BNP Ordered to Accept Ethnic Minority Members or Face Prosecution
THE TELEGRAPH: The British National Party has been ordered to accept members from ethnic minorities and employ black and Asian staff or face prosecution.

In a letter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, was told that he had less than a month to provide written undertakings that the party would abide by race relations legislation.

John Wadham, legal director of the Commission, said that the watchdog was concerned that the BNP's constitution and membership criteria could be in breach of the law.

Party membership was said by the Commission to be restricted to those with white skin and a small number of other ethnic groups.

In a statement, the watchdog added: "This exclusion is contrary to the Race Relations Act which the party is legally obliged to comply with.

The Commission therefore thinks that the BNP may have acted, and be acting, illegally."

There were further concerns over the requirement on new staff to be party members, and fears that elected BNP representatives would be unwilling to provide help and support to non-white constituents.

If the BNP does not provide written undertakings by July 20 that it will make the changes required by the Commission voluntarily, then the watchdog said that it would apply for a legal injunction which would compel them to comply.

Any breach of a court order would be a criminal offence and leave the party's leaders open to prosecution. >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

BNP NEWS: BNP Membership: Nick Griffin Rejects Equalities Commission ‘PR Stunt’

The Equalities Commission hysteria over British National Party membership is nothing but a PR stunt which has no legal grounding whatsoever, said BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP.

Reacting to the news that the Equality and Human Rights Commission, headed up by black arch-racist Trevor Phillips, had written to the BNP demanding that it change its membership and employment criteria, Mr Griffin said it was obvious that the whole thing was just a publicity stunt engineered by the far left and Labour Party front organisations.

“It is all a bit of liberal hysteria couched in legal terms,” Mr Griffin told BNP News. “The fact that the letter was served on us through the mass media shows that it is actually not legal in intent at all.”

Mr Griffin said the BNP was an exempted organisation under Section 25 and Section 26 of the Race Relations Act which allow for exclusive ethnic organisations with a membership of 50 or more. “The BNP has never been in breach of any of the provisions of the law in terms of its membership and Mr Phillips knows this to be the case,” he said. >>> | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Iranian Regime Targets Family of 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan
THE TELEGRAPH: Iranian security officials have begun pulling down posters of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman who has become the face of the country's pro-democracy uprising after her death in Tehran was captured on video.

Relatives said images of Neda Agha Soltan, 27, who has been described as Iran's "Angel of Freedom" after she was apparently shot dead on Saturday, had been targeted by plain-clothed officials.

They had removed any material commemorating the 27-year-old student that had been erected near her home by sympathisers in the Iranian capital.

Miss Agha Soltan was shot in the chest after she joined a protest near Azadi (Freedom) Square. Within hours an Iranian exile in Europe had posted pictures shot on mobile phones online and the scenes have been viewed by millions since.

Relatives said the authorities had insisted Miss Agha Soltan was buried in a cemetery plot reserved for slain "rioters" and that attempts to hold memorial services had been banned. >>> Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Iran Football Players 'Banned' after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Protest
THE TELEGRAPH: The Iranian football players who wore green wristbands to protest against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have reportedly been banned from the team for life.

Photo: The Telegraph
A pro-government newspaper reported they had been "retired" from the national team after several members wore green tape on their wrists in a World Cup qualifier against South Korea in Seoul.

Other newspapers said the players were retiring voluntarily, reportedly because of their age, but at least one suggested they were forced out. >>> | Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Stupid Bastard! Ahmadinejad Says There Are No Homosexuals in Iran!

Iranian Wears Brazen Clothing: CNN's Ivan Watson reports on a new video showing a woman in Iran without a head scarf, wearing a revealing dress

Burka Debate in France: This Is CNN at Its Most STUPID! Paula Newton Shows that She DOES NOT Understand the Issues Involved Here

Mr Toughie Himself! Obama on Iran

Obama Assails Iran for Violent Response to Protests
THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — President Obama harshly condemned the Iranian crackdown against demonstrations on Tuesday, declaring the rest of the world “appalled and outraged” and dismissing what he called “patently false and absurd” accusations that the United States instigated the protests.

In his sharpest and most expansive comments on the crisis in Tehran since the June 12 elections that the opposition called rigged, Mr. Obama deplored the violence that has killed some protesters, including a young woman whose death was captured on a video that has been played around the world.

“While this loss is raw and painful,” the president said, “we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.” >>> Jeff Zeleny and Peter Baker | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Israeli Premier Praises Courage of Iran Protesters
ASSOCIATED PRESS: ROME — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the courage of Iranian protesters on Tuesday and called the Tehran authorities the greatest threat to peace.

During his first European visit since being elected, Netanyahu also said he briefed Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on his peace plan, which calls for a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Berlusconi endorsed the plan, saying a demilitarized Palestinian state was "absolutely necessary." But he urged Netanyahu to send "significant signals" to stop construction of settlements, which he called an obstacle to peace.

Both leaders stressed their warm bilateral ties, with Netanyahu calling Berlusconi a "great friend" of Israel.

Italy is perhaps Israel's greatest ally in Europe, but at the same time is Iran's No. 1 European trading partner, accounting for some 26 percent of total import-export trade between EU countries and Tehran.

Last year alone, Italian imports from Iran amounted to euro4.1 billion ($5.73 billion) and Italian exports amounted to euro1.8 billion, according to the Italy-Iranian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Berlusconi said Tuesday that Italy's economic ties to Tehran had always had the blessing of Israel and the United States, and would continue as long as Washington approved. >>> Steve Weizman | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Britain Expels Two Iranian Diplomats in Tit-for-Tat Response
THE GUARDIAN: Gordon Brown announces move to parliament after Tehran's 'unjustified' expulsion of two UK diplomats

Britain has ordered the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats, in tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of two British diplomats from Tehran yesterday.

The Iranian government said it was throwing out the two Britons, who have not been named, for "activities incompatible with their diplomatic status" – a claim Gordon Brown described as "unjustified".

This morning, the Iranian ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian Attar, was summoned to be informed of Britain's response by the permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, Sir Peter Ricketts. The Iranian diplomats, who have also not been identified, have been given a week to leave the country.

"I am disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position but we will continue to seek good relations with Iran and to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people," Brown told the House of Commons.

The prime minister said Britain expected Iran to "meet its obligations to the international community", and said "the onus is on Iran to show the Iranian people" that the presidential elections this month were credible.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "The government of Iran is seeking to blame the UK and other outsiders for what is an Iranian reaction to an Iranian issue. This has a potential impact on our staff's safety and is unacceptable." >>> Julian Borger, diplomatic editor | Tuesday, 23, 2009

Bravo, Monsieur Sarkozy ! Nicolas Sarkozy au congres de Versailles - La Burqa

Sarkozy Backs Ban on Muslim Burqas

Shah's Son Backs Iranian Protesters
Reza Pahlavi, Iran's former crown prince, becomes emotional as he talks at the National Press Club in Washington about the uprising in Iran over the disputed presidential election. Photo: TIME
TIME: Thirty years after his father was overthrown by a popular uprising, the former crown prince of Iran has a unique perspective on the demonstrations gripping Iran these days. On Monday, at a Washington press conference, Reza Pahlavi, the onetime heir to the peacock throne, condemned Iran's controversial presidential election of June 12 as "an ugly moment of disrespect for both God and man" and called on the Tehran regime to allow for "freedom, democracy, human rights [and] the right to choose." Pahlavi believes that the situation in Iran has eroded dramatically, charging that the issues go "well beyond election. This is about the sanctity of the ballot box and the legitimacy of the regime as a whole."

It was the first public appearance since the protests in Iran for the man who was once next in line to be Shah. Speaking with nearly unaccented English, the graduate of the University of Southern California seemed proud to support the movement that is "already invested with the blood of my brave countrymen." Confident that the opposition will succeed, he believes that the upheaval "will not rest until it achieves unfettered democracy and human rights in Iran." >>> By Sophia Yan | Monday, June 22, 2009

Caspian Makan, Neda’s Fiancé, Tells of Neda’s Last Moments

Burqa Ban: What Barack Obama Could Learn from Nicolas Sarkozy about Islam
TELEGRAPH BLOGS – James Delingpole: Almost every idea that ever came out of France has been bad for America, from the structuralist philosophical gibberish which has poisoned US academe to the grotesquely over-regulated tax and spend socialism which is now ruining the US economy. But if there's one area where the French do get it SO right it's in their uncompromising approach to Islam.

President Sarkozy once again showed the way yesterday when in a presidential address to France's two houses of parliament, he said the burqa is not welcome in his country and should be banned.

As he rightly went on to say the full-body garment which makes women in Afghanistan look like a cross between a prison cell and a walking tent is "not a sign of religion" but a "sign of subservience." He added: "We cannot have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social ife, deprived of identity."

Compare and contrast, the appalling cultural appeasement of President Obama's speech in Cairo on June 4 when he boasted that the United States prized freedom of religion and would not "tell people what to wear." And there was I thinking it was the French who were supposed to be the surrender monkeys, not the Americans.

Was there ever greater proof that, where the great clash of civilisations is concerned, President Obama is turning out to be the Islamists' useful idiot par excellence?

Does Barack Hussein Obama really not understand that supposed "freedom" he is granting US Muslim women to wear the veil is in fact the most surefire way of guaranteeing their continued subservience to their men folk and their failure to integrate with the broader society?

It's for precisely this reason - would that the rest of Europe had the courage! - that France bans religious head coverings in state schools. France understands, as so many in the pusillanimous, multi-culti West do not, that female Muslim girls of school age need protecting from the heavy pressure put on them by male relatives to wear the veil. Banning the veil in French schools is not the sign of an oppressive state taking away religious freedom. It is a rare example of a government setting a moral example and standing up for freedom: a girl's freedom to choose whether she wants to spend the rest of her life in a kind of religious apartheid or whether she wants to integrate more closely with the host culture. >>> James Delingpole | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Iran Elections: 'Boyfriend' of 'Angel of Freedom' Urged Her Not to Attend Protests
THE TELEGRAPH: A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of the 'Angel of Freedom' whose grisly death in Iran's post-election protests was captured on video and posted on YouTube has said that she only wanted democracy and freedom for the people of Iran.

Neda Agha Soltan. Photo: The Telegraph
In the video, Neda Agha Soltan, is lying on the ground as blood appears to flow from her mouth and nose. Her apparent last moments spread around the world on YouTube, Facebook, blogs and Twitter, turning her into an icon in the clash between Iran's cleric-led government and protesters.

"She only ever said that she wanted one thing, she wanted democracy and freedom for the people of Iran," Caspian Makan said.

Makan, a 37-year-old photojournalist in Tehran, said he met the 27-year-old music student several months ago on a trip outside the country. Foreign media are banned from covering the demonstrations and the authenticity of the video cannot be verified.

Makan provided photographs of himself with a woman he identified as Soltan and also had her as a friend on his Facebook page and said he had intended to marry her. "I still feel her, I still talk to her," he said.

Makan said that they had argued in the days before her death about her decision to attend the protests, which were part of the self-described "green wave" movement that claims hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole his June 12 re-election.

He said he had asked her not to go out for fear she would be arrested or shot. "I tried to dissuade her from going out in the streets because I'd seen in my work as a journalist that, unfortunately, there are a lot of merciless behaviours," Makan said. >>> | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Iran Elections: Video of 'Angel of Freedom's' Death Will Haunt the Iranian Regime

Neda Agha Soltan’s importance is that her death has vividly demonstrated how far the Iranian regime stands in violation of its own values, writes Damien McElroy.

The video of a woman dying in the streets of Tehran is a historic turning point that will haunt the Iranian regime for as long as it remains unreconstructed.

That governments should not turn guns on its own people is a universal truth of powerful force. Twenty years on from the great convulsion against Communism in 1989, the world is shaped by that principle. Those states that did not, like Poland, have been transformed into mostly free democracies. Those that did, like China, have for all the gloss, merely postponed a process of historic reckoning.

What doubles the impact of the image for Iran is the hold that martyrdom - death for a cause - has exerted on the national imagination. The blood that defines the seconds of mobile phone footage that shows Neda Agha Soltan losing her life is central to the character of the Iranian nation. >>> Damien McElroy | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Iranian Authorities Scramble to Negate Neda Soltan 'Martyrdom'

The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election.

Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26, was killed as she watched a pro-democracy protest, and mobile phone footage of her last moments have become a worldwide symbol of Iran's turmoil.

The authorities had already banned a public funeral or wake and have prevented gatherings in her name while the state-controlled media has not mentioned Miss Soltan's death.

Today it was reported that they had also told her family to take down the black mourning banners outside their home in the Tehran suburbs to prevent it becoming a place of pilgrimage. They were also told they could not hold a memorial service at a mosque.

Nevertheless posters of Miss Soltan's face have started to appear all over Tehran.

The attempted crackdown came as friends present as Miss Soltan died came forward to detail what happened.

Hamid Panahi, her friend and music teacher, told the Los Angeles Times how Miss Soltan was shot as they and two others were making their way to a demonstration in Freedom Square in central Tehran. Their car became stuck in traffic on Karegar Street and they got out for some air.

Mr Panahi said that he heard a distant crack and saw Miss Soltan instantly collapse to the ground.

"We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch and, without her throwing a rock or anything, they shot her," he said. "It was just one bullet."

He later heard other witnesses claiming that the gunman was not a police officer but one of a group of plainclothes officials or Basiji militia.

He recalled watching in horror as blood came out of her chest and then began to bubble from her nose and mouth - footage that bystanders captured on their mobile phones and posted on the internet, where she has become a global phenomenon.
Mr Panahi said that Neda's last words before she slipped into unconsciousness were: "I'm burning! I'm burning!" >>> Jenny Booth | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

CNN: Fighting Tears, Shah's Son Calls Crisis a 'Moment of Truth'

WASHINGTON -- The son of the former shah of Iran called Monday for solidarity against Iran's Islamic regime, warning that the democratic movement born out of the election crisis might not succeed without international support.

"The moment of truth has arrived," Reza Shah Pahlavi said at Washington's National Press Club. "The people of Iran need to know who stands with them."

Pahlavi has lived in exile since 1979, when his father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution. Under the shah's regime, Iran saw nationalization of its oil and a strong movement toward modernization. Still, his secular programs and recognition of Israel cost him the support of the country's Shiite clergy, sparking clashes with the religious right and others who resented his pro-West views.

The son now lives in the United States with his family, where he spends much of his time talking about the Islamic regime in Iran.

During his remarks, he broke into tears when he spoke of "bullets piercing our beloved Neda," a woman killed Saturday by Iranian police at a protest in Tehran, whose death has become a rallying cry among demonstrators in Iran.

The Iranian regime, he said, was a "sinking Titanic" that might not survive the demands for democracy and human rights reverberating through the country.

Citing anecdotes from people inside the Iranian establishment, Pahlavi said he had heard that security forces have begun to distance themselves from the regime.

"It has already started," he said, citing reports that members of the security forces have gone home after their shifts ended and changed into plain clothes to join the protesters.

"Many, many elements within the security forces, within the Revolutionary Guard, are showing discontent," Pahlavi said. "There is an amazing reflection that is happening. ... This is a movement that has blown out of proportion." >>> By Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer | Monday, June 22, 2009

Obama Signs Landmark Anti-Smoking Bill
Photo: Neue Zürcher Zeitung
FOX NEWS: The law allows the regulatory Food and Drug Administration to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings and block labels such "low tar" and "light."

Photos of Obama smoking >>>
President Obama on Monday signed a landmark anti-smoking bill which he said will reduce the number of children who take up smoking and ultimately save American lives.

The bill would give the federal government unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco. The law allows the regulatory Food and Drug Administration to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings and block labels such "low tar" and "light." Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.

"Today ... the decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of tobacco has emerged victorious. Today change has come to Washington," Obama said.

The law, called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, won't let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco outright, but the agency will be able to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make public their ingredients and prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.

"It is a law that will save American lives and make Americans healthy," Obama said, calling it a "victory for bipartisanship" as well as a victory for health care reform.

The president said the legislation should reduce some of the billions the nation spends on treating tobacco-related illnesses, "the leading cause of preventable death in the United States."

Anti-smoking advocates looked forward to the bill after years of attempts to tame an industry so fundamental to the U.S. that carved tobacco leaves adorn some parts of the Capitol.

Opponents from tobacco-growing states argued that the FDA has proven through a series of food safety failures that it's not up to the job. They also said that instead of unrealistically trying to get smokers to quit or to prevent others from starting, lawmakers should ensure that people have other options, like smokeless tobacco.

As president, George W. Bush opposed the legislation and threatened a veto after it passed the House last year. The Obama administration, by contrast, had issued a statement declaring strong support for the measure.

Obama talked about his own struggles breaking a cigarette habit Monday, noting that he picked up smoking at an early age.
"I know how difficult it can be to break this habit," Obama said. [Source: Fox News] | Monday, June 22, 2009

FOX NEWS: President Wants You to Kick Habit; But Stuggles Himself as a Smoker

Twice in as many weeks, President Obama has spoken out about the evils of smoking and heralded efforts to prevent kids from picking up the habit, but as far as the American public knows, Mr. Obama has yet to kick his own smoking habit.Mr. Obama didn't use either occasion - last week applauding the Congress for passing the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act or today at the Rose Garden bill signing -- to acknowledge and use his own habit as an example to the American public.

"I was one of these teenagers," Mr. Obama mentioned as he alluded to his past in his remarks today, "and so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time." But that was the only reference to his own experience.

Inquiring minds want to know - is the President still a smoker?

"I think the president has, on any number of occasions, discussed the struggle that the vice of smoking -- what that's -- what that's done to him and that he struggles with it every day. I don't, honestly, see the need to get a whole lot more specific than the fact that it's a continuing struggle," explained press secretary Robert Gibbs. [Source: FoxNews] | Monday, June 22, 2009

Comment here >>>

International Criticism of Iranian Government Actions Grows
VOICE OF AMERICA: International criticism of Iran's handling of a disputed presidential vote and subsequent protests is mounting, after Iranian media reported the arrest of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's eldest daughter. 



German Chancellor Angela Merkel added her voice to a growing chorus of Western leaders demanding respect for civil liberties in Iran.



"Human rights and citizens' rights are inseparable, and that is why Germany stands behind the people, and peaceful demonstrations in Iran, who want to make use of their freedom of speech and who want to gather peacefully. I, therefore, demand that Iran's leaders allow peaceful demonstrations, allow free reporting of events, stop the use of violence against demonstrators and free imprisoned people."



Ms. Merkel urged a full recount of Iran's contested presidential vote. Official results showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning re-election in a landslide.



Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denounced Western criticism as "treacherous" and "unjust," and accused foreign governments of fomenting unrest in his country. Responding, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he "categorically" rejects any suggestion that foreign countries are manipulating protesters in Iran.



Meanwhile, authorities in Tehran say they have arrested Faezeh Hashemi - the eldest daughter of former President Rafsanjani. Last week, Hashemi was seen addressing supporters of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who alleges massive fraud in the June 12 ballot and is calling for a new election. >>> By Michael Bowman, Washington | Monday, June 22, 2009

Pahlavi Calls Vote 'Fraud': Iran's former crown prince and a leading advocate for civil disobedience, Reza Pahlavi, calls Iran's election a "fraud."

CNN: Fighting Tears, Shah's Son Calls Crisis a 'Moment of Truth'

WASHINGTON -- The son of the former shah of Iran called Monday for solidarity against Iran's Islamic regime, warning that the democratic movement born out of the election crisis might not succeed without international support.

"The moment of truth has arrived," Reza Shah Pahlavi said at Washington's National Press Club. "The people of Iran need to know who stands with them."

Pahlavi has lived in exile since 1979, when his father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution. Under the shah's regime, Iran saw nationalization of its oil and a strong movement toward modernization. Still, his secular programs and recognition of Israel cost him the support of the country's Shiite clergy, sparking clashes with the religious right and others who resented his pro-West views.

The son now lives in the United States with his family, where he spends much of his time talking about the Islamic regime in Iran.

During his remarks, he broke into tears when he spoke of "bullets piercing our beloved Neda," a woman killed Saturday by Iranian police at a protest in Tehran, whose death has become a rallying cry among demonstrators in Iran.

The Iranian regime, he said, was a "sinking Titanic" that might not survive the demands for democracy and human rights reverberating through the country.

Citing anecdotes from people inside the Iranian establishment, Pahlavi said he had heard that security forces have begun to distance themselves from the regime.

"It has already started," he said, citing reports that members of the security forces have gone home after their shifts ended and changed into plain clothes to join the protesters.

"Many, many elements within the security forces, within the Revolutionary Guard, are showing discontent," Pahlavi said. "There is an amazing reflection that is happening. ... This is a movement that has blown out of proportion." >>> By Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer | Monday, June 22, 2009

Iran Bans Prayers for 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran's regime has issued a ban on memorials for a young woman whose death has become the focal point of protests against the clerical regime.


Neda Agha Soltan, 27, was dubbed the Angel of Freedom after a video which appeared to show her being shot by a government sniper was posted on the internet.

Graphic scenes show Neda – her name means "the call" – walking with her father among demonstrators, then separately when she was shot as well as attempts to save her life.

Online posters of the woman covered in blood quickly emerged, included one modelled on a prominent image of Barack Obama during the last US presidential campaign.

Some online posts speculated the image would rank alongside that of the unnamed man standing in front of a tank in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the summary execution of a Vietnamese Communist prisoner by Colonel Nugyen Ngoc Loan in 1968.

Footage was posted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and was viewed by tens of thousands. Messages of sympathy and outrage flooded the internet following the posting of the videos.

The Iranian authorities have now sent out a circular to mosques banning collective prayers for the woman. [Source: The Telegraph] | Monday, June 22, 2009