Six In The Morning Thursday January 15

Saudi Arabia's history of hypocrisy we choose to ignore

On Thursday, a Saudi blogger will receive his second flogging for 'insulting Islam'. Robert Fisk looks at a barbaric regime with a brutal record

Sir William Hunter was a senior British civil servant and in 1871 published a book which warned of “fanatic swarms” of Sunni Muslims who had “murdered our subjects”, financed by “men of ample fortune”, while a majority of Muslims were being forced to decide “once and for all, whether [they] should play the part of a devoted follower of Islam” or a “peaceable subject”.

Hunter identified a “hate preacher” as the cause of this “terror”, a man inspired on a visit to Arabia by an ascetic Muslim called Abdul Wahab whose violent “Wahabi” followers had formed an alliance with – you guessed it – the House of Saud. Hunter’s 140-year-old volume The Indian Musalmans – given a dusting of internet race hatred, murderous attacks by individual Sunni Muslims, cruel Wahabi-style punishments and all-too familiar proof of second-class citizenship for Muslims in a European-run state – might have been written today.

Turkish PM: publishing Muhammad cartoons is an open provocation

Ahmet Davutoglu says press freedom does not mean freedom to insult after Charlie Hebdo pieces published in leading daily

• • Agence France-Presse in Ankara
  • The Guardian, Thursday 15 January 2015 09.44 GMT

Turkey’s prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has described the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad as an open provocation.

“Freedom of the press does not mean freedom to insult,” Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara a day after leading Turkish daily Cumhuriyet and Turkish internet sites published cartoons featuring the prophet from the special Charlie Hebdo issue.

The newspaper produced a special four-page pullout of cartoons and articles drawn from the French satirical magazine on Wednesday in solidarity with the 12 people gunned down in an attack on its offices in Paris.

“We do not allow any insult to the prophet in this country,” Davutoglu said. “As the government, we cannot put side by side the freedom of press and the lowness to insult.”

Satellite images show scale of Boko Haram attacks

Images provide ‘indisputable and shocking evidence’ of attacks in which thousands may have died

Amnesty International has released satellite images it says shows the scale of a recent Boko Haram attack which may have left as many as 2,000 people dead in the north-eastern corner of Nigeria.

The images provide “indisputable and shocking evidence” of the attack, the rights organisation said.

The images, taken on the 2nd and 7th of January show the devastating effect of the attacks on villages near the border with Chad which Amnesty says left over 3,700 structures damaged or completely destroyed. 

“These detailed images show devastation of catastrophic proportions in two 

towns, one of which was almost wiped off the map in the space of four days,” said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International.

Brazilian drug felon will be first foreigner executed in Indonesia this year

January 15, 2015 - 6:25PM

Jewel Topsfield and Amilia Rosa

Jakarta: A Brazilian drug felon has been told he will be executed on Saturday night in a move that will strike fear into the hearts of the Bali Nine members on death row.

Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who will be the first foreigner to be executed in Indonesia this year,  was transferred to an isolation cell at Besi prison on Wednesday night.

He is among five convicts who are expected to face the firing squad within 72 hours.

Although there are no Australians in the first group, Bali Nine ringleader Myuran Sukumaran had his clemency plea rejected last week and Indonesian President Joko Widodo has warned he will have "no second chances".

Sierra Leone predicts no new Ebola cases by March end (+video)

Sierra Leone's president also predicted that the West African country – even as the country registered 19 new Ebola cases over a 24-hour period – would be Ebola-free by World Health Organization standards by May.

By Associated Press

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE — Even as his country registered 19 new Ebola cases over a 24-hour period, Sierra Leone's president is predicting there will be zero new confirmed cases by the end of March.

President Ernest Bai Koroma also predicted that his West African country — one of three hardest hit by the outbreak — would be Ebola-free by World Health Organization standards by May. Koroma made this pronouncement during town hall meetings this week in the northern Districts of Port Loko, Tonkolili, and Bombali.

Sierra Leone's southern Pujehun district has registered zero cases for more than 42 days, according to government statistics. Among the 19 new cases countrywide, at least eight were in and around the capital of Freetown.

15 January 2015 Last updated at 00:45


Soutik BiswasDelhi correspondent

Why Indian author Perumal Murugan quit writing

"Perumal Murugan, the writer is dead. As he is no God, he is not going to resurrect himself. He has no faith in rebirth. As an ordinary teacher, he will live as P Murugan. Leave him alone."

With these dramatic words on his Facebook page, the well-known writer in the Tamil language announced his decision to give up writingforever. The provocation: wrathful protests against his novel Madhorubhagan by local Hindu and caste-based groups. 

Murugan also asked his publishers not to print and sell his work and promised to compensate them for the unsold books. He implored his readers to burn his books, and said he would stop attending literary festivals.