Notre Dame Students Plan to Boycott Barack Obama's Speech
POLITICO: ND Response, an anti-abortion student group at Notre Dame University, announced that some seniors will boycott their commencement ceremony on May 17 in protest of the university’s decision to award President Barack Obama an honorary law degree. 



In a statement, the group said that students “instead will hold a meditation in the university’s grotto” to protest Obama’s support for abortion and stem cell research. 



“It’s not a political issue; this is an issue of human dignity, and it’s a Catholic issue,” graduating senior Greer Hannan said in the statement. [Source: Politico] Politico Staff | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Wilders' Right to Speak
NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL – Editorial (February): The United Kingdom does not want to admit anyone to its territory that would threaten “community harmony and therefore public security.” This argument was used to deny member of parliament Geert Wilders of the populist party PVV entry to the country on Tuesday. Too high a barrier to the free movement of people and the freedom of expression has thus been erected. Besides the fact that the law of both the European Union and the Council of Europe seems to be violated by this, the political concept of a free European space has also been damaged.

Ironically, striving for freedom often entails the prospect of confinement. That has now occurred. The fact that the ban affects a member of parliament makes the decision political, in addition to symbolic. The British are concerned about a well-defined political program that is democratically legitimised in the Netherlands. Voltaire is often credited with pointing out that freedom of expression means defending someone’s right to assert that with which one disagrees. That certainly applies to Wilders, who gives plenty of occasion for disagreement. But his freedom to express such disagreeable sentiments should prevail all the more. As should the duty to defend that freedom. Moreover what is at stake here is political freedom, without which other freedoms are all but unthinkable.

Incidentally Wilders himself falls short as a politician when it comes to defending this freedom. On January 25 he urged in parliamentary questions that religious leaders of “radical mosques” be divested of Dutch nationality and deported. Limiting access to Europe and the Netherlands to all those to whom he objects is a main theme in his platform. The British entry criterion of “harmony in the community” should not sound unfamiliar to him therefore. It is however far removed from the fundamental right to express opinions anywhere in Europe that may “shock, hurt and disturb.” >>> | Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Frank Gaffney on Sharia Law

Memri: Starbucks

Holocaust Denier Faces Jail in Australia for Contempt
THE TELEGRAPH: Frederick Toben, an Australian 'revisionist historian', has been sentenced to three months in jail after publishing offensive material about Jews and the Holocaust on his website.

Toben, 65, had been banned in 2002 from circulating anti-Semitic material on the website of the Adelaide Institute and had promised to abide by the order.

But a civil case brought by Jeremy Jones, former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, found Toben had breached the order 24 out of an alleged 28 times.

The material he had published claimed that the Holocaust never happened and implied that Jewish people who challenged Holocaust deniers were of "limited intelligence". >>> By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

BBC HARDtalk: Richard Dawkins
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Part 2:


Part 3:

Fighter Jets Pound Taliban Strongholds across Swat
DAWN: MINGORA / TIMERGARA: Fighter jets and attack helicopters pounded Taliban hideouts in the northwest on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a parliamentarian from Swat said 700,000 people were stranded in the valley.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled the punishing offensive, now into its 17th day, escaping also out of the reach of Taliban fighters who have terrorised the local population in a bloody campaign to enforce sharia law.

The air attacks targeted Taliban strongholds across the Swat valley, AFP quoted security officials as saying.

Helicopter gunships also swung into action in the neighbouring district of Lower Dir, where the military has been on the offensive since April 26 after Taliban fighters advanced within 60 miles of Islamabad.

Up to 15,000 security forces are taking on about 4,000 well-armed fighters in Swat in what Islamabad calls a battle to ‘eliminate’ militants.

‘All exit roads from Mingora have been closed. Our troops have surrounded the city to deny any exit to militants,’ said a military official, referring to the main town in Swat. >>> Dawn correspondents Hameedulah Khan and Haleem Asad contributed to this report. | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

DAWN: Can the Taliban Be Defeated?

A Pakistani army soldier stands guard on the roof of a mosque in troubled Buner. Photo courtesy of Dawn
THE moment of truth for the federal government and the Pakistan Army to save Pakistan from imploding under the threat of the Taliban insurgency has arrived.

President Zardari in Washington and Gen Kayani in Rawalpindi, with the blessings of the tripartite Af-Pak strategy meetings presided over by President Obama, prompted Prime Minister Gilani in Islamabad to tell the nation near midnight last week about the decision to call out the armed forces ‘to eliminate the militants and terrorists in order to restore the honour and dignity of our homeland, and to protect the people.’ That reassurance was needed since previous army operations were half-hearted and botched and the operation in Buner and Dir was hardly faring any better, notwithstanding the claims of the ISPR.

The broadcast recalled a similar dramatic moment two months ago when the prime minister in the early hours of the morning announced the reinstatement of the chief justice and the end of the siege of Islamabad by the security forces to prevent the lawyers’ long march. The armed forces — whose refusal to support the government action against the long march is believed to have played a role in reinstating the chief justice — overcame their reservations about a full-fledged military action against the Swat Taliban.

The latter’s proximity to Islamabad had raised the spectre of a Taliban takeover within weeks and led to alarm all over the world, particularly in Washington. The latter seemed more worried about Pakistan’s cache of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands than the fate of the country’s 170 million people. No one can possibly doubt the pivotal role of the army in our politics.

While the motivation and the circumstances that led to this announcement will be debated for long, the decision to take the Taliban head-on, if successfully executed, could become a historical landmark, along with the reinstatement of the chief justice, and transform Pakistan’s currently bleak future. >>> By S.M. Naseem | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Pope Calls for Palestinian State
"The Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbours, within internationally recognised borders." – Pope Benedict XVI

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has offered his support for the Palestinians' right to a homeland, as he continues a Middle East tour in the West Bank.

Speaking on his arrival in Bethlehem, the Pope called for a just and lasting peace in the region.

He urged Palestinians not to resort to violence and terrorism.

He is holding a Mass in the town, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ. He will later give a homily in Manger Square and visit a refugee camp.

One of the aims of the pontiff's visit is to preserve a diminishing Christian presence in the Holy Land. >>> | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Watch BBC video: Pope calls for a Palestinian state >>>

Christians in Mideast Losing Numbers and Influence
Nuns attended a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday at the foot of the Mount of Olives outside of Jerusalem. Photo courtesy of The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: JERUSALEM — Christians used to be a vital force in the Middle East. They dominated Lebanon and filled top jobs in the Palestinian movement. In Egypt, they were wealthy beyond their number. In Iraq, they packed the universities and professions. Across the region, their orientation was a vital link to the West, a counterpoint to prevailing trends.

But as Pope Benedict XVI wends his way across the Holy Land this week, he is addressing a dwindling and threatened Christian population driven to emigration by political violence, lack of economic opportunity and the rise of radical Islam. A region that a century ago was 20 percent Christian is about 5 percent today and dropping.

Since it was here that Jesus walked and Christianity was born, the papal visit highlights a prospect many consider deeply troubling for the globe’s largest faith, adhered to by a third of humanity — its most powerful and historic shrines could become museum relics with no connection to those who live among them.

“I fear the extinction of Christianity in Iraq and the Middle East,” the Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, the Catholic archbishop of Baghdad, said in a comment echoed across the region.

The pope, in a Mass on Tuesday at the foot of the Mount of Olives, addressed “the tragic reality” of the “departure of so many members of the Christian community in recent years.”

He said: “While understandable reasons lead many, especially the young, to emigrate, this decision brings in its wake a great cultural and spiritual impoverishment to the city. Today I wish to repeat what I have said on other occasions: in the Holy Land there is room for everyone!” >>> By Ethan Bronner | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Will Benjamin Netanyahu Fall Out with Barack Obama?
THE TELEGRAPH: On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu will have his first formal meeting with Barack Obama in the White House. All the signs are that relations between Israel and its superpower ally are not as harmonious as usual, says David Blair.

Before going into politics, Benjamin Netanyahu made his name as a skilled ambassador to the United Nations. But he will need every ounce of diplomatic finesse to deal with the conundrum he faces as Israel's new prime minister.

On Monday, Mr Netanyahu will have his first formal meeting with Barack Obama in the White House. All the signs are that relations between Israel and its superpower ally are not as harmonious as usual.

In the next few weeks, America is expected to publish the outlines of a new Middle East peace plan. The goal will be the creation of a Palestinian state based on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Mr Netanyahu, however, has not accepted the principle of Palestinian statehood, and his coalition is filled with Right-wing politicians who are bitterly opposed to the idea. A public rift between Israel and America over the endgame of a Middle East settlement is a real possibility.

On its own, American support for a Palestinian state is nothing new. George W Bush was the first US president to make this pledge explicitly when he produced his "road map" to peace in 2003. But two factors make the present situation different and more dangerous for Israel's government.

Mr Bush waited until his third year in office before coming up with the map – and he only did so because he needed diplomatic cover after his invasion of Iraq. Mr Obama, in contrast, seems set to publish his vision for a settlement in the first six months of his presidency, at the apex of his prestige, and without any diplomatic distractions to compare with the Iraq invasion.

Moreover, Israel assumed during the Bush presidency that it could get away with ignoring the map without incurring any serious penalties. So it proved: the path that supposedly led to a Palestinian state turned out to lead nowhere. >>> By David Blair | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Anti-gay Minister the Rev Ian Watson in ‘Nazi Battle’ Outrage
TIMESONLINE: The Church of Scotland is moving towards a schism after one of its ministers compared an increasingly determined campaign against gay clergymen to the war against the Nazis.

The Rev Ian Watson railed against homosexual lifestyles, declaring that such people would not “inherit the kingdom of God” in a sermon that religious leaders and politicians condemned as deeply disturbing.

Mr Watson is a prominent opponent of Scott Rennie, an openly gay minister whose appointment to a parish church last year has caused divisions. Mr Rennie, a divorced father of one, lives with his partner, David, and has the support of his Aberdeen Presbytery. The Church of Scotland is due to debate his appointment at its General Assembly next week after a petition was signed by almost a third of ministers pushing for all gays to be banned from the pulpit.

A motion has been lodged urging the Church not to “train, ordain, admit, readmit, induct or introduce to any ministry of the church anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage between a man and woman”. >>> Mike Wade | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Hitler Youth Past Is Denied by Pope on Trip Hit by Row over Holocaust
TIMESONLINE: The wartime past of Pope Benedict XVI threatened to overwhelm his peace mission to the Holy Land as the Vatican issued a denial that the pontiff had served in the Hitler Youth.

“The Pope has said he never, never was a member of the Hitler Youth, which was a movement of fanatical volunteers,” Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said — contradicting statements the Pope has himself made about his involvement with the group. The Vatican denial came as Benedict’s trip sank deeper in controversy and recrimination, eclipsing the message of peace and reconciliation he has been pushing during his pilgrimage

Mr Lombardi said the Pope, as Joseph Ratzinger, a 16-year-old seminarian, served in an auxiliary air defence squadron “that had nothing to do with Nazism or Nazi ideology”. Venting frustration with the relentless focus on the Pope’s war years — a highly sensitive subject on a visit to the Jewish state — Mr Lombardi insisted that the Pope “never was in this movement of young people ideologically linked to Nazism”. The spokesman said that he felt compelled to respond “to the lies written by the media here and internationally”.

However, in a series of interviews in the 1996 book Salt of the Earth, the Pope, then still a cardinal, said that he had been drafted into the Hitler Youth, like so many other young Germans.

“When the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young but later, as a seminarian, I was registered in the HY. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back,” he said at the time. >>> James Hider in Jerusalem | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

US Elected to UN Rights Council as Obama Reverses Bush Policy
THE TELEGRAPH: The United States has joined the United Nations Human Rights Council for the first time, after Barack Obama's administration reversed another Bush-era policy.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said although Washington still believed the body to be flawed, it was "looking forward to working from within with a broad cross-section of member states to strengthen and reform" the council.

The US was one of 18 countries elected to three-year terms on the 47-seat Geneva-based council in a vote by the UN General Assembly, joining 29 others already on the body. A number of nations represented on the council - including China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia - have faced criticism for their own human rights records. >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Tollé en Italie après une expulsion de clandestins
LEFIGARO: Les propos de Silvio Berlusconi, qui a rejeté l'idée d'une Italie «multiethnique» pour justifier des reconduites en Lybie, suscitent la polémique.

Fram est désespéré. Cet adolescent gambien de 17 ans a dépensé toutes les économies que sa tante lui avait données pour gagner l'Angleterre. Vendredi, avec 226 autres clandestins, il a été ramené en Libye par des ­garde-côtes italiens. Leur embarcation avait été arraisonnée en haute mer, sur indication des autorités maritimes libyennes. C'était la première fois que Tripoli acceptait de reprendre des immigrés partis de son territoire. En deux jours, plus d'un demi-millier de clandestins interceptés en mer ont été refoulés vers ce pays.

Ces opérations ont suscité une vive polémique. Le ministre italien de l'Intérieur Roberto Maroni (Ligue du Nord) parle de «décision historique». Pour la première fois, Tripoli applique l'accord bilatéral sur la régulation des flux d'immigration. De Charm el-Cheikh où il se trouvait mardi, Silvio Berlusconi a affirmé que ces arrivages massifs de clandestins par voie maritime en Italie «ne sont pas le fruit du hasard, mais le résultat d'une stratégie délibérée de bandes criminelles planifiant ces transferts de manière scientifique». Il refuse que l'Italie, avec 7 % de population immigrée, ne devienne «multiethnique».

Les critiques pleuvent. Le HCR (Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés), le Conseil de l'Europe, le Vatican et jusqu'au grand rabbin dénoncent le geste «unilatéral» de l'Italie. Ils estiment qu'avant de les refouler, il aurait fallu vérifier que ces réfugiés ne bénéficiaient pas du droit d'asile. Le président de la Chambre des députés Gianfranco Fini, pourtant membre de la majorité au pouvoir, est du même avis. >>> Richard Heuzé, à Rome | Mardi 12 Mai 2009

Pakistan: Der beispiellose Exodus aus dem Tal der Taliban
WELT ONLINE: Die Offensive der Armee gegen die Gotteskrieger der Taliban im Swat-Tal drohen das Land in den Abgrund zu stürzen. Der Krieg fordert schwere Opfer unter der Zivilbevölkerung, die noch im Februar hoffte, Leid, Terror und Blutvergießen hätten endlich ein Ende. 360.000 Menschen sind auf der Flucht.

Bild dank der Welt
Pakistans Premierminister Gilani spricht von „einer Schlacht um das Überleben des Landes“. In dem einst so idyllischen Swat-Tal kämpft die Armee gegen ein Heer von Talibankämpfern, eine Horde Gotteskrieger, die die gesamte Region überschwemmt hat.

Ihnen hat die Regierung in Islamabad unter dem starken Druck der USA den Krieg erklärt. – ein Krieg ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste.

Sein Ergebnis ist eine humanitäre Katastrophe. Denn die Opfer sind die Zivilisten. Die Bürger von Swat, die im Februar noch hofften, Leid, Terror und Blutvergießen hätten vielleicht endlich ein Ende.

Doch diese Hoffnung auf eine Rückkehr zum Alltag hat sich zerschlagen. Heute ist die Lage in Swat schlimmer als je zuvor. >>> Von Sophie Mühlmann | Dienstag, 12. Mai 2009

NZZ Online: Massenexodus aus Kampfgebiet in Pakistan: Präsident Zardari fordert internationale Hilfe für Flüchtlinge

Pakistans Präsident Zardari hat die Weltgemeinschaft um Hilfe für Hunderttausende Zivilisten gebeten, die vor den Kämpfen im Nordwesten des Landes flüchten. Nach Angaben des Uno-Flüchtlingshilfswerks (UNHCR) sind gegenwärtig mehr als eine halbe Million Personen auf der Flucht.

In den umkämpften Gebieten im Nordwesten des Landes ereigne sich derzeit eine «humanitäre Katastrophe», sagte Zardari am Dienstag nach Gesprächen mit Uno-Generalsekretär Ban Ki Moon in New York. Die Menschen verlören ihre Ernten, ihr Einkommen, ihre Existenzgrundlage und ihr Zuhause. Deshalb forderten Ban und er die Welt zur Nothilfe auf. >>> sda/afp/ap | Mittwoch, 13. Mai 2009

Sarkozy Talks Turkey

EU Puts Turkey on Notice (April 2008)

Türkische Neo-Nazis in Deutschland

Peer Turns Fire on BBC Presenter
BBC: A Labour peer turned on a BBC presenter demanding to know how much she was paid during a live interview on MP expenses.

Lord Foulkes clashed with Carrie Gracie on the BBC News Channel after she asked if MPs who had abused their expenses should pay the money back.

He accused the media of ignoring the good work MPs did and demanded to know how much she was paid.

Told it was £92,000 a year, he said she was being paid "nearly twice as much an MP - to come on and talk nonsense".

He added that BBC presenters such as John Humphrys and Jeremy Paxman were paid hundreds of thousands of pounds "to come on TV and sneer at democracy and undermine democracy. The vast majority of MPs are being undermined by you." >>> | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Greece Puts Brakes on Street View
BBC: Greece's data protection agency has banned Google from expanding its Street View service in the country, pending "additional information" from the firm.

Street View gives users a 360-degree view of a road via Google Maps.

Authorities want to know how long the images would be kept on Google's database and what measures it will take to make people aware of privacy rights.

A similar street mapping service, run by local ISP Kapou, was also suspended for the same reason.

In a statement, Google said that it had not seen the full details of the The Hellenic Data Protection Authority's request, but had taken steps to protect people's privacy. >>> | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Freed Saberi Thanks Supporters
As Miss North Dakota, Roxana Saberi wanted to promote cultural awareness. Photo courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Roxana Saberi, the US-Iranian journalist released from jail in Iran on Monday, has thanked all those who helped to win her freedom.

She was freed after four months in prison when an eight-year term on charges of spying for the US was cut. She denied the charges.

Wearing a bright blue headscarf, Ms Saberi looked thin but in high spirits.

"I'm very happy to be free and to be with my parents again," Ms Saberi told reporters outside her flat in Tehran.

"I'm thanking all those people all over the world - which I'm just finding out about - who - whether they knew me or not - helped me and my family during this period," she said, smiling.

"I don't have any specific plans for the moment, I just want to be with my parents and friends, and to relax.

"Thank you very much - all of you," Roxana Saberi said, in her first public comments since her release. >>> | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Watch BBC video: Roxana Saberi: 'I am of course happy to be free and with my parents again' >>>

Crap Talk on the Gay Issue

The Battle Against the Islamization of Europe

Pope 'Committed' to Reconciliation with Jews
THE TELEGRAPH: Pope Benedict XVI has said that the Catholic church was 'irrevocably committed' to reconciliation with Jews, tacitly admitting a gap continues to exist between the two sides.

Pope Benedict XVI places his note to God in the Western Wall at Judaism's holiest site in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
On the second day of his visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, the Pope toured holy sites around Jerusalem and had separate meetings with Muslim and Jewish leaders.

After meeting Israel's two chief rabbis, Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger, the Pope addressed the issue of tension between Christianity and Judaism dating back thousands of years.

"Today I have the opportunity to repeat that the Catholic Church is irrevocably committed to the path chosen at the Second Vatican Council for a genuine and lasting reconciliation between Christians and Jews,'' the Pope said.

"As the declaration [from the Second Vatican Council] makes clear, the Church continues to value the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews and desires an ever deeper mutual understanding and respect through biblical and ideological studies as well as fraternal dialogues.'' >>> By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Holy War – Jihad – جهاد
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Part 2:

Our Religion Is Our Security in Pakistan: Swat Sikhs
THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS: GURDWARA SRI PANJA SAHIB (Hasanabdal): Jaswant Kaur is a middle aged mother of four, full of life and smiles as she makes tea for us and reminisces about life in village Pir Baba in Buner. But while she is glad that she took her children away from the hell like situation back home, she can’t stop fretting about her husband who stayed behind. The three days that she has been at Gurdwara Sri Panja Sahib, Hasanabdal, already seem like an agonising lifetime. It’s never easy being a refugee within one’s own land.

But like many others around her, Jaswant is a brave woman. She is already a commanding presence in the sprawling kitchen of the massive Gurdwara which otherwise has the capacity to house up to ten thousand people. It’s amazing how the majority of the women here can still smile, even those like Jaswant who have had to leave their spouses behind, for one reason or another. Maybe they are smiling because unlike the Muslim displaced people of Swat, who are forced to languish on the roads of Rawalpindi and elsewhere and eking out a living in miserable circumstances, the Sikh community has suffered a much better fate, at least till now. None of us can even imagine the trauma of someone waking up happy and all settled in their home one morning, and becoming a helpless refugee the next. >>> Mariana Baabar | Monday, May 4, 2009

Stoning in Iran

Obama Ousts Top U.S. General in Afghanistan
GLOBEANDMAIL: WASHINGTON — America's top general in Afghanistan was ousted Monday, a casualty of President Barack Obama's massive expansion of the war that will surge tens of thousands of troops into Taliban-infested areas in southern Afghanistan, where Canadians have been fighting and dying for years.

The forced ouster of Lieutenant-General David McKiernan and his replacement by Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal, a commander with a controversial background in clandestine warfare and special operations, spearheads a new counter-insurgency strategy.

Fighting the raging Taliban insurgency that threatens Afghanistan “requires new thinking and new approaches by our military leaders,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday[.]

The move comes as Washington takes even greater control of the flagging NATO effort to shore up a shaky government in Kabul, stem the flow of insurgents and weapons streaming back and forth across the border with Pakistan and avert a Taliban renaissance. >>> Paul Koring | Monday, May 11, 2009

Toxischer Texaner
TAGESANZEIGER: Eine neue Gallup-Erhebung mit 120'000 Befragten zeigt: Junge US-Amerikaner sind weniger für die Demokraten als vielmehr gegen die Republikaner. Das hat seinen Grund.

Wird seine Partei über Jahrzehnte hinweg belasten: George W. Bush. Bild dank dem Tages Anzeiger
Die verheerende Präsidentschaft des George Walker Bush, besser bekannt als W., könnte das politische Schicksal der Republikanischen Partei über Jahrzehnte hinweg schwer belasten. Dass die Partei Ronald Reagans und der beiden Bushs bei den Kongresswahlen 2006 sowie den Präsidentschaftswahlen 2008 unter die Räder kam, ist eine Sache. Und dass sie sich nach den acht Bush-Jahren jetzt wirr und ziellos präsentiert, ist auch eine Sache. Eine andere dagegen ist, dass dank des toxischen Texaners eine ganze Generation junger Amerikaner mit den Republikanern nicht viel zu tun haben möchte. >>> Von Martin Kilian, Washington | Dienstag, 12. Mai 2009

«Wollen Verhandlungen mit Palästinensern aufnehmen»: Treffen von Israel und Ägypten in Sharm ash-Sheikh
NZZ Online: Israels Regierungschef Benjamin Netanyahu hat bei seinem ersten Auslandbesuch seinen Willen bekräftigt, die Friedensverhandlungen mit den Palästinensern bald wieder aufzunehmen. Netanyahu traf in Sharm as-Sheikh mit Ägyptens Präsidenten Hosni Mubarak zusammen.

Erster Auslandbesuch von Benjamin Netanyahu: Treffen mit Ägyptens Staatschef Hosni Mubarak in Sharm ash-Sheikh. Bild dank der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung
«Wir wollen so bald wie möglich die Verhandlungen mit den Palästinensern wieder aufnehmen», sagte Netanyahu am Montag auf einer kurzen Pressekonferenz mit Mubarak in dem ägyptischen Badeort Sharm ash-Sheikh.

Er hoffe, dass dies «in den kommenden Wochen» möglich sei. Der Besuch in Ägypten ist Netanyahus erster Auslandsbesuch seit seinem Amtsantritt Ende März.

«Wir wollen zunächst den Frieden mit unseren palästinensischen Nachbarn ausweiten», sagte Netanyahu. Israel und die Palästinenser sollten eine «Perspektive des Friedens, der Sicherheit und des Wohlstands» haben. «Diese drei Dinge gehen zusammen und nicht eines auf Kosten des anderen.» >>> sda/afp/dpa | Montag, 11. Mai 2009

Kurzbesuch in Deutschland: Sarkozy beim "Schnitzel-Gipfel" – "Das war schön!"
WELT ONLINE: Er kam, sah und siegte. Bei seinem Kurzbesuch in Berlin umschmeichelte Frankreichs Staatspräsident Sarkozy die Junge Union, ging mit Kanzlerin Merkel Schnitzel essen und gewann die Herzen der Berliner. Nur wüsste man gern, was er wohl auf dem Rückflug über seine Gastgeber gesagt hat.

Auch Kanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) begrüßt Sarkozy herzlich. Bild dank der Welt
Er kann durchaus charmant sein. Wenn er will. Er will bloß nicht immer. Am Sonntag jedoch zeigte sich Frankreichs Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy beim deutsch-französischen Freundschafts-Treffen der Jungen Union im Berliner Sony-Center von seiner allerbesten Seite: Strahlte, lächelte, schüttelte, Hände und freute sich über die T-Shirts der Fähnchen schwenkenden Jugend, auf denen er mit seiner Freundin „Ongdschela“ Merkel abgebildet war.

„Frankreich liebt Sie, Frankreich bewundert Sie, Frankreich ist Ihr Freund“, rief der Präsident den nachwachsenden Christdemokraten zu. Soviel ungezügelte Zuneigung erfahren Junge-Unions-Mitglieder sonst eher selten in der Öffentlichkeit. Der ein oder andere wähnte sich vermutlich in einer therapeutischen Sitzung, als Sarkozy auch noch hinzufügte „Frankreich fürchtet Sie nicht.“

Nicolas Sarkozy weiß natürlich, dass gerade Europa-Wahlkampf ist, und deshalb ist er aktuell besonders nett. Da pflegt er selbst die deutsch-französische Freundschaft, die ihm ansonsten nicht besonders nah am Herzen liegt. Da lässt er sich sogar von Kanzlerin Angela Merkel zu einem deutschen Schnitzel mit Spargel überreden. >>> Von Sascha Lehnartz | Montag, 11. Mai 2009

Spionage-Vorwurf: Iran lässt US-Journalistin Roxana Saberi frei
WELT ONLINE: Die US-iranische Journalistin Roxana Saberi hat das Evin-Gefängnis in Teheran verlassen. Zuvor war in einem Berufungsverfahren ihre Haftstrafe in eine zweijährige Bewährungsstrafe umgewandelt worden. Nach Angaben ihres Vaters Reza Saberi soll die 32-Jährige so bald wie möglich in die USA zurückkehren.

In ihrem Leben vor dem Iran war Saberi Miss North Dakota und stand im Finale um Miss Amerika. Bild dank der Welt
Nach knapp viermonatiger Haft im Iran ist die US-Journalistin Roxana Saberi wieder auf freiem Fuß. Ein Berufungsgericht wandelte am Montag eine achtjährige Gefängnisstrafe in zwei Jahren Haft auf Bewährung um. Die 32 Jahre alte Journalistin wurde daraufhin bereits wenige Stunden später aus dem berüchtigten Evin-Gefängnis in Teheran entlassen.

Saberi, die sowohl die iranische als auch die amerikanische Staatsbürgerschaft hat, war Spionage vorgeworfen worden. Für die Journalistin, die unter anderem für den angesehenen US-Radiosender NPR arbeitete, hatte sich auch der amerikanische Präsident Barack Obama eingesetzt. Er hatte die Spionagevorwürfe als unbegründet zurückgewiesen und ihre Freilassung verlangt. >>> dpa/AFP/fsl | Montag, 11. Mai 2009

Benoît XVI neutralise 
la polémique à Yad Vashem
LEFIGARO: Le recueillement du pape allemand a surmonté la plupart des réticences suscitées par son passé.

Le Pape, Benoît XVI, et le président israélien, Shimon Pérès, lundi dans les jardins de la résidence présidentielle à Jérusalem. Photo grâce au Figaro
La visite de Yad Vashem par Benoît XVI, au Mémorial de l'Holocauste à Jérusalem, devait être le moment le plus lourd de symboles de la visite papale. Elle a finalement montré à quel point les relations entre l'Église catholique et les Juifs étaient apaisées.

Un pape allemand ? «Je ne le vois pas en fonction de sa nationalité. Je le vois comme le chef des Églises catholiques et je lui présente tout le respect qu'il mérite», dit Edward Mosberg, un rescapé de l'Holocauste qu'a rencontré lundi Benoît XVI. «Il n'y a rien de compliqué dans sa visite. Le Pape représente l'Église. Je représente mon peuple. Nous nous serrons la main», affirme Dan Landesberg, un autre rescapé.

Depuis l'établissement des relations diplomatiques entre Israël et le Vatican, et la visite de Jean-Paul II en 2000, beaucoup de malentendus ont été levés. Les récentes polémiques, qui ont accompagné le début du procès en béatification de Pie XII, puis la réhabilitation de l'évêque négationniste Mgr Williamson, sont presque retombées.

Les quatre ministres israéliens du parti ultra-orthodoxe séfarade Shass ont tout de même boycotté lundi la réception de Benoît XVI chez le président Shimon Pérès. «Ils ont choisi de ne pas participer à cette réception en raison du passé du Pape dans les Jeunesses hitlériennes et par respect pour les victimes de la Shoah», a affirmé le porte-parole du parti, Roï Lachmanovitch. Le président du mémorial de Yad Vashem, le rabbin Israel Meir Lau, lui-même rescapé de la Shoah, le seul de toute sa famille exterminée dans les camps, a aussi émis des réserves sur le discours du Pape. «Quelque chose manquait. Il n'a mentionné ni les nazis qui ont participé à la boucherie, ni prononcé un mot de regret.»

Mais ces voix sont restées relativement isolées. Un encart signé par les principaux rabbins israéliens, saluant l'arrivée du Pape, a été publié lundi dans les principaux journaux du pays. Jean-Paul II avait été l'artisan du rapprochement de l'Église avec les Juifs. Sa visite au mur des Lamentations est restée dans les mémoires. >>> De correspondant du Figaro à Jérusalem, Adrien Jaulmes | Mardi 12 Mai 2009

Une architecte pour la 1001e mosquée d'Istanbul
LEFIGARO: La designer Zeynep Fadillioglu a dessiné les formes de la mosquée Sakirin, inaugurée vendredi.

La mosquée Sakirin. Photo grâce au Figaro
Dans la ville aux mille minarets, la dernière-née des mosquées porte une empreinte résolument féminine. Dehors, avec sa coupole et ses formes architecturales courbes, l'édifice est tout en rondeur. À l'intérieur, des versets dorés du Coran ondulent le long des murs en verre, enveloppant les fidèles dans un cocon. Érigée sur la rive asiatique d'Istanbul, la mosquée Sakirin, qui a été inaugurée vendredi dernier, constitue une première en Turquie : commanditée par une riche famille turco-saoudienne, elle a été conçue par une femme.

Signe que le symbole est d'importance, Emine Erdogan, l'épouse du premier ministre, et Ali Bardakoglu, le président de la direction des affaires religieuses, ont assisté à la cérémonie d'ouverture. «À ma connaissance, dans le reste du monde, jamais une telle tâche n'a été confiée à une femme, raconte la responsable de l'ouvrage, Zeynep Fadillioglu. J'ai pleuré quand le projet m'a été proposé.» >>> Laure Marchand, à Istanbul | Lundo 11 Mai 2009

Dhimmitude Alert! BBC Appoints Muslim to Top Religious Post in Controversial First
The disgusting broadcasting organisation which calls itself the British Broadcasting Corporation has gone and done it again!

The BBC is nothing but an orgainisation which specializes in social engineering. If you are sick and tired of the way this company operates, then you will also be sick and tired of having to pay the licence fee.

It is high time that the licence fee were scrapped. Let the fat cats at the BBC forage for their fat salaries in the private sector as others have to do. We’ll see how much social engineering they’ll do then.

The BBC has outlived its usefulness. The organisation broadcasts mostly rubbish anyway. Their news broadcasts are hardly worth watching. Now even the religious programmes won’t be worth watching either. The new programmes are sure to whitewash Islam and portray the cult as a ‘religion of peace’. Doubtless, the Jihad – you know, the BIG push to take over the world – will be ignored. Brushed aside.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the United Kingdom as we knew and loved it is becoming a thing of the past. Our so-called leaders, corrupt as they are, haven’t got the balls to protect us from the backwardness that is Islam; and then we have the BBC pushing the cause of Islam whilst largely ignoring Christianity, thus helping to usher in the New Dark Age.

Sad story! – ©Mark

Aaqil Ahmed has been appointed the Head of Religion and Ethics. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: The BBC yesterday appointed a Muslim as its head of religious programming in a radical departure from broadcasting tradition.

The post - considered one of the most influential religious roles in the country - has gone to Aaqil Ahmed, who has been working as an executive at Channel 4.

The appointment will cause dismay among the Christian churches.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams raised concerns over the prospect of a Muslim head of religious broadcasting during a meeting with the corporation's director general Mark Thompson in March.

It comes at a time of deepening worries among Christian leaders that their faith is being sidelined and downgraded by authorities.

Both Dr Williams and Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu have made repeated public complaints over the indifference and occasional hostility to Christianity shown in Whitehall and from other authorities.

Last year the BBC gave the job of producing its most popular and longrunning religious programme, Songs of Praise, to a Sikh, Tommy Nagra.

The Church of England points out that 70 per cent of the population of Britain professes to be Christian, but only 3 per cent are Muslims. >>> By Steve Doughty | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

City Bankers Are Already Lining Up for Bonuses Again
After helping the world get into its financial mess, bankers at HSBC are now lining up for renewed bonuses. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: HSBC bankers are in line for bumper bonus payouts after an 'encouraging' jump in profits.

While the company's performance added impetus to a day of good economic news, the re-emergence of the City's discredited bonus system will be an embarrassment for Gordon Brown, who has promised to outlaw reckless behaviour in the Square Mile.

Taxpayer-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland has already started offering 'guaranteed' bonuses to traders in defiance of promises it made to rein in no-strings-attached rewards.

And Barclays is gearing up for massive payouts after profits rose 15 per cent in the first three months of 2009.

The culture of extravagant bonuses encouraged bankers to take ever bigger risks, laying the ground for the gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. >>> By Simon Duke | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Indian MPs Grow Richer — But the Poor Still Survive on £1.30 a Day
Lal Krishna Advani. Photo courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMESONLINE: Indian MPs running in this year’s election have become almost 300 per cent richer on average since the last poll in 2004, and one is more than 90 times wealthier, according to the first detailed study of their financial assets.

The report by National Election Watch, a coalition of non-government organisations, proves for the first time what many had long suspected — that MPs have enriched themselves in office while life has remained a struggle for the 880 million Indians surviving on less than $2 (£1.30) a day.

Under a Supreme Court ruling in 2003, all election candidates must disclose their assets, educational qualifications and any criminal background.

The report takes the assets declared by 300 MPs running in this year’s month-long election, which ends tomorrow, and compares them with their declarations in 2004. It shows that 14 MPs disclosed a tenfold increase in their wealth over the past five years. Thirty, including a Cabinet minister, declared a fivefold increase and 175 reported a rise of more than 100 per cent.

“Politics has become a huge money-making business,” said Trilochan Sastry, the Dean of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, who led the study. Most members of the 543-seat Parliament — 128 of whom face criminal charges — had under- reported their wealth, he added. >>> Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI Seeks to End Jewish-Catholic Tension over Holocaust
THE TELEGRAPH: The Pope sought to end years of tension between Catholics and Jews when he called for the victims of the Holocaust never to be forgotten.

Pope Benedict XVI at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Speaking at Yad Vashem, the memorial to the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis which crowns wooded hills in west Jerusalem, he specifically called for their suffering never to be denied.

But his remarks failed to satisfy the chairman of Yad Vashem. Rabbi Israel Meir Lau said there was "something missing'' in the Pope's remarks and complained the pontiff had not expressed an apology or even regret.

Speaking on the first day of his visit to Israel, Benedict said: "May the names of these victims never perish. May their suffering never be denied, belittled or forgotten.

"As we stand here in silence, their cry still echoes in our hearts. It is a cry raised against every act of injustice and violence."

His remarks were a clear attempt to draw a line under diplomatic tensions between the Vatican and Israel caused by his decision to lift the excommunication of a breakaway British bishop who has denied key aspects of the Holocaust. >>> By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem | Monday, May 11, 2009

Guess Whose Make-up Regimen This Is…
1. Transparent Brush. Foam all over.
2. Small pot under eyes, dimple, creases, blend in.
3. Clinique. Super balanced make-up. All over again, like painting a wall, and ears. Shut eyes over lids then with make-up pad smooth over liquid.
4. Powder (dark brush) terracotta Guerlain, all over. Answer here >>> The Telegraph | Monday, May 11, 2009

High Class Welfare!
THE TELEGRAPH: Senior Conservatives have subsidised their country estates at taxpayers’ expense, with the upkeep of swimming pools, clearance of moats and even the salaries of domestic staff, all claimed on parliamentary expenses.

The Daily Telegraph discloses how Tory grandees have received tens of thousands of pounds to maintain manor houses and stately homes. One claimed successfully towards the cost of a full-time housekeeper with a salary package of £14,000 a year, along with a claim including £2,000 for clearing the moat surrounding his manor house. Another was allowed to claim for a “helipad” to be maintained.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, was understood to be “appalled” by the latest allegations and was considering taking disciplinary action. Tories who have broken the rules on expenses could be sacked, Mr Cameron has suggested.

The disclosures will further alarm taxpayers and add to concern over the operation of the House of Commons fees office, which is supposed to police the parliamentary expenses system. MPs' Expenses: Paying Bills for Tory Grandees >>> By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

MAIL Online: MPs' EXPENSES: Lord Tebbit Defies Tories to Tell Voters: 'Don't Vote for ANY Party in European Elections'

Lord Tebbit. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
Lord Tebbit is risking expulsion from the Conservatives after urging voters not to back the party in next month's European elections.

The former Tory chairman said the vote gave anyone outraged by MPs' abuse of expenses an 'ideal opportunity' to send a message to all three main parties by not voting for any of them.

The call from a senior party grandee is an extraordinary challenge to David Cameron's authority in the run-up to the June 4 poll.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, 78-year-old Lord Tebbit said it was clear that Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs had been behaving like 'welfare junkies' addicted to abusing their Commons allowances.

'Local elections, the great British public should treat just as normal,' he said. 'But at the European elections, in my judgment they should send a very sharp message to the leaders of the three national parties by not voting for any of the national party candidates.'

Norman Tebbit, who was one of Margaret Thatcher's closest allies, refused to say which of the smaller parties he believed voters should back.

'I wouldn't seek to give any advice on that,' he said. 'But if there was an enormous fall in the vote for the major parties, the message might get through.' >>> By James Chapman | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Austerity Britain: Why the Far Right Is Finding Converts in Barnsley
Pub-goers in Barnsley listening to a characteristically uncompromising Nick Griffin denounce privatisations and express sympathy for striking miners. Photo courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMESONLINE: Outside a large, modern pub on the edge of Barnsley, penned in by police, 150 demonstrators chant “Nazi scum off our streets” and “String ’em up like Mussolini”. Inside, Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, is whipping up 300 white, working-class supporters — men and women, young and old — with a speech tailor-made for these days of deepening recession, rising unemployment and profound disillusion with expenses-fiddling mainstream politicians.

“This country is full. It’s time to shut the doors and look after our own people,” he declares from a platform adorned with a huge Union Jack. Britain should leave the European Union so it can stop the “huge swamping wave of mass immigration from places like Poland which has put hundreds of thousands of our people out of a job”. Instead of bailing out “greedy, corrupt, incompetent banks”, Westminster’s “scumbag, thieving politicians” should be using those billions to rebuild British industry.

Mr Griffin expresses sympathy for the 1984 miners strike, triggered by the closure of the Cortonwood colliery in Barnsley. He denounces the Government’s privatisation programme. He accuses Labour of crushing ordinary people to ensure maximum profit for its corporate financiers. “It has sold out,” he thunders. “The old Labour Party is dead. Long live the new party for British workers — the BNP.” >>> Martin Feltcher | Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Al-Qaeda Chief Commits Suicide in Libyan Prison, Report Says
THE TELEGRAPH: A senior al-Qaeda commander in contact with British human rights workers has reportedly committed suicide in jail in Libya.

Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, whose real name was Ali Mohammed al-Fakheri, 46, took his own life in his prison cell, according to the Libyan newspaper Oea.

Information gained from the interrogation of al-Libi was cited on several occasions by the Bush administration as justification for the war in Iraq.

He told his CIA interrogators that al-Qaeda had sent two men to Iraq to seek training in chemical and biological weapons in December 2000. Classified documents added that the men did not return, so al-Libi did not know whether the training took place, and that, in any case, he was probably "intentionally misleading the debriefers".

Al-Libi recanted the story in January 2004, although George Tenet, the former director of the CIA, wrote later: "The fact is, we don't know which story is true, and since we don't know, we can assume nothing."

Noman Benotman, a Libyan who was once close to al-Libi, said two years ago that al-Libi had been sent to Libya, adding that he was "extremely ill, suffering from tuberculosis and diabetes". >>> By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Tuesday, May 11, 2009

Tony Blair Has Helped Destroy One of the Oldest Churches on Earth
Arrogant, but stupid; know-it-all, but vacuous. Tony Blair – the man that screwed things up. Highly-paid because people are stupid and gullible. Photo: Google Images
TELEGRAPH BLOGS: If George Bush and Tony Blair were "crusaders", as Muslims insist, then they were the worst in history. Worst, that is, as in the most ineffective. What other Crusade has resulted in the Christian population of a country being almost totally destroyed?

Now that the Americans are leaving Iraq, the ancient Christian community, who converted in the second century while our ancestors were still worshipping rocks, and who still speak Aramaic, will pay the ultimate price. Nice one, Tony, you've helped to destroy one of the oldest Christian communities on earth and with it the language of Christ. Stick that on the wall of your inter-faith centre. >>> Ed West | Monday, May 11, 2009

Muslim Chef 'Refused to Cook Sausages and Bacon for Police Officers' Breakfasts'
Muslim chef Hasanali Khoja at the Employment tribunal in Watford. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
How much longer have the indigenous Brits got to put up with this nonsense? When will our leaders and politicians find their balls and do something to stop this incessant BS? Muslims do NOT fit in in any normal society. They never have, and they never will! Wake up and face the reality! These people are taking Britain and the rest of the West for a ride. They are playing us like a musician plays his banjo! This is all childish, senseless crap! And it should STOP! Grown men are not supposed to behave this way. – ©Mark

MAIL Online: A Muslim chef asked to cook sausages and bacon for '999 breakfasts' at his job with the Metropolitan Police is claiming damages for religious discrimination.

Hasanali Khoja, 60, accuses Scotland Yard of refusing to guarantee that he would not have to handle pork, which is forbidden in Islam.

He said even wearing gloves and using tongs to cook would not protect him from the risk of splashes, and that when he had raised the issue of pork handling at his interview in 2004 for the catering role he was told no food handling would be involved as it was a supervisory role.

He also alleged today that a human resources manager pulled faces and made racist gestures during a meeting to resolve the situation.

'I was very humiliated and stressed out and was unable to continue,' he said.

Mr Khoja, from Edgware, north west London, told the tribunal in Watford, Hertfordshire, that he had refused to handle pork products even if gloves and tongs were provided.

'The reason for this refusal is because of the fact it is well known that if you are cooking bacon or sausages, which I was asked to do, I was exposed to splash and contact with pork which I object to.

'Gloves and tongs would not make any difference.' >>> By Daily Mail Reporter | Monday, May 11, 2009

Why Should Italy Be a Multi-ethnic Society? Tell the Lefties and the Catholic Church to Go Sit on It!
TIMESONLINE: Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, today came under fire from the Catholic Church as well as the Left after declaring that Italy was not and should not be a multi-ethnic society.

Mr Berlusconi's centre Right coalition won power a year ago partly by vowing to crack down on crime and illegal immigration. This weekend he praised Libya for taking back 500 would be migrants who have been intercepted by Italian naval vessels over the past five days, under a new Italian-Libyan accord.

"The Left's idea is of a multi-ethnic Italy," Mr Berlusconi told a news conference. "That is not our idea, ours is to welcome only those who meet the conditions for political asylum."

Italy was once itself a country of emigrants, but now sees itself as in the front line of an assault by poor and often desperate African, Asian and other migrants trying to get into Europe. The centre Left opposition however condemned Mr Berlusconi's remarks as racist. Silvio Berlusconi under Fire over Anti-immigration Remarks >>> Richard Owen | Sunday, May 19, 2009

Journalist Roxana Saberi Freed by Iranian Appeal Court Verdict
THE TELEGRAPH: Roxana Saberi, an American journalist convicted in Iran on spying charges, is to be freed after an appeals court downgraded her sentence.

Lawyers for the 32-year old said the court had reduced the eight-year jail sentence to a suspended two-year term and she would soon be freed.

The Iranian-American television reporter had lived in Iran for six years before she was charged with "cooperating with a hostile state" after her arrest in January. The harsh sentence provoked an international backlash that prompted Iran's hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to express concern that she had received due process. After his intervention the head of the Iranian judicary asked for the appeal court review.

"The verdict of the previous court has been quashed," lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said. "Her punishment has been changed to a suspended two-year sentence and she will be out of prison." >>> By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Monday, May 11, 2009

Egypt: State-owned Media Hail Obama's Upcoming Visit
Obama in the front and a Cairo mosque in the background. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES TIMES: The Egyptian press on Sunday celebrated President Barack Obama’s decision to deliver his address to the Muslim world from Egypt, hailing the move as an American acknowledgment of this nation's regional clout.

“The selection of Cairo stresses the fact that . . . Egypt is the heart of both the Arab and Muslim worlds and is the voice of reason and wisdom that helped the region overcome crises," wrote Osama Saraya, editor in chief of the semi-official Ahram daily. "Egypt is still with its Arabism and Islamic thought the most influential force. Its flag is still the most capable of bringing all Arabs and Muslims together.”

"This is a continuing effort of the president to engage the Muslim world," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. "The president has high hopes for a stronger relationship." Obama is expected to deliver his address on June 4. Some Muslim clerics have reportedly called upon the president to speak at al-Azhar, the oldest and most prestigious Sunni institution in the Muslim world. >>> Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo | Sunday, May 10, 2009

WORLDNETDAILY:
Obama Could Address Muslims from Top Mosque: Egypt's grand mufti invites president to speak at prominent sharia center >>> By Aaron Klein | Sunday, May 10, 2009

Un dialogo senza ambiguità
CORRIERA DELLA SERA: Benedetto XVI è giunto oggi a Tel Aviv dopo la sua prima tappa in Giordania. Questo lungo viaggio in Terra santa del Papa avrà certamente an­cora molti momenti sa­lienti ma un primo bilan­cio è reso possibile dal­l’accoglienza che gli è sta­ta fin qui riservata e dalle parole, forti e inequivoca­bili, che egli ha già pro­nunciato sui rapporti fra il cristianesimo, l'ebrai­smo e l'islam.



Il viaggio del Papa è di estrema delicatezza. Non solo perché si svolge nei luoghi che sono, oggi co­me mille anni fa, il terre­no di incontro/scontro fra le tre religioni mono­teiste. E non solo perché è proprio lì, in Medio Oriente, che si addensa­no, si sovrappongono e si intrecciano i più gravi ele­menti di conflitto che mi­naccino oggi la stabilità mondiale. E' di estrema delicatezza anche perché il Papa vi è giunto prece­duto da una lunga scia di polemiche e incompren­sioni che hanno fin qui segnato i suoi rapporti sia con l'ebraismo che con l'islam.

Sul Monte Nebo, in Giordania, Benedetto XVI ha colto l'occasione per ri­badire con solennità quanto ha peraltro già detto e scritto in molte oc­casioni. Ha affermato con enfasi quanto speciale sia il rapporto fra cristianesi­mo e ebraismo, quanto «inseparabile» sia il vin­colo che li unisce. Forse non tutte le incompren­sioni spariranno di colpo ma sono state poste le ba­si per un loro superamen­to. Benedetto XVI ha par­lato così agli ebrei ma an­che, contestualmente, ai cristiani. Ha voluto dire agli uni e agli altri che an­che gli ultimi detriti so­pravvissuti dell'antico an­tigiudaismo cristiano de­vono essere spazzati via senza indugio dalle co­scienze. Inoltre, la sua presenza in Israele oggi, nella condizione presen­te, vale più di mille rico­noscimenti diplomatici. E' un'implicita affermazio­ne del diritto all'esistenza dello Stato di Israele con­tro coloro che vorrebbero cancellarlo. >>> Angelo Panebianco | Lunedi 11 maggio 2009

German, French Leaders Emphasize Opposition to Turkey Joining EU
HÜRRIYET: ISTANBUL - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday reiterated their opposition to Turkey joining the EU as the two leaders geared up for next month's European Parliament elections.

Merkel, who has advocated having a vaguely defined partnership with Turkey, said at an event organized by her conservative Christian Democrats before the June 7 European Parliament vote that "we cannot take in everyone in Europe as a full member."

"We have to talk about the borders of this Europe," she was quoted by AP as saying. "It makes no sense if there are ever more members, and we can’t decide anything anymore," she added.

"It is right that we say to people in the European election campaign ... our common position is: a privileged partnership for Turkey, but no full membership," Merkel said.

Turkey began EU membership negotiations in 2005, but progress has since largely ground to a halt because of disagreements over the divided island of Cyprus and strong opposition in some member countries like France, Germany and Austria.

Neither country, however, has blocked the talks, and Germany's other main coalition party – the Social Democrats – supports EU membership for Turkey.

U.S. President Barack Obama has also urged the EU to embrace Turkey as a full member.

Sarkozy, a longtime opponent of Turkish membership, last week advocated discussing a common economic and security forum with Turkey as an alternative.

"When Angela Merkel says Europe must have borders, she is right – because a Europe without borders would be a Europe without a will, without identity, without values," he said at Sunday's event, where he was a guest of honor as France's leading conservative. >>> | Monday, May 11, 2009

An Opening for New Relations
HAARETZ Editorial: Pope Benedict XVI, who arrives in Jerusalem today, joins two of his predecessors who visited Israel in the past - Paul VI in 1964 and John Paul II in 2000. A visit by the head of the Catholic Church to Israel always generates interest because of Jews' dark history of persecution in Christian Europe and the unequivocal link between Christianity and Judaism. The pope's visit bears great importance for the strengthening of Israel's international standing and for improving ties between Jews and Christians.

The Vatican's stance on Jerusalem differs from that of the Israeli government, and this requires complex and sensitive arrangements in planning the pontiff's visit to the holy city. Yet the visit will highlight Israel's commitment to freedom of worship at the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and the Galilee.

Benedict has been a controversial figure since assuming the papacy in 2005. As a German who was a member of the Hitler Youth and a soldier in the Wehrmacht, which he deserted before the Nazi regime fell, his actions and policies regarding Jews and the Holocaust have been subject to tight scrutiny. He touched off a torrent of criticism after he announced he would declare sainthood for Pius XII, who is accused of remaining silent in the knowledge that Jews were being slaughtered during World War II. >>> Haaretz Editorial | Monday, May 11, 2009

Sweden’s Greens: Opposition to Turkey Due to Islamophobia
Ms Ruwaida: Opposition to Turkey's accession to the EU has nothing to do with Islamophobia; rather, it has all to do with common sense! – ©Mark

TODAY’S ZAMAN: Some European countries such as Germany and France oppose Turkey's membership in the European Union because of their Islamopohobic stance, a senior member of Sweden's Green Party has said.

"What they do is xenophobic," said Yvonne Ruwaida, a member of the executive board of the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna), during a visit to Steg för Framtiden” (A step for the future), an association established by Turkish entrepreneurs, in Stockholm on Saturday. She was referring to objections to Turkey's membership raised by a small number of politicians in Sweden, as well as in France and Germany. "This is Islamophobia. They fear that the whole of Europe will be invaded by Islam and are therefore trying to stop Turkish accession," she said. "It is very sad that such things are being discussed. Membership of a country should be assessed on the basis of objective criteria."

Sweden, a firm supporter of Turkey's accession to the EU, is preparing to take over the EU's rotating presidency in June. The Swedish Green Party is one of the most consistent supporters of Turkey in the country. Mehmet Kaplan, son of a Turkish immigrant family, is in the leadership of the party. >>> Ramazan Kerpeten, Stockholm | Monday, May 11, 2009

Pope Underlines Support for a Palestinian State
Pope Benedict XVI with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (front row, 2nd L) and Israel's President Shimon Peres (front row, 2nd R) at a welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport Monday. Photo courtesy of The New York Times

THE NEW YORK TIMES: JERUSALEM — On the fourth day of his first trip to the Middle East as pope, Benedict XVI arrived Monday in Israel and immediately called for a solution to the conflict that would yield a “homeland of their own” for both Palestinians and Israelis.

While he did not use the word “state,” he made clear in a brief speech that he was underscoring the Vatican’s previous support for the creation of a Palestinian state, albeit with a stronger resonance imparted by the setting and timing of his remarks within minutes of arriving in Israel.

“The eyes of the world are upon the peoples of this region as they struggle to achieve a just and lasting solution to conflicts that have caused so much suffering,” he told Israeli leaders who met him at the airport in Tel Aviv when he arrived from Jordan.

“The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said. >>> By Rachel Donadio | Monday, May 11, 2009

U.S. Journalist to Be Freed Soon in Iran, Her Lawyer Says
Photo courtesy of The Independent
THE NEW YORK TIMES: TEHRAN— An Iranian-American journalist who was sentenced to eight years of jail on spying charges for Washington will be released Monday after an appeal court reduced the sentence, her lawyer said.

Saleh Nikbakht, one of the two lawyers who defended Roxana Saberi in an appeal hearing on Sunday, said the court turned down the eight-year jail term and issued a two-year suspended prison term, the ISNA Student News Agency reported.

“The verdict was given to me in person today,” Mr. Nikbakht was quoted as saying. “The appeals court turned down the original sentence.”

“She will be released today,” Mr. Nikbakht was quoted as saying. >>> By Nazila Fathi | Monday, May 11, 2009

Cheap Jibes, Braggadocio, and Harlequins: President Obama at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

'Torture' Techniques Kept US Safe: Cheney
Dick Cheney ... blasted Barack Obama. Photo courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Former US vice-president Dick Cheney says intelligence extracted from tough interrogations of suspected al-Qaeda militants had saved "perhaps hundreds of thousands" of US lives.

"No regrets. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do," he said on CBS television arguing that techniques decried by critics as torture were essential to break the resistance of captured extremists.

"I'm convinced, absolutely convinced, that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of lives," Cheney said, arguing again that al-Qaeda was bent on attacking a US city with a nuclear device.

But at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association late on Saturday, President Barack Obama skewered Cheney's doomsday view of the world for comic effect.

"Dick Cheney was supposed to be here but he is very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People," he quipped.

In one of his first acts as president, Obama reversed predecessor George W Bush's approval of harsh interrogation methods such as "waterboarding", or simulated drowning.

Recently released memorandums detail the reasoning used by Bush administration lawyers to justify waterboarding and other techniques such as sleep deprivation, physical slaps and painful "stress positions".

Cheney reaffirmed his belief that Obama had made the US more vulnerable to attack, and condemned calls by Democratic lawmakers for the Bush legal officials to face prosecution. >>> AFP | Monday, May 11, 2009

Holy Land Visit a Minefield for Pope
GLOBEAND MAIL: Benedict aims to ease tensions with both Jews and Muslims

JERUSALEM — On a self-declared pilgrimage of peace, Pope Benedict XVI is walking into a minefield.

In the four short years of his papacy, he has succeeded in upsetting the Muslim world with his reference to an anti-Islamic tract, and in alienating many Jews by his resuscitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop and backing of the beatification of Nazi-era Pope Pius XII.

Yet, here he is today, hoping to make amends, wading into one of the holiest sites of both religions, with recent conflicts still smouldering and the eyes of the world upon him.

“The thing that worries me most is the speech that the Pope will deliver here,” said Fouad Twal, the Pope's Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem. “One word for the Muslims and I'm in trouble; one word for the Jews and I'm in trouble. At the end of the visit the Pope goes back to Rome and I stay here with the consequences.”

Regardless of the risks, the Pope began his homage to Judaism on Saturday at Mount Nebo, in Jordan. Looking across the valley at Moses's Promised Land, he spoke of the inseparable bond between his church and the Jewish people.

“From the beginning, the church in these lands has commemorated in her liturgy the great figures of the [Jewish] patriarchs and prophets, as a sign of her profound appreciation of the unity of the two testaments [of the Bible],” the Pope said.

With the ancient link established, the Pope, as his first order of business today, visits Yad Vashem, Israel's shrine to the victims of the Holocaust and touchstone of the modern Jewish state.

“We expect that Pope Benedict XVI's speech at Yad Vashem will include a reference to the memory of the Holocaust in the present as well as in the future,” Avner Shalev, Yad Vashem's chairman of the directorate, told reporters. Mr. Shalev recalled that the Pope, as Joseph Ratzinger, spent his childhood as a member of the Hitler Youth and later enlisted in the German army.

“It is impossible to claim that these things do not have an impact,” he said. “A person's habitat bears an influence on him, despite the fact that immediately after the war he disengaged from these things and devoted himself to studying religion.” >>> Patrick Martin | Sunday, May 10, 2009

Naturalized Citizens Are Poised to Reshape California's Political Landscape
Efren Curiel, 45, is sworn in as a naturalized U.S. citizen in March at the Quiet Cannon Country Club in Montebello. California’s 300,000 naturalized citizens accounted for nearly one-third of the nation’s total. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES TIMES: The increase in naturalized Asian and Latino citizens -- 300,000 people took the oath of allegiance in 2008 -- could alter the state's policy priorities for years to come, analysts say.

More than 1 million immigrants became U.S. citizens last year, the largest surge in history, hastening the ethnic transformation of California's political landscape with more Latinos and Asians now eligible to vote.

Leading the wave, California's 300,000 new citizens accounted for nearly one-third of the nation's total and represented a near-doubling over 2006, according to a recent report by the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics. Florida recorded the second-largest group of new citizens, and Texas claimed the fastest growth.

Mexicans, who have traditionally registered low rates of naturalization, represented the largest group, with nearly one-fourth of the total. They were followed by Indians, Filipinos, Chinese, Cubans and Vietnamese.

The new citizens are reshaping California's electorate and are likely to reorder the state's policy priorities, some political analysts predict. Several polls show that Latinos and Asians are more supportive than whites of public investments and broad services, even if they require higher taxes. >>> By Teresa Watanabe | Monday, May 11, 2009

New Dark Age Alert! Afghanistan und Pakistan: Wenn wir nicht zum Krieg gehen, kommt er zu uns
WELT ONLINE: Es wäre eine weltweite Apokalypse: Atomwaffen in der Hand von Osama bin Laden. Das zeigt, dass es in Afghanistan und Pakistan für den Westen um alles geht. Dort entscheidet sich in diesen Monaten, ob die Islamisten die Erde erben oder ob der Weltentwurf des Westens noch eine Chance hat.

Die Situation in Afghanistan und Pakistan zeigt dem Westen die Grenzen seiner Macht. Bild dank der Welt
Was als Blitzkrieg begann in den Bergen Afghanistans, Antwort auf die Zerstörung des World Trade Center in New York, ist zum Abnutzungskrieg geworden und reicht weit über das Land am Hindukusch hinaus. Deutschland kann sich dem nicht entziehen. Das neue Codewort der Obama-Strategie in Südasien heißt AfPak. Es zeigt an, dass der Afghanistan-Konflikt bei genauer Betrachtung aus vier Kriegen jeweils verschiedener Art besteht. Sie verschließen sich einfachen Lösungen, sind indessen für die Sicherheit der USA und der Alliierten, eingeschlossen Deutschland, entscheidend.

Da ist zuerst der Krieg in Afghanistan, wo die Isaf-Truppen noch immer hinreichend Unterstützung finden in der Bevölkerung, die allerdings ethnisch zerklüftet und zerrissen ist, der eigenen Regierung nicht traut und überleben will, notfalls durch Geschäfte mit beiden Seiten. Dahinter erstreckt sich der Grenzkonflikt in den unwegsamen, unregierbaren Regionen Westpakistans, wo die al-Qaida ihre Sanktuarien findet und die Amerikaner nicht kämpfen dürfen, die Pakistaner kaum können.

Damit verbunden ist, drittens, der Kampf auf Leben und Tod in Pakistan zwischen den Dschihadisten und einer schwachen Regierung, die Armee und Geheimdiensten kaum trauen kann. Zuletzt und vor allem geht es um den Kampf der USA an der Hightech-Front gegen die al-Qaida und deren gewalttätige Verbündete. Der Schlüssel liegt weiterhin in der Frage, wem Afghanistan gehört. Dort entscheidet sich in diesen Monaten, ob die Islamisten die Erde erben oder ob der Weltentwurf des Westens noch eine Chance hat.

„Graveyard of Empires“ (Totenacker der Imperien) nannten die Briten das unwegsame Land, als sie noch über Indien herrschten und den Khyberpass gegen die Russen behaupteten. Den Russen wurde Afghanistan zum Trauma, vor 30 Jahren Anfang vom Ende ihres Imperiums. Gegenwärtig entscheidet sich die Zukunft Pakistans in Afghanistan, die Zukunft Afghanistans in Pakistan. Für Amerika und die Verbündeten geht es um den höchsten Einsatz im zentralen Krieg des neuen Zeitalters. Damit verbunden ist der Preis aller Preise: etwa 60 nukleare Gefechtsköpfe, gegenwärtig noch unter verlässlicher Kontrolle der pakistanischen Armee – aber wie lang? In der Hand Osama Bin Ladens und seiner Leute würde daraus das Instrument der weltweiten Apokalypse. >>> Von Michael Stürmer | Sonntag, 10. Mai 2009