach in Tunis to convince more women to come up and register in the electoral lists, in time for the deadline now pushed back to Aug. 14. Most of the women watching the proceedings are veiled.

U.S. Muslims More Tolerant, Opposed to Violence than Other Faiths

Muslims in the United States express greater tolerance for members of other faiths than any other major religious group, according to a major new survey and report released here Thursday by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center.

Islamic Force Rises in Tunisia

By Giuliana Sgrena

The fundamentalist Ennahda party seems poised to take advantage of a chaotic situation ahead of general elections in Tunisia. Ennahda and other Islamist parties are taking advantage of the Aug. 2 deadline for registration for elections coinciding with the start of the holy month of Ramadan, when there is better attendance at mosques.

NEPAL: Religious Practices Oppress Women

By Sudeshna Sarkar

The recent gang-rape of a Buddhist nun and her expulsion from her sect have sparked a debate about the deep-rooted religious traditions and biases that foster discrimination and violence, especially against women, in this South Asian state.

EGYPT: Defections Threaten to Crack Muslim Brotherhood

By Adam Morrow

For the last 40 years, the Muslim Brotherhood's united front has been the envy of Egypt's political opposition. But in the six months since the fall of the Mubarak regime, the Islamist group has been racked by unprecedented internal divisions.

U.S. Islamophobes Distance Themselves from Norway Killings

As Norway mourns the loss of at least 76 of its citizens in Friday's bombing of government buildings in Oslo and mass shootings at a Labour Party youth camp, attention here has focused on the U.S. bloggers and groups whose Islamophobic message appears to have fuelled the alleged perpetrator's murderous rage.

Scene outside a Peshawar supermarket after the Jun. 12 bombing which killed 45 people. The Taliban denied responsibility. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

PAKISTAN: Taliban Backs Off From Attacking Civilians

A series of Taliban attacks selectively targeting Pakistani security forces is being seen as an attempt to shore up the flagging popularity of the fundamentalist Islamic scholars.

Negative Stereotypes Persist Between West and Muslims

Westerners and Muslims continue to hold negative stereotypes of each other, although views of Muslims in the West appear to have improved marginally over the past five years, according to a new survey released here by the Pew Global Attitudes Project Thursday.

Bitter Divides Persist Below Bahrain’s Relatively Calm Surface

By Barbara Slavin

When Bahraini ambassador Houda Ezra Nonoo arrived in Washington three years ago, she was greeted as the representative of a close U.S. ally with a reputation for more openness and tolerance than most Gulf nations.

Taliban fighters have sanctuaries along the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

Execution Videos Strike Terror in Pakistan

A video showing a group of 16 Pakistani policemen, hands tied behind their backs, being executed by Taliban gunmen in the Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is only the latest in a series showing brutal acts designed to strike terror in the areas bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistani troops on anti-Taliban operations in Swat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Credit: ISPR/IPS

PAKISTAN: ‘U.S. Military Aid Came With Spies Attached’

Defence analysts in Pakistan believe that foregoing 800 million US dollars worth of aid may be a fair bargain for ridding this country of over a hundred ‘military trainers’ who were suspected of being spies.

Iranian Man Faces Death over Religious Conversion

By Matthew Charles Cardinale

Faith leaders in the U.S. representing 25 million citizens have expressed outrage about the case of Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian man who faces the death penalty if he refuses to recant his Christian faith.

The 18th century Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala whose vaults hold more than 25 billion dollars worth of antique gold and jewels. Credit: Haris Kuttipuram/IPS

INDIA: Temple Treasures Open Up Problems of Plenty

By Ranjit Devraj

The discovery that treasures lying in the vaults of an ancient temple in Thiruvananthapuram may be worth more than 25 billion dollars is raising questions regarding the vast wealth owned by religious shrines in this impoverished country.

PAKISTAN: Religious Scholars Called In to Promote Peace

The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan is calling on religious scholars to help end the violence in the militancy-wracked province, in a desperate attempt to restore peace.

A destroyed mosque in Gaza. Credit: Eva Bartlett/IPS.

MIDEAST: Mosques Carry the Scars of War

By Eva Bartlett

"The mosque was just 100 metres from our house. We prayed there every day, five times a day. But it was more than a house of prayer," says Mohammed, a Beit Hanoun resident, of one of the 34 mosques completely destroyed during the 23-day Israeli war on Gaza in 2008-2009.

BAHRAIN: U.S. Experts Sceptical Over Dialogue