Anti-dhimmitude: School Bans Muslim Mother from Parents' Evening for Wearing Veil
MAIL ONLINE: A mother was barred from a parents' evening at her child's school because she was wearing a veil.

The mother-of-one arrived at the function wearing a full veil which covers every part of the body except the eyes.

But she was turned away on health, safety and security grounds after the headteacher said visitors' faces should be visible at all times.

The woman, who is a former pupil of the school, is furious with her treatment and says her religion should not affect her access to the Catholic school.

The incident happened in Blackburn, Lancs, which was at the centre of controversy three years ago when Jack Straw MP angered Muslim groups by suggesting women who wear veils over their face can make community relations harder.

The former foreign secretary branded the veil as a 'visible statement of separation and of difference' in 2006.

The move caused fury among Muslim groups who condemned Mr Straw and accused him of discrimination.

The latest incident is set to reignite the row over the right to wear whatever clothing the religious believer chooses. >>> By Jaya Narain | Friday, April 3, 2009

No Kiss for Obama from Sexy Carla!
We've all been there: Carla Bruni leans in to greet Barack Obama with a kiss today - but quickly backpedals. Photo courtesy of the MailOnline
MAIL ONLINE: Over the last few days Barack Obama has charmed the entire world.

And today it appeared his charisma overwhelmed the French First Lady.

It is usual in France to greet one another with a kiss - but the best Mr Obama could get out of a suddenly flustered Carla Bruni was a handshake. >>> By Mail Foreign Service | Friday, April 3, 2009

G20: A 'New World Order' Is Simply Fantasy
THE TELEGRAPH: The international act of posturing was pointless; because despite having caused the problem, the political class had none of the requisite skills to sort it out, says Simon Heffer.

Barack Obama and Gordon Brown: Don't trust these guys with your trillions. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Those who thought that Dr Goebbels came to an end on a stretch of waste ground in Berlin in 1945 have been forced to think again. The piece of theatre that concluded in London on Thursday was one of the great confidence tricks of our lifetimes. Just getting the 20 most important heads of government on the planet together in one place and not being unpleasant about each other was, we must concede, something of an achievement. But it won't make a blind bit of difference to the world's economy.

Nor, I imagine, will it have any effect on the result of the next general election. In the months ahead, as thousands more people go on to the dole every week, more businesses go under and confidence continues to seep out of a system wrecked by politicians, few will link in their minds the words "Gordon Brown" and "triumph". I have long thought that our Prime Minister was around elevenpence ha'penny to the shilling. His fantasy press conference at the end of the G20, with his grandiloquent (and preposterous) claim to have founded a "new world order", confirmed it. >>> By Simon Heffer | Friday, April 3, 2009

Angry RBS Shareholders Vote against Sir Fred Goodwin's Pension
THE TELEGRAPH: Royal Bank of Scotland's shareholders have emphatically rejected the £700,003 annual pension awarded to former chief Sir Fred Goodwin at a tense meeting in Edinburgh.


About 90pc of the beleaguered bank's shareholders voted against its renumeration report, including UK Financial Investments, which manages the taxpayers' majority stake.

Sir Fred was fired in the Autumn as RBS was forced to go cap-in-hand to the taxpayer for billions as financial markets and the economy soured. Sir Philip Hampton, the bank's new chairman, said that the pension plan is legally stipulated by Sir Fred's contract but no "stone is being left unturned' to see if it can be overturned. >>> By Jamie Dunkley and Peter Taylor in Edinburgh | Friday, April 3, 2009

President Barack Obama: America Has Been 'Arrogant and Dismissive' Towards Europe
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has declared that America has "failed to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world" and has "shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" towards its allies.


His speech in Strasbourg went further than any United States president in history in criticising his own country's action while standing on foreign soil. But he sought to use the comments, which amount to a mea culpa for recent American foreign policy, as leverage to alter European views of America and secure more troops for the war in Afghanistan.

He declared that there had to be a fundamental shift on both sides of the Atlantic. "America is changing but it cannot be America alone that changes."

Addressing a crowd of some 2,000 mainly students from France and Germany, Mr Obama said: "In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world.

"Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive."

He then balanced this striking admission with a tough message to Europeans that blaming America and using its actions as an excuse to avoid tackling the global Islamist threat was unacceptable.

"But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognising the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad."

In a speech which his aides billed as a commitment to rebuild transatlantic relations by offering an olive branch directly to young Europeans, he offered himself as the figure who could bridge the gap that had grown over the eight years of President George W. Bush's administration.

"On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common," he said. "They are not wise. They do not represent the truth. They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated.

"They fail to acknowledge the fundamental truth that America cannot confront the challenges of this century alone, but that Europe cannot confront them without America." >>> By Toby Harnden in Strasbourg | Friday, April 3, 2009

Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will
The message from Israel's new prime minister is stark: if the Obama administration doesn't prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, Israel may be forced to attack.
An Atlantic exclusive

THE ATLANTIC: In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

History teaches Jews that threats against their collective existence should be taken seriously, and, if possible, preempted, he suggested. In recent years, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has regularly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and the supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, this month called Israel a “cancerous tumor.” >>> By Jeffery Goldberg | Interview | Tuesday, March 31, 2009

G20 Summit: Global Financial Crackdown Is Cost of Solving Crisis
THE TELEGRAPH: • New Financial Stability Board as global overseer • Tax havens and hedge funds to be punished • Heavy scrutiny for banks

Gordon Brown and his fellow world leaders have pledged the biggest crackdown on tax havens, hedge funds and banks in modern history as the price to be paid for the multi-trillion dollar bail-out of the world economy.

"The era of banking secrecy is over", the Prime Minister declared, as the Group of 20 leading nations agreed to impose a new range of regulations on banks and non-bank financial institutions as a punishment for contributing to the crisis.

Harsh fines and sanctions will be levied on tax havens that refuse to publish details of their accounts; hedge funds will have to provide more detailed accounts in the future; and bankers will have their bonuses more heavily controlled and taxed throughout the world, the communique pledged.

The range of new regulations will be implemented by national governments in the coming months, officials said, after the G20 agreed on more significant and far-reaching reforms than had been expected.

In what will be interpreted as a victory for the French and German factions, which had emphasised the importance of regulation over new fiscal giveaways, the G20 also ordered the creation of a new Financial Stability Board dedicated to monitoring leverage and inter-connectedness of international financial institutions. >>> By Edmund Conway Economics Editor | Friday, April 3, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: G20 Summit: Blacklisted Tax Havens Face Sanctions

Tax havens that refuse to sign anti-secrecy agreements face expensive sanctions under an unprecedented global effort to catch illegal tax evaders.

Liechtenstein is among 45 territories blacklisted by the OECD and threatened with punitive financial retaliation for banking secrecy. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Switzerland, Singapore, the Cayman Islands, Monaco, Luxembourg and Hong Kong are among 45 territories blacklisted on Thursday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and now threatened with punitive financial retaliation for their banking secrecy.

Among the sanctions being considered by the G20 are the scrapping of tax treaty arrangements, imposing additional taxes on companies that operate in non-compliant countries, and tougher disclosure requirements for individuals and businesses that use shelters.

Of the offending jurisdictions, 40 "have committed to the internationally agreed tax standard" but have yet to implement it. Only Costa Rica, Malaysia, Philippines and Uruguay have refused to sign up altogether. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are fully compliant already.

Illegal tax evasion through offshore shelters has been a long-standing irritation for Gordon Brown, President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. An estimated $7 trillion of assets are held offshore and, according to pressure group Tax Justice Network, developed countries lose $180bn a year in evaded taxes. >>> By Philip Aldrick, Banking Editor | Friday, April 3, 2009

'One in 10 Americans Still Think Barack Obama Is Muslim'
THE TELEGRAPH: More than two months after Barack Obama placed his hand on the Bible and was sworn in as president of the United States, 11 per cent of Americans still think he is a Muslim, a poll suggested on Thursday.

'We did OK,' says Barack Obama. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

White evangelical Protestants and Republicans were the most likely to say Mr Obama - who has an Arabic middle name - was Muslim in response to the poll question: "Do you happen to know what Barack Obama's religion is?"

Nearly one in five white evangelical Protestants and 17 per cent of the Republicans who took part in the telephone poll of 1,308 adults, which was conducted by Pew Research from March 9-12, said they thought Obama was Muslim. >>> | Friday, April 3, 2009

Weimar 1923 May Have More Lessons than US 1932
THE TELEGRAPH: Are we heading for another Great Depression?

Many baffled forecasters are asking just that, and studying what the US did wrong after the stock market crashed in 1929. But the more relevant policy errors might have been those made earlier across the Atlantic - in Weimar Germany from 1919 to 1923.

Policymakers have learned from the US mistakes. This time around, there has been no shrinkage of the money supply and no repetition of President Hoover's increase in tariffs in 1930 and income taxes in 1932. On the contrary, money supply has expanded rapidly while fiscal policies have been expansionary and protectionism limited.

But look at the Weimar government. Suffering from the trauma of defeat in the First World War and the burden of reparations, it was too weak to raise taxes. It ran large budget deficits instead. Interest rates were kept far below the rate of inflation, while money supply expanded rapidly. About half of government expenditure was funded by newly printed money. >>> By Martin Hutchinson, breakingviews.com | Wednesday, April 1, 2009

RBS: Sir Fred Goodwin 'Thinking About' Shredding His Pension
THE TELEGRAPH: Former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin - known as 'Fred the Shred' - is considering a "voluntary reduction" in his £703,000-a-year pension payout, the bank has confirmed.

Chairman Sir Philip Hampton said Sir Fred was thinking about the move, but said it was too soon to know what the outcome would be.

He said: "I've asked Sir Fred if he would consider a voluntary reduction and he's told me he's thinking about that."

The comments come ahead of the bank's annual general meeting in Edinburgh later on Friday, when angry shareholders are expected to vote down RBS's remuneration report in protest at Sir Fred's controversial pension payout.

RBS - now majority-owned by the taxpayer - also warned of more job losses in the UK and internationally as it said the 2,700 announced so far this year for the UK were "not the end of the story".

The embattled bank said it was still unclear how many redundancies would be made, but stressed it would do "all it can" to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum.

The group is laying off staff as part of a plan to cut £2.5 billion from annual costs within the next three years. >>> | Friday, April 3, 2009

Un enfant tué à la hache dans une colonie de Cisjordanie
LE FIGARO: Un Palestinien a tué un adolescent et grièvement blessé un enfant jeudi. La victime était le fils du fondateur de la colonie juive.

Jeudi après-midi, en Cisjordanie, un Palestinien a tué un adolescent et grièvement blessé un enfant à coups de hache. L'attaque a eu lieu dans la colonie de Bat Ayin, dans le Gouch Etzion, bloc d'implantations juives entre Bethléem et Hébron. Un habitant a déclaré à la télévision s'être battu avec l'assassin, qui pourrait être un employé local de la colonie, et être parvenu à le désarmer. Selon son témoignage, un autre habitant aurait tiré sur l'agresseur, le blessant avant qu'il ne prenne la fuite.

L'armée a aussitôt bouclé la zone entourant Bat Ayin et décrété un couvre-feu dans les villages palestiniens voisins, où la police perquisitionnait les maisons à la recherche du meurtrier. La colonie, l'une des plus radicales de Cisjordanie, n'était pas entourée d'une clôture comme la plupart des autres implantations juives, les habitants considérant la construction d'un périmètre de défense comme un aveu de faiblesse.

La victime, Shlomo Nativ, 13 ans, est le fils de l'un des fondateurs de la colonie. L'enfant blessé, Yair Gamliel, 7 ans, est celui d'un activiste connu, Ofer Gamliel, qui purge une peine de prison pour avoir participé à une tentative d'attentat contre une école palestinienne de Jérusalem-Est en 2002. Il est soupçonné d'appartenir à une organisation clandestine de colons extrémistes, dont une partie des membres est originaire de Bat Ayin. >>> Adrien Jaulmes | Jeudi 02 Avril 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Relié) >>>

Kommentar: Das Bankgeheimnis war eine bürgerliche Bastion
WELT ONLINE: Der G-20-Gipfel hat das Bankgeheimnis abgeschafft. Das ist ein Schlag gegen bürgerliche Ideale. Es ist daran zu erinnern, dass die totalitären Regime des 20. Jahrhunderts jedes Bankgeheimnis kassierten, weil sie es als Zelle bürgerlicher Resistenz betrachteten. Leider breitet sich der moderne Steuerstaat hemmungslos aus.

Es gab einmal ein Bankgeheimnis, und das beruhte auf Vertrauen zwischen Bürger und Bank wie zwischen beiden und dem Staat. Unbetrauert und ohne Nachruhm ist das Bankgeheimnis auf dem G-20-Gipfel ins Grab gesunken. Mit ihm die Reste der bürgerlichen Epoche.

Dieser Abschied ist Anlass zu mehr als dem zynischen Achselzucken, es sei ohnehin der Datenschutz nichts als ein leeres Wort, oder die unschuldige Bemerkung, man habe doch nichts zu verbergen. Es ist daran zu erinnern, dass die totalitären Regime des 20. Jahrhunderts jedes Bankgeheimnis kassierten, weil sie es als Zelle bürgerlicher Resistenz betrachteten. Leider aber hat der moderne Steuerstaat die Tendenz, sich hemmungslos auszubreiten, jeden Lebensvorgang, oder nahezu jeden, zu kontrollieren und die – Bismarcks frühe Warnung zu zitieren – „misera contribuens plebs“ unter Generalverdacht zu stellen.



Steuern sind zu zahlen, keine Frage. Man muss es ja nicht lächelnd tun. Es reicht, dass der Staat das Vertrauen, das ihm in steiler Progression finanziell übertragen wird, seinerseits durch verantwortlichen Umgang rechtfertigt. Das ist Grundlage der Legitimität. Aber sie endet, wie das Bundesverfassungsgericht vor Jahren bereits feststellte, irgendwo an der Schwelle zu 50 Prozent vom Einkommen. >>> Von Michael Stürmer | Donnerstag, 2. April 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>

Armut: Jeder zehnte Amerikaner braucht Lebensmittelhilfe
WELT ONLINE: Die Wirtschaftskrise in den USA führt immer mehr Menschen an den Rand des Existenzminimums. So sind inzwischen zehn Prozent der Amerikaner auf staatliche Lebensmittelmarken angewiesen. Das ist eine Rekordzahl von 32,2 Millionen Bedürftigen. Obama plant jetzt eine Erhöhung des Lebensmittel-Programms um 13 Prozent.

Bild dank Google Images
In den USA ist inzwischen jeder zehnte Bürger auf die Lebensmittelhilfe der Regierung angewiesen.

Im Januar habe eine Rekordzahl von 32,2 Millionen Bedürftigen Lebensmittelmarken erhalten, teilte das Landwirtschaftsministerium mit. Im Durchschnitt seien in dem Monat pro begünstigte Person 112,82 Dollar bezahlt worden. >>> Reuters/fsl | Freitag, 3. April 2009

Egypt Village Mob Torches Bahai Homes
AFP: CAIRO — Egyptian villagers have set fire to Bahai homes after a member of the religion said on television the village was "full of Bahais," the latest incident to reflect religious tensions in the country.

Furious villagers rampaged through Sharoniyah, near Sohag in southern Egypt, on Monday and Tuesday, setting fire to and damaging four Bahai homes, a security official told AFP, asking not to be named.

The fires spread to two Muslim homes which were also damaged, the official said.

The villagers also threatened the village's roughly 30 Bahais with death, the official said, after which all of them fled. >>> | Tuesday, April 2, 2009

Syria Warned over Britons Held for Weeks
THE INDEPENDENT: Britain has warned Syria that marked progress towards an improved relationship between the two countries could be undermined if Damascus continues to refuse consular access to two Britons held by the security forces here.

Maryam Kallis, 36, was seized by plain-clothes security men on 15 March while walking with one of her four young children on a busy Damascus street. She has been kept incommunicado and at an unknown location ever since and Amnesty International said this week that it believed she could be in danger of torture or other ill-treatment. A British male, who has not been named, was seized in an apparently unconnected episode two days later, and the Syrian authorities have not so far disclosed the reasons for either detention. >>> By Donald Macintyre in Damascus | Thursday, April 2, 2009

Israel's New Foreign Minister Dismisses Two-state Solution
THE INDEPENDENT: Far-right Lieberman rejects US-led talks with Palestinians

Far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman stunned diplomats in his first speech as Israel's foreign minister yesterday when he rejected the past year of US-led negotiations and said that a previous commitment Israel made to Palestinian statehood "had no validity".

Mr Lieberman reinforced fears that his government will steer the country in a more hawkish direction when he added that concessions to Palestinians would be "mistaken". The remarks contradicted Israel's previous commitments agreed at the Annapolis conference in 2007, and drew an immediate response from Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, who emphasised that the US was "committed to the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security".

Expectations had been raised in recent weeks that Mr Lieberman would seek to soften his image, and that the new hardline government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu would avoid alienating the international community.

Mr Lieberman's speech came a day after Mr Netanyahu offered the Palestinians self-rule in place of the statehood that had at least rhetorically been on offer in a declaration accompanying the relaunch of peace talks under the leadership of Ehud Olmert at the Annapolis conference. But Mr Lieberman said "The Israeli government never ratified Annapolis, nor did parliament."

Mr Lieberman took issue with the very idea of concessions towards the Palestinians saying that "whoever thinks that through concessions peace will be achieved is mistaken. He is only inviting pressure and more wars." >>> By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem | Thursday, April 2, 2009

Afghanistan: Gesetz bestimmt Häufigkeit von Sex in der Ehe
WELT ONLINE: Mindestens vier Mal pro Woche – so oft muss eine afghanische Frau mit ihrem Mann schlafen, wenn er danach verlangt. Das sieht ein neues Gesetz vor, das Präsident Hamid Karsai ohne parlamentarische Debatte in Kraft setzte. Für Frauenrechtler wird dadurch die Vergewaltigung in der Ehe legalisiert.

Der afghanische Präsident Hamid Karsai hat ein Gesetz unterzeichnet, das Ehefrauen dazu zwingt, mindestens alle vier Tage mit ihrem Mann zu schlafen. „Solange der Mann nicht auf Reisen ist, hat er jede vierte Nacht das Recht auf Geschlechtsverkehr mit seiner Frau“, bestimmt Artikel 132 des neuen Gesetzes zur Regelung des Familienlebens unter den Schiiten in Afghanistan. Diese stellen rund 20 Prozent der Bevölkerung.

„Außer wenn die Frau krank ist oder irgendeine Krankheit hat, die sich bei Geschlechtsverkehr verschlimmert, ist die Frau verpflichtet, den sexuellen Bedürfnissen ihres Mannes eine positive Antwort zu geben“, heißt es in dem Gesetz. >>> | Donnerstag, 2. April 2009

Islam in China

En Suède, les homosexuels pourront se marier à l'église
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: LOI | Le parlement suédois a adopté mercredi à une large majorité une loi permettant aux homosexuels de se marier civilement ou religieusement.

Cette législation "sur le mariage sexuellement neutre" entrera en vigueur dès le 1er mai. Sur les 349 parlementaires, 261 ont voté pour, 22 contre, seize se sont abstenus tandis que 50 étaient absents.

En Suède, les couples hétérosexuels peuvent choisir de se marier soit à la mairie soit à l'église. Les couples homosexuels étaient jusqu'alors seulement autorisés, depuis 1995, à s'unir via un "partenariat" rendu légal par une cérémonie civile. >>> Mercredi 01 Avril 2009

A Athènes, pas un jour sans son attentat
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: CONTESTATION | Banques, commerces ou voitures de luxe sont devenus les cibles quasi quotidiennes d’une violence attribuée par l’Etat à la mouvance anarchiste. Derrière ce phénomène se cache autre chose: l’effondrement de la classe moyenne.

Voitures incendiées samedi dernier chez un concessionnaire Jaguar à Athènes. En Grèce, la multiplicité des actions de groupuscules anarchistes se couple à la montée de la petite criminalité. Photo grâce à la TDG
Cinq banques, une succursale de la Poste, une voiture diplomatique, une autre appartenant à une société de gardiennage et trois autos particulières. Parties en flammes, incendiées dans la nuit de lundi à mardi, au centre-ville et dans la grande banlieue d’Athènes.
Mais que se passe-t-il en Grèce, où une grève générale de vingt-quatre heures – convoquée aujourd’hui par les syndicats pour protester contre la vie chère – pourrait s’accompagner de nouvelles violences?

Depuis les émeutes qui ont ravagé le centre d’Athènes, au mois de décembre, suite à la mort d’un lycéen de 15 ans abattu par un policier, la violence s’installe dans cette mégapole de près de 5 millions d’habitants. Sans épargner d’autres grands centres urbains, comme Salonique en particulier. Pour l’instant, les dégâts sont matériels. Mais les Grecs, pourtant habitués aux actions de groupuscules anarchistes, s’interrogent. La multiplicité des attaques se couple à la montée de la petite criminalité. Elle s’ajoute à la montée en puissance de gangs mafieux, qui n’hésitent plus à descendre des patrons de club ou des partenaires en «affaire». >>> Nicolas Verdan | Jeudi 02 Avril 2009