Buffett: Crisis Is an Economic Pearl Harbor
TIMES ONLINE: Warren Buffett said yesterday that the US economy had “fallen off a cliff”, describing the current crisis as “an economic Pearl Harbor” as concern spread about the US Administration’s fitful attempts to halt the collapse of the American banking sector.

The leading investor, an informal adviser to President Obama whose financial diagnoses are widely respected – even though he conceded that he failed to predict the severity of the crisis – said that the economy had come “close to the worst case” imagined, and that recovery would be slow.

Mr Buffett, a multibillionaire, said that the entire banking sector had been hours from collapse in September, and would have imploded without the $700 billion Wall Street emergency bailout.

Mr Buffett also spoke of the growing fears over Mr Obama’s muddled approach to the central issue in solving the economic crisis: what to do with the banks’ $2 trillion of toxic debt that is threatening the collapse of the financial sector. Mr Obama and his Treasury chief, Timothy Geithner, have said that they do not want to nationalise any banks but they are coming under increasing pressure after massive and repeated injections of cash into crippled financial giants such as Citigroup, Bank of America and AIG have failed to stem losses. >>> Tim Reid in Washington | Tuesday, March 10, 2009

AOL: Warren Buffett Says Economy Fell Off Cliff

OMAHA, Neb. - Billionaire Warren Buffett remains confident that America's best days are ahead, but he says the nation likely will face higher unemployment and eventually inflation because of the current economic crisis. Buffett said the nation's leaders need to emphasize a consistent message, and they should support President Barack Obama's efforts to repair the economy because fear is dominating Americans' behavior.

Buffett said the economy has basically followed the worst-case scenario he envisioned six months ago.

"It's fallen off a cliff," Buffett said Monday during a live appearance on cable network CNBC. "Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven't seen."

Buffett said the changes are reflected in the results of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiaries. He said Berkshire's jewelry companies have suffered, but more people have been willing to switch to Geico to save money on car insurance. The three-hour-long interview aired from another Berkshire subsidiary that has been hampered by the economy, the Nebraska Furniture Mart store in Omaha.

He predicted that unemployment will climb a lot higher before the recession is done, but he also reiterated his optimistic long-term view: "Everything will be all right. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created."

Fear and confusion have been driving consumer and investor behavior in recent months, Buffett said.

The nation's leaders need to clear up the confusion before anyone will become more confident, and he said all 535 members of Congress should stop the partisan bickering about solutions. He said politicians should also stop trying to use the current economic crisis to force through other policy changes.

"We ought to defer most of the things that get people riled up," Buffett said. >>> By Josh Funk, AP | Monday, March 9, 2009

CNBC: “Economy Has Fallen Off a Cliff”


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China lehnt die Demokratie ab
WELT ONLINE: Die Aussage des chinesischen Parlamentspräsidenten Wu auf dem Volkskongress war deutlich: In China wird es keine Demokratie geben. "Wir werden niemals ein Mehrparteiensystem einführen", sagte die Nummer zwei an Chinas Polit-Spitze. Beobachter sehen in der Rede mehr als nur ein Ja zum Sozialismus.

Chinas Parlamentspräsident Wu Bangguo hat einer parlamentarischen Demokratie nach westlichem Vorbild eine klare Absage erteilt.

„Auf keinen Fall können wir das westliche System kopieren“, sagte Wu vor dem Nationalen Volkskongress, der derzeit seine Jahrestagung in Peking abhält. 

„Wir werden niemals ein Mehrparteiensystem einführen“, sagte der 67-Jährige. Auch eine Trennung von Legislative, Exekutive und Judikative oder das Zweikammersystem werde es nicht geben.

In China gelte ein „System von Zusammenarbeit und politischen Beratungen unter dem Dach der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas und kein Mehrparteiensystem nach westlichem Muster“. Wu nimmt in der Hierarchie Chinas nach Staatspräsident Hu Jintao offiziell Platz zwei ein.

Beobachter werteten die Rede als klare Absage an politische Reformen, die sowohl im Ausland als auch in China selbst immer wieder gefordert werden. Volkscongreß: China weist westliches Demokratieprinzip zurück >>> AP/AFP/ab | Montag, 9. März 2009

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Obama, sa nouvelle vie à la Maison Blanche
LE MONDE: Il arrive au bureau Ovale vers 8 heures, nettement plus tard que son prédécesseur George W. Bush, mais il se couche beaucoup moins tôt. Il fait de la gymnastique tous les jours, et il est très heureux, après deux ans de campagne électorale, de pouvoir dormir sous le même toit que sa famille. Il reçoit 40 000 lettres par jour. Chaque matin, le "staff" lui en sélectionne une dizaine qu'il va lire pendant la journée, dans les quelques minutes qu'il a demandé qu'on lui laisse entre ses rendez-vous. Barack Obama, qui a donné un aperçu de sa routine de président dans une série d'entretiens, a eu du mal à s'habituer à sa solitude forcée. Il a insisté pour que son équipe lui organise une sortie hebdomadaire, au contact des Américains. >>> Corine Lesnes, LeMonde | Lundi, 09 Mars 2009

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Sarkozy Provokes Anger with Luxury Holiday in Mexico
THE TELEGRAPH: President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla have provoked an outcry in France by spending the weekend in a £2,100-a-night beach-front villa in Mexico.

’Président de Bling’ in Mexico, enjoying a luxury getaway with his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at the El Tamarindo Beach and Golf Resort on Mexico’s south-eastern Pacific coast. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The couple spent the weekend at the El Tamarindo Beach and Golf Resort, located in a nature reserve on Mexico’s south-eastern Pacific Coast.

The villa cost £1,640 plus 17 per cent tax and 10 per cent service charge – making a total of just over £2,100 per night. However, the overall cost including security and staff is believed to have come to £45,000.

The visit was shrouded in secrecy and disclosed only after Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy inadvertently told friends at a charity event on Thursday afternoon that “I’m leaving tonight for Mexico” after her husband had burst in a little earlier.

The one-bedroom villa, owned by a multi-millionaire friend of Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón, comes with private pool, outdoor Jacuzzi, butler, cook and maid. It is set in 2,000 acres of tropical rainforest. The Elysée said the presidential couple had sought to keep the private break secret “for security reasons”.

Unemployment in France passed two million in January and the country is expected to go into recession this quarter. “I find [the holiday] very shocking at a time of international crisis and rising unemployment,” Marielle de Sarnez, the vice-president of the centrist Modem party, said.

“At root, it reveals the glaring gap between the president and the people: he is not aware of the state of the country and what the French are going through. The least a leader can do is to assume a form of solidarity with the population. Why can’t he just take a normal break? He’s not obliged to go to a palace, even if someone else is paying.” >>> By Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, March 9, 2009

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Time to Get Rid of Gordon Brown, the Profligate Prime Minister!
THE TELEGRAPH: John Howard, the former Australian prime minister, has warned that Gordon Brown's policy of imposing large debt levels will load "nasty medicine" onto future generations.

Former Australian PM John Howard said that spending billions to try to survive the recession merely stored up problems for future generations. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
His comments come after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, said cutting VAT in the UK was a "mistake" and warned that running up large debts in Britain could "ruin the country".

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Howard said that spending billions to try to survive the recession merely stored up problems for future generations, he said.

He said: "Medicine will have to be taken and it is a question of making sure that we don't load all the bad nasty medicine onto future generations.

"It is common-sense that if you get too deeply into debt the burden you put on future generations is enormous."

Mr Howard, who was led the right wing Liberal Government from 1996 to 2007 and a close ally of Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister, said he was worried that governments seemed to think that there was no alternative to this form of "deficit spending" to survive the recession.

He said: "There is a danger that governments generally will think that the solution is to go ever deeper into debt. That troubles me because I don't think it is.

"My sense is that over the last month or six weeks the sense of restraint how far you go into debt seems to have disappeared and that troubles me.

"There is a mood developing that it does not matter how much you are going into debt. I am not sure that is a sensible thing." Former Australian PM John Howard Warns of Gordon Brown's Nasty Medicine >>> By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor | Monday, March 9, 2009

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Israeli, Vatican Historians Meet to Discuss Wartime Pope
Photo of Pope Pius XII flanked by soldiers of the Third Reich courtesy of Google Images
HAARETZ: Israeli and Vatican historians met for the first time Sunday to discuss the current state of research into Pope Pius XII and his Holocaust-era conduct.

The gathering at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial signals a growing willingness of Israeli and Vatican officials to try to resolve one of their most sensitive disagreements - the pope's action or inaction during the Nazi genocide.

Most Jews believe Pope Pius XII was partly to blame for the scope of the Holocaust tragedy for failing to speak out publicly against the Nazi atrocities or attempting to mobilize Catholics in Germany and elsewhere to stop it.

The Vatican has struggled to defend its wartime pope as it pushes his sainthood cause, insisting that Pius spearheaded discreet diplomacy that saved thousands of Jews.

A symbol of the dispute is a caption of a photo of Pius at Yad Vashem's museum that says he did not protest the Nazi genocide of Jews and maintained a largely neutral position. The Vatican protests the wording. >>> Associated Press | Monday, March 9, 2009

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Rachida Dati 'Forced to Take Unconventional Route to Motherhood'
THE TELEGRAPH: Rachida Dati, the French justice minister, has defended her decision to return to work five days after giving birth in her first interview since her lightning-fast maternity leave.

Photo of Rachida Dati courtesy of The Telegraph
Miss Dati, 43, who has fallen from grace with President Nicolas Sarkozy, said that her decision to return immediately to work was personal and not an attempt to prove she was a "high-performance" superwoman.

"My health was up to it and I would have done nothing against my doctor's advice. You mustn't believe that I wasn't tired. Of course I was. I'm not 20 anymore. Moreover, I'm justice minister, I have my duties," she told Le Journal du Dimanche. "But, fundamentally, I believe that the most important right of women is freedom," she said, in an interview that was published on International Women's Day.

France's first minister of North African descent ignited a fierce debate after giving birth by Caesarean section to baby Zohra in January, with several feminists saying she had done a disservice to working women by rushing back to the office so soon.

The unmarried Miss Dati, who has described her private life as "complicated", reaffirmed that she had no intention of naming the father of her daughter, merely adding: "Of course I would have dreamed of starting a more conventional family, but life decided otherwise."

Among those who have denied being the father are Mr Sarkozy's brother François, a Qatari prosecutor and Jose Maria Aznar, the former Spanish prime minister.

Miss Dati, who is also mayor of Paris' chic 7th arrondissement, responded to allegations that have sapped her star status, including that she had bullied staff and magistrates, was more fond of fashion and gems than ministerial dossiers and had more or less been fired by Mr Sarkozy.

She defended her political record, saying that she had pushed through 30 reforms during her two years in the job, one of which other ministers had tried and failed to enact over several decades. She was not "impulsive or hot-headed", she said, but had natural "authority". >>> By Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, March 9, 2009

leJDD.fr: Dati: "Le premier droit des femmes, c'est la liberté"

Rachida Dati a choisi la journée de la femme pour faire taire ses détracteurs et leur dire qu'à l'avenir, il faudra compter sur elle. La ministre de la Justice, qui va quitter prochainement la place Vendôme pour mener la campagne des élections européennes en Ile-de-France s'explique sur son parcours, sa médiatisation et ses réformes, et assume complètement son bilan.

Vous avez 43 ans, un premier enfant et vous changez de job. Au moins trois raisons de faire un bilan. Quel est-il?

L'événement qui a été le plus marquant pour moi, c'est la naissance de ma fille. J'ai longtemps cru ne pas pouvoir avoir d'enfant, ça a été une belle surprise. Quant au job, en briguant un mandat de députée européenne, je change de responsabilités mais pas de mission. Je reste au service des Français. J'ai l'honneur d'être ministre de la Justice, un ministère où le drame, la douleur, les difficultés sont le quotidien. J'ai plus que jamais envie de continuer à faire de la politique, c'est-à-dire d'améliorer la vie des gens. Ma capacité d'indignation reste intacte.

Depuis que vous êtes ministre, vous avez fait 30 unes de quotidiens et
60 couvertures de magazines. Mais ce sont votre personnalité, vos toilettes, vos amours qui ont monopolisé l'attention, pas vos réformes...

L'exposition venait de ma nomination. En me plaçant à la tête d'un ministère régalien, Nicolas Sarkozy a donné un signe fort à la société française. J'en ai accepté la contrepartie médiatique. Mais, vous savez, au bout d'un moment, vous ne vous reconnaissez même plus, ni dans les images ni dans les propos que l'on vous prête. >>> Propos recueillis par Anne-Laure BARRET, Marie-Laure DELORME et Marie-Christine TABET, Le Journal du Dimanche | Samedi 07 Mars 2009

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Das Monsterbudget
ZEIT ONLINE: Barack Obamas Haushaltsentwurf treibt Ausgaben, Schulden und Steuern gefährlich in die Höhe

Foto von Präsident Obama dank der Corriere della Sera
Zwei Zahlen, die nicht alle Tage vorkommen: ein Haushaltsdefizit von 1,75 Billionen Dollar, das 12,5 Prozent der Wirtschaftsleistung (BIP) entspricht. Werfen wir einen Blick nach Europa, um Barack Obamas Budgetvorlage einzuordnen: Brüssel wollte 2004 hohe Strafen gegen Deutschland und Frankreich verhängen, weil die schon wieder die Defizitgrenze von drei Prozent durchbrochen hatten. Ein doppelstelliges Defizit – das hat Amerika seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nicht mehr erlebt. Ein Trost für Obama: 1944 klaffte eine Lücke von 50 Prozent – sieben Billionen (heutige) Dollar. Die Europäer, die den Amerikanern schon bei fünf Prozent gern und ausgiebig die absolute Verantwortungslosigkeit bescheinigt haben, zucken heute mit den Schultern. Trotzdem wollen 1,75 Billionen Dollar erst einmal geborgt sein. Die US-Bundesobligationen werden, das bedenkt derzeit niemand, auch in Europa platziert werden, also hier die Zinsen hochtreiben und Kapital absaugen.

Die Kommentatoren auf dieser Seite des Atlantiks haben das Monsterbudget des Obama sogar wohlwollend aufgenommen. Auch hier ein wenig Perspektive: Die vier Billionen des Haushalts sind noch etwas mehr als das gesamte deutsche BIP und sehr viel mehr als nur ein »stimulus«, eine Konjunkturspritze, mit Goodies für viele und vieles – zum Beispiel für Stipendien, aber auch für die Armee (plus vier Prozent).

Der Kern des Programms (wenn denn alles durch den Kongress geht, was nicht geschehen wird) ist ein Stück »Sozialdemokratisierung« Amerikas – wenn auch nicht so radikal wie unter Roosevelt (1933 bis 1945). Der Bund allein wird nun 28 Prozent des BIP verbrauchen – acht Punkte mehr als 2007. Das ist ein europäischer Wert.

Der Bund zahlt heute schon 587 Milliarden Dollar für die staatliche Gesundheitsversicherung (ja, die gibt es), da will er in den nächsten zehn Jahren noch 634 Milliarden drauflegen, um auch den 30 bis 40 Millionen Unversicherten staatlichen Schutz zukommen zu lassen. >>> Von Josef Joffe | Montag, 3. März 2009

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Clinton geht auf Konfrontationskurs zu Netanjahu
Clinton und Netanjahu im "King David"-Hotel in Jerusalem. Foto dank der Zeit
ZEIT ONLINE: Wie werden sich Washington und Jerusalem nach dem Machtwechsel arrangieren? Bei ihrem Antrittsbesuch in Israel hat US-Außenministerin Clinton dem designierten Premier Netanjahu klar die Richtung vorgegeben

Die USA beharren auf der Zweistaatenlösung in Nahost. Sie gehen damit auf Kollisionskurs zum designierten israelischen Ministerpräsidenten Benjamin Netanjahu, der einen eigenständigen Palästinenserstaat bisher ablehnt. Eine entsprechende Vereinbarung in der Region sei jedoch "unausweichlich", sagte US-Außenministerin Hillary Clinton bei ihrem Besuch in Israel. Fortschritte in Richtung einer Zwei-Staaten-Lösung seien durchaus auch in Israels Interesse. Der Weg zu einer Beilegung des israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikts sei zwar steinig, erlaube aber keinen Aufschub.

Gleichzeitig versicherte sie Israel des "fundamentalen Bündnisses" mit den USA. "Wir haben das israelische Volk immer unterstützt und werden dies weiterhin tun." Sie freue sich auf die Zusammenarbeit mit der neuen Regierung. "Dies bedeutet ja nicht, dass wir als gute Freunde nicht auch andere Meinungen haben können."

Der rechtsorientierte Likud-Vorsitzende Netanjahu hatte mehr als eine Stunde mit Clinton und dem neuen US-Nahostgesandten George Mitchell gesprochen. "Das gemeinsame Ziel ist es, mit kreativem Denken Wege zu Fortschritten zu finden, um aus dem Labyrinth herauszukommen", sagte er nach dem Treffen. Bei dem Gespräch sei es um die Palästinenserfrage, um Iran und regionale Themen gegangen. "Wir haben vereinbart, dass wir uns nach der Regierungsbildung wieder treffen und eng zusammenarbeiten wollen, um Wohlstand, Sicherheit und Frieden in unserer Region zu gewährleisten." >>> © ZEIT ONLINE, dpa, Reuters | Mittwoch, 4. März 2009

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Memo from Istanbul: Nearly a Million Genocide Victims, Covered in a Cloak of Amnesia
THE NEW YORK TIMES: ISTANBUL — For Turkey, the number should have been a bombshell.

According to a long-hidden document that belonged to the interior minister of the Ottoman Empire, 972,000 Ottoman Armenians disappeared from official population records from 1915 through 1916.

Ottoman Armenians are marched to a prison by armed Turkish soldiers in April 1915. Photo courtesy of The New York Times
In Turkey, any discussion of what happened to the Ottoman Armenians can bring a storm of public outrage. But since its publication in a book in January, the number — and its Ottoman source — has gone virtually unmentioned. Newspapers hardly wrote about it. Television shows have not discussed it.

“Nothing,” said Murat Bardakci, the Turkish author and columnist who compiled the book.

The silence can mean only one thing, he said: “My numbers are too high for ordinary people. Maybe people aren’t ready to talk about it yet.”

For generations, most Turks knew nothing of the details of the Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1918, when more than a million Armenians were killed as the Ottoman Turk government purged the population. Turkey locked the ugliest parts of its past out of sight, Soviet-style, keeping any mention of the events out of schoolbooks and official narratives in an aggressive campaign of forgetting.

But in the past 10 years, as civil society has flourished here, some parts of Turkish society are now openly questioning the state’s version of events. In December, a group of intellectuals circulated a petition that apologized for the denial of the massacres. Some 29,000 people have signed it.

With his book, “The Remaining Documents of Talat Pasha,” Mr. Bardakci (pronounced bard-AK-chuh) has become, rather unwillingly, part of this ferment. The book is a collection of documents and records that once belonged to Mehmed Talat, known as Talat Pasha, the primary architect of the Armenian deportations. >>> By Sabrina Tavernise | Sunday, March 8, 2009

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Clinton betont die Schlüsselrolle der Türkei
NZZ Online: Ankündigung eines baldigen Besuchs von Präsident Obama

tf. Wien, 8. März

Die amerikanische Aussenministerin Hillary Clinton hat sich am Samstag bei einem Besuch in Ankara für eine engere Kooperation zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten und der Türkei starkgemacht. Zur Untermauerung ihres Bekenntnisses kündigte Clinton einen baldigen Besuch von Präsident Barack Obama in der Türkei an. Die Visite, die in ungefähr einem Monat stattfinden soll, sei ein Ausdruck für den hohen Stellenwert der Freundschaft zwischen den beiden Ländern. Clinton traf in Ankara ihren Amtskollegen Ali Babacan und hatte eine knapp zweistündige Unterredung mit dem Regierungschef Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In Medienauftritten lobte Clinton das Gastland als Beispiel für eine erfolgreiche Koexistenz von Demokratie, Moderne und Islam. Entsprechend grosse Hoffnungen setzen die USA auf eine aktive Rolle der Türkei im Nahost-Friedensprozess. >>> tf | Sonntag, 8. März 2009

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Comedy: What Do Americans Think of Muslims?

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Anjem Choudary: Military Coup in the UK

Hat tip: Jihad Watch >>>

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Elderly Saudi [Syrian? – see below] Woman Sentenced to Lashings
UPI: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A 75-year-old Saudi Arabian woman has been sentenced to receive 40 lashes for hosting two unrelated men in her house, local media reported.

The Saudi daily newspaper al-Watan said the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, has appealed her sentence after being charged with offenses against Islam by the religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, CNN reported Monday.

Sawadi says the two men in her house were a man she considers her son because she breast-fed him as a baby and a friend who was escorting him as he delivered bread to the elderly woman.

"It's made everybody angry because this is like a grandmother," Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Huwaider told CNN. "Forty lashes -- how can she handle that pain? You cannot justify it."

The U.S. broadcaster reported that Saudi religious police last week also detained two male novelists for questioning after they approached a female writer, Halima Muzfar, for an autograph at a book fair in Riyadh. [Source: UPI] Monday, March 9, 2009

CNN: Saudis Order 40 Lashes for Elderly Woman for Mingling

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.

According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, troubles for the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, began last year when a member of the religious police entered her house in the city of Al-Chamli and found her with two unrelated men, "Fahd" and "Hadian."

Fahd told the policeman that he had the right to be there, because Sawadi had breast-fed him as a baby and was therefore considered to be a son to her in Islam, according to Al-Watan. Fahd, 24, added that his friend Hadian was escorting him as he delivered bread for the elderly woman. The policeman then arrested both men.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism and punishes unrelated men and women who are caught mingling.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, feared by many Saudis, is made up of several thousand religious policemen charged with duties such as enforcing dress codes, prayer times and segregation of the sexes. Under Saudi law, women face many restrictions, including a strict dress code and a ban on driving. Women also need to have a man's permission to travel.

Al Watan obtained the court's verdict and reported that it was partly based on the testimony of the religious police. In his ruling, the judge said it had been proved that Fahd is not the Sawadi's son through breastfeeding.

The court also doled out punishment to the two men. Fahd was sentenced to four months in prison and 40 lashes; Hadian was sentenced to six months in prison and 60 lashes. In a phone call with Al Watan, the judge declined to comment and suggested the newspaper review the case with the Ministry of Justice.

Sawadi told the newspaper that she will appeal, adding that Fahd is indeed her son through breastfeeding.

The case has sparked anger in Saudi Arabia. >>> By Mohammed Jamjoom and Saad Abedine | Monday, March 9, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Saudi Court Sentences Widow, 75, to Lashes for 'Mingling with Men'

A 75-year-old widow has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in prison in Saudi Arabia for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread.

The sentence has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

Khamisa Sawadi, a Syrian-born woman who was married to a Saudi, was convicted and sentenced last week for meeting with men who were not her immediate relatives. Saudi law prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling.

The two men, including one who was Mrs Sawadi's late husband's nephew, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes.

The elderly woman met the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported.

The men - identified by Al-Watan as the nephew, Fahd al-Anzi, and his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein - went to Mrs Sawadi's home in the city of al-Chamil, north of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. After delivering the bread, the two men were arrested by a one of the religious police, Al-Watan reported.

The court said it based its March 3 ruling on "citizen information" and testimony from Mr Anzi's father, who accused Mrs Sawadi of corruption.

"Because she said she doesn't have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed," the court verdict read. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff and Agencies, Riyadh | Tuesday, March 10, 2009

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Heather Price-Wright: Gay Marriage a Matter of Basic Civil Rights
DAILYWILDCAT.COM: The United States observes Black History Month in February, followed by Women's History Month in March. Both celebrate the stories and triumphs of historically oppressed demographics. Though neither group has entirely achieved equality in this country, this election cycle alone has seen huge strides for both African-African and women citizens.[.] Both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin were serious contenders for roles in the White House, and on Jan. 20, Barack Obama became the nation's first black president.

It's easy, especially in the midst of these celebratory months, to pat one's back and congratulate ourselves for the great strides we've made toward equality for all. Meanwhile, a new civil rights fight is brewing right under our national nose, and revealing that we haven't come nearly as far as we'd like to believe.

Last November, three states, including Arizona, voted to constitutionally ban gay marriage. The most notable of these states was California, which passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote. Prop 8 changed the California State Constitution to include a clause which reads, unequivocally, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

This amendment could nullify the nearly 18,000 same-sex marriages currently recognized in California, since the Supreme Court began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples in mid-2008. That act seemed a major moment in the struggle for gay rights. Sadly, those opposed to marriage equality set out immediately to undo that paramount stride. The pro-Prop 8 campaign raised a whopping $43.3 million, making it the highest-funded campaign of the November 2008 election, apart from those of some presidential candidates.

When Prop 8 and the similar propositions in Florida and Arizona passed, the United States took a major step backwards; constitutions were never meant to enshrine prejudice or take rights away from people. Constitutional amendments were fundamentally designed, from the Bill of Rights onward, to protect the freedom of the American people - never to challenge it.

The last major battle in this country over marriage rights was the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, in which the court overturned an 1883 decision to allow bans on miscegenation. The case ended restrictions on marriage based on race, restrictions that had sprung up out of ignorance, hatred, and fear for the future of the American family. >>> By Heather Price-Wright | Monday, March 9, 2009

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British Foster Sharia Courts to Counter Afghan Extremists
WA TODAY: BRITISH officials are helping to establish informal sharia courts in southern Afghanistan to discourage Afghans from turning to the Taliban for justice.

State-sanctioned Islamic and tribal justice in remote regions of Helmand province has led to councils of village and tribal elders adjudicating disputes over land and water rights.

Verdicts based on Islamic law and Pashtun tribal code allow Afghans to bypass the notoriously slow and corrupt Government courts and are aimed at preventing the Taliban from exploiting festering disputes.

"Informal justice is almost what the Taliban started by offering - it is what they continue to focus on," the Foreign Office official leading the effort to rebuild Helmand, Hugh Powell, said.

The Taliban gained power in the mid-1990s by promising order after years of civil war and rule by predatory warlords.
Its courts mete out swift justice and are a popular alternative to the official system.

British officials helping the Afghan Government set up the justice councils acknowledge the new bodies compromise international plans to deliver a modern, largely secular, legal system. >>> Ben Farmer Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan | Monday, 9, 2009

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Obama Bid to Turn to Moderate Taliban 'Will Fail'
THE GUARDIAN: Co-opting fighters unlikely to succeed, say critics / Fighters view US overture as sign of weakness

Barack Obama's call for "moderate" Taliban members to be brought in from the cold met with scepticism yesterday from leading Afghan opposition figures, who warned that co-opting fighters would fail as long as Hamid Karzai's government appeared weak and corrupt.

Repeating a successful strategy in Iraq, Obama floated the idea of appealing to Taliban adherents who are alienated by the extremism of al-Qaida fighters and might be prepared to switch sides.

"Part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida in Iraq," Obama said in an interview published yesterday. "There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region."

But opposition figures warned that insurgents groups rarely ceded ground when they thought they were winning.

Ashraf Ghani, a former Afghanistan finance minister, who is to stand as presidential candiate in the elections in August, said: "I don't know of a single peace process that has been successfully negotiated from a position of weakness or stalemate."

A Taliban spokesman, who said that the US president's overture was a sign of weakness, poured cold water on the notion that "moderate" fighters could be easily turned. >>> Jon Boone in Kabul | Monday, March 9, 2009

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Violée, avortée puis excommuniée
leJDD.fr: L'Eglise est de nouveau au centre d'une polémique. Le Vatican a justifié lundi l'excommunication prononcée jeudi par l'Eglise brésilienne à l'encontre d'une femme qui avait fait avorter sa fillette de 9 ans, enceinte de jumeaux après avoir été violée par son beau-père. Ce dernier n'a pas été touché par la sanction, car "le viol est moins grave que l'avortement" explique le Vatican.

Après l'affaire Williamson, l'Eglise catholique se paye le luxe d'une nouvelle polémique, qui renforce son image rétrograde sur les questions de société. Le Vatican a officiellement pris parti lundi en faveur de l'Eglise brésilienne, ayant excommunié jeudi dernier une mère qui a fait avorter sa fillette de neuf ans. Violée par son beau-père, l'enfant était enceinte de jumeaux. L'équipe médicale qui a pratiqué l'opération a également été mise au ban de l'Eglise. Le beau-père en revanche, coupable de viol aux yeux de la loi, n'a pas eu à subir les foudres de l'Eglise. "le viol est moins grave que l'avortement", a justifié lundi le cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, préfet de la congrégation pour les évêques au Vatican. "C'est un triste cas, mais le vrai problème est que les jumeaux conçus étaient deux personnes innocentes, qui avaient le droit de vivre et qui ne pouvaient pas être supprimées", a déclaré Mgr Re, qui est également président de la Commission pontificale pour l'Amérique latine. >>> Par M.P., leJDD.fr | Lundi 09 Mars 2009

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Muslim PC Sues after Workmates 'Laughed at His Beard'
Photo of PC Javid Iqbal courtesy of the Mail Online
MAIL Online: A Muslim police officer claims he was forced out of his job by colleagues who made fun of his beard and called him a 'f***ing Paki'.

PC Javid Iqbal, 38, said white officers openly discussed in front of him how they were ' better' than their ethnic-minority colleagues.

The married father of two also claims officers pulled faces at each other if told they had to go out on patrol with him and forced him to walk home from a job instead of picking him up.

Mr Iqbal says he was sacked after fellow-officers in Luton launched a 'smear and witch-hunt campaign' during which they lodged a string of complaints about his performance.

He is taking the Bedfordshire force to an employment tribunal claiming he is the victim of racial and religious discrimination and unfair dismissal.

The claims will add to concern about institutional racism in police forces.

An employment tribunal in London recently heard evidence that an 'apartheid culture' was operated at Belgravia police station, with separate vans for white and black staff.

Mr Iqbal, who was born and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, told the Daily Mail: 'My beard is an important part of my identity which helps other Muslims relate to me. >>> By Andrew Levy | Monday, March 9, 2009

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Illegal Immigrant Numbers Higher than Official Estimates
THE TELEGRAPH: There are nearly three quarters of a million illegal immigrants in Britain, research has suggested.

A study by the London School of Economics suggests that the number of people living in the UK without permission is much higher than previously thought.

The last official estimate of illegal immigration, a Home Office report in 2001, put the figure at 430,000.

Because of the nature of illegal immigration, accurately charting numbers is difficult. The LSE team said the figure lies somewhere between 524,000 and 947,000, with a "midpoint" figure of 725,000.

The LSE study was commissioned by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who is advocating a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants, something both the Government and the Conservative Party leadership oppose.

Many illegal immigrants work without paying taxes. Mr Johnson said that it is not realistic to try to find and expel all illegal immigrants, so it is better to try to bring them into the system and make them pay taxes.

"What I am trying to get people to recognise is that there are limits to what the policy to expulsions is able to achieve at the moment. Failing that, and it is failing, we need to think of a better alternative," Mr Johnson told the BBC. >>> | Monday, March 9, 2009

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