The EU should be stronger and more united. Great Britain should belong to the Union.
Die EU sollte stärker und geeinter sein. Großbritannien sollte der Union angehören.
L'UE devrait être plus forte et plus unie. La Grande-Bretagne devrait appartenir à l'Union.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Iran tries to humiliate the UK and hardens its attitude
BBC: Iran has offered to let UK officials visit the 15 Royal Navy personnel who were captured in the Gulf on Friday.
Iran's foreign minister also said the only woman being held, Faye Turney, who has been interviewed on Iranian state television, could be released.
But he said the stand-off would be resolved only if the UK stated that the sailors and marines had been in Iranian waters last Friday, which it denies. Iran offers UK access to sailors
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Bewaffnete Koranschüler in Islamabad, unter ihnen zahlreiche Mädchen, haben ein Bordell angegriffen und die Leiterin, zwei weitere Frauen sowie zwei Polizisten in ihre Gewalt gebracht. Die Polizei nahm daraufhin einige Schülerinnen fest, und es kam zu Protesten. Ein Leiter der „Jamias Hafsa Madrassa“, von der der Angriff ausging, drohte am Mittwoch damit, eine „Kampagne gegen die Regierung“ zu beginnen, sollten seine Schülerinnen nicht freigelassen werden.
In der Koranschule wurde die Aktion mit den Worten verteidigt, man habe das Recht, sich gegen „unmoralische Aktivitäten“ zu wehren. Entsprechende Aufforderungen an die Polizei, das nahe gelegene Bordell zu schließen, seien ungehört verhallt. Gegenüber der Deutschen Presse-Agentur sagte ein Direktor der Koranschule, die Bordellleiterin werde nun „umerzogen“. Die Koranschule, die im Herzen der Hauptstadt steht und zur bekannten „Roten Moschee“ gehört, hatte in den vergangenen Wochen mehrfach Aufsehen hervorgerufen. Islamistinnen stürmen Bordell
BBC: Riots at a train station in the French capital, Paris, have become an issue in the upcoming presidential election.
The government's candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, said police were justified in arresting an alleged fare dodger - the action that sparked the riots.
Socialist candidate Segolene Royal said the clashes resulted from Mr Sarkozy's failures as interior minister.
About 100 youths clashed with police at the Gare du Nord station after a dispute over a train fare.
Rioters smashed windows and attacked vending machines and shops, after objecting to the treatment of a man arrested for jumping a ticket barrier.
Transport officials said the man punched two ticket inspectors who asked for his ticket as part of a routine inspection. Paris riot becomes an election issue
War or peace, it’s Israel’s call says Prince Saud al-Faisal
DAILY TELEGRAPH: The "lords of war" will decide Israel's future if it rejects a blueprint for peace crafted by the entire Arab world, Saudi Arabia's veteran foreign minister warned yesterday.
As leaders began gathering in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for today's summit of the Arab League, Prince Saud al-Faisal told The Daily Telegraph that the Middle East risks perpetual conflict if the peace plan fails.
Under this Saudi-drafted proposal, every Arab country would formally recognise Israel in return for a withdrawal from all the land captured in the war of 1967.
This would entail a Palestinian state embracing the entire West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. Every Arab country will almost certainly endorse this blueprint when the Riyadh summit concludes tomorrow. Prince Saud said Israel should accept or reject this final offer. Accept peace plan or face war, Israel told by David Blair
Disturbing news for peacemakers: "The Arab culture is inferior", say over 37% of Israelis polled
Recent poll reveals steep rise in racist views against Arabs in Israel; many participants feel hatred, fear when overhearing Arabic, 75 percent don’t approve of shared apartment buildings
YNET NEWS: Over half of the Jewish population in Israel believes the marriage of a Jewish woman to an Arab man is equal to national treason, according to a recent survey by the Geocartography Institute.
The survey, which was conducted for the Center Against Racism, also found that over 75 percent of participants did not approve of apartment buildings being shared between Arabs and Jews. Sixty percent of participants said they would not allow an Arab to visit their home.
Five hundred Jewish men and women participated in the poll, which was published Tuesday.
According to the survey, racism against Arabs in Israel has seen a sharp rise since a similar survey was conducted two years ago. ’Marriage to an Arab is national treason’ by Rose Nahmias
The seeds of capitalism’s own destruction are being sown!
It was reported in the Financial Times on Saturday last week (March 17, 2007) that Aston Martin (James Bond’s favourite sports car) has been sold by Ford Motor to a consortium which is to finance the LBO (leveraged buy-out) according to strict Islamic principles. This deal appears to be the deal they don’t want you to know about, since it has hardly been reported in the mainstream media at all.
Ford Motor agreed to the sale for £479m to a consortium organised by Dave Richards, a motor racing entrepreneur.
The financing of this LBO “will be financed in an exclusively shariah-compliant way”, David Testa said, the executive director of West LB, the German bank appointed to arrange £225m of the quasi debt finance to back the LBO. It is believed that this is the first time that Islamic finance has been used in the West for an LBO. The Islamic financial focus has arisen because Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co are two Kuwaiti groups that invest in accordance with Shari’ah principles of investment, which eschew, of course, conventional Western, capitalist-style financing arrangements.
It is said that there is a rapid growth in the Islamic finance sector, a sector which is said to have grown substantially and is said to have assets already in excess of $300bn, or approximately £155bn, worldwide. Further, it is worth noting that Western investment banks like West LB, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and Barclays are becoming more and more involved in Islamic finance, too.
The Financial Times went on to say that we shall have to wait and see to know whether these financiers will also ban “factors deemed to be non-Koranic” such as “martini-swilling spies to market the iconic brand”.
It should be noted that it would seem fair to say that the 'great and the good' in the world of Western finance have little realisation of the implications of their greed, or else, if they do, then they are insouciant about them. For capitalism, this really must be a step in the wrong direction. The élite in the business world seem not to realise, still less understand, that Islamic economics is not the same as Western capitalism. These two economic systems are diametrically opposed, just as Islam is diametrically opposed to Judeo-Christianity.
It is sad to say that we are sowing the seeds of our own destruction, and the people at the top are too dumb to see it!
CNBC World - Islamic Finance: Applying religion to economics
Europeans ‘favour using all means, including military force, to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons’
Iran’s brinkmanship has entered a new and potentially dangerous phase. The 15 Royal Navy personnel captured on Friday were moved to Tehran yesterday, presumably for propaganda purposes. So far, calls for their safe return by Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, have fallen on deaf ears, as have her demands for a full explanation from Tehran.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, is playing an obvious game. Last night the United Nations security council was voting in New York on extending sanctions against Iran, banning arms exports and freezing assets of individuals and companies involved in its nuclear and weapons programmes. The security council tested the water with limited sanctions in December. Last night’s vote was aimed at ratcheting up the pressure.
Welcome muscle is coming from other quarters, too. Russia is reported to have issued an ultimatum threatening not to supply fuel to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant unless it suspends its uranium enrichment programme. Moscow is also said to be withdrawing its engineers from the plant, concerned at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. Now Iran’s state-run media have accused Russia of being an “unreliable partner”. Keep up the pressure
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Two thousand years ago Roman soldiers united enormous territories from Britain to Athens, from the Rhine to the Iberian peninsula, by the sword. Europe has survived many destructive wars and the collapse of empires. It overcame the dictatorship of tyrants and the horrors of Nazism, but at the same time lived through the Renaissance and sowed the seeds of democracy. It was Europe that formulated the noble ideas of humanism and the Enlightenment, which formed the foundation of European civilisation.
As often happens, history made an astonishing turn — it was in Rome, the Eternal City, where 50 years ago treaties were signed that laid the foundation for a new association of European nations, based not on force or coercion but on common aspirations and values.
The treaties of Rome were in many respects innovative and almost revolutionary for their time. Many wounds of the second world war had still not healed. But the signatory countries demonstrated the political will to work out a joint strategy of cooperation and integration while overcoming the burdens of the past.
The founding fathers of the pan-European movement dreamt about “the prosperity, peace and independence of the continent”. They were right in guessing the future, realising that security and wellbeing are indivisible. The establishment of the European communities on March 25, 1957 had an enormous influence in shaping contemporary Europe. European Union states have been able to further the rights and freedoms of citizens and achieve economic and social progress.
But it was only the end of the cold war that brought about real conditions for the fulfilment of the “fundamental” European idea — the unification of the continent. This was “the peace dividend” following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The Russian people’s choice in the early 1990s did not merely expand the space of freedom on the continent but actually determined the path of further European integration.
In many respects this choice was defined by the history of Russia. In terms of spirit and culture Russia is an integral part of European civilisation. Our people made an invaluable contribution to its development. (Cont'd): Russia is Europe’s natural ally by Vladimir Putin
FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying. A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.
Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”
The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.
European Union leaders have joined a gala concert in Berlin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bloc, which was founded by the 1957 Treaty of Rome.
The concert, conducted by Britain's Sir Simon Rattle, will be followed by dinner for the 27 leaders at German President Horst Koehler's residence.
Berliners will also join events at city clubs and museums throughout the night.
A leader's summit on Sunday will endorse a statement emphasising the EU's achievements and challenges ahead.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will use the event to relaunch the debate on the EU's stalled constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. EU celebrates its 50th birthday
Why do we tolerate this nonsense from Muslims? They say: “The killing of non-Muslims is legitimate!”
Haven't these Muslims got a nerve? They come to our country and talk disparagingly about us. We should kick such people OUT! Forthwith! We don't have to put up with this nonsense. They are in our country. We are not in theirs. It's high time that our politicians had the balls to point this out to them. By the way, it’s good to see, at last, some anti-dhimmitude from the BBC!:
By giving tax advantages for Shariah-compliant finance in his budget, Brown starts turning the world of finance Islamic green!
The chancellor has introduced legislation which will now treat these Sukuk transactions as being similar to conventional bond transactions, thereby removing the tax disadvantage for its use.
This change should lead to a sharp increase in the usage of these kinds of Islamic financing instruments - not only by businesses which want to be Shariah-compliant, but also by other businesses which want to diversify their investor base and tap into the immense pool of Islamic finance in the oil rich Middle East.
The chancellor has not only created the framework for London to emerge as the leader in the global Islamic finance industry but his changes are likely to be replicated in many other countries.
Islamic finance will move from being niche to the mainstream as a viable and valid financing option for all. - Darshan Bijur
BBC: Changes to the tax system unveiled in the Budget will potentially make the UK a key world centre in the development of Islamic finance - a market currently estimated to be worth $400bn globally.
Islamic finance is based on Islamic principles and jurisprudence (Shariah).
The basic Shariah prohibitions are on the earning (or payment) of interest, speculation, contractual uncertainly and transactions which are overly advantageous to one party at the expense of another.
The Shariah also prohibits any participation in weapons, pork, gambling, pornography and alcohol businesses.
Overcoming most of these prohibitions is very difficult in the conventional finance system.
The Islamic finance industry has thus developed various Shariah-compliant structures in order to provide investment opportunities and to meet the financing needs of businesses and investors who want to comply with the Shariah. Islamic finance: From niche to mainstream by Darshan Bijur
YAHOO NEWS: The Government is demanding the "immediate and safe return" of 15 British sailors and Marines who are being held by Iranian forces. They were taking part in a routine operation boarding merchant ships in Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized by Iranian naval vessels.
The sailors and Marines had completed a successful inspection of one ship, reportedly a dhow, when the group and their two boats were surrounded.
BBC: Fifteen British Navy personnel have been captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces, the Ministry of Defence says.
The men were seized at 1030 local time when they boarded a boat in the Gulf, off the coast of Iraq, which they suspected was smuggling cars.
The Royal Navy said it was doing everything it could to secure the release of its personnel, who are based on HMS Cornwall. UK sailors captured at gunpoint
Länder wollen Ausnahmeregelungen für Bierzelte oder Eckkneipen
Ein einheitliches Rauchverbot in deutschen Gaststätten wird es vorerst nicht geben. Die Ministerpräsidenten der Bundesländer einigten sich darauf, dass Ausnahmen möglich sein sollten. So soll in kleinen Kneipen weiterhin gequalmt werden dürfen. Löchriges deutsches Rauchverbot
