FSTDT

Unknown #fundie afp.google.com

"Officials at a US Christian college have launched an investigation after a cardboard effigy of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was hung from a tree, a statement said Wednesday.

George Fox University, in Newberg, Oregon, said in a statement on its website that the cutout of Obama was found hanging from a tree on campus early Tuesday morning before being removed by staff.

A sign reading "Act Six reject" was taped to the cutout. Act Six is a scholarship program run by the college granted to 10 student leaders from urban Portland. Most of the students currently benefiting from the program are ethnic minorities, the statement said."

Ahmad Ismail #racist afp.google.com

[...]

Ahmad Ismail, an UMNO (ruling party) leader from northern Penang state, sparked the row by describing ethnic Chinese as "lodgers", and escalated the situation Monday with an outburst in which he warned the community not to seek political power.

"The patience of the Malays and Muslims has a limit. Do not push us to the wall, as when we turn back we will be forced to push the Chinese in the interests of our own survival," he told a press conference.

"The Chinese should not try to be like the Jews in America -- it is not enough they control the economy, now they want political control," he said.

Malays are dominant in politics in Malaysia, while ethnic Chinese are prominent in business. Past violence between the two communities has made discussion of racial issues extremely sensitive.

[...]

Ahmad was defiant as he left a meeting with the premier earlier, saying Malays were "frustrated" and that Malay "dignity" was at stake.

"Half the Chinese say I'm a racist but most Malays say I'm a nationalist defending my race," he told reporters.

"What I see now is a rise of the Malay people, and I feel we should capitalise on the strength, the support we get from the Malay people... I know they are with me."

Faez Ali Thameur #fundie afp.google.com

SANAA (AFP) — A Yemeni court on Tuesday granted a divorce to an eight-year-old girl whose unemployed father forced her into an arranged marriage this year, saying he feared she might be kidnapped.

"I am happy that I am divorced now. I will be able to go back to school," Nojud Mohammed Ali said, after a public hearing in Sanaa's court of first instance.

Her former husband, 28-year-old Faez Ali Thameur, said he married the child "with her consent and that of her parents" but that he did not object to her divorce petition.

In response to a question from Judge Mohammed al-Qadhi, he acknowledged that the "marriage was consummated, but I did not beat her."

Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, has no law governing the minimum age of marriage.

Nojud was a second grader in primary school when the marriage took place two and a half months ago.