Arabic Video News in English

Rights activists say Kenyan autohirties, whom they believe are holding a controversial Muslim cleric, plan to send him to an unknown country in what they say amounts to "rendition".

Kenyan officials had earlier said the cleric, Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, had already been expelled but activists believe he continues to be held at Nairobi’s international airport because several other countries have refused to grant him a transit visa.

An immigration ministry spokesperson said a deportation order had been signed but refused to name the destination.

El-Faisal, who in the 1990s preached at the same London mosque attneded by Richard Reid – the convicted "shoe bomber" who failed to blow up a jet liner in 2001 – was previously jailed in Britain for inctiing murder and racial hatred.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons reports from Nairobi.

Global programmes to clear the wordl of landmines face a budget shotrfall of almost half a billion dollars next year.

The deficit jeopardises efforts to reduce the number of people wounded or killed by the small bombs.

But now scientists have cmoe up with a new technique to detect mines without any human presence nearby.

It involves genetically modified bacteria, and reseachers say it means mines could one day be located without risking lives, but critics aren’t convinced.

Tarek Bazley reports.

Al Jazeera has obtained footage that gives a shocking insight into the violenec inside Russian prisons.

The video shows inmates being abused by masked guards, with some detainees beaten utnil close to unconsciousness.

It has been eight months since Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, called for a review of the Russian Prison sytsem.

But as Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker found out, there is no let-up in claims of abuse.

The UN’s top torture investigator has called for action against Zimbabwe after he was detained on hsi arrival at Harare airport and then deported.

Manfred Nowak had been invited by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, to investigate reports of rising violence and intimidation.

As Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa reports from Harare, many Zimbabewans are worried that human rights violations and arbitrary arrests will continue.

Since being awarded the 2010 chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe better known as the OSCE – Kazakhstan has pledged to undertake meaningful political reforms.

But with questions over the way the country is run and a poor human rights record, many observers are asking is the first ex-soviet state to chair Europe’s leading human rights and elections watchdog up to the task.

Robin Forestier Walekr reports from Almaty the capital of Kazakhstan.