Still More Cartoon Protests Annoy Muslims!
THE TELEGRAPH: Fears grew of a new confrontation over images deemed blasphemous by Muslims as Pakistan joined Iran in protest over a sketch by a Swedish artist portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires to condemn "in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet".

The move adds to a chorus of criticism over the series of drawings, by artist Lars Vilks, one of which was published earlier this month by a regional Swedish newspaper.

The drawings show the head of a turbaned man attached to the body of a dog, in front of various settings including a football goal.

The publication, in the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, came after several galleries had refused to display the drawings, apparently for fear of violent retaliation from offended Muslims.

Early last year, violent demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world after the publication in Denmark of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed which were also deemed blasphemous.

"Alongside the picture, we published a comment piece saying that it was serious that there is self-censorship among exhibition [galleries]," said the Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief, Ulf Johansson.
Last weekend, a small gathering of protestors gathered outside the newspaper's offices to demonstrate against the cartoon's publication. New Muslim cartoon protests grow (more)

BBC:
Sweden 'regrets' Prophet cartoon

Mark Alexander

Brown Tries It On
DAILY MAIL: Something very odd has been going on in Britain this August. Ever more people - including, we are told, more than 100 of his own MPs - have been waking up to the realisation that our Prime Minister Gordon Brown is attempting to get away with one of the most shameless and fraudulent gambles in our political history.

It was bad enough that his fellow European leaders should have conspired to smuggle the rejected EU constitution back onto their political agenda simply by giving it a different name: the "Reform Treaty".

At least most of them have been honest enough to admit that its contents are essentially the same as those of the constitution which was chucked out by the French and Dutch voters in 2005.

But in Mr Brown's case, he has been guilty of a double deception. He has tried to pretend that the new treaty is completely different from the old constitution - and he has done so because he hopes it will let him off the hook of that manifesto promise on which he and the Labour Government were elected in 2005: to hold a referendum.

Poll after poll in recent weeks has shown overwhelming majorities in favour of a referendum. Most of our newspapers are demanding a referendum. David Cameron and the Tory Party are demanding a referendum.

Even many of his own MPs are now asking that he honours that promise of a referendum on which they were elected - with the support of trade unions that sponsor no fewer than 12 members of his own Cabinet.

Yet Mr Brown is gambling that he can break that promise for one simple reason - because he thinks he can get away with it. The EU constitution is one of the biggest political gambles Mr Brown could make (more) By Christopher Booker

Mark Alexander

” Es wandern deutlich mehr Schweizer ins Ausland ab”
NZZ: Ende 2006 haben in der Schweiz 7'508'700 Einwohner gelebt. Dies sind knapp 50'000 mehr als ein Jahr zuvor. Diese Zunahme ist hauptsächlich auf die Zuwanderung aus dem Ausland und zu einen kleineren Teil auf einen Geburtenüberschuss zurückzuführen. Die städtischen Gebiete wuchsen etwas stärker als die Landgebiete.

bbu. Die Bevölkerung in der Schweiz nimmt stetig zu, wobei das Wachstumstempo seit dem Jahr 2000 ziemlich konstant anhält. Im Jahr 2006 gab es mit 49'600 zusätzlichen Einwohnern wiederum eine Zunahme von 0,7 Prozent. Erstmals wurde damit die Grenze von 7,5 Millionen Einwohnern überschritten, wie das Bundesamt für Statistik (BfS) am Donnerstag mitteilte.

Mehr Geburten und mehr Migranten

Der Grund dafür ist zum einen auf einen Geburtenüberschuss von 13'100 Kindern zurückzuführen (über 73'000 Geburten standen gut 60'000 Todesfällen gegenüber). Vor allem aber wirkte sich der Einwanderungsüberschuss von knapp 40'000 Migranten aus, die 2006 in die Schweiz kamen. Beide Zahlen waren 2006 höher als im Vorjahr.

Der Wanderungssaldo spielt bei der Zunahme der Wohnbevölkerung laut BfS schon seit 1999 eindeutig die Hauptrolle. Dabei hat sich die Mobilität in beide Richtungen verstärkt: 2006 wanderten 8,2 Prozent mehr Ausländer in die Schweiz ein als im Vorjahr. Es wanderten aber auch 6,4 Prozent mehr Ausländer zurück ins Ausland aus.

Immer mehr Schweizer wandern aus

Der positive Wanderungssaldo der Ausländer (+49'400 Personen) gleicht im Übrigen den negativen Wanderungssaldo der Schweizer (-10'100 Personen) aus. Mit anderen Worten: Es wandern deutlich mehr Schweizer ins Ausland ab, als solche aus dem Ausland zurück in die Heimat kommen. Seit nunmehr fünf Jahren nimmt dieser Auswanderungsüberschuss der Schweizer zudem immer stärker zu. Die Schweiz zählt erstmals über 7,5 Millionen Einwohner: Erneute Zunahme hauptsächlich wegen Migration aus dem Ausland

Mark Alexander

From a Great Man!
Sugar Candy

"We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy." — Churchill Speech, Canadian Parliament, 30 December 1941

Never Give In

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.'' — Churchill Speech, 29 October 1941, Harrow

We shall fight on the beaches

"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!" — Churchill Speech, about Dunkirk, House of Commons, 4 June 1940

Mark Alexander

Kouchner spricht von einer dauernhaften Krise Amerikas!
FAZ: 30. August 2007

Der französische Außenminister Bernard Kouchner hat zum Abschluss der französischen Botschafterkonferenz in Paris kritische Töne zur künftigen Rolle der Weltmacht Amerika anklingen lassen. „Die Krise der amerikanischen Dominanz verfestigt sich“, sagte Kouchner am Mittwochabend. „Sie wird dauerhafter sein, als es aussieht“, sagte der Außenminister. Zwar müsse er „sehr vorsichtig sein“, aber seine Überzeugung sei es, dass es nicht einen plötzlichen Umschwung nach der amerikanischen Präsidentenwahl geben werde.

Kouchner hatte sich mit seiner Rede zum Ziel gesetzt, die während der Botschafterkonferenz geführten Debatten zusammenzufassen. Seine kritischen Bemerkungen zum Einflussverlust Amerikas in der Welt bezogen sich insbesondere auf die Menschenrechtspolitik. Kouchner rechtfertigte das von ihm maßgeblich entwickelte „Recht auf Einmischung“ (“droit d'ingérence“), sagte aber, er habe die Bedeutung der „Methoden“ unterschätzt, mit denen das Recht durchgesetzt werde. „Demokratischer Imperialismus“ sei zum Scheitern verurteilt, sagte Kouchner. Kouchner spricht von dauerhafter Krise Amerikas (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Christiane Amanpour Goes Over the Top!
With thanks to Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, for it was on his fine website that I came across this story:

Photo of Christiane Amanpour courtesy of Google Images

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY (IBD): Global Jihad: CNN's chief apologist for Islam, Christiane Amanpour, has gone too far this time. Not content to just whitewash jihad, she says Jews and Christians are terrorists, too.

According to her new three-part series, "God's Warriors," militant Islamists are really no different than right-wing Christians or Jews. So who are we in the West to judge?

Of course, it's cultural relativism — and journalism — at its worst. What's stunning is the lack of evidence Amanpour provides to support her case.

That CNN would give her six prime-time hours to peddle such tendentious trash to a public still under real threat from Islamic terror speaks volumes about the network's agenda.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America slammed the series as "one of the most grossly distorted programs" ever aired on mainstream American TV.

CAMERA was being kind. Amanpour's premise that Christianity and Judaism have spawned just as many terrorists as Islam is absurd on its face.

To be sure, not all Muslims are terrorists. But the vast majority of terrorists are Muslim, or at least claim to be Muslim. Almost all international terror is carried out, falsely or not, in the name of Islam. The data are simply overwhelming.

In contrast, history has produced only a handful of fanatics who commit violence in the name of Christianity or Judaism. Those who do are summarily arrested and punished.

They aren't held up as martyrs. There are no U.S. posters celebrating abortion clinic bombers, or Israeli history books canonizing Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians.

But Amanpour, an Iranian immigrant whose father is a Muslim, wants to change that reality.

She and her Islamic apologist pal Karen Armstrong — a "scholar" she returns to throughout her "documentary" — sugar-coat jihad as inner struggle against sin and not warfare. If you want militancy, they argue, look no further than fundamentalist Christians. Amanpour’s Apologia (more)

Mark Alexander

Eine Warnung von Prof. Doktor Bassam Tibi

Prof. Doktor Bassam Tibi, Göttingen Universität, Deutschland

SONNTAGS-INTERVIEW MIT BASSAM TIBI: Er ist Moslem und Alt-68er: Dennochwarnt der deutsche Politologe BassamTibi vor zu viel Toleranz gegenüber Glaubensbrüdern, die unter dem Gesetz der Scharia leben wollen. Ein Gespräch über Dschihadismus, Mohammed-Karikaturen und das Schütteln von Händen. Das Sonntags-Interview (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Financial Crises: From 1929 to the Present Day
BBC: The current market jitters are centred on disturbances in the world's credit markets. Worries about the viability of sub-prime mortgage lending have spread around the financial system, and the central banks have been forced to pump in billions of dollars to oil the wheels of lending.

But what happened in previous financial crises, and what are the lessons for today?

There have been a growing number of financial crises in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Among the key lessons of previous major financial crises are:

• Globalisation has increased the frequency and spread of financial crises, but not necessarily their severity

• Early intervention by central banks is more effective in limiting their spread than later moves

• It is difficult to tell at the time whether a financial crisis will have broader economic consequences

• Regulators often cannot keep up with the pace of financial innovation that may trigger a crisis.

Financial Crises: Lessons from History By Steve Schifferes

THE TELEGRAPH:
Shares fall as US house prices in record nosedive By David Litterick, New York

Subprime Crisis

Business Comment: US housing crash reminds us we're due a correction By Richard Fletcher

Mark Alexander

The Saudi Understanding of ‘Freedom of the Press’
BBC: Saudi Arabia has reportedly banned an influential pan-Arab newspaper after it criticised government ministries.

Sources at the al-Hayat daily said it was banned after refusing to abide by information ministry orders, including scrapping a column by a Saudi writer.

The paper, owned by a top Saudi prince, was not distributed this week in the conservative kingdom, officials said.

Recent columns by Abdul Aziz Suwaid had tackled health care problems and a wave of mysterious deaths among camels.

The government has blamed about 2,000 camel deaths on poor feed, denying the presence of an infectious disease.

Other reports say the ban followed al-Hayat's disclosure that a Saudi extremist had played a key role in al-Qaeda in Iraq. Saudis 'ban' pan-Arab newspaper (more)

Mark Alexander

Save Your Presidency, George! Go For It!

Photo of George W Bush courtesy of the BBC

BBC: US President George W Bush has warned Iran to stop supporting the militants fighting against the US in Iraq.

In a speech to US war veterans in Reno, Nevada, Mr Bush renewed charges that Tehran has provided training and weapons for extremists in Iraq.

"The Iranian regime must halt these actions," he said.

Earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that US authority in the region was rapidly collapsing, and Iran would help fill the void.

"Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbours and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

'Nuclear threat'

In his speech to the American Legion, Mr Bush hit back, accusing Iran's Revolutionary Guards of funding and arming insurgents in Iraq.

And he said Iran's leaders could not avoid some responsibility for attacks on coalition troops and Iraqi civilians.

"I have authorised our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities," he said. Bush warns Iran over insurgents (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
US ‘willing’ to confront Iran

Mark Alexander

Iran Ready to Fill Power Vacuum in Iraq
YAHOO NEWS: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said US power is rapidly collapsing in Iraq and that his country is ready to step in to fill the power vacuum.

Mr Ahmadinejad said: "The political power of the occupiers (of Iraq) is being destroyed rapidly and very soon we will be witnessing a great void of power in the region.

"We, with the help of regional friends and the Iraqi nation, are ready to fill this void." Iran 'is ready to fill Iraq power vacuum' (more)

Mark Alexander

Vlad a Hit Even in Global Gay Community!

What's up with Vlad?

LONDON (Reuters) - Time was, all a politician had to do to look good was kiss a baby. These days, projecting the right image is getting a whole lot more strenuous.

From Russian President Vladimir Putin being photographed bare-chested and muscle-bound fishing in a river, to French President Nicolas Sarkozy paddling a canoe in his swimming trunks, fitness and action are the political order of the day.

Get it right, and the publicity can be winning -- Putin's mountain-landscape poses have been a hit among female voters at home, according to Russian media, and have apparently struck a chord amongst the global gay community as well. Hunky Vlad, slim Sarko -- playing with PR fire (more)

Mark Alexander

Die Wahl Güls in der Türkei bedeutet einen neuen Schub für die Beitrittsbemühungen der Türkei in die EU, so Barosso
FFRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: 28. August 2007

Das türkische Parlament hat Außenminister Gül zum 11. Staatspräsidenten gewählt. Für Gül stimmten 339 der 550 Abgeordneten und damit 63 mehr als erforderlich. In der dritten Wahlrunde genügte eine absolute Mehrheit der Abgeordneten. In den beiden ersten Runden hatte er die erforderliche Zweidrittelmehrheit verfehlt. Für den Kandidaten der „Partei der Nationalistischen Bewegung“ (MHP), Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, stimmten 70 Abgeordnete, für Tayfun Icli von der „Partei der Demokratischen Linken“ (DSP) 13. Die muslimisch-konservative AKP, der Gül bis zu seiner Wahl angehörte, ist im Parlament mit 341 Abgeordneten vertreten.

Nach der Wahl schwor Gül vor dem Parlament seinen Amtseid. Seine Frau Hayrünnisa war bei der Zeremonie nicht zugegen. Danach legte Gül am Grabmal Atatürks einen Kranz nieder. Am Abend übergab der bisherige Amtsinhaber Sezer in einer formlosen und nichtöffentlichen Zeremonie die Amtsgeschäfte an seinen Nachfolger. Gül hatte wiederholt versprochen, er wolle Präsident aller Türken sein sowie die Trennung von Staat und Religion aufrechterhalten. Er gilt als der Architekt des türkischen EU-Kurses. Auch als Staatspräsident wolle er außenpolitische Akzente setzen, hatte er vor der Wahl angekündigt.

EU-Kommission erfreut

Die Europäische Union begrüßte die Wahl Güls. Dadurch erhielten die Beitrittsbemühungen einen neuen Schub, sagte EU-Kommissionspräsident Barroso. Abdullah Gül ist neuer Präsident (mehr) Von Rainer Herman in Istanbul

LE FIGARO:
Gül, nouveau président turc

« Un nouvel élan pour l'adhésion à l’Union européenne »

Abdullah Gül : un islamiste dans le fauteuil d'Atatürk

Mark Alexander

Alive in Baghdad: Arab Journalist Discusses Iraq

Mark Alexander

Former Islamist, Abdullah Gül, Voted President of Turkey

The Guls, behijabbed and triumphant

BBC: Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, has been elected president in a parliamentary vote.

Mr Gul was elected in a third round of voting, after months of tension between Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and the secular establishment.

The vote came a day after a new warning from the military about attempts to undermine the secular constitution.

Mr Gul, whose wife wears a Muslim headscarf, has pledged to respect Turkey's secular institutions.

The AKP, which won recent snap polls, needed only a simple majority in the third round of voting.

Turkey's military chief warned on Monday that "centres of evil" were trying to undermine the state.

Gen Yasar Buyukanit did not name those he said were "trying to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic."

But analysts said the statement was clearly aimed at Mr Gul, a devout Muslim. Turkish MPs elect Gul president (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Turkey Set for New Leader

REUTERS:
Turkey's Gul stirs hope among devout Muslims

Mark Alexander

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

Photo of Barack Obama courtesy of Spiegel International

Mark Alexander

EU Xenophobia Report
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The European Union has published a new report on racism in Europe. Germany comes in for criticism on several fronts, including violent crimes and discrimination against foreigners in the job and housing markets.

Racism has become a front-page issue in Germany in recent days after an apparently xenophobic attack on eight Indians (more...) in the eastern German town of Mügeln. Now a new European Union report on racism reveals the full extent of the problem -- and shows that everyday racism in the general population is just as much an issue as right-wing extremism.

The "Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU" was published Tuesday by the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) -- an agency which was created on Mar. 1, 2007 to replace the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.

The report shows that violent racism appears to be on the increase in Germany, with reported incidents of racist violence and crime increasing by 14 percent between 2005 and 2006, going up from 15,914 incidents in 2005 to 18,142 in 2006. However the report did say that the figures for reported crimes "should be interpreted with caution," as an apparent increase can reflect better data collection as well as real increases.

Crime with an extremist right-wing motive also showed an increase, going up from 15,361 incidents in 2005 to 17,597 incidents in 2006, a 14.6 percent increase. "The observation of this apparent upward trend in extremist activity in Germany is supported by reports of increased right-wing attacks noted by victim support organizations in eastern parts of the country," the report's authors write.

However the incidence of anti-Semitic crime in Germany remained fairly constant, with 1,662 incidents in 2006 compared to 1,682 in 2005. Racism On the Rise in Germany (more)

Mark Alexander

Come Off It Miliband! This Is Supposed To Be A Democracy!
THE TELEGRAPH: The Government today insisted there would be no referendum on the new EU treaty, despite revelations in the Daily Telegraph that 120 Labour MPs now want a public vote.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said this morning that the treaty was different in "absolute essence" from the defunct European constitution, so the Government was not obliged to follow through on its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum.

"We have not got a European constitution," Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Twenty-seven European heads of government all signed a document in June, after nearly two years of negotiation, saying the constitutional concept has been abandoned."

He added: "I think that as Parliament gets to grips with the reform treaty that comes out, as they look line by line, they will see first that it is good for Britain, second that it is very different from the constitution in absolute essence, and third that the red lines, the key national interests in foreign policy and other areas of the UK have been protected."

Mr Miliband was responding to revelations in today's Daily Telegraph that more than 120 Labour MPs, including several senior ministers, want a referendum on the new EU reform treaty. Government defies rebels on EU referendum (more) By Toby Helm

Mark Alexander

Mont Pelerin and All That
THE GUARDIAN: A cabal of intellectuals and elitists hijacked the economic debate, and now we are dealing with the catastrophic effects

For the first time the UK's consumer debt exceeds the total of its gross national product: a new report shows that we owe £1.35 trillion. Inspectors in the United States have discovered that 77,000 road bridges are in the same perilous state as the one which collapsed into the Mississippi. Two years after Hurricane Katrina struck, 120,000 people from New Orleans are still living in trailer homes and temporary lodgings. As runaway climate change approaches, governments refuse to take the necessary action. Booming inequality threatens to create the most divided societies the world has seen since before the first world war. Now a financial crisis caused by unregulated lending could turf hundreds of thousands out of their homes and trigger a cascade of economic troubles.

These problems appear unrelated, but they all have something in common. They arise in large part from a meeting that took place 60 years ago in a Swiss spa resort. It laid the foundations for a philosophy of government that is responsible for many, perhaps most, of our contemporary crises.

When the Mont Pelerin Society first met, in 1947, its political project did not have a name. But it knew where it was going. The society's founder, Friedrich von Hayek, remarked that the battle for ideas would take at least a generation to win, but he knew that his intellectual army would attract powerful backers. Its philosophy, which later came to be known as neoliberalism, accorded with the interests of the ultra-rich, so the ultra-rich would pay for it.

Neoliberalism claims that we are best served by maximum market freedom and minimum intervention by the state. The role of government should be confined to creating and defending markets, protecting private property and defending the realm. All other functions are better discharged by private enterprise, which will be prompted by the profit motive to supply essential services. By this means, enterprise is liberated, rational decisions are made and citizens are freed from the dehumanising hand of the state.

This, at any rate, is the theory. But as David Harvey proposes in his book A Brief History of Neoliberalism, wherever the neoliberal programme has been implemented, it has caused a massive shift of wealth not just to the top 1%, but to the top tenth of the top 1%. In the US, for instance, the upper 0.1% has already regained the position it held at the beginning of the 1920s. The conditions that neoliberalism demands in order to free human beings from the slavery of the state - minimal taxes, the dismantling of public services and social security, deregulation, the breaking of the unions - just happen to be the conditions required to make the elite even richer, while leaving everyone else to sink or swim. In practice the philosophy developed at Mont Pelerin is little but an elaborate disguise for a wealth grab.

So the question is this: given that the crises I have listed are predictable effects of the dismantling of public services and the deregulation of business and financial markets, given that it damages the interests of nearly everyone, how has neoliberalism come to dominate public life? How the neoliberals stitched up the wealth of nations for themselves (more) By George Monbiot

Mark Alexander

City Bonuses Hit Record High
THE GUARDIAN: Executives fuel spiralling demand for luxury goods amid growing inequality

City bonuses have increased by 30% to a record £14bn this year. The rise is twice as big as in 2006 and likely to exacerbate the widening gap between executive and shop-floor pay. The bonuses come against a background of record debt, rising bankruptcies and home repossessions.

Analysis by the Guardian of preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that bonuses across the economy rose 24% this spring to £26.4bn, comfortably exceeding the country's entire transport budget. More than half, £14.1bn, was earned by the 1 million people in the financial services sector. The figure for 2006 bonuses was £10.9bn.

The bonuses have fuelled unprecedented demand for luxury goods and high-end property. Bonuses are regularly cited by estate agents as a key factor in pushing up property prices in London. City bonuses hit record high with £14bn payout (more) By Ashley Seager

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy Issues a Warning on Iran

Photo of the pro-American President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy gave warning yesterday that unless the West redoubled its efforts to curb Teheran's nuclear ambitions it could lead to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran".

The French president, in his first major speech on foreign policy, made it clear he intends to apply the same energetic approach to French diplomacy as he has to domestic policy since taking office in May. 

From the Middle East to relations with Russia, the president promised a break with France's traditional Gaullist position of "splendid isolation", particularly towards the United States.

Speaking to 180 French ambassadors, Mr Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "unacceptable" and that the only response was to tighten sanctions while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities.

"This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran," he said, adding that it was the worst crisis facing the world. Nicolas Sarkozy warns of Iran's nuclear crisis (more) By Henry Samuel in Paris

TIMESONLINE:
Sarkozy gets tough on Iran; but goes soft on Turkey

Mark Alexander

No to Amnesties! Stop the Bloody Appeasement, You Twerps!

Would you buy a used car from this man?

BBC: Illegal immigrants should be given "selective amnesty" to allow them to earn the right to British citizenship, the Liberal Democrats have said.

Home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said those staying long-term should be able to apply for permanent residence.

But they should be required to fulfil a series of conditions, such as the ability to speak English, he said.

The Home Office said it had no plans for an amnesty and was removing a failed asylum seeker every half hour. Lib Dems urge immigrant amnesty (more)

Mark Alexander

Turkish Army Issues Warning

Photos courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Turkey's powerful armed forces chief has warned that "centres of evil" are trying to undermine the secular state.

Gen Yasar Buyukanit did not name those who were "trying to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic".

His statement comes a day before MPs are expected to elect Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, as president. His candidacy remains highly controversial.

The army sees itself as the guardian of Turkey's secularism. It has ousted four governments in the past 60 years.

This is the second warning issued by the army in recent months. Turkish army issues new warning (more)

Turkey awaits AKP’s next step By Sarah Rainsford

Mark Alexander

„Euroislam“ in Bayern
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: 27. August 2007

Ein Schleier hat sich über die bayerische Landespolitik in den letzten Amtstagen Stoibers gelegt. Jede Äußerung, jeder Vorschlag eines CSU-Politikers wird auf der Folie des sich neu formierenden Machtgefüges interpretiert. Ein Beispiel ist die Auseinandersetzung über die Errichtung eines „Zentrums für Islam in Europa“ in München. In den Medien wird der Streit auf politische Kabalen reduziert - mit einem übereifrigen Staatssekretär des Innenministeriums in der Schurkenrolle, der in die erste Reihe der Politik dränge.

Die Wirklichkeit ist bunter: Bei dem geplanten „Zentrum für Islam in Europa“ handelt es sich um ein ehrgeiziges Vorhaben; auf einer Fläche von rund achttausend Quadratmetern sollen ein Gemeindehaus, eine Akademie für Imame, ein Museum und ein Gebetsraum entstehen. Nichts weniger als eine zentrale Institution für ein „offenes, transparentes und modernes Islamleben“ in Europa soll in der bayerischen Landeshauptstadt entstehen. Es ist ein Anspruch, der an hochmögende Organisatorenkreise denken ließe, mit breitgefächerten Beratergremien - doch weit gefehlt.

Atemberaubend moderne Formensprache

Als Initiator des Zentrums tritt der Imam einer kleinen islamischen Gemeinde in der oberbayerischen Stadt Penzberg auf. Penzberg, fünfzig Kilometer südlich von München gelegen, hat in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten einen erstaunlichen wirtschaftlichen Strukturwandel bewältigt. Nach der Schließung eines Kohlebergwerks im Jahre 1966, das die Stadt geprägt hatte, ist es gelungen, neue Unternehmen anzusiedeln. Mit dem wirtschaftlichen Wandel hat sich auch die Bevölkerungsstruktur geändert: Wie in vielen deutschen Gemeinden sind aus Menschen, die zunächst als „Gastarbeiter“ gekommen waren, Einwanderer geworden.

Wie andernorts ist auch in Penzberg damit ein konfessioneller Wandel verbunden; mit Türken, Bosniern und Arabern ist der Islam in der Stadt heimisch und in beeindruckender Weise sichtbar geworden: Das 2005 eröffnete islamische Gemeindezentrum, gelegen an einer Ausfallstraße, weist eine architektonische Qualität auf, die sich auch in London oder Paris sehen lassen könnte. Religiöse Traditionen sind hier in eine atemberaubend moderne Formensprache übersetzt worden. Der Imam von Penzberg Von Albert Schäffer, Penzberg

Mark Alexander

Sunnis, Shi'ites and the West
”The policy in the past used to be, ‘Let’s just accept tyranny, for the sake of... cheap oil, or whatever it may be, and just hope everything would be okay.’ Well, that changed on September the 11th for our nation. Everything wasn’t okay. Beneath what appeared to be a placid surface lurked an ideology based upon hatred.”

AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL & JEWISH AFFAIRS COUNCIL (AIJAC): The attacks of 9/11 generated a tide of commentary on the origins and aims of anti-Western jihadism. Lately, however, events have shifted attention to another, more long-standing feature of the Muslim world, raising the question of whether Islamic militancy against the West is now of lesser geopolitical significance than a stark, increasingly salient divide within Islam itself. This is the ancient divide between the numerically dominant Sunnis and a Shi’ite minority that is finally coming into its own.

In this, as in so much else, the prime exhibit is Iraq. Since the country changed hands from a Sunni dictatorship to a Shi’ite-controlled government, the conflict there, at first slowly but then with growing intensity, has at least in part taken on the appearance of a war between two sects. Every week brings gruesome suicide attacks on Shi’ites by Sunni terrorists, attacks answered in kind by Shi’ite militias or death squads. Iraqis have been dragged from their cars and killed merely for being Sunni or Shi’ite. Whole neighbourhoods of Baghdad have been emptied of one sect or the other. Mortar attacks have been launched from cemeteries and shrines, and the holiest of mosques have been bombed and torched by putative co-religionists.

American policymakers have seemed stymied by this outburst of Sunni-Shi’ite hatred, and especially by the assertiveness of the Shi’ites. Not only does it challenge a familiar conception of the order of things in the Middle East - an order ostensibly based on the leadership of longtime “moderate” Sunni allies like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan - but it coincides with the mounting aggressiveness of Shi’ite Iran, which aspires to regional hegemony. From Iraq to Lebanon, from Pakistan to the streets of Amman, the delicate fabric of a centuries-old pattern is being torn. The Great Divide (more) By Gal Luft and Anne Korin

Mark Alexander

Sheikh Hamid al-Ali Issues Iran Warning
YNET NEWS: Leading Kuwaiti sheikh attacks 'Iranian expansionist scheme', warns of 'Shiite exploitation'

Iran and its associated Shiite sects are hijacking Arab causes and exploiting them to serve an "expansionist scheme", a top Sunni Islamist cleric warned in a statement.

Sheikh Hamid al-Ali, based in Kuwait, is a leading Islamist ideologue, whose teachings are often posted on Islamist websites. He has been linked to al-Qaeda activities in the Gulf state, and is described by the US government as a "terrorist facilitator who has provided financial support for al-Qaeda affiliated groups seeking to commit acts of terrorism in Kuwait, Iraq, and elsewhere." Ali is also well known for lashing out against Shiites.

In a statement posted on an al-Qaeda affiliated internet forum on Sunday, Ali cited western reports tracking Iran's nuclear program, and military expansion, before turning his attention to Iran's role in the region.

"Lebanon is a vivid example the Iranian expansionist scheme at the expense of real Arab causes, which are exploited by Shiite sects," Ali said. "Iran has also established strong relations with the Palestinian Islamic resistance, enabling it to use this relationship to organize events (in the Palestinian territories). Iran was very devoted to a Hamas victory in the elections," he added.

"The jihadi movement has to be aware of the reality of the size of Iran's influence, and must not allow Iran to exploit legitimate causes, as seen in Lebanon," he declared.

"In the coming stage we will see more isolation, friction, and escalation... and an inevitable confrontation," Ali predicted, adding that "it is certain that Islam and Muslims will be victorious," describing his vision of Sunni Muslims overcoming Shiites. Islamist cleric issues Iran warning (more) By Yaakov Lappin

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy a évoqué lundi la possibilité de relancer les négociations d'adhésion de la Turquie!
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le président Nicolas Sarkozy, adversaire déclaré de l'entrée de la Turquie dans l'UE, a évoqué lundi la possibilité de relancer les négociations d'adhésion de ce pays.

M. Sarkozy, dans un discours-programme de politique étrangère, a pris soin de réaffirmer qu'il n'était toujours pas favorable à une adhésion, mais sans fermer la porte catégoriquement comme autrefois.

Il a lié cette évolution au lancement d'ici la fin de l'année par les 27 d'un comité de dix ou douze "sages de très haut niveau" qui serait chargé de réfléchir à l'avenir du projet européen à l'horizon 2020-2030.

"Si cette réflexion essentielle sur l'avenir de notre Union est lancée par les 27, la France ne s'opposera pas à ce que de nouveaux chapitres de la négociation entre l'Union et la Turquie soient ouverts dans les mois et les années qui viennent", a-t-il dit.

M. Sarkozy a posé pour condition que "ces chapitres soient compatibles avec les deux visions possibles de l'avenir de leurs relations: soit l'adhésion, soit une association aussi étroite que possible sans aller jusqu'à l'adhésion".

Le président a toutefois souligné qu'il n'était toujours pas partisan d'une adhésion. "Je ne vais pas faire d'hypocrisie: chacun sait que je ne suis favorable qu'à l'association (...) Je pense que cette idée d'association sera un jour reconnue par tous comme étant la plus raisonnable", a-t-il dit.

Mais M. Sarkozy s'est abstenu de reprendre les formules-choc qu'il avait employées par le passé pour rejeter toute perspective d'adhésion, comme "la Turquie n'a pas sa place" dans l'UE. Sarkozy met un bémol à son opposition à l'entrée d'Ankara dans l'UE (suivant)

LE FIGARO:
L’Europe, "priorité absolue" de Nicolas Sarkozy Par Samuel Laurent

Mark Alexander

Saudis Get Jittery over Security of Oil Installations
FINANCIAL TIMES: Saudi Arabia has begun setting up a 35,000-strong security force to protect its oil infrastructure from potential attacks.

The move underlines the kingdom’s growing concern about its oil installations after threats from al-Qaeda to attack facilities in the Gulf, as well as rising tensions between Iran and the US.

The force already numbers about 5,000 personnel, a Saudi adviser said on Sunday. They are being trained in the use of new surveillance equipment, countermeasures and crisis management under a programme managed by US defence group Lockheed Martin, according to the Middle East Economic Survey in Nicosia.

The recruits are learning about laser security and satellite imaging from Lockheed on behalf of the Sandia National Laboratories’ Defense Systems and Assessments Unit – a US government run unit in New Mexico, said MEES.

Lockheed said it did not have information on the initiative.

The kingdom, which is the world’s biggest oil exporter and has 25 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves, is investing an estimated $4bn-$5bn in the new equipment and the force.

The force is expected to reach 35,000 within two or three years.

Saudi Arabia has a 75,000-strong army, an air force of 18,000, a navy of 15,500 and an air defence force of 16,000. Its oil installations are protected from within by 5,000 agents employed by Aramco, the state oil company. It has more than 80 oil and gas fields and an estimated 11,000 miles of pipeline. Saudis set up force to guard oil plants (more) By Andrew England in Cairo

Mark Alexander

The Opium Markets of Afghanistan

Photo of Shaddle Bazaar courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Travelling on Afghanistan's main Jalalabad to Torkham road, you eventually arrive at Shaddle Bazaar, a market of around 30 shops in the eastern province of Nangarhar, on the border with Pakistan.

At first glance, it looks like any other normal market offering everyday goods.

But in reality, this is one of Afghanistan's biggest opium markets.

Farmers from Nangarhar and other adjacent provinces bring opium to Shaddle to sell. Much of it comes from Nangarhar and Helmand - two of Afghanistan's biggest opium-producing provinces.

Mud hut shop

Thousands of kilos of opium are bought and sold every day. Inside an Afghan opium market (more) By Bilal Sarwary, Shaddle Bazaar, eastern Afghanistan

Mark Alexander

On a Wing and a Prayer
BBC: The chartered flight service being launched by a Vatican-linked travel organisation along with an Italian airline has both lofty and more mundane goals. It aims to provide a journey of faith for pilgrims as well as turning a profit.

You can forget the complimentary bag of salted peanuts and plastic pot of orange juice because each plane ticket will come with unlimited spiritual refreshment, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (ORP) suggests.

Flights are planned from Rome to many of the sites which draw hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims seeking solace and or doing penance each year.

Monday's inaugural passengers are due to travel from the Italian capital to an airport just 10 minutes from the shrine of Lourdes in France.

But from December, planes emblazoned inside and out with the logo "Seeking your face, Lord" will be dropping off energetic faithful near Spain's Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route, as well as at Poland's Czestochowa sanctuary and at the shrine to Fatima, in Portugal.

Increasing demand

There will also be flights to Jerusalem in Israel and Sinai in Egypt, and special plans are even under way to jet thousands of young people to Sydney for the World Youth Congress next year. Budget flights of faith (more) By Stephanie Holmes

See a map of the pilgrimage flight routes

Mark Alexander

”Greece Has the Feel of a Country on a War Footing”
BBC: Firefighting aircraft from several countries are helping Greece tackle devastating forest fires that have killed at least 60 people.

Large swathes of Greece - from the island of Evia north of Athens to the Peloponnese in the south - have been ravaged by the inferno since Friday.

Greek police have arrested 32 arson suspects, as investigations continue into the origins of the blazes.

A 1m euro (£678,000) reward has been offered to help catch fire-starters.

Dozens of new fires continue to break out, fanned by hot, dry winds.

'War footing'

The BBC's Malcolm Brabant, in Athens, says the police and intelligence services will be keen to discover if there is any link between the suspected arsonist, and whether they are part of an organised scorched earth campaign.

Greece has the feel of a country on a war footing, our correspondent says. Foreigners help fight Greek fires (more)

Map of affected areas

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Reward to find Greek arsonists

Mark Alexander

Proof that Diana was Pregnant?

Photo of Princess Diana courtesy of Google Images

DAILY EXPRESS: A hospital document at the centre of explosive claims that Princess Diana was pregnant when she died has been made public.

The “official” letter, obtained by the Daily Express, was written by the French surgeon who carried out the post-mortem on the Princess hours after she was killed in a Paris car crash 10 years ago.

It forms the focus of a new book by top French investigative journalist Chris Lafaille and is certain to provoke renewed debate on the royal pregnancy mystery.

Lafaille, a former editor-in-chief of respected weekly magazine Paris Match, said he uncovered the document after scouring archives of the Pitie-Saltpetriere Hospital where the dying Princess was taken on the night of August 31.

The document – saying she was nine to 10 weeks preganant – was sent to three senior French figures, the then minister of the interior Jean-Pierre Chevenement, with copies to health minister Bernard Kouchner, foreign affairs minister Hubert Vedrine and Paris police chief Martine Monteil. Lafaille makes the astonishing claims in a new book called Diana, The Inquiry They Never Published. The revelations could strengthen widespread fears of an official cover-up over Diana’s death, helping to explain why the Princess was illegally embalmed so quickly after the crash. Document that Proves Diana Was Pregnant (more) By Padraic Flanagan and Ian Sparks in Paris

Mark Alexander

Sleaze: Muslims Funding NuLabour
What sort of democracy do they call this?

DAILY MAIL: Labour is involved in a new "sleaze" probe it has emerged.

It followed allegations that a Muslim businessman used a "front" organisation for secret donations.

The Electoral Commission confirmed it is investigating a group called the Muslim Friends of Labour, which gave the party £100,000 a month between April and June.

It is the first such inquiry since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June.

Glasgow-based Imran Khand is alleged to have injected large sums into the organisation. But as his cash did not go direct to Labour, his identity remained secret.

Until recently the organisation donated only small amounts, but it is now the party's second biggest non-union donor. Sleaze investigation over Muslim funds for Labour (more) By Ian Drury

Mark Alexander

Repressionen in Iran
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: 27. August 2007

Neben China und einigen afrikanischen Ländern gehören die Vormächte der islamischen Welt zu den schlimmsten Menschenrechtsverletzern. Dass in Saudi-Arabien öffentliche Hinrichtungen in beträchtlicher Zahl vorgenommen werden, meistens Enthauptungen, ist bekannt.

Doch auch der ideologische und machtpolitische Widerpart des sunnitischen Königreichs, das schiitische Iran, genießt einen düsteren Ruf. Der hatte sich zu Zeiten des Präsidenten Chatami, zwischen 1997 und 2005, zwar ein wenig „aufgehellt“, aber diese Zeit scheint vorbei zu sein.

Versprechungen nicht eingelöst

In den vergangenen Monaten hat die Teheraner Führung anscheinend beschlossen, wieder härter durchzugreifen, nicht allein im Fall „gewöhnlicher“ Krimineller, sondern auch in Bezug auf die politischen Delikte. Dabei verschwimmt allerdings die Grenze. Ganz offenkundig hat die Unzufriedenheit von Teilen der Bevölkerung in diesem Sommer drastisch zugenommen; sie war zuletzt zu verspüren, als der Preis für das - bei dem Erdölproduzenten Iran traditionell sehr billige - Benzin heraufgesetzt wurde.

Dies war freilich nur die Spitze eines Eisbergs, denn der seit zwei Jahren im Amt befindliche Staatspräsident Mahmud Ahmadineschad konnte bis jetzt jene Versprechungen noch nicht einlösen, die er in seiner Wahlkampagne gemacht hatte: Er wolle insbesondere an die „mostazafin“ denken, das heißt an jene „Armen und Entrechteten“, die seinerzeit besonders treue Anhänger und Verbündete des Ajatollah Ruhollah Chomeini und seiner Islamischen Revolution gewesen waren. Aus ihrem Umkreis stammt auch der Präsident.

41 Hinrichtungen in einem Monat

Es ist nicht gelungen, die Wirtschaft auf jenes Niveau anzuheben, das geeignet wäre, diese Klientel - von anderen Schichten, die sich allerdings selbst besser helfen und behelfen können, ganz zu schweigen - zufriedenzustellen. Die Unzufriedenheit wächst. Die jüngste Entlassung zweier prominenter Minister, die Schlüsselressorts zu verwalten hatten, bestätigt diese Fakten. Öffentliche Hinrichtungen (mehr) Von Wolfgang Günter Lerch

Mark Alexander

What We Could Learn from a Bygone Age
BBC: Nazi-era board games are being auctioned this week, one with points given for bombing UK cities. But what were British children playing during WWII? It wasn't all hopscotch and conkers, the Brits had their own propaganda games.

Model Spitfires and Hurricanes were commonplace in the toy boxes of the 1940s. The war touched every aspect of life and had a profound effect on childhood.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill demanded that all the country's energies were dedicated to the war effort. Board games, it seems, were no exception. Dice against the Nazis (more)

Mark Alexander

Russia: Bones Could Be Those of the Czar’s Children
WATCH BBC VIDEO
Mark Alexander

Blasphemous Balls Anger Afghans!
BBC: A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.

The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.

The footballs were dropped from a helicopter in Khost province.

Some displayed flags from countries all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, which features the shahada, one of the five pillars of Islam - the declaration of faith.

The words, which include the name of Allah, are revered, and Muslims are very sensitive about where and how they can be used.

Saudi Arabia has complained to the World Cup's ruling body in the past about the use of its flag on footballs. 'Blasphemous' balls anger Afghans (more) By Alastair Leithead

Mark Alexander

Grèce: le feu menace Olympie
LE FIGARO: Alors que les incendies de forêt ont fait au moins 51 morts depuis vendredi dans le Péloponnèse, Athènes a demandé une assistance aux Etats-Unis et à la Russie.

Le feu continue à gagner du terrain, en Grèce. Le bilan des victimes est lourd. En trois jours, ces incendies auraient déjà fait au moins 51 morts dans le Péloponnèse, au sud du pays. Le ministère de la Santé a informé dans la matinée de la découverte de deux nouveaux corps, près de Mégalopolis.

Dimanche, sans s’être calmé ailleurs, le feu a commencé à menacer le site archéologique d’Olympie. Selon les pompiers, il était en milieu d’après-midi à 1,5 km du site, berceau des Jeux olympiques, dans l’Antiquité, et classé sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco. Les autorités ont demandé l'évacuation de plusieurs localités aux alentours du site, dans l'ouest du Péloponnèse.

40 villages evacuees

Dans le Péloponnèse et en Eubée, quarante villages ont été évacués. L'ensemble du pays a été placé en état d'urgence samedi par le premier ministre Costas Karamanlis, tandis qu'un deuil national de trois jours a été décrété.

Quelque 1.010 pompiers, assistés de 425 soldats et de 16 avions et hélicoptères luttent sur place contre les flammes. De nombreux habitants de la région ont passé la nuit sur les plages.

Les incendies continuent aussi de faire rage dans le sud-ouest de l'île d'Eubée, au nord-est d'Athènes. Un autre, dans la région de Kératéa, dans la grande banlieue balnéaire d'Athènes, était, lui, en passe d'être contrôlé, ont dit les pompiers. Grèce: le feu menace Olympie (suivant)

NZZ:
Feuerwalze erreicht Olympia: Unzählige Wald- und Buschbrände in Griechenland fordern über 50 Todesopfer (mehr)

BBC:
Greek fires threaten ancient city

TIMESONLINE:
51 dead as Greek forest fires rage on

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Fires reach heritage site

Mark Alexander