Headlines:

 

• German circumcision ban incites new religious controversy in Europe
• Iran stands by Assad and is ready to use all capacities to settle the Syrian crisis
• Taliban bomb destroys 22 NATO supply trucks in Afghan north
• Pakistan submits to American pressure and agrees to codify NATO supply agreement
• Burma creating humanitarian crisis with displacement camps in Arakan

 

Details:

German circumcision ban incites new religious controversy in Europe:

A German court set off religious controversy late last week with its ruling that the circumcision of young boys on religious grounds is illegal. Some commentators categorize the ban as just one of many legislative restrictions on Muslims in Germany, and as part of growing religious intolerance in Europe. Reuters reports that the Cologne court took action after police were alerted by a doctor who treated the 4-year-old son of first-generation Turkish immigrants Muhsin Sapci and his wife, Gonca, for bleeding after the boy underwent circumcision. A prosecutor sued the doctor in court. German Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened over the court's decision last Friday by promising the Muslim and Jewish communities that they are free to circumcise their children. Meanwhile, the Guardian writes that the government is urgently looking for a way around the ban. Germany is home to 4 million Muslims, the second biggest community in Europe, and to about 120,000 Jews. In a rare display of religious unity, the leaders of both faiths teamed up in Brussels and Berlin last week to demand a reversal of the ban. The public outcry prompted Ms. Merkel to publicly criticize the court's ruling and call for an urgent solution. A German Justice Ministry spokeswoman, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that legislative action might be needed to protect religious traditions in the wake of the court ruling, in an interview with The Associated Press. So far, the ruling applies only to the area of the Cologne court's jurisdiction.

Iran stands by Assad and is ready to use all capacities to settle the Syrian crisis:

Tehran renewed its call for the peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria, saying that it is ready to use all its potentials and capacities to help resolve the problems in the Muslim country. "On the Syria issue, we have made all our efforts to establish security and stability in the region and we are ready to use all our capacities in this regard," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said in his weekly press conference in Tehran. He described Iran's role in the settlement of the regional crises as undeniable, and said, "Due to this fact, (UN-Arab League Special Envoy on Syria) Kofi Annan made his second trip to Tehran to use Iran's viewpoints on the settlement of the crisis in Syria." Voicing Iran's readiness to mediate meetings between the Syrian government and opposition, Mehman-Parast said, "We believe that the demands of the opposition and of those who are pursuing some rights in Syria should be raised in proper conditions, but without the interference of the foreign forces and imposition of their formulae, and the necessary measures should also be adopted proportionate to demands and based on what the majority of people want."

Taliban bomb destroys 22 NATO supply trucks in Afghan north:

A bomb planted by the Taliban destroyed 22 NATO trucks carrying supplies to their forces in northern Afghanistan, the Taliban and police said on Wednesday. Eighteen fuel trucks and four supply vehicles were parked in Aibak, the capital of Samangan province, when a bomb ripped through them, wounding one person, local police said. "At 2 a.m. the mujahideen attacked the invader NATO trucks," the Taliban said in a statement, referring to the wagons which had been driven from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan's north. The trucks were attacked in the same province where prominent anti-Taliban lawmaker Ahmad Khan Samangani was killed on Saturday at his daughter's wedding, in a suicide bomb attack that killed 22 other guests. "We believe the Taliban carried this out. Eighteen trucks have been totally destroyed, the rest were damaged by fire," Samangan police chief Khalil Andarabi told Reuters. Separately, police in neighboring Baghlan province said they had detained 10 suspected Taliban members with so-called magnetic bombs, which they were trying to attach to supply trucks.

Pakistan submits to American pressure and agrees to codify NATO supply agreement:

The U.S. and Pakistan are close to signing an agreement regulating the flow of NATO troop supplies in and out of Afghanistan, codifying a somewhat informal arrangement that has fueled the Afghan war over the past decade, U.S. officials said Tuesday. Pakistan pushed for a written pact in drawn-out negotiations that led to the supply line's reopening two weeks ago following a seven-month blockade. Islamabad had imposed the blockade in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border. The new agreement applies to NATO supplies that have not yet arrived in Pakistan, not the 9,000 plus of containers that have been stuck in the country for months and have slowly started moving across the border into Afghanistan. It also spells out the terms for the tens of thousands of containers that will be needed to pull NATO equipment and supplies out of Afghanistan. U.S. and Pakistani negotiators have finalized the wording of the deal and expect it to be signed soon, two senior U.S. officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Pakistani officials did not return phone calls for comment. The deal would prohibit the U.S. and other NATO countries from shipping weapons by land into Afghanistan - as demanded by Pakistan's parliament - but allow them to withdraw lethal items from the country, said the officials. The U.S.-led coalition does not currently transport weapons by land through Pakistan to Afghanistan.

Burma creating humanitarian crisis with displacement camps in Arakan:

Aid workers have warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in western Burma as authorities attempt to isolate tens of thousands of the displaced ethnic Rohingya minority in camps described by one aid worker as "open air prisons". Aid has struggled to reach those affected by sectarian unrest in early June, as abusive treatment by Burmese authorities continues. The UN announced on Friday that 10 aid workers in Arakan state had been arrested, five of whom were UN staff. Some have been charged, although the details remain unclear. Rates of malnutrition among the Muslim Rohingya, who have borne the brunt of emergency measures implemented in the wake of fierce rioting in early June between the minority group and the majority Arakanese, are said to be "alarming". The vast majority of aid workers assisting the Rohingya in Arakan have been either evacuated or forced to flee in recent weeks. "We are worried that malnutrition rates already have and will continue to rise dramatically; if free and direct humanitarian access accompanied by guaranteed security is not granted with the shortest delay, there's no way they won't rise," said Tarik Kadir of Action Against Hunger. The group's staff were forced to leave northern Arakan state, where some 800,000 Rohingya Muslims live and where malnutrition rates were already far above the global indicator for a health crisis. With scant medical care reaching the area, the situation is likely to worsen.