RUSSIA TODAY: Muslim girls fall victim to honor killings: The United Nations says that over five thousand women and children die every year in so-called "honor killings", often where family members kill women who refuse to enter forced marriages. >>> | Published Monday, June 22, 2010; Edited Saturday, January 23, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
RUSSIA TODAY: Muslim girls fall victim to honor killings: The United Nations says that over five thousand women and children die every year in so-called "honor killings", often where family members kill women who refuse to enter forced marriages. >>> | Published Monday, June 22, 2010; Edited Saturday, January 23, 2010
TIME: Germany is shrinking — fast. New figures released on May 17 show the birth rate in Europe's biggest economy has plummeted to a historic low, dropping to a level not seen since 1946. As demographers warn of the consequences of not making enough babies to replace and support an aging population, the latest figures have triggered a bout of national soul-searching and cast a harsh light on Chancellor Angela Merkel's family policies.
According to a preliminary analysis by the Federal Statistics Office, 651,000 children were born in Germany in 2009 — 30,000 fewer than in 2008, a dip of 3.6%. In 1990, German mothers were having on average 1.5 children each; today that average is down to 1.38 children per mother. With a shortfall of 190,000 between the number of people who died and the number of children who were born, Germany's birth rate is well below the level required to keep the population stable.
"The German birth rate has remained remarkably flat over the past few years while it has increased in other low-fertility countries, like Italy and the Czech Republic," Joshua Goldstein, executive director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, tells TIME. "Women are continuing to postpone motherhood to an older age and this process of postponement is temporarily lowering the birth rate." According to Goldstein's research, Germany has the longest history of low fertility in Europe. >>> Tristana Moore, Berlin | Sunday, May 23, 2010
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Radical Islamist fanatics are turning YouTube into their personal broadcast platform with disturbingly accelerating frequency. Their videos illustrate how jihadists are exploiting the Internet to inspire violence, and they demand increased vigilance by the Google-owned company.
The Middle East Media Research Institute this week flagged postings by, among others, America's Jihad Jane and Anwar Al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based cleric whose involvement in terror plots prompted the U.S. to target him for assassination.
After his arrest, would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad is reported to have cited Al-Awlaki as a guiding light. And a Pakistani Taliban group posted a video on YouTube to claim authorship of the plot:
"We, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, very bravely claim the responsibility for this attack in America. And we congratulate Muslims on this."
Days later, the group posted a video with a chilling message:
"The time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in their major cities ... our fedayeen have penetrated the terrorist America, we will give extremely painful blows to the fanatic America. I request you all to be steadfast and firm in your jihad." >>> Saturday, May 08, 2010
DETROIT FREE PRESS: CAIRO, Egypt -- A U.S.-born cleric who has encouraged Muslims to kill American soldiers called for the killing of U.S. civilians in his first video released by a Yemeni offshoot of al-Qaida.
Dressed in a white Yemeni robe and turban and with a dagger tucked into his waistband, Anwar Al-Awlaki used the 45-minute video posted Sunday to justify civilian deaths -- and encourage them -- by accusing the U.S. of intentionally killing a million Muslim civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
American civilians are to blame, he said, because "the American people, in general, are taking part in this and they elected this administration and they are financing the war." >>> Maamoun Youssef, Associated Press | Monday, May 24, 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES: MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least 14 people were killed and more than 25 were wounded on Sunday in heavy fighting between government troops and insurgents who attacked the presidential palace with mortars, witnesses and officials said.
At least six mortar shells landed near the palace, witnesses said, but the president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, was in Turkey at a United Nations conference called to help Somalia.
“Our army withdrew from the front lines, and we have lost neighborhoods,” said Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siad "Indha Adde", Somalia's state minister for defense. “But the prime minister is responsible for the defeat,” he added.
The fighting led to what witnesses called the biggest surge in refugees in months. Civilians poured into the streets carrying household goods packed onto donkey carts and into wheelbarrows. Others crammed into minibuses and old Fiat trucks. Refugee camps in several neighborhoods here were evacuated.
“I fled with my children, and I don’t know where I am heading,” said Jija Abdirahman, who was trying to escape with her three children and a wheelbarrow full of luggage. “These are merciless fighters. I have no hope that it will finish soon.” >>> Mohammed Ibrahim | Sunday, May 23, 2010
NEW YORK POST: In the 1960s, my parents left their despotic motherland of Syria for the promise of genuine liberty and religious freedom in America. In the decades since, we have led the construction of a number of mosques in the towns where we lived.
Some went up without challenge from the local community, but others met with palpable local discontent. In those cases, the law and the natural American affinity for religious freedom eventually paved the way to the ribbon cutting.
These were all humble mosques, funded locally by our congregations. It's plain the planned "Ground Zero mosque" is something very different. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, his wife, Daisy Khan, and an investor intend to build "Cordoba House," an ostentatious $100 million, 13-story Muslim community center including a gym, a swimming pool, a performance-arts facility and a mosque.
My first concern is whether the financing truly represents the local American Muslim community or comes with strings from foreign Islamists. But that is far from my last concern.
I am an American Muslim dedicated to defeating the ideology that fuels global Islamist terror -- political Islam. And I don't see such a "center" actually fighting terrorism or being a very "positive" addition near Ground Zero, no matter how well intentioned.
To put it bluntly, Ground Zero is the one place in America where Muslims should think less about teaching Islam and "our good side" and more about being American and fulfilling our responsibilities to confront the ideology of our enemies. >>> M. Zuhdi Jasser | Monday, May 24, 2010
Related articls and videos here
GLOBAL POST: Eastern Europe has had fewer tensions over Muslim immigration than western Europe, but that could change.
WARSAW, Poland — European anxiety over the presence of Muslims in traditionally Christian societies has arrived in Poland, where the capital has been blanketed in anti-Islamic posters and several hundred protesters recently showed up to denounce the construction of a mosque.
Demonstrators waved signs proclaiming “Stop Islamization,” galvanized by posters put up around Warsaw showing a woman clad in a black chador, with menacing minarets that looked like missiles peering out behind her. Counter-demonstrators, separated by a line of police, denounced them as “fascists” and “racists.”
What makes the demonstration surprising is that unlike western European countries where there are millions of Muslims, Poland, a country of 38 million, has only about 30,000 Muslims. >>> Jan Cienski, GlobalPost | Sunday, May 23, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Liam Fox was under attack last night for damaging Britain’s relations with Kabul after he described Afghanistan as a “broken 13th-century country”.
The Defence Secretary’s comments, made in an interview with The Times published on Saturday, provoked fury from the Afghan Government and media with officials calling the claims racist.
According to senior Afghan officials, Dr Fox’s characterisation of the country was raised at a meeting with President Karzai on Saturday. The President expressed his deep displeasure at the remarks, they said.
In his interview Dr Fox said that there must be a distinction between military and humanitarian goals. “We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened.”
A senior Afghan government source said: “His view appears to be that Afghanistan has not changed since the 13th century and it implies that Afghanistan is a tribal and medieval society. Read on and comment >>> Tom Coghlan, Defence Correspondent | Monday, May 24, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Plans to build a 13-storey mosque and Islamic centre two city blocks from Ground Zero in New York are provoking an anti-Muslim backlash in America.
Muslim organisations picked the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory shop damaged in the September 11, 2001, attacks. The building at 45 Park Place has been vacant since it was hit by the fuselage of one of the jets flown into the World Trade Centre by Islamic terrorists.
“We want to create a platform by which the voices of the mainstream and silent majority of Muslims will be amplified. A centre of this scale and magnitude will do that,” said Daisy Khan, director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which is behind the project.
The financial district committee of New York Community Board 1, representing local residents, gave the proposed Islamic centre a vote of confidence at a meeting on May 5.
The $100 million (£69 million) project would include a swimming pool, a basketball court, a 500-seat theatre and possibly a daycare centre. About 2,000 Muslims are expected to attend Friday prayers there.
The plans, however, have stirred a groundswell of opposition, with a group called Stop the Islamicisation of America calling for a street demonstration on June 6. “What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Centre buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack?” said Pamela Geller, the group’s director. “Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn’t dream of such an insult. It’s a stab in the eye of America.” Read on and comment >>> James Bone, New York | Monday, May 24, 2010
HUMAN EVENTS: Why There Should Be No Mosques at Ground Zero >>> Robert Spencer | Monday, May 24, 2010
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch >>>
ABC news takes a 15 minute interview with Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and shamefully edits it down to one VERY short statement. It may be only 9 seconds of Jim Riches (father of a New York firefighter who was murdered that day) and 8 seconds of Pamela, but Geller’s wise-words, when speaking of the Ground Zero Mosque, should be broadcast world-wide, “It’s not an olive-branch, it is a flag; it’s a flag of conquest at Ground Zero”. – [Source: No Mosques At Ground Zero]
Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs >>>
No Mosques At Ground Zero >>>
Related: NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Plan for Mosque Near World Trade Center Site Moves Ahead (+ videos) >>> Joe Jackson and Bill Hutchinson | Published: Thursday May 06, 2010; Updated: Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Related: Ground Zero >>>
TIMES ONLINE: President Barack Obama today said he “fully supports” the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that killed 46 South Korean sailors as the cross-border animosity between the two countries continues to rise.
South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak earlier today demanded that North Korea “immediately apologise and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behaviour” and announced it will take the case of the torpedoed Cheonan warship to the United Nations Security Council.
In a move which analysts described as “cautiously hard-line”, Mr Lee also said he would be suspending all exchanges between the two Koreas and imposing a total ban on North Korean ships passing through South Korean waters.
His government banned all trade, investment and visits with North Korea. South Korea also plans to reduce the number of workers in a joint factory park just inside the North which has long been an important source of income for the North Korean leadership.
The White House said Seoul can continue to count on the full backing of Washington. Read on and comment >>> Leo Lewis, Beijing | Monday, May 24, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A Canadian student held captive for three years in Saudi Arabia under the kingdom’s controversial “guardianship” laws has been allowed to leave and marry her fiance after she issued a desperate online plea for help.
In a tale of star-crossed lovers that gripped newspaper readers on two continents, Nazia Quazi, a Canadian of Indian Muslim origin, fell in love with a fellow student, Bjorn Singhal, who was born to a partly Hindu family.
To prevent them marrying, her father used his power under the Saudi legal code to stop her leaving the country after she went on a visit. But following a campaign by supporters in Canada that was taken up by the media there and even in Saudi newspapers, he has now relented and allowed the marriage to take place in Dubai.
“I still can’t believe it,” Miss Quazi, 24, told reporters this week after the wedding. “I keep pinching myself and I keep pinching him.”
Despite attempts to reform the system by the current monarch, King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia still has the most conservative attitudes towards women of any country in the world.
The rules most obvious to outsiders are that unrelated men and women are not allowed to mingle, women must wear a head-covering outside at all times, and are not allowed to drive.
But more important for many residents is the need for all women, even the growing number of high-powered business executives, to conform to the wishes of their nearest male relative, usually a husband, father or brother, for all practical aspects of life.
Miss Quazi’s father, Quazi Malik Abdul Gaffar, who worked in Saudi Arabia, used this law to try and cut off the romance that had developed between his daughter and Mr Singhal, an Indian who lives in Dubai.
The Quazi family had Canadian citizenship, and the pair met when they were both studying at Ottawa University. >>> Richard Spencer in Dubai | Sunday, May 23, 2010
SUNDAY NATION: MOGADISHU – Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam, the two Islamist groups vehemently opposing the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, have prohibited the use of prayer beads in the areas controlled by the movements.
They assert that the practice of using beads is bid’a (new introduction to Islamic ways).
Although never declared, residents in areas ruled by Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam admit that hundreds of people were apprehended, warned or harmed for having and using the device. >>> Abdulkadir Khalif Nation Correspondent and Agencies | Sunday, May 23, 2010
LE TEMPS: L’américain Jerrold Post a étudié pendant 21 ans le profil psychologique de nombreux dirigeants pour le compte de la CIA. Il tente de décrypter la personnalité du colonel Kadhafi
Gerold Post est professeur de psychiatrie, de psychologie et d’affaires internationales à l’Université George Washington (Washington DC). Il a travaillé pendant 21 ans pour la CIA, où il a fondé le Centre pour l’analyse de la personnalité et du comportement politique. Il a étudié le profil psychologique de nombreux dirigeants (Anour el-Sadate, Saddam Hussein, Bill Clinton…). Pour Le Temps, il tente de décrypter la personnalité intrigante du colonel Kadhafi.
– Le Temps: Comment décririez-vous la personnalité de Mouammar Kadhafi?
Jerrold Post: Je m’intéresse à lui depuis des années et je le trouve assez fascinant. Il n’est certainement pas fou. Mais il y a deux circonstances dans lesquelles il n’est pas complètement rationnel. L’une est lorsqu’il rencontre un succès et l’autre lorsqu’il est en situation d’échec. Quand il réussit il peut vraiment devenir provocant et grandiloquent. Quand il échoue, ce qui veut généralement dire quand il est hors des feux de la rampe, il a une propension à créer des crises.
Derrière cette façade «grandiose», je pense qu’il y a beaucoup d’insécurité. Et une personnalité comme la sienne, très narcissique, peut être extrêmement sensible aux manques d’égard. Sa vanité le prédispose à se sentir insulté et à se tenir prêt à se défendre. Lorsque son fils a été arrêté (ndlr: à Genève en juillet 2008), il l’a vécu comme une attaque profonde sur la dignité de la Libye et la sienne propre. Il ne fait vraiment pas différence entre lui-même et la Libye. Cela fait penser à Saddam Hussein qui était l’Irak et l’Irak qui était Sadam Hussein. >>> Angélique Mounier-Kuhn | Jeudi 20 Mai 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Ian McEwan has insisted that criticising Islam is not racist and blamed left-leaning thinkers for "closing down the debate".
The Booker Prize winner said those who claimed judging Muslims was "de facto" racism were playing a "poisonous argument".
McEwan, 61, the best-selling author of novels including Amsterdam, Atonement and Saturday, thought many in the left wrongly took this position because they had an anti-Americanism shared with Islamists.
In an interview with today's Telegraph Magazine, McEwan said: "Chunks of left-of-centre opinion have tried to close down the debate by saying that if you were to criticise Islam as a thought system you are a de facto racist. That is a poisonous argument.
"They do it on the basis that they see an ally in their particular forms of anti-Americanism," he said.
"So these radical Muslims are the shock-troops for the armchair Left who don't want to examine too closely the rest of the package – the homophobia, the misogyny and so on."
McEwan first entered the fray in 2007 to defend his friend Martin Amis against charges of racism. >>> Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent | Saturday, March 13, 2010
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Public spending cuts have been made imperative by the crisis in the eurozone, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said today as the new coalition Government prepared to start chipping away at Britain’s record £156 billion deficit.
Years of Labour “throwing money around like there was no tomorrow” had left a “black hole” in the country’s finances, he said.
Mr Clegg’s scathing assessment of the outgoing regime came as George Osborne, the Chancellor, prepared to announce tomorrow where the axe will fall for his first £6bn of cuts — most of which will be ploughed straight into paying off the deficit.
Having backed Labour’s assertion during the election campaign that cuts this year would jeopardise the fragile economic recovery, Mr Clegg told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show that turbulence in the eurozone had lent a greater urgency to balancing Britain’s books.
“I don’t think anybody could have anticipated then quite how sharply the economic conditions in the eurozone would have deteriorated and that the need to show that we are trying to get to grips with this suddenly became much greater,” the Liberal Democrat leader said.
“That is why we need to show at a more accelerated timetable than I had initially thought that we are going to get to grips with this great black hole in our public finances.
“The outgoing Labour Government was just throwing around money like there was no tomorrow, probably knowing that they were going to lose the election, making extraordinary commitments left, right and centre, many of which they knew they couldn't honour.
“So not only are we going to have to deal with cuts, we are also going to have to actually deal with some of the pledges that the Government made in the past which they didn’t even provide budgets for.
“The age of plenty where money could be thrown around in almost carelessness, which is what the outgoing Labour Government has done for some time, now is over.” Read on and comment >>> Sadie Gray | Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: In France, unlike the UK, the debate over face-veils hinges on a much-cherished and uniquely French notion: laïcité
When the usually highly articulate Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), raised the prospect of banning female face coverings early this year his choice of language summed up the poor level of debate on the subject. "We are not Muslim bashing", the peer said, "but this is incompatible with Britain's values of freedom and democracy." This mix of ugly vernacular and banal generalisation was far from impressive. Rather than convincing people that the burqa (the cloak that covers a woman from head to foot, most often seen in Afghanistan) and the niqab (the more genuinely Islamic veil that conceals a woman's face) were an affront to traditional British values, he merely played into the hands of racists who detest most manifestations of foreign cultures, and especially ones linked – however spuriously – with alien religions.
France, by contrast, is largely pursuing its own burqa and niqab debate within the context of the country's commitment to the secular society, or , as it is referred to on the other side of the Channel. When the country imposed a ban on religious symbols, including the Islamic headscarf, in state schools in 2004, it was not because they weren't French enough, but because they were not secular. A burqa and niqab ban can, according to this reasoning, be imposed outside any nationalistic debate.
That said, in June last year President Nicolas Sarkozy was widely criticised for targeting full-veil wearers as part of his Ukip-style national identity debate. He wanted to attract supporters of the increasingly discredited Front National party to his own cause, declaring both burqas and niqabs to be "an affront to Republican values". Like Ukip, Sarkozy argued that the garments had no basis in Islam, were a threat to gender equality, marginalised women, and endangered public safety because terrorists could use them to hide their identity, or every kind of criminal, from bank robbers to shop lifters, could use them to steal. As Sarkozy told a recent cabinet meeting: "Citizenship should be experienced with an uncovered face. There can be no other solution but a ban in all public places." >>> Nabila Ramdani | Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES: PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.
Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.
Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.
But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.
With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.
“We’re now in rescue mode,” said Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister. “But we need to transition to the reform mode very soon. The ‘reform deficit’ is the real problem,” he said, pointing to the need for structural change.
The reaction so far to government efforts to cut spending has been pessimism and anger, with an understanding that the current system is unsustainable.
In Athens, Aris Iordanidis, 25, an economics graduate working in a bookstore, resents paying high taxes to finance Greece’s bloated state sector and its employees. “They sit there for years drinking coffee and chatting on the telephone and then retire at 50 with nice fat pensions,” he said. “As for us, the way things are going we’ll have to work until we’re 70.” >>> Steven Erlanger | Saturday, May 22, 2010
Reporting was contributed by Maïa de la Baume and Scott Sayre from Paris, Niki Kitsantonis from Athens, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.
THE NEW YORK SUN: The leaders of Coptic Christians, whose community is facing growing persecution in Egypt, say they have been unsuccessful in efforts to gain a hearing from the White House or other parts of the Obama administration.
Heightened persecution of Egypt’s 12 million Christians coupled with growing power and prestige of their Coptic Diaspora in America and Australia is leading to new political efforts here. Educated and skilled Egyptian Copts who migrated in large numbers in recent decades are talking to Congress, organizing lobbies, and making other efforts to be heard.
They say they are frustrated by the current administration in Washington, particularly after President Obama’s overture to the Muslim world via a speech at Cairo. In the speech Mr. Obama President apologized for America’s misdeeds to Muslims, stating that he came “to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” Coptic leaders say that even while reaching out to Muslims the administration has turned a deaf ear to the pleas Arab Christian minority in the very country where he delivered his apology to Muslims.
“The Obama administration’s benign neglect of Arab Christians, is putting freedoms and human rights in the whole Middle East at risk,” is the way it was put in an interview with the Sun by the president of the U.S. Copts Association, Michael Meunier, who is headquartered in Washington “Friendships with Muslims has been the Obama Administration’s opening theme from his first day in office and in that famed Cairo speech in which he extended a hand to all Muslims in partnership.”
Mr. Meunier added that that the president’s failure to speak as extensively about the persecution of Arab Christians was a departure from American policy and a grave error. “We have no problems with American friendships with Islam and Muslims, but it cannot be accomplished at the expense of our rights as Egyptian Christians and Arab Christians, and as the very lives of our people there are endangered,” Mr. Meunier told the Sun.
One area of complaint by the Copt community is a law banning the repair or construction of churches without a “presidential decree.” The measure, known as the Hamayuni Law, is based on an 1856 Ottoman decree but was rarely enforced in Egypt under the monarchial dynasty overthrown by army officers in 1952.
Indeed, until the coup that put Gamal Abdel Nasser in power in 1952, Christian communities in Egypt — including Catholics, Protestants, Armenians, Greeks and Italians in addition to the Copts — enjoyed a climate of moderate Islam as the country westernized itself. Because Christianity in Egypt is so ancient, preceding Islam by seven centuries, … >>> Yousseff Ibrahim, Special to the Sun | Saturday, May 22, 2010
WELT ONLINE: In Pakistan ist weder YouTube noch Facebook erreichbar, weil dort der Prophet Mohammed zu sehen ist. Der Streit spaltet das Land, die Bevölkerung ist zerissen. Die eine Seite möchte Teil der Moderne sein. Die andere hält an den strengen Traditionen fest. Die Regierung bleibt neutral und erntet deshalb den Zorn aller Bürger.
„Diese Seite ist gesperrt.“ Die knappe Mitteilung in unaufdringlichen schwarzen Buchstaben erwartet seit ein paar Tagen jeden Internetnutzer in Pakistan, der Facebook, YouTube oder andere soziale Netzwerke im Internet öffnen will. Die pakistanische Telekommunikationsbehörde PTA hat nach einem Gerichtsbeschluss in Lahore den Zugriff unterbunden. Eine Reaktion „auf die zunehmend ablehnende Stimmung in der Bevölkerung auf die Seiten“, wie eine Sprecherin erklärt.
Ein anonymes Facebook-Mitglied hatte zu einem umstrittenen Zeichenwettbewerb aufgerufen: Beim „Jeder-malt-Mohammed-Tag“ sollten Bilder des islamischen Propheten eingestellt werden. Gedacht war das Projekt als Kampagne für die Meinungsfreiheit. Doch die bildliche Darstellung des Propheten Mohammed ist im Islam verboten.
Als Studenten in mehreren Städten dagegen protestierten, reagierten die Behörden mit der landesweiten Sperre für zuletzt 450 Seiten, darunter die englische Ausgabe der Online-Enzyklopädie Wikipedia und die Foto-Plattform Flickr. Etwa ein Viertel des gesamten pakistanischen Internetverkehrs war lahmgelegt, um „Anstößigkeiten“ und „unislamische Inhalte“, vor allem aber wohl Demonstrationen radikaler Muslime zu unterbinden. >>> Von Sophie Mühlmann | Freitag, 21. Mai 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Une majorité des Suisses (57,6%) sont favorables à une interdiction du port de la burqa sur le territoire helvétique, selon un sondage publié dans le "SonntagsBlick".
Un quart des sondés (26,5%) sont contre, alors que 15,9% sont indécis. L’enquête a été réalisée en mai dernier auprès de 500 Romands et Alémaniques âgés de 14 à 59 ans par l’institut Marketagent.com Suisse. {Source: Tribune de Genève] AP | Dimanche 23 Mai 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Six semaines après l’accident de l’avion polonais en Russie, qui a coûté la vie à 96 personnes dont le président Lech Kaczynski, sa mère hospitalisée ignore toujours sa mort, a révélé samedi le frère jumeau du président défunt, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
"Maman ne sait toujours pas que Lech est mort. Elle est longtemps restée en mauvaise forme mentale et elle me prenait pour Lech, ce qui ne lui était jamais arrivé auparavant", a déclaré Jaroslaw Kaczynski dans une interview au quotidien populaire Superexpress. >>> AFP | Samedi 22 Mai 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As the currency crashes and the Continent is swept by protests, even key members such as Germany and France are starting to think the unthinkable about the euro.
Like many of Spain's 4.5 million unemployed, Cinthia Carvajal is on the verge of despair. The 41-year-old marketing executive has jobhunted non-stop for the last six months, but with the country in the grip of its worst recession in 50 years, there are precious few firms needing anything to be marketed.
She will now take whatever job she can find, but with unemployment running at 20 per cent nationally, the few offers come her way are generally less than tempting.
"I spend my whole time going for interviews," said Ms Carvajal, who receives €475 (£388) per month in unemployment benefits. "But often they want you to work on the black market to avoid paying taxes, and I'm not prepared to do that."
Spain's jobless rate is currently double the the average for the euro zone, rising to nearly 32 per cent in places like Cadiz, a windswept port that has never recovered since its shipbuilding yards went the same way as those on the Clyde.
The economy shrank nationwide by nearly four per cent last year, and in the bars of Cadiz's winding, cobbled streets, the sense is that things can only get worse - which, last week, they effectively did.
On Thursday, in a bid to avoid a Greek-style deficit crisis, the socialist administration of Prime Minister Jose-Luis Zapatero approved highly unpopular moves to slash public spending by €15 billion, which will include sacking 13,000 civil servants, trimming public sector wages by 5 per cent, and freezing state pensions.
Out, too will go to the €2,500 birth grant for all new-born children - just one of the generous social benefits that Madrid can no longer afford.
Mr Zapatero has billed it as a painful but necessary dose of financial medicine, but as in Greece, many of Spain's 45 million citizens seem reluctant to swallow what government deems good for them. >>> Harriet Alexander in Cadiz, Colin Freeman and Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Sunday, May 23, 2010
MAIL ON SUNDAY: He may have left Britain broke but Gordon Brown could soon be lining his own pockets to the tune of £70,000 a night – telling Americans how to end the recession.
Mr Brown has been approached about joining the US lecture tour circuit to deliver speeches on the world economy to top businessmen and bankers.
The fee is a fraction of the £400,000 a speech commanded by Tony Blair – and may come as a surprise to those who regard Mr Brown as a poor orator.
But celebrity agent Robert Walker – whose clients include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Bishop Desmond Tutu and actors Michael Douglas and Goldie Hawn – insists Mr Brown could earn big sums.
He said: ‘He may not have the panache of a Tony Blair or a Margaret Thatcher but he’s a name and I think there’s a good market for him, especially in the business world.
‘To be very frank with you, it doesn’t matter to me whether Mr Brown is thought of as a good speaker. I look for clients who have content and I work with them to develop it. They bring the steak to the meal. I throw on the sizzle. £70,000 a time? To hear me give a speech? That's what Gordon Brown has been told he can earn >>> Sharon Churcher | Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE OBSERVER: Enthusiasm for single currency fades as resentment grows over Greek bailout
In the back of the Berliner Republik bar on the banks of the river Spree, Matt, Otto and Christian's eyes are fixed on a screen in front of them. The names and prices of 18 German draught beers flash up, bright green on a black background, and change every few seconds, according to who has ordered what.
It's a pub game for the modern age, based on supply and demand. The trick is to buy the beer cheaply and then give yourself a pat on the back when demand pushes the price up.
"It gives a bit of a risqué edge to ordering," says Otto, a graphic designer. "But it also makes you feel strangely vulnerable."
The screen is more fruit machine than stock market, but it reflects the sense of playing a lottery common in Angela Merkel's Germany as it has pumped billions of euros into bailing out profligate Greece and propping up the single currency, without knowing whether the injection will do any good.
As the prices of the beers rise, news comes through from Frankfurt that in the real world Germany's DAX index has fallen 106.86 points, despite the €750m rescue package that the Bundestag has just narrowly approved. On Wall Street and elsewhere the markets wobbled, a sure sign that no one believed the crisis was anywhere near over.
On the pavement outside the bar, drawing on a cigarette, Pamela Schreiber pauses in contemplation. "Do I consider myself European? Well, of course, but first and foremost I'm a German," says the 33-year-old set designer with conviction.
The answer is not one that you would have expected a few years ago from a young person in Germany. This is the country where European enthusiasm has been easiest to find and where, since the war, European interests have taken precedence over nationalist ones. But, according to Schreiber, Germans feel increasingly torn over Europe.
"We always knew in our heart of hearts that the euro would never be as solid as our deutschmark, but we gave up our beloved currency, which was actually central to our identity, because we believed in the European project so fervently," she says.
Now there is talk, albeit based on blog gossip and a tabloid desire to whip up a good tale, of a return of the mark. Some even claim that secret supplies of the defunct currency – the strength of which was seen as a legacy of the sweat and tears that Germans spent to build up their ruined economy after the war – are being printed in secret underground locations. >>> Kate Connolly in Berlin | Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE OBSERVER: Party's influential elder statesman shuns favourite David Miliband, saying that his brother has greater leadership qualities
The race for the Labour leadership explodes into life today as the party's revered elder statesman and former leader, Neil Kinnock, shuns the favourite, David Miliband, and formally endorses his younger brother, Ed.
In an exclusive interview with the Observer Kinnock, who led Labour from 1983 to 1992, says Ed Miliband has all the vital gifts necessary to put the party back in power and possesses more leadership qualities than his brother. "I would say he has got the X-Factor, especially where the X is the sign you put on the voting slip at election time."
Asked directly if Ed is better suited to the job of Labour leader than David, Kinnock replies: "Yeah." While he insists that he admires and rates David "very highly", he adds: "In addition to his [David's] high intelligence I think the party needs leadership qualities, and Ed's got more of them."
The former party's leader's decision to go public is a serious setback to the former foreign secretary, who is seen by some in the party as lacking the common touch and to be too closely associated with the Tony Blair era. >>> Toby Helm, political editor | Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The crowning of a Lebanese woman as Miss USA has sparked rows about rigging and radicalism
SHE isn’t the first American beauty queen to be caught out by racy photographs from her past but Rima Fakih, who was crowned Miss USA last week, is certainly the first to be plunged into a political controversy about radical Islam, affirmative action and her family’s supposed links to the Hezbollah political and paramilitary organisation in Lebanon.
After her success as the first Muslim immigrant to win the Miss USA title, Fakih swiftly shrugged off the mildly salacious pole-dancing pictures that were leaked by someone she had considered a friend.
Less easy to dispel was an outburst of right-wing anger over a beauty pageant result that some believed had more to do with political correctness and commercial calculation than feminine appeal.
“If I had lost, people would have said, oh, it’s because you are a Muslim,” Fakih told The Sunday Times. “It’s funny, because now they are saying instead, oh, it’s because you are a Muslim that you won.”
Fakih, 24, moved to America with her Lebanese parents in 1993. The family settled in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the country’s largest Arab-American communities. She said she had wept when she heard that many of the city’s immigrants had taken to Dearborn’s streets to cheer her victory at the televised Las Vegas pageant last Sunday.
It did not take long for hostilities to commence on the internet, where an off-hand comment by one of America’s most prominent critics of radical Islam sparked angry exchanges about the judges’ intentions and whether or not Fakih deserved her crown. >>> Tony Allen-Mills in Washington | Sunday, May 23, 2010
Related articles and videos here
THE SUNDAY TIMES: An increasing number of Britons are converting to Islam. Mosques are open to the public, so it is possible simply to wander in and try the religion for size?
London Central Mosque, near Lord’s cricket ground. I have passed it 1,000 times. Years ago, on the bus, I stared admiringly at the golden dome. More recently, pushing my daughter on the swings at nearby Regent's Park, I’ve noticed the gold needs touching up. But in the past few weeks I’ve been wondering whether I dared to step inside, as if it were a church, for a spot of peace and reflection.
Like many other people brought up in no particular religious tradition, I’ve dabbled - attended a wide variety of Christian churches, married into a substantially Jewish family and looked extensively into Buddhism. But I'd never tried Islam, although the Central Mosque is one of more than 1,500 in Britain, serving a fast-growing British Muslim community that already numbers some 2.4m people - rather more than the 1.7m Anglicans who attend church each week. And I am intrigued by the thought that there may be lessons I could learn. Like it or not, mosques are a part of our landscape that’s here to stay. And they're open to the public - so what stopped me before?
Despite thinking of myself as open-minded, I've come to believe that getting close to Islam can be dangerous. After all, extremists like Abu Hamza recruited through mosques such as Finsbury Park, and I've interviewed people who told me that went on at other mosques too. But one reformed extremist, Ed Husain, now runs a counter-extremist think-tank and strongly encouraged me to visit a mosque. Who knows, I might discover that the prayer mat and the pew have much in common.
And so, on a Friday in spring, I took myself to the Central Mosque for lunchtime prayers. A vast, largely male crowd gathered, like at football grounds. Inside the great hall, I sat on the carpet like everyone else, at the back. I admired the geometric design inside the domed roof and watched the men around me - poor Bengalis from nearby estates, prosperous Arabs up from Edgware Road, and assorted Kosovars and Bosnians. Here and there, small children rolled about quietly.
After half an hour of Arabic, the imam spoke in English on the need to apologise after doing wrong. He addressed us as “dear brothers and sisters” - somewhere unseen, women were listening to him too.
Then the call to prayer began, and people behind me pushed forward to fill gaps. A few, having secured a place, turned and beckoned me to join them. But I was only here to observe, so I smiled and stayed where I was - until an angry-looking man stepped out of line and beckoned more forcefully. I meekly followed - only to find myself on a mat facing Mecca, bending at the hips as if to inspect my shoes, then dropping to my knees to rest my nose on the mat, bottom in the air, holes in socks for all to see, muttering “Allahu akbar” (God is great). A funny thing happened on the way to the mosque >>> John-Paul Flintoff | Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
LE MONDE: Joseph Stiglitz, 67 ans, Prix Nobel d'économie en 2001, ex-conseiller économique du président Bill Clinton (1995-1997) et ex-chef économiste de la Banque mondiale (1997-2000), est connu pour ses positions critiques sur les grandes institutions financières internationales, la pensée unique sur la mondialisation et le monétarisme. Il livre au Monde son analyse de la crise de l'euro.
Vous avez récemment dit que l'euro n'avait pas d'avenir sans réforme majeure. Qu'entendez-vous par là ?
L'Europe va dans la mauvaise direction. En adoptant la monnaie unique, les pays membres de la zone euro ont renoncé à deux instruments de politique économique : le taux de change et les taux d'intérêt. Il fallait donc trouver autre chose qui leur permette de s'adapter à la conjoncture si nécessaire. D'autant que Bruxelles n'a pas été assez loin en matière de régulation des marchés, jugeant que ces derniers étaient omnipotents. Mais l'Union européenne (UE) n'a rien prévu dans ce sens.
Et aujourd'hui, elle veut un plan coordonné d'austérité. Si elle continue dans cette voie-là, elle court au désastre. Nous savons, depuis la Grande Dépression des années 1930, que ce n'est pas ce qu'il faut faire. >>> Propos recueillis par Virginie Malingre, Londres Correspondante | Samedi 22 Mai 2010
Please support:
The Global Fund: To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria >>>
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an international financing institution that invests the world’s money to save lives. To date, it has committed US$ 19.3 billion in 144 countries to support large-scale prevention, treatment and care programs against the three diseases.
NB: 'Tuberculosis' and 'malaria' are not in the keywords/labels below because I have to use keywords/labels which are already in the bank. I have no more space left in the bank to add more. These two words are not in the bank; 'HIV' and 'Aids' are. So this should in no way be mis-read. I am not attaching more importance to one disease over the others. – Mark
TIMES ONLINE: When he arrived at Kampala’s Hotel Triangle for a three-day conference, the Rev Kapya Kaoma knew that he would not like what he heard.
The clue was in the event’s title — “Exposing the truth behind homosexuality and the homosexual agenda” — and in the line-up of guest speakers arranged by Stephen Langa, head of the Ugandan-based Family Life Network (FLN), and an outspoken advocate for the criminalisation of homosexuality in Uganda.
Given top billing at the event hosted by the FLN was Scott Lively, president of Abiding Truth Ministries, an American conservative Christian group from California, and a Holocaust revisionist whose controversial book The Pink Swastika names homosexuals as “the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities.”
Weeks after the Kampala conference in March last year — which followed a meeting between the speakers and members of the Ugandan Parliament — a clause appeared in the country’s draft Anti-Homosexuality Bill recommending life imprisonment for certain homosexual “crimes” or, for “serial offenders”, the death sentence.
To Mr Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia who is project director of Political Research Associates — a Massachusetts-based progressive think-tank — it was further evidence of how America’s Christian Right has stoked intolerance to homosexuality in Africa.
After a 16-month investigation, during which he interviewed scores of witnesses in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, Mr Kaoma concluded that Africa’s anti-gay crackdowns are, at least in part, “made in the USA”. >>> Jacqui Goddard in Miami and Jonathan Clayton in Nairobi | Saturday, May 22, 2010
Click here for related article.
EUROPE NEWS: A new Muslim organization, Muslim Rise, has sprung up in Belgium to organize a protest against the upcoming veil ban. The organization also invited well-known British radical Anjem Choudary. I wouldn't be surprised if this is Sharia4Belgium redux, and/or another attempt by Choudary to set up his organization in Belgium.
Though they say they will have a peaceful demonstration against "the kuffar", their role models are anything but. Khalid Ibn Waleed, Salahedinne Al Ayoubi, Mehmet Fatih are conquerors, and Omar Al Mokhtar was a Libyan resistance fighter against the Italian occupation. >>> | Monday, May 17, 2010
GAZET VAN ANTWERPEN: Moslims gaan betogen - "Verbod nikab is naaktheid tegenover Allah" >>>
NEUE OSNABRÜCKER ZEITUNG: Die Bereitschaft der Griechen, mit der alltäglichen Korruption in ihrem krisengeschüttelten Land zu brechen, ist größer als bisher angenommen. Die überwältigende Mehrheit der Bürger verurteilt die gängige Praxis der Schmiergeldzahlung. Das geht aus einer Untersuchung von Transparency International hervor, aus der unsere Zeitung (Samstagausgabe) zitiert.
Nach dem Bericht des nationalen Zweiges der weltweit gegen Korruption kämpfenden Organisation halten 92 Prozent aller Griechen es für falsch, bei Anwälten, Ärzten, Banken oder Behörden Bestechungsgeld zu zahlen. 96 Prozent der Befragten sprechen sich dafür aus, die Annahme von Schmiergeld konsequent zu bestrafen. Drei von vier Griechen wünschen sich in diesem Zusammenhang, dass die Justiz unabhängiger wird. 73 Prozent der Bevölkerung plädieren für eine breite Aufklärungskampagne über Korruption in den Medien ihres Landes. Transparency hat für die Studie im vergangenen Jahr mehr als 6000 erwachsene Griechen durch Meinungsforscher befragen lassen. >>> reb Osnabrück. | Samstag 22 Mai 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Cabinet ministers are at loggerheads about the future involvement of British troops in Afghanistan.
The potentially damaging split opened up as three members of the government, led by the Foreign Secretary William Hague, arrived in Kabul to meet political and military leaders.
Mr Hague, the Defence Secretary Liam Fox and the International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said they were there to look at ways to accelerate Afghan troop training.
But deep divisions immediately became apparent over future strategy. While Mr Mitchell said it was "crucial" to create a functioning Afghan state by providing good health care and education, Dr Fox insisted that Britain was not there to fix Afghanistan. Ahead of talks with President Hamid Karzai, he also risked angering locals by referring to Afghanistan as "13th century". >>> Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor | Saturday, May 22, 2010
leJDD.fr: Fraîchement élue au titre de Miss USA, la jeune Libano-américaine Rima Fakih se retrouve prise dans un scandale comme seuls les médias américains en ont le secret. "Coupable" d’avoir remporté un concours de striptease il y a trois ans, la belle à qui le destin promettait la gloire voit une partie de son pays s’élever contre elle.
On la croyait touchée par la grâce, c’est raté. Toute auréolée de son titre de Miss USA acquis dimanche devant les yeux de millions d’américains, Rima Fakih semblait vivre un conte de fée moderne made in Obama. La jeune femme de 24 ans, d’origine libanaise, est la première reine de beauté américaine à se déclarer officiellement musulmane. Une belle histoire pour Rima Fakih, arrivée à New York étant bébé et vivant dans le Michigan depuis 2003.
C’était sans compter sur la polémique qui agite depuis lundi la sphère médiatique. La belle aurait en fait un passé pas si innocent. Celle qui s’apprête à exporter l’idéal américain de beauté et de vertu à travers le monde est en réalité une ancienne stripteaseuse. L’histoire n’est pas sans rappeler celle de Valérie Bègue, Miss France 2008, critiquée pour avoir posé dans des postures dites "érotiques" quelques semaines avant son sacre national. Rima Fakih se trouve aujourd’hui sous le feu des critiques. >>> Grégory Raymond, leJDD.fr | Mardi 18 Mai 2010
Pour liens en relation avec cet article, cliquez ici
YAHOO! NEWS: A community is in mourning after a British husband, wife and daughter were gunned down in Pakistan when an arranged marriage ended in murder.
Father-of-six Mohammad Yousaf, 51, his wife Pervaze Yousaf, 49, and their 22-year-old daughter Tania, had left the UK to attend the wedding of a son in Pakistan surrounded by loving family and friends.
But they were shot dead just days after the happy ceremony while paying respects at a family graveyard.
Members of the devastated family, from Nelson, Lancashire, were being consoled by relatives. Tania's two young boys, Harris, aged nine months, and three-year-old Arien, were being looked after by relatives in Pakistan. >>> Press Association | Saturday, May 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: American students will learn more about the virtues of free enterprise, Biblical values and the Confederacy's cause, and less about slavery and civil rights in a controversial new curriculum being pushed through by the Texas school board.
Members of the state's board of education put the finishing touches on Friday to a new history and social studies curriculum for the state's 4.8 million state school students.
The proposed programme, which will affect other parts of the US due to Texas's large share of the school textbook market, has prompted months of fierce argument and protests outside the board's headquarters in Austin.
Conservatives, who constitute a two-thirds majority on the 15-strong board, which is composed of non-education specialists, say the new curriculum will be more positive about America, particularly the South, and its history. >>> Tom Leonard in New York | Friday, May 21, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: When David Cameron planned his first foray into Europe as British Prime Minister he cannot have imagined that he would be entering a maelstrom.
But a financial maelstrom it is, with stock markets falling, the euro currency sliding and politicians openly talking about the biggest crisis for the union since the European Community was founded. That makes Mr Cameron's trip to Paris and Berlin this week seem more of a sideshow in the Continent, for all the pre-meeting suggestion of a clash between a Eurosceptic British leader and his European partners. But it also provides opportunities for forging a new relationship in crisis which the British premier could never have foreseen. >>> | Saturday, May 22, 2010
LE FIGARO: Le nouveau premier ministre britannique a été reçu, jeudi, à dîner à l'Élysée pour sa première visite à l'étranger.
De ce côté-ci de la Manche, le choix de David Cameron de se rendre à Paris pour son premier déplacement à l'étranger a été apprécié comme un signe de pragmatisme de la part du nouveau premier ministre britannique. À l'Élysée, où il a été reçu à dîner jeudi soir, avant d'aller ce vendredi à Berlin, le chef du gouvernement au pouvoir à Londres depuis une semaine a souligné son «analyse commune» avec la France sur de nombreux dossiers. C'est le cas, a-t-il assuré, sur le besoin de coordination économique, sur la nécessité de s'attaquer au déficit budgétaire, sur l'Afghanistan - cette année sera «cruciale» - et sur l'Iran. «Nous sommes partis du bon pied», a déclaré David Cameron, en vantant le «dynamisme» et le «leadership» de Nicolas Sarkozy, «le premier dirigeant étranger que j'ai rencontré, il y a cinq ans». Le chef de l'État lui a fait écho en vantant une «identité de vue» sur la plupart des grands sujets internationaux. La perspective s'annonce prometteuse de «travailler main dans la main en Europe, mais aussi dans le cadre de nos activités du G8 et du G20», a assuré Nicolas Sarkozy.
«Nous avons besoin des Anglais en Europe, c'est absolument stratégique. Je suis sûr qu'un homme comme David Cameron, qui a de l'ambition pour son pays, me comprend également», a insisté le président de la République. >>> Par Alain Barluet | Vendredi 21 Mai 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: The global recession has changed everything, exposing grave structural problems within the European economy.
Fears about the future of the euro have helped plunge global markets into chaos, with share prices around the world reacting to the possibility that the eurozone will break up and that several of its member countries may default on their debts.
Will the euro survive? It is a question that, two years ago, would have seemed outrageous. Anyone who suggested that the eurozone was fatally flawed was branded as a Europhobe, someone who hated the European Union, not just its single currency. For the euro appeared a success. After a few wobbles, it had established itself as a major currency, while across the Continent, euros were making it easy for people to travel and trade. More important, adopting the euro seemed to have given a greater stability to countries that had previously had weaker currencies, such as Italy and Spain, cutting their interest rates and encouraging growth.
True, there were rumbles of discontent. Many in Germany felt the country had had to adopt too tough a policy to hold down its costs, whereas in Spain and Ireland the soaring property prices exposed the difficulties created by one-size-fits-all interest rates. Even more ominously, a number of countries, including France and Germany, had breached the rule in the Maastricht Treaty that fiscal deficits should not exceed 3 per cent of GDP. But while the boom continued, these problems seemed a small price for the stability it gave the Continent. >>> Hamish McRae | Saturday, May 22, 2010
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Der neue britische Premierminister David Cameron ist zum Antrittsbesuch in Berlin. Mit Bundeskanzlerin Merkel tauschte er sich auch über die Arbeitsweisen einer Koalition aus, die in England eher ungewöhnlich ist. Zum Video >>> Reuters | Freitag, 21. Mai 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Gegen Symptomtherapie im Finanzmarkt: Cameron lässt sich von Merkels Regulierungsfuror nicht anstecken >>> ddp | Freitag, 21. Mai 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: David Cameron made clear today he would not accept any attempt to force Britain to come to the aid of the eurozone through a new EU treaty.
In a direct and undiplomatic rebuff to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, Mr Cameron insisted that Britain would not be “drawn further” into supporting the currency area.
Mrs Merkel has previously suggested that a new treaty, increasing the EU’s power over member states’ fiscal policy, might be necessary to prevent another Greek-style eurozone crisis.
Speaking at a joint press conference after his first meeting with the German Chancellor, Mr Cameron said: “There is no question of agreeing to a treaty that transfers power from Westminster to Brussels.
“That is set out 100 per cent clearly in the coalition agreement.
“Britain obviously is not in the euro and Britain is not going to be in the euro, and so Britain would not be agreeing to any agreement or treaty that drew us further into supporting the euro area.”
The Prime Minister stressed that any new European treaty, even one applying only to the eurozone would need unanimous agreement, effectively giving Britain a veto. >>> Raf Sanchez | Friday, May 21, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)