Clashes in Tehran as Opposition Defies Regime Warnings
TIMES ONLINE: Supporters of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi fought running battles with riot police and hardliners on the streets of Tehran today as tens of thousands joined the first protests against President Ahmadinejad for two months.

The demonstrators defied warnings of a "decisive" crackdown from the elite Revolutionary Guard to mount the protest during the annual al-Quds rally, a mass display of solidarity with the Palestinians that is one of the set pieces of the Islamic regime.

Mr Mousavi himself was forced to abandon his own plans to join in the rally after an angry mob shouting "Death to the hypocrite Mousavi" attacked his car.

Another leading reformist, the former president Mohammad Khatami, was also roughed up on the streets of Tehran and had to leave after his robe was ripped and his turban fell to the ground. >>> Philippe Naughton | Friday, September 18, 2009

Row Over Obama in Turban and Islamic Garb
Photo of Barack Hussein Obama in Somali gear courtesy of the The Examiner
THE GUARDIAN: Barack Obama's campaign today accused Hillary Clinton of engaging in "shameful, offensive fear-mongering" over the circulation of a picture of him dressed in traditional African clothes, including a turban.

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, blamed the Clinton team for distributing the picture, taken in 2006 when Obama, whose father was Kenyan, visited Wajir in the north-east of the African country and was dressed by the locals as a Somali elder.

The Drudge Report said it had obtained the picture after it was circulated in an email between Clinton's staff under the heading: "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were [Hillary Clinton]?"

The Clinton team today hit back by claiming that Obama's team had turned the picture into a row to distract attention from her foreign policy speech.

Obama and Clinton are battling it out in Texas and Ohio, which hold their primaries next week. If Clinton loses either, her bid for the White House could be over.

While Americans have signalled in the primaries and caucuses a readiness to vote for a woman or an African American as president, many are not ready to back a Muslim because of 9/11. Obama has throughout the campaign stressed he is a Christian. Row over Obama in turban overshadows Clinton policy speech >>> By Ewan MacAskill

Hat tip: Atlas Shrugs

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