MP Pay Row Sparks Questions in Australia
THE INDEPENDENT: A row over political expenses in Britain spurred questions in Australia today, as a tabloid newspaper carried details of private homes purchased with taxpayer backing by members of parliament.

Leftist Prime Minister Kevin Rudd extended a pay freeze for politicians to judges and senior bureaucrats at the same time that the mass-selling Daily Telegraph newspaper said MPs were claiming travel expenses for living in their own Canberra homes.

"Up you for their rent," said the Sydney-based newspaper's headline, in a crude inference taxpayers were being saddled with living costs by their representative politicians.

The headline was placed against photographs of homes and apartments in the national capital, where Australian politicians regularly jet in from far-flung electorates to attend parliament.

Britain's House of Commons speaker stepped down yesterday in the wake of an expenses scandal that has damaged the reputation of parliament amid revelations taxpayer funds were used to claim everything from manure to chandeliers and porn films.

Australian MPs, using entitlements approved by parliament, were claiming travel allowances while living in private homes purchased for use during parliamentary sitting weeks over 4-5 months of the year, the Telegraph said. >>> Reuters | Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Pakistan Parliament Slams Anti-Koran Film and Cartoon
REUTERS: ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's parliament passed a resolution on Tuesday denouncing an anti-Koran film made by a Dutch politician and the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish newspapers.

Titled "Fitna", a Koranic term sometimes translated as "strife", the film by anti-immigration lawmaker Geert Wilders accuses the Koran of inciting violence and has drawn condemnation from many Muslim countries, including Pakistan.

Small protests have also been held by hardline Islamic groups in Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim nation of 160 million people, against both the film and the republication of one of the 12 cartoons of the Prophet in Danish newspapers in February.

At least 50 people were killed during violent protests in the Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, which were first published in late 2005. Five of were killed in Pakistan.

"This House strongly condemns the printing and reprinting of the sacrilegious and blasphemous caricatures of the Holy Prophet of Islam and release of an offensive and derogatory documentary on Islam titled 'Fitna'," read the resolution adopted by the National Assembly, parliament's lower house.

The resolution called on the United Nations to take steps to ensure respect for all religions. Pakistan Parliament Slams Anti-Koran Film and Cartoon >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)