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PERTH, Australia (WJC)—The 88-year-old Perth resident Charles Zentai has lost his legal fight to stop his extradition to Hungary, where is to face trial for alleged war crimes during World War II. The Hungarian Government wants Zentai extradited to Hungary to face a charge of murdering Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in Budapest in 1944. Zentai denies the charge and has been fighting the extradition application for the past four and a half years.
On Friday, the full bench of Australia’s Federal Court upheld a magistrate's decision that he is eligible for extradition. However, it allowed a 14-day stay of proceedings to allow Zentai and his lawyers time to determine if they want to go to the high court. While the court's judgement means Zentai could be extradited the final decision on his fate lies with the minister for home affairs.
Austria like Germany forgives those who deserted Nazi armies
VIENNA, Austria—The Social Democrats and Austrian People's Party have agreed with the Green Party on the draft bill rehabilitating deserters from the Nazi army during World War II. Under the agreement Nazi-era decisions targeting homosexuals as well as decisions to force sterilizations of women or even abortions will also be annulled retrospectively.
Austria's far-right parties rejected a blanket rehabilitation of deserters, after a majority in Parliament agreed to revoke sentences passed during World War II. Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said “a collective acquittal for deserters would be a provocation for those who really should be respected.”
Ewald Stadler of the far-right Alliance for the Future of Austria, founded by the late Jörg Haider, criticized that the planned law does not distinguish between resistance fighters and criminals, and said it might actually give war criminals who deserted a free pass.
An estimated 4,000 death sentences were handed to Austrians who fled the Wehrmacht, and between 1,200 and 1,400 deserters were executed. Hitler’s homeland Austria became part of the German Reich in March 1938, and 270,000 Austrians fought in the German army during World War II. Last month, the German parliament passed a similar rehabilitation law.
American Jewish Congress applauds Security Council decision on Goldstone Report
NEW YORK (Press Release)—By deciding not to by review the sadly flawed Goldstone Report, the Security Council has finally made an important contribution to the Middle East peace process, the American Jewish Congress said in a statement on Friday
"We believe that the United State and many European nations correctly understood that if Israel could be thrown in the dock for defending itself, there was no likelihood that it could be persuaded to take the additional risks which will be necessary in any peace deal.
" Israel is already investigating whether any violation of international law took place during Operation Cast Lead.
The Libyan effort to bring the issue before the Security Council was an attempt to make mischief at the expense of peace-making. The Obama administration is to be applauded for standing up to the pressures to press Israel further.
Federal grand hury indicts Smadi on charges of attempting to bomb Dallas skyscraper last Sept. 24
DALLAS, Texas— A federal grand jury in Dallas has charged Hosam Maher Husein Smadi with offenses stemming from his attempt to bomb a skyscraper in downtown Dallas, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. It is expected that Smadi will make his initial appearance on these charges before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Dallas next week.
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Count one of the two-count indictment charges Smadi with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, alleging that on September 24, 2009, he activated a timer connected to a vehicle borne improvised explosive device located inside a parking garage directly beneath a public building located at 1445 Ross Avenue in Dallas.
Count two of the indictment charges Smadi with bombing a place of public use, alleging that he knowingly and unlawfully delivered, placed, discharged and detonated an explosive device into a place of public use and government facility by activating a timer connected to the device or bomb and leaving it in the public parking garage of the building. It further alleges that Smadi did this with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury and with the intent to cause extensive destruction of the facility, likely to result in major economic loss.
An indictment is an accusation by a federal grand jury and a defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. If convicted, however, each count carries a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The case is being investigated by the FBI in conjunction with members of the FBI-sponsored North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson is in charge of the prosecution.
Muslims 23% of world population
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)--A new, comprehensive study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today, representing 23% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion. Released today by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, Mapping the Global Muslim Population offers the most up-to-date and fully sourced estimates of the size and distribution of the worldwide Muslim population, including sectarian identity.
Key findings include:
- While Muslims are found on all five inhabited continents, more than 60% of the global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20% is in the Middle East and North Africa.
- The Middle East-North Africa region has the highest percentage of Muslim-majority countries. More than half of the 20 countries and territories in that region have populations that are approximately 95% Muslim or greater.
- More than 300 million Muslims, or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population, live in countries where Islam is not the majority religion. These minority Muslim populations are often quite large. India, for example, has the third-largest population of Muslims worldwide. China has more Muslims than Syria, while Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined.
- Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are Sunni Muslims. Most Shias (between 68% and 80%) live in just four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
Previously published estimates of the size of the global Muslim population have ranged widely, from 1 billion to 1.8 billion. The new study is based on the best available data for 232 countries and territories. Pew Forum researchers, in consultation with nearly 50 demographers and social scientists at universities and research centers around the world, analyzed about 1,500 sources, including census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, to arrive at these figures - the largest project of its kind to date.
The report includes an executive summary, maps and charts illustrating Muslims' geographic distribution, explanations of the study's methodologies and a list of data sources by country. The report is available on the Pew Forum's Web site.
These findings on the world Muslim population lay the foundation for a forthcoming study by the Pew Forum, scheduled to be released in 2010, that will estimate growth rates among Muslim populations worldwide and project Muslim populations into the future. The Pew Forum plans to undertake similar demographic studies of the major global religions in the future.
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