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The Fortify Rights group said there are "very worrying trends" among some nationalist movements targeting Muslim minorities [Reuters] A dozen Muslim men from Myanmar have been convicted for their alleged links to a previously unknown armed group and sentenced to five years in prison, following a trial which human rights groups say was tainted by allegations of torture. Fortify Rights, a watchdog group, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the 12 men from the central region of Mandalay were denied a fair trial, and that elements of anti-Muslim prejudice played a part in their case.  The men, including a 19-year-old labourer, a 34-year-old restaurant worker and a 58-year old merchant, were all found guilty on Monday of undermining national security, after allegedly training with the so-called Myanmar Muslim Army. "I think it's a huge injustice," Matthew Bugher, a Harvard lawyer and Fortify Rights representative in Myanmar, said of the verdict is...

. Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, photographed October 29, 2015, has set a December deadline for his government to end a long-running uprising by the Islamist Boko Haram -- a timeline analysts said November 26 is likely unrealistic (AFP Photo/Money Sharma) Abuja (AFP) - Senior military, security and intelligence figures in Nigeria on Thursday questioned President Muhammadu Buhari's December deadline for an end to the Boko Haram conflict, calling it "unrealistic". The Centre for Crisis Communication, a research and advisory body independent of government, said the deadline was "not tenable" given the continued wave of bombings in ...

Man guilty of second-degree murder after shooting wife and putting photo of blood-spattered body on Facebook. Derek Medina (centre) shot his wife eight times and posted her body on Facebook [AP] A jury found a Florida man guilty of second-degree murder after he killed his wife and posted a photo of her blood-spattered body on Facebook. Jurors on Wednesday rejected the argument that Derek Medina, 33, acted in self-defence when he shot 27-year-old Jennifer Alfonso eight times in August 2013 at their Miami residence, according to a court spokeswoman. "No family should ever have to see their daughter killed and then exhibited worldwide on the internet like some macabre trophy to a husband's anger as was Jennifer Alfonso," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. Prosecutors argued he killed her after an argument in which she threatened to leave him. The maximum prison sentence would be sought for Medina, who faces 25 years...

Cameron said the UK must expand anti-ISIL air strikes to Syria to deny the group a "safe haven" [Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters] Britain should join air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, Prime Minister David Cameron has said. Cameron attempted to persuade politicians to back action in parliament, arguing the Paris attacks have given new urgency to the fight against ISIL. The Royal Air Force is part of a US-led coalition attacking fighters in Iraq, but not in Syria. Cameron said Britain must join the coalition in Syria to deny ISIL a "safe haven" from which to plot mass-casualty attacks around the world. "I believe that we should now take the decision to extend British air strikes against ISIL into Syria," he said in a written statement to MPs. "It is wrong for the United Kingdom to sub-contract its security to other countries." On Monday in France, Cameron and French President Francois...

Suspected Boko Haram attacks kill at least four civilians and wound dozens near Nigerian border, security sources say. Cameroon is also in an 8,700-strong regional force led by Nigeria against the group, expected to be operational by year end [AFP] At least four civilians and four suicide bombers have been killed in two separate explosions near the Nigerian border in Cameroon's Far North Region, security sources have said. Dozens more were wounded in Saturday's bombing in the village of Nigue, a suburb of Fotokol town, in an attack carried out by suspected members of Nigeria's armed group, Boko Haram. "The first [suicide attacker] detonated his bomb in the house of the traditional chief of Leymarie. Five people died including the bomber," a senior Cameroonian military official who declined to be named told Reuters. Leymarie forms part of Nigue. "Several minutes later, three female bombers exploded their bombs close...

  Nigeria has been ranked third of the 162 countries of the world that have been worst hit by terrorist attacks, according to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index. The country, Africa’s largest oil producer, was ranked fourth in 2014. Going by the latest ranking, Nigeria is only better than two largely Islamic countries – Iraq and Afghanistan – who were ranked first and second respectively. Pakistan and Syria are ranked fourth and fifth to complete the top five most terrorised countries. The only African countries closer in ranking to Nigeria are Somalia and Libya which are in the eighth and ninth positions respectively. France, which recently experienced deadly terrorist attacks that killed about 160 people in Paris, is ranked 36th, same as the United States of America. “Terrorist attacks are much more lethal in Nigeria than any other country,” the GTI report said. The report, released on November 16, 2015 by the Institute for Economics and Peace, said the Islam...

This month, Funmi Iyanda will receive what is for her, the latest in a long line of awards, but this time from an English university that has recognised her significant global contribution to human rights and sustainability. At a University of Cumbria graduation ceremony in the historic Carlisle Cathedral on Wednesday 25 November, Funmi will receive an honorary fellowship from the institution in acknowledgment of her outstanding and high profile work. Funmi is the first African woman to receive this award. An award winning Nigerian media entrepreneur, producer, talk show host, journalist and activist, Funmi is best known for independently producing and hosting Nigeria’s most popular and ground-breaking talk show New Dawn with Funmi, which ran on the national network for eight years. She is a Director at Creation television, a film production company in the United Kingdom, acquiring classic African literary content for film adaptation to a global audience. She is a...