Africa: SA scholar 'barred because of his views'

A South African scholar was barred from the United States because of his criticism of US policy in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay prisoner camp, a civil rights group said in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday. Accusing the Bush administration of stifling academic debate by routinely denying visas to critics, the American Civil Liberties Union filed the federal suit on behalf of four groups that invited Adam Habib, a Muslim, to speak in the United States.