Shibal.com

NEW YORK — I am a Muslim, I am a feminist and I detest the full-body veil, known as a niqab or burqa. It erases women from society and has nothing to do with Islam but everything to do with the hatred for women at the heart of the extremist ideology that preaches it. We must not sacrifice women at the altar of political correctness or in the name of fighting a growingly powerful right wing that Muslims face in countries where they live as a minority.As disagreeable as I often find French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he was right when he said recently, “The burqa is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women. I want to say solemnly that it will not...

Associated Press Writers= MORONI, Comoros (AP) — A Yemeni jetliner carrying 153 people crashed in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday as it came in for a landing on the island nation of Comoros. Yemeni officials said a teenage girl survived. The crash came two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane, an Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals. Khaled el-Kaei, the head of Yemenia airline's public relations office, said a 14-year-old girl survived the crash. And Yemen's embassy in Washington...

Tributes from stars and fans have been pouring in for singer Michael Jackson, who has died aged 50 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home.Pop star Madonna said: "The world has lost one of its greats, but his music will live on forever." Fans gathered outside the clinic where he was pronounced dead on Thursday. A post-mortem is taking place on Friday. Family lawyer Brian Oxman told US TV that he had been concerned about the star's use of pain relief medication. Mr Oxman told ABC's Good Morning America programme that Jackson took prescription pain relief for injuries sustained earlier in his career, including bones broken in a stage fall. "It caused him great pain. He just...

 One of the most expensive litigations in Ethiopia's judicial history has been filed by a prominent businesswoman, Mekia Mamio Sikessa, who is claiming compensation worth 300 million Br from two expatriates who allegedly provided faulty consultancy services to her agro-business company.
  Mekia filed the civil suit on May 8, 2009, at the Federal High Court, Civil First Instance Eighth Division, a bench presided by Judge Abas Mohamed.

  Mekia, known for her pioneering involvement in commercial agriculture and agro machineries in the Arsi...