The Malaysian Insider

GENEVA, Nov 21 — Four years after cartoons of Prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery — essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West.

Algeria and Pakistan are believed to be taking the lead in lobbying to eventually bring the proposal to a vote in the United Nations General Assembly.

If ratified in countries that enshrine freedom of expression as a fundamental right, such a treaty would require them to limit free speech if it risks seriously offending religious believers. The process, though, will take years and no showdown is imminent.

BOGOTA, Nov 21 — Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite its neighbor’s aggressive rhetoric and dynamiting of two border bridges, Colombia’s defense minister said yesterday.

“We will not be provoked. The insults bounce off us,” Gabriel Silva said a day after Venezuelan troops blew up two wooden plank pedestrian bridges connecting the countries.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez this month ordered his army to prepare for war after Colombia signed a military cooperation pact with Washington allowing US troops greater access to its territory to run anti-narcotics surveillance flights.

HAVANA, Nov 21 — The husband of Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said he was attacked by government supporters as he waited  yesterday to confront state security agents accused of detaining and beating his wife two weeks ago.

Sanchez, whose writing about the hardships of Cuban life were praised this week by US President Barack Obama, said men believed to be government agents forced her into a car and hit her repeatedly in a brief detention on Nov 6.

Reinaldo Escobar, also a blogger, said he had gone to a Havana intersection hoping that state security agents would respond to a challenge he issued earlier to meet there for a “verbal duel” about his wife’s incident.

JAKARTA, Nov 21 — Even as three scandals rage across Indonesia and tarnish the government’s efforts to root out graft, there is one positive takeaway from the mess: Indonesia’s civil society and media are free, open and thriving.

In the months since the scandals erupted, the print media — in front-page articles and editorials — had taken a strong stance against the alleged unsavoury actions of the police and courts.

The media had also admonished President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration for being slow to take action against them.

IDAHO, Nov 21 - Singapore’s already-strong friendship with the United States has reached another milestone with the opening of a new long-term defence training detachment in the American state of Idaho.

The detachment — the country’s fourth in the US — will enable Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) personnel to carry out training on its newest F-15 fighter jet in the wide open spaces of the American Northwest.

Under an agreement, 12 RSAF F-15SG fighter jets will be based at the vast Mountain Home Air Force Base, which has an airspace of more than 19,000 sq km — six times the size of Singapore’s.