Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/29/2012

The poet Mohammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami has been sentenced to life in prison in Qatar for insulting the emir. The trial was held in secret, and the defendant was not allowed to have counsel. He has a week to appeal his conviction.

In other news, the UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the non-member observer status of “Palestine”. The United States voted against the resolution, but many Western countries, including Italy, voted in favor of it. Others such as Britain abstained from voting to avoid angering their Muslim minorities.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, JP, KGS, Kitman, McR, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.