Taliban orders Afghans to stop watching TV
Say TV networks showing “un-Islamic” programs
www.alarabiya.net

Taliban insurgents have ordered residents of a province near the capital Kabul to stop watching television, saying the networks were showing un-Islamic programs, officials and local media said on Tuesday.

The order is the last in a wave of curbs that the resurgent militants have announced in areas they are active.

A senior Afghan information ministry official, Najib Manelai, said that dozens of masked men with weapons entered mosques in Logar province at the weekend and threatened residents against watching television.

Media reports quoted residents as saying that the Taliban imposed the ban because TV networks were showing programs that were "un-Islamic and anti-Afghan culture".

Removed from power in 2001, the al-Qaeda-backed Taliban who lead a insurgency against the government and foreign forces, could not be reached for comment.

But while in power from 1996 until their ouster, the Taliban Islamists had banned television, music and cinema. More than a dozen private TV networks and scores of radio stations have been launched in Afghanistan since their fall.

The information ministry along with security forces was taking action against the Taliban move, minister Manelai said, without giving details.

The ban on television programs in Logar follows demands in recent weeks by a group of religious scholars and the information minister that some private television stations must stop broadcasting several Indian soap operas on religious grounds.

But the demand has been largely ignored.

The Taliban have in recent months also ordered mobile phones operators to shut down the networks, saying foreign troops were using the phones to track them down.

They have also warned girls in several parts of the south and east not to attend schools.

Why is not called racism when Arabs kill Jews. In that case they call is "self-defense against the Zionist oppressors",  instead of what it really is, Islom-fascist genocide against innocent Jews. From www.imemc.org

The Jerusalem District Court indicted on Monday eleven Israeli teens from Jerusalem for racially motivated attacks against two Arab youth in the city on the eve of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli online daily Haaretz reported.

The Eleven youth apparently attacked and stabbed two Arabs in the city.

 Haaretz stated that the indictment reads that Yaakov Ben Haim, Liran Asraf and Morali Ben Moshe, 18 – 19 years old, along with eight other underage Israelis, are accused of stabbing two Arab youth of Jerusalem, aged 16 and 18.

The eleven youth are charged with racially motivated attack, participating in fights and conspiring to commit a crime.

The attack took place near the entrance of a shopping mall in Pisgat Zeev  neighborhood in Jerusalem.

One of the Arab youth was left unconscious and the other was stabbed several times in his back. Both were moved to Hadassah University Hospital in the city, Haaretz added.

Haaretz stated that on May 1, the attackers gathered in Pisgat Zeev after receiving instant messages on ICQ .

“It's time to put an end to all the Arabs that hang out in the neighborhood and at the mall, whistle to girls, curse and threaten little children. Any Jew who wishes to put an end to this should arrive at the burger ranch, where we will finally teach them not to walk around in our area. Whoever is willing to do this and has the Jewish blood to do so”, the message reads as published by Haaretz.

Haaretz also said that the indictment states that a similar message was sent one week later, close to the Israeli Memorial Day, in which Israelis remember their fallen combatants.

After the first message was sent, dozens of Israeli teens arrived at the scene and were carrying knives, batons and pieces of wood.

Give them one video game system between the two groups and tell them they have to share. Then we will see who gets put to shame.
From Expatica.

"Children put Belgian politicians to shame"

Flemish and Francophone children spent a night at the Atomium to show politicians that it is possible to get along despite linguistic differences.

13 May 2008

BRUSSELS - Dozens of children from a school in Vilvoorde in Flemish Brabant and a Francophone school of Sint-Pieters-Woluwe in Brussels spent a night in a
ball of the Atomium.

The children from a Flemish and a Francophone school wanted to show that they could get along despite the linguistic differences.
One of the balls was specially furnished for the sleep-over.

The aim of the initiative was to show politicians that Flemish and Francophone children could get along with each other

"We want to show people that we can get along," explain the teachers. "The children are communicating with each other as well- albeit with a limited vocabulary in both languages!"

The Atomium is a monument built for Expo '58- the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. It was designed by André Waterkeyn and is 102 metre tall. Nine steel spheres are connected so the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.

The Brussels World's Fair opened on 17 April 1958. It was the biggest event ever held in Belgium, attracting over 41 million visitors. This was three times more than the organisers had expected. The 1958 World Fair was the most visited World Fair ever.

[flandersenews.be / Expatica]

More from www.thelocal.se.

Lars-Olof Corneliusson, the former commander of a Swedish amphibious military unit based near Stockholm, is accused of trying to cover up an incident in which new conscripts fired shoulder mounted artillery cannons while in the nude.

The leader of the exercise, which took place in 2004 and involved soldiers from the Amf 1 amphibious unit based in Vaxholm outside of Stockholm, was told by Corneliusson to destroy a film of the shooting, according to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.

When the film was shown by Svergies Television’s investigative news program Uppdrag Granskning in May of 2006, it generated a great deal of controversy.

The film shows a group of conscripts from Amf 1 shooting a shoulder-fired mortar wearing only helmets, and generated concern about a lack of security within the unit.

But of the Corneliusson, who was in charge of the unit at the time, had had his way, the film never would have been made public.

According to DN, Corneliusson had requested that the leader of the exercise destroy the film during a discussion between the two following the incident.

He also failed to report the shooting as a workplace incident, according to the newspaper, which reviewed reports from the unit.

Commander Christer Olofsson, who conducted the military’s own investigation into the naked artillery firing, was critical of the unit’s leadership for not reacting immediately following the incident.

Corneliusson is currently under indictment for workplace crimes in connection with a combat patrol boat accident near the island of Sollenkroka in Stockholm’s archipelago in which two conscripts lost their lives.

The boating accident took place about one week following the naked shooting incident. A judgment in the case is expected to be handed down on May 27th.

Watch out for those crowds that number in the "Dozens."

Published: 12 May 08 07:34 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/11694/

Forty-seven people were arrested and detained in connection with an anti-Israel rally in Norrmalmstorg in central Stockholm on Sunday evening.

“They are suspected of disobeying police orders,” said Katarina Bäckström of the Stockholm police to the TT news agency.

The demonstrators had gathered outside of Berns Salonger in nearby Berzelli Park, where the Jewish Community of Stockholm was holding a party, to protesting against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Israel, according to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.

As the protesters lacked a permit to carry out their demonstration, police encircled the group and attempted to move them away to Norrmalmstorg.

According to the police, the demonstrators consisted of members of Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), reports DN.

Published: 11 May 08 00:30 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/11676/

A 40-year-old man from Östersund in northern Sweden was convicted on Friday on three counts of sexual molestation for satisfying himself on the saddles of women’s bicycles.

The man confessed that in three separate cases, he slashed the tires of bicycles belonging to women he found attractive, and then proceeded to rub up against the bicycle seats for sexual gratification, reports the Östersunds-Posten (ÖP) newspaper.

He claimed that he was suffering from a confused state of mind following a separation in the spring of 2007.

According to the newspaper, the court stated during the hearings that one of the victims had lived in fear for months on account of the unknown stalker repeatedly masturbating on her bicycle within sight of her home.

In addition to the three cases to which the man confessed, prosecutors had charged the 40-year-old in five other cases of bicycle tire slashing.

However, the man denied any further vandalism, and a lack of evidence led the court to acquit the man of the additional charges.

While the conviction warranted a sentence of up to several months in prison, the court reduced the punishment on account of the man’s clean record, the fact that he had already spent time in custody during the investigation, and his decision to seek professional help for his behaviour.

In addition to receiving probation, the man was ordered to pay 10,000 kronor ($1,665) in fines, as well as 3,000 kronor in damages to each of the women whose bicycles he assaulted.

Return to sender on the end of bullet. From asharqalawsat.com

"Taliban Deliver Silent Death Threats after Midnight"

12/05/2008

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghans call them 'night letters' -- notes scattered or pushed under doorways by Taliban militants in the dead of night, threatening villagers' lives if they cooperate with foreign forces and the government.

The threats have picked up in recent weeks in areas across southeastern Afghanistan, U.S. officers and Afghans say, as the Taliban intensify their activities along the Pakistan border and in mountainous communities inland towards Kabul.

The notes are often poorly written but the message is clear -- have nothing to do with the foreign troops or serve in the government they back, otherwise, your business will be destroyed, your livestock snatched or your throat cut.

At least six people have had either throats slit or were beheaded by the militants for allegedly acting as spies for the foreign forces only in recent weeks in various parts of southeastern Afghanistan, according to officials and the Taliban.

Scores have lost their lives for failing to take notice of the Taliban's verbal threats, or in the form of the 'night letters', since 2006 when the al Qaeda-backed Taliban made a return.

"It's usually the merchants or those with something to lose," says Lieutenant Augie Gonzalez, a platoon commander based at a camp outside Khost, a city in the southeast of the country, 20 km (13 miles) from the Pakistan border.

"The threats are for real and it gets to them, you sense it," he says, explaining how he'll often visit a village to talk to local leaders and deliver food and other aid, only to return three days later and learn the Taliban have been there.

"The villagers don't want the Taliban there, there's no sympathy and they'll tell you that straight, but they can't take them on their own and we can't be there every day."

The night letters form part of a campaign of intimidation and violence that appears to be steadily escalating, although the commander of U.S. forces in the area, Colonel Pete Johnson, dismisses suggestions of a renewed Taliban offensive.

Four U.S. troops and a U.S. civilian were killed in ambushes or roadside bomb attacks last week alone, while Afghan security forces, particularly the less well organized police, have also repeatedly been targeted, with around a dozen killed.

"Yes, there's more fighting right now than there was last month, but that's just the way the context is in eastern Afghanistan," Johnson told Reuters last week, describing the idea of a Taliban offensive as a "myth."

Lieutenant Gonzalez and his men don't see their day-to-day work as countering a Taliban offensive. Instead it's more about trying to get into villages and win the population over before the militants have a chance to do so and impose their will.

"It's a slow process of pushing forwards, providing security so that others can come in and rebuild," says Gonzalez.

Yet, the Taliban threat is very real -- a roadside bomb that killed two U.S. soldiers last week also left two severely wounded: both had their legs amputated and both may lose an arm.

A soldier in the same platoon, traveling three vehicles behind the one that was hit, has survived six roadside bomb attacks already and he's only been in Afghanistan six weeks.

"It's been pretty intense," said the soldier, Private Mullan, clearly shaken and not wanting to give his full name. "Sometimes we've had a series of events that have gradually built up, other times it's been quieter."

For Afghans, the Taliban threat is very real and there is no doubt in their minds it has risen in the past month as the season has shifted and it's become easier for militants to move across the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Saif, a translator working with the Americans who lives in a remote district outside Khost, says night letters are commonplace and threats have been carried out. Schools have been burnt down and district centers, the focal point for local rebuilding and development, attacked and destroyed.

He is quick to emphasize, though, how "little" sympathy there is for the Taliban in his area, where most regard them as "poorly educated thugs with little proper religious grounding."

He recounts how some members of the Taliban were recently captured following a botched attack. One was a simple young man who was asked by his captors to show them how to pray. "He didn't know how," the translator said. "He couldn't even start."

Ousted from power in 2001 for sheltering al Qaeda leaders, the Taliban have vowed to drive out the foreign troops from Afghanistan and topple the central government.

In their campaign, the Taliban also target any one working or helping the government or the foreign forces.

From smh.com.au.

Al-Qaeda Islamist militants have renewed their threat to bomb targets in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, a newspaper reported quoting the national police chief.

The United States embassy in Nigeria said last September the country was at risk of "terrorist attack" and Osama bin Laden once named the world's eighth biggest oil exporter as ripe for jihad or Islamic holy war.

"The al-Qaeda network has threatened to send time bombs to Nigeria ... CPs (commissioners of police) of all the commands should be on the alert and ensure that these items (bombs) do not pass through their end," the Punch newspaper quoted Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro as saying.

He gave no details of what the targets might be, but he told a group of senior officers that intelligence reports showed the threat was real.

A number of suspected jihadists have been arrested by police and the State Security Services (SSS) in recent years, but the cases have dragged on in the courts and there have been no convictions. No conclusive evidence of al-Qaeda's presence in Nigeria has been made public.

Five Islamist militants with suspected links to al-Qaeda are on trial in the capital Abuja for plotting attacks on government targets in Africa's most populous country.

The men were arrested in November by the SSS in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria. Three of them have also been charged with training in Algeria with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) between 2005 and August 2007.

The GSPC renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in January 2007.

The charge sheet said the five militants, all in their early 30s, "did conspire to commit terrorist acts," and said three of them trained in Algeria "with intent to attack government facilities and cause insurrection in Nigeria".

Another charge said the militants had an AK 47 rifle, ammunition, dynamite, fertiliser "and 11 explosive devices" which they planned to use to attack government facilities and installations in the southern cities of Lagos and Ibadan.

Nigeria's 140 million population is roughly equally split between Christians and Muslims. The two groups usually live side by side peacefully, but there are occasional outbreaks of sectarian conflicts.

Tensions heightened in 2000 after 12 mainly Islamic northern states began a stricter enforcement of sharia, alienating sizeable Christian minorities. Thousands were killed in sporadic riots across the country.

From The Austrailian.

Amazon 'at threat' from cleaner air

CLEANER air due to reduced coal burning could help destroy the Amazon this century, according to a study in the journal Nature.

The research identifies a link between reduced sulfur dioxide emissions from coal burning and increased sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic that boosts the drought risk in the Amazon rainforest.

With the rainforest already threatened by development, higher global temperatures could tip the balance, it says.

"Generally, pollution is a bad thing, but in this case improving the air may have ironically led to a drying of the Amazon," said Peter Cox, a researcher at the University of Exeter in Britain, who led the study.

“It shows you have to deal with greenhouse gases.”

The Amazon - the world's largest tropical rainforest - plays a critical role in the global climate system because it contains about one 10th of the total carbon stored in land ecosystems.

The researchers used a climate-carbon model to simulate the impacts of future climate change on the Amazon and compared it to data from a 2005 drought that devastated a large chunk of the rainforest.

They estimated that by 2025 a drought on the same scale could happen every other year and by 2060 such a crisis could hit nine out of every 10 years - enough to turn the rainforest into savannah grassland, Cox said.

In the pre-industrial age, the Amazon was less vulnerable. But higher temperatures and destruction of the forest make droughts far more likely than in the past, the researchers said.

“The Amazon is said to be the lungs of the planet,” Cox said. “You don't want to damage it.”

The researchers believe that efforts to clean up sulphate aerosol particles from coal burning at power stations in the 1970s and 1980s helps to explain the threat.

The pollution predominately in the northern hemisphere had limited warming in the tropical north Atlantic, keeping the Amazon wetter than it normally would have been.

But with that protection evaporating due to cleaner air and as greenhouse gases fuel global warming, the rainforest now faces a deadly drought risk, the researchers said.

“Reduced sulphur emissions in North America and Europe will see tropical rain bands move northwards as the north Atlantic warms, resulting in a sharp increase in the risk of Amazonian drought,” Chris Huntingford, a researcher at Britain's Centre for Hydrology and Ecology said.

The findings highlight the need to deal not only with greenhouse gas emissions but also with the direct destruction of the rainforests as well, the researchers said.

They said 20 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions stem from burning of trees to build new homes and roads as development pushes farther into the delicate region, they added.

“You can argue there is a greater urgency to deal with the deforestation issue in our model,” he said.

From the Khaleej Times Online.

Jordan police question family for ‘honour killing’

(DPA)

9 May 2008

AMMAN - The Jordanian authorities are questioning a 22-year- old man, who allegedly killed his pregnant married sister for reasons related to family honour, the Jordan Times reported Friday, quoting official sources.

The 20-year-old victim, who was not identified by officials, received three fatal bullets to the side of her head, reportedly by her brother, at her in-law's house in western Amman Wednesday night.

The suspect immediately headed to the nearest police station and turned himself in, handing over the gun he used to shoot his sibling to officers on duty.

"The suspect told police he had just killed his sister to cleanse his family's honour," the sources said.

The victim became the fifth person reportedly murdered in a so- called honour crime since the beginning of the year, the paper said.

Last year, a total of 18 people were killed for reasons of "honour" in Jordan, according to official sources.

From guess where? pinknews.co.uk.

Key Paragraphs

A controversial candidate for Mayor has stunned voters in the liberal city where he is seeking election by making provocative statements about gay marriage.

Mr Johnson said that he thinks marriage is between a man and a woman, a stance which immediately lost him the support of prominent LGBT community members.

The gaffe caused the candidate to try to backtrack, but the damage was done.

It's not a gaff, nor is it controversial. Marriage between a man and a woman has been the corner stone of civilization since the beginning of time. It will always be the corner stone of civilization until the end of time. That's when Jesus comes back for all you who have forgotten. It's also the will of God.  "A man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." There is your note from God on the subject. Love, live, and if you can't do that then DEAL WITH IT.

Read The Rest.

Oh, and I agree that same sex couple trying to have children is like trying to "to hatch a rock" And can't just hear you kids as they bring this home from school: "But why is it wrong mommy all the penguins are doing it." Keep you indoctrination to yourself. You want me out of your bed room stay out of my household and my kids schools. Quid pro quo people. From the pinknews.co.uk

Gay penguins top list of controversial books - again

A heart-warming tale of same-sex love and parenting among New York penguins has topped the list of books most complained about in American libraries for the second year running.

Among other literary works in the top ten are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (alleged racism) and Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass (anti-religious).

And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, was published in 2005.

It is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, who formed a couple in New York's Central Park Zoo.

They attempted to hatch a rock, which was replaced by a rejected egg from a mixed gender couple by zookeepers.

They then adopted the baby penguin Tango as their own.

The book is accused of promoting homosexuality and being 'anti-family' as well as unsuitable for its age group.

It has attracted great controversy in US states with parents in Illinois and Missouri requesting the book be placed in a restricted or non-fiction section of the library.

"The complaints are that young children will believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle that is acceptable.

"The people complaining, of course, don't agree with that," said Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

The number of reported library complaints dropped from 546 in 2006 to 420 in 2007.

From Expatica. They are sneaky little bastards. Project Muslim propaganda on a Christian church. Nice.

Bishop slams city hall’s plans to project images of Arab knights in sound-and-light show at the cathedral.

SEVILLE - Months after refusing to let Muslims pray in Córdoba's famous Mezquita, a mosque converted into a Catholic Cathedral in the 13th century, Juan José Asenjo, the bishop of the Andalusian city, has also showed an aversion to a little light nighttime entertainment.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Asenjo slammed Córdoba city hall's plans to put on a sound-and-light show at the temple, arguing that it would "pervert the true identity of the cathedral as a Christian temple".

Under a 2006 agreement, the bishop allowed the City Hall to add lights and "music fitting for the temple".

However, he argued yesterday that it cannot "project images of Arab knights" onto the Mezquita's walls as City Hall was reportedly planning to do in the historical show. A request to allow Muslim prayer in the Mezquita was turned down in 2007.

[El Pais / Flickr contributor Goldmund100 / Expatica]

Italy’s president: ‘No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognize Israel’ From EJP.

TURIN (EJP)---Italian President Giorgio Napolitano opened Thursday the prestigious Turin's book fair amid Muslim and Italian left opposition over the choice of Israel as the event's guest of honour.

"No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognize Israel," Napolitano said at Israel's special stand at the fair.

  

There can be no "rejection of the reasons for its birth (60 years ago) or of its right to exist in peace and security," he added.

  

Israel's stand was swamped by hundreds of people, many draped in the Israeli flag, with one group holding a banner that read: "I feel Jewish today."

  

"A special thanks with all my heart goes to President Napolitano for his strong position this year, after the calls over recent months to boycott the Book Fair because of Israel's presence," said Israel’s new ambassador to Italy Gideon Meir at the fair's opening.

 

Like its Parisian counterpart in March, the Turin fair is honouring Israel on the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state's creation, sparking fresh Muslim protests and boycott calls.

  

Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan said the fact that Napolitano will be the first head of state to open the fair, now in its 21st year, would make it "a political and not a cultural event."

  

Ramadan, who is backing the boycott calls, is the grandson of Hassan El-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

But Yahya Pallavicini,  vice-president of the Italian Islamic religious community,  expressed his “complete solidarity” with the Italian president’s decision to inaugurate the fair.

 

Napolitano arrived at 10:00 am by helicopter at the fair in the northern Italian city  along with Israeli novelist Abraham B. Yehoshua to cut the inaugural ribbon.

 

David Grossman, Amos Oz, Aaron Appelfeld and Meir Shalev will be among the other featured Israeli authors.

  

In a statement released earlier this week, Napolitano’s office said: "Criticism of the policies adopted by the Israeli government is quite legitimate, especially within Israel. What is inadmissible is any position that tends to deny the legitimacy of the State of Israel, which was established by the will of the United Nations in 1948, and it's right to existence in peace and security".

 

Protest planned

 

Ahead of the five-day expo, several Muslim writers, intellectuals and artists as well as the Free Palestine association staged a two-day protest seminar at the University of Turin titled "Western Democracies and Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine."

  

And far-left activists burned Israeli and US flags after the traditional May Day march.

  

Meanwhile, Free Palestine is planning a protest on Saturday.

 

Turin's Chief Rabbi Alberto Moshe Somekh said Wednesday that the city had shown "great courage" in deciding to honour Israel.

  

At a special service in Turin's main synagogue, he said the tribute marked not only the state of Israel's 60 years but also "4,000 years of our presence on the world stage as 'People of the Book'."

 

Israel’s ambassador to Italy, Gideon Meir, said calls for a boycott of the Italy's prestigious Turin book fair were “an attempt to undermine the state of Israel.”

 

"The president's choice of inaugurating the book fair dedicated to Israel, represents a very important moral position to left and right wing extremists that come to Turin to boycott the fair and want to deligitimize Israel," he told Italian daily La Repubblica.

Organizers of the book fair say they expect some 300 people to take part in the Saturday protest, while activist Sergio Cararo of the Palestine Forum predicted there would be at least 10,000.

  

Security has been tightened for this year's event in Turin, coming two months after the Paris book fair which was inaugurated by Israeli President Shimon Peres and marred by boycotts and a bomb threat that forced an hour-long evacuation of the venue.

  

More than 300,000 people visited last year's book fair in Turin, to be attended this year by some 1,400 publishers, both Italian and foreign, which director Rolando Picchioni said was an "absolute record."

Title should read  "Released Jazeera journo spill the beans Lie Through His Teeth." Ask John McCain what a real prison camp is like. Worst prison mankind has ever seen my A$$.

By Mohamed Osman

Khartoum, Sudan - A Sudanese Al-Jazeera cameraman released from the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention centre described it on Monday as the worst prison mankind has ever seen, in some of his first public comments since his return to Khartoum.

Sami al-Haj was whisked from his hospital bed by a convoy escorted by police cars with flashing lights and wailing sirens to an outdoor event in his neighbourhood organised by his family. His speech was broadcast live on Sudanese television.

"After 2 340 days spent in most heinous prison mankind has ever known, we are honoured to be here, thank you and thank all those defended us and of our right in freedom," he told the cheering crowd.

Al-Haj was the only journalist from a major international news organisation held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for a network whose broadcasts angered US officials.

The military alleged he was a courier for a militant Muslim organisation, an allegation his lawyers denied.

Al-Haj said he believed he was arrested because of US hostility toward Al-Jazeera and because the media was reporting on US rights violations in Afghanistan.

"I was subjected to 130 (interrogation) sessions, more than 35 about the Al-Jazeera and they wanted me to be a spy against Al-Jazeera," he said, adding that being a faithful Muslim he had turned down the offer.

He thanked the Sudanese people and their reception which he said has made him "forget the long bitter years that we spending humiliation, injustice and subjugation and oppression. Al-Haj arrived back in Khartoum early on Friday aboard a US military plane.

Earlier on Monday, al-Haj received visitors in his hospital room, including dozens of senior officials wishing him a speedy recovery.

Though able to walk a short distance at the event honouring him, al-Haj is still weak after a 16-month hunger strike prior to his release.

His attorney Zachary Katznelson, who met al-Haj at Guantanamo on April 11, said he was "emaciated" because of his hunger strike and had recently been having problems with his liver and kidneys and had blood in his urine.

Al-Haj was never prosecuted at Guantanamo so the US did not make public its full allegations against him.

But in a hearing that determined that he was an enemy combatant, US officials alleged that in the 1990s, al-Haj was an executive assistant at a Qatar-based beverage company that provided support to Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya.

Two other Sudanese Guantanamo detainees were released together with al-Haj. - Sapa-AP