Indonesia expected to ditch stoning law

A new law to fatally stone adulterers is unlikely to survive government review in Indonesia, but it highlights the latest push toward stricter Islamic law in the semi-autonomous Aceh province. The law was unanimously rushed through the provincial parliament last month by outgoing lawmakers, who are part of the hardline Prosperous Justice Party

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Arab-Kurd Tensions Could Threaten Iraq’s Peace

Even as Iraq’s Sunni-Shi’ite divide appears to be tenuously mending, another seam in the country’s patchwork multiethnic and sectarian society is on the verge of unraveling. Territorial disputes between Arabs and Kurds — in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala — now pose a serious risk of violence. In recent months, long-standing hostility between the two communities has escalated, whipped up by resurgent Arab secular nationalism

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U.N. hostage’s mother pleads for his release

The mother of an American humanitarian worker kidnapped in Pakistan has pleaded for him to be freed in an audio recording released by the United Nations. Rose Solecki, whose son John was abducted three weeks ago, describes how the “happy memory” of visiting him in the province of Balochistan “turned into a nightmare.” “I simply do not understand why this is happening to our dear John,” Rose Solecki, 83, says in the recording. “I cannot begin to explain the sorrows and pain I am going through right now

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Taliban swaps kidnapped official for militants

Taliban militants released a kidnapped Pakistani official in exchange for two of their men in the troubled Swat Valley, government officials said Monday. Kushal Khan was on his way to take up his new post as the district coordination officer Sunday when unknown gunmen kidnapped him and six members of his security detail near Mingora, the valley’s main city.

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Pakistan: Video appears to show kidnapped U.N. official

A video that aired Friday on Pakistan’s Geo TV network appears to show John Solecki, an American U.N. official kidnapped earlier this month in Quetta, Pakistan. In the video, the man who appears to be Solecki says: “This is a message to the United Nations

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