Abaya Gets a Makeover from John Galliano and Blumarine
THE TELEGRAPH: Top European fashion labels, including John Galliano and Blumarine, have sent models in couture abayas down the runway in an effort to lure wealthy Muslim women.

The Saks Fifth Avenue Riyadh and Jeddah fashion show at the George V hotel in Paris. Photo: The Telegraph
A horsewoman in a flowing, made-to-measure Islamic gown atop a snorting steed opened the fashion show on Thursday at the George V Hotel in Paris.

Abayas are the body-covering black robes some Muslim women don over their clothing in public, usually accompanied by a head scarf or niqab, the face veil that covers all but the eyes.

Designers who tried their hand at making over the abaya, which is required in Saudi Arabia, included Christian Dior's artistic director John Galliano, French luxury labels Nina Ricci and Jean Claude Jitrois and Italian houses Blumarine and Alberta Feretti.

The show began with a bang, as the carrot-topped cavaliere - decked out in a Galliano-designed abaya exploding with firework of coloured sequins and dangling fringe - rode her mount into the hotel's subterranean salon.

Twenty models followed on foot, wearing abayas heavy with rhinestones or airy in gauzy fabrics.

"I realised that most of the Saudi clients are wearing designer brands, but they're covered by a black abaya," said Dania Tarhini, the show's organiser and a general manager of Saks Fifth Avenue in Saudi Arabia. "It is an obligation to wear the abaya there, but let them feel good about it."

The timing of the Paris show was propitious: four days earlier, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, struck a nerve in the Muslim world by declaring that full-body veils such as the burka are "not welcome" in France, saying they make women prisoners. A top Muslim group in Britain called Mr Sarkozy "patronising and offensive." Lebanon's most influential Shia cleric called on Mr Sarkozy to reconsider his comments. >>> | Friday, June 26, 2009

Ahmadinejad warnt den Westen: Reaktionen auf Forderungen der G-8-Staaten nach Ende der Gewalt
NZZ Online: Iran hat die Forderung des Westens, die fundamentalen Menschenrechte zu achten, in scharfem Ton zurückgewiesen. Die Einmischung in die inneren Angelegenheiten seines Landes sei eine Beleidigung, sagte Präsident Ahmadinejad.

«Ohne jeden Zweifel wird die neue iranische Regierung dem Westen entschiedener und machtvoller begegnen», erklärte Ahmadinejad am Samstag laut der staatlichen Nachrichtenagentur Irna. Beobachter gehen davon aus, dass er damit deutlich machen wollte, dass die Kompromissbereitschaft Teherans bei Streitthemen wie dem iranischen Atomprogramm oder der Nahostpolitik geringer als je zuvor sein werde.

Die führenden Industriestaaten und Russland (G-8) hatten sich am Freitag besorgt über die Gewalt gegen Demonstranten geäussert und die iranische Regierung aufgefordert, den Konflikt nach den Wahlen mit friedlichen Mitteln zu lösen. >>> sda/dpa/ap | Samstag, 27. Juni 2009

Jailed Iran Reformists 'Tortured to Confess Foreign Plot'
THE GUARDIAN: Amnesty reports apparent attempt to implicate defeated presidential candidate in conspiracy to overthrow regime

Jailed Iranian reformists are believed to have been tortured in an attempt to force them into TV "confessions" of a foreign-led plot against the Islamic regime.

According to Iranian websites, the "confessions" are aimed at implicating Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the defeated reformist candidates in this month's presidential poll, in an alleged conspiracy.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, all Mousavi supporters, are reported to have undergone "intensive interrogation" sessions in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since being arrested in a mass round-up of opposition figures following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

The three, who all served in the government of the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, are among several hundred activists, academics, journalists and students detained in a crackdown coinciding with the brutal suppression of street protesters who believe the election was stolen.

Fellow prisoners are reported to have heard screams of pain from Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister, and Ramezanzadeh, who was Khatami's government spokesman, during interrogations at Evin's section 209, which is reserved for political prisoners and run by the hardline intelligence ministry. >>> Robert Tait | Friday, June 26, 2009

A Case of Dogma Trumping Truth? Polar Bear Expert Barred by Global Warmists
THE TELEGRAPH: Dr Taylor, who has studied the animals for 30 years, was told his views 'are extremely unhelpful’, reveals Christopher Booker.

According to the world’s leading expert on polar bears, their numbers are higher than they were 30 years ago. Photo: The Telegraph
Over the coming days a curiously revealing event will be taking place in Copenhagen. Top of the agenda at a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission) will be the need to produce a suitably scary report on how polar bears are being threatened with extinction by man-made global warming.

This is one of a steady drizzle of events planned to stoke up alarm in the run-up to the UN's major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December. But one of the world's leading experts on polar bears has been told to stay away from this week's meeting, specifically because his views on global warming do not accord with those of the rest of the group.

Dr Mitchell Taylor has been researching the status and management of polar bears in Canada and around the Arctic Circle for 30 years, as both an academic and a government employee. More than once since 2006 he has made headlines by insisting that polar bear numbers, far from decreasing, are much higher than they were 30 years ago. Of the 19 different bear populations, almost all are increasing or at optimum levels, only two have for local reasons modestly declined.

Dr Taylor agrees that the Arctic has been warming over the last 30 years. But he ascribes this not to rising levels of CO2 – as is dictated by the computer models of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and believed by his PBSG colleagues – but to currents bringing warm water into the Arctic from the Pacific and the effect of winds blowing in from the Bering Sea. >>> Christopher Booker | Saturday, June 27, 2009

Fundamentalist Fervour
Watch Journeyman Pictures video: here >>>

Iranian Women: Are They Covering Up?
Watch Journeyman Pictures video here >>>

Freedom for Iran
Watch Journeyman Pictires video: Good Morning Tehran! >>>

A Less Familiar Side of Iran and Iranians
Watch Journeyman Pictures video: Nose Jobs >>>
Watch Journeyman Pictures video: Zoroastrian Worship >>>

Turkey to 'Never Give Up' EU Bid
BBC: Turkey has urged France and Germany to back its bid to join the EU, rejecting calls for a special partnership rather than full membership.

"We will never give up," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Brussels.

Turkey's EU accession talks are going at a glacial pace and risk suspension if Ankara fails to open its ports and airports to Cyprus this year.

France and Germany want to give Turkey a "privileged partnership" with the EU.

But Mr Erdogan insisted "our goal is full membership".

He also said it was "populist and wrong" to use Turkey's bid as an election issue.

Some right-wing parties opposed to Turkey's bid made gains in the recent European Parliament elections. >>> | Friday, June 26, 2009

Belgium Gets First Deputy Wearing Muslim Headscarf
Mahinur Ozdemir. Photo: Google Images
EURONEWS: In Brussels, Mahinur Ozdemir, 26, has become the first deputy wearing a Muslim headscarf to be sworn into the regional parliament.

Coming the day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the burqa was not welcome in France, Ozdemir’s colleagues said it was about personal choice.

After the ceremony, Ozdemir, from the Democrat Humanist Centre, said she wanted to be recognised for her achievements and not her headwear.

“Unfortunately, I have been reduced to nothing more than this scarf, and frankly it is hard to remove yourself from it,” she said. “Underneath this veil there is a personality, there is someone who is engaged, who wants things to change, who wants to move forward and execute lots of projects for the people of Brussels.”

During her election campaign, Ozdemir was targeted by hardline activists due to her headscarf. She served as a member of the municipal council in Shaerbeek, which is known as the “Turkish neighbourhood” of Brussels. [Source: euronews] | Wednesday, June 24, 2009

NZZ Online: Belgien wieder voll im Kopftuch-Dilemma: Streit um Antwerpener Schulen und eine Abgeordnete mit dem Hijab

In Belgien ist die Diskussion um das Kopftuch muslimischer Frauen wieder voll entbrannt. Während in Antwerpen Muslime gegen das Kopftuchverbot an einer Schule protestierten, legte im Brüsseler Regionalparlament die erste Abgeordnete im Kopftuch ihren Eid ab.

Zwei Ereignisse haben in Belgien die Diskussionen um das Kopftuchtragen muslimischer Frauen wieder voll entbrennen lassen. Im Brüsseler Regionalparlament legte die türkischstämmige Christlichsoziale Mahinur Özdemir ihren Eid als Abgeordnete im Hijab ab – eine absolute Premiere in Belgien. Dies rief natürlich in Teilen der politischen Landschaft Widerspruch hervor; die französischsprachigen Liberalen vom Mouvement réformateur (MR) wollten gar die Möglichkeit prüfen, mit einem Vorstoss das Tragen von «religiösen und philosophischen Symbolen» in den Sitzungen aller belgischen Parlamente zu verbieten. Die flämischen Liberalen wiederum fanden, das Parlament sei keine Amtsstelle, und nahmen deshalb am Kopftuch der Abgeordneten Özdemir keinen Anstoss. >>> win. Brüssel | Thursday, June 25, 2009

Beat It You Fanatics! Get Out of My Land!

Hat tip: Always On Watch >>>

Why Does the World Put Up with This Filth?
TIMES ONLINE: A hardline cleric close to the Iranian regime demanded the execution of leading demonstrators yesterday as the opposition ended the week in disarray.

In a televised sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami called on the judiciary to “punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson”. He said that those leaders were backed by the United States and Israel. They should be treated as mohareb — people who wage war against God — and deserved execution.

In a clear warning to all other dissenters, he declared: “Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction.” Leading demonstrators must be executed, Ayatollah Khatami demands >>> Martin Fletcher | Saturday, June 27, 2009

'The Stoning of Soraya M.'
LOS ANGELES TIMES: 'The Stoning of Soraya M.' vividly depicts the violent execution of a woman condemned by religion distorted.

"The Stoning of Soraya M." lives up to its title quite literally -- and rightly so, for it is important to understand just how cruel and drawn-out this ancient form of execution is and how prevalent it remains, not just in Iran, the film's setting, but in countries throughout the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa that follow Islamic Sharia law.

The timing of the film's release is apt, for it serves as a metaphor for the current protests in Iran against the long-standing oppressiveness of the Islamic Republic.

Based on a true story recounted in the late Freidoune Sahebjam's book, "The Stoning of Soraya M." was filmed in a remote mountain village in an undisclosed Middle Eastern country. Jim Caviezel is cast as Sahebjam, an eminent Iranian journalist based in France who is passing through the village when he is accosted by a distraught woman, Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who prevails upon him to tape the terrible story she has to tell.

Only the day before, her niece Soraya (Mozhan Marnò) was executed in the town square by stoning. Her husband, Ali (Navid Negahban), who has the village leaders in his thrall, had concocted a flimsy and completely false charge of adultery against Soraya, the mother of their four children, so that he can be free to marry a 14-year-old girl; Soraya had refused to divorce Ali because she had no other means of support. >>> Kevin Thomas | Friday, June 26, 2009

«Jackson laisse à ses enfants une montagne de dettes»

Merkel in Washington: Obamas "warme Stelle im Herzen" für Deutschland
WELT ONLINE: US-Präsident Barack Obama hat Deutschland als unverzichtbaren Partner für sein Land bezeichnet. Gemeinsam mit Kanzlerin Merkel bekundete er im Weißen Haus den Willen, die Probleme der Welt anzugehen – von der Lage im Iran bis zum Klimaschutz. Und die Kanzlerin bekam ein ganz persönliches Lob zu hören.

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) und US-Präsident Barack Obama haben bei ihrem Treffen in Washington eine enge Abstimmung in internationalen Fragen vereinbart.

Unter den goldenen Kandelabern des East Rooms im Weißen Haus stellte ein sichtlich erschöpfter Obama klar, dass an den Gerüchten über gegenseitige Antipathien zwischen ihm und der deutschen Bundeskanzlerin nichts dran sei.

Er betrachte Deutschland als „einen unserer engsten Verbündeten und als unverzichtbaren Partner“, sagte Obama nach dem Vier-Augen-Gespräch mit Merkel. Die Bundeskanzlerin sagte bei dem gemeinsamen Presseauftritt, sie wolle gemeinsam mit den USA Probleme lösen, „die nicht von einem allein zu bewältigen sind“. Unter anderem wolle man die Friedensbemühungen im Nahost-Konflikt, den Klimaschutz und die Wirtschaftskrise angehen.

Während der Pressekonferenz betonten Merkel und der amerikanische Präsident ihre Einigkeit speziell in Sachen Iran. Auf die Frage, ob er der Forderung des iranischen Präsidenten nach einer Entschuldigung nachkommen werde, erklärte Obama: "Ich nehme Präsident Ahmadinedschad nicht besonders ernst. Er sollte sich vor allem fragen, was er seinem eigenen Volk schuldet“.

Angela Merkel erklärte, man werde sehr genau nach den inhaftierten Demonstranten fragen. Aus ihrer Zeit in der DDR erinnere sie sich sehr genau, wie wichtig es sei, dass die Welt Anteil nehme. >>> Von Mariam Lau | Freitag, 26. Juni 2009

Feindbild: Im Iran sitzt der Hass auf Großbritannien tief
WELT ONLINE: Schuld an den Unruhen sind die Briten – diese simple Behauptung verbreiten die Machthaber in Teheran gern und oft. Sie wurzelt in einer tiefen Feindschaft gegenüber der einstigen De-facto-Kolonialmacht. Die langen Versuche Londons, sich den Iran als Einflusssphäre zu sichern, bieten den Mullahs eine Steilvorlage.

Kein Mittel verstehen die Machthaber in Teheran besser einzusetzen als das tief in der nationalen Psyche verankerte Vorurteil, hinter den Unruhen im Iran stecke nichts weiter als die bekannte Hand der Briten, die sich permanent in die iranischen Angelegenheiten einmischen und eingemischt haben. Das beherrscht die Köpfe der Regierenden in Teheran geradezu wie eine Paranoia.

Den Ursprung des England-Hasses muss man im 19. Jahrhundert ansiedeln, als Persien zur Trophäe wurde im „Großen Spiel“ zwischen dem zaristischen Russland und dem britischen Weltreich um das Herzland Eurasien: Afghanistan, Kaukasus, Persien. >>> Von Thomas Kielinger | Freitag, 26. Juni 2009

Die zu Guttenbergs: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg im Interview

Escort Patrizia D'Addario Says Berlusconi Party Was ‘Like Harem’
Photo: TimesOnline
TIMES ONLINE: Silvio Berlusconi faced mounting pressure to come clean about his private life yesterday after revelations that he entertained about 20 women, including two lesbian escort girls, until dawn during a private party at his house in Rome.

Patrizia D’Addario, the Bari prostitute who claims to have recorded footage that proves her encounters with the Prime Minister, gave more details of her first meeting with Mr Berlusconi, saying: “It felt like a harem. And there was only one sheikh. Him.”

She also spoke of the “strange burglary” in which her underwear, computer and the dress she wore to the party were allegedly stolen from her home days after she told a friend of the secret recordings.

It is understood that the video recordings, taken on her mobile phone, show Ms D’Addario in the Prime Minister’s bedroom. She claims that the four-poster bed with white drapes and duvets were given to him as a present by his friend Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister. A Kremlin spokesman denied that Mr Putin had ever given the Italian leader a bed. >>> Lucy Bannerman in Bari | Friday, June 26, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Senior Roman Catholic Bishop Calls for Silvio Berlusconi to Resign

A Roman Catholic bishop called for the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi, the first time that such a senior figure of the Church has done so, adding to a growing sense that the crisis over the beleaguered Italian Prime Minister’s private life is out of control.

Monsignor Domenico Mogavero, Bishop of Mazara del Vallo in Sicily and a former senior official in the Italian Bishops' Conference, said that Mr Berlusconi should “consider whether it is opportune to resign in the interests of the country”.

The Prime Minister was further criticised by the Church when Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, head of the Conference, warned against “men drunk on a delirium of their own greatness, who touch the illusion of omnipotence and distort moral values”. >>> Richard Owen in Rome | Friday, June 26, 2009

Shock and Grief Over Jackson’s Death
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Around the country and the world Friday, legions of grief-stricken fans of the King of Pop mourned the sudden death of Michael Jackson with spontaneous flower-laden memorials and emotional tributes, as the autopsy to determine the cause of his mysterious death was scheduled to begin in Los Angeles.

The autopsy would take several hours Friday, but toxicology results could take six to eight weeks, the Los Angeles County assistant chief coroner Lt. Ed Winter told reporters.

Mr. Jackson’s brother Jermaine said on Thursday that the preliminary cause of death was cardiac arrest. The singer, 50, had been rushed to the hospital, a six-minute drive from the rented Bel-Air home where he was living, shortly after noon local time by paramedics for the Los Angeles Fire Department. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm.

The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation, as a formality and because of Mr. Jackson’s enormous celebrity, a police spokesman said, and detectives began their search of Mr. Jackson’s house Thursday.

Brian Oxman, a former lawyer of Mr. Jackson’s and a family friend, gave interviews expressing his concerns about Mr. Jackson’s health, and saying that prescription drugs might have been a factor in his death Thursday. >>> Sharon Otterman and Liz Robbins | Friday, June 26, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Michael Jackson's Family Feared Morphine Overdose



THE TELEGRAPH:
Michael Jackson 'Converts to Islam and Changes Name to Mikaeel' >>> Graham Tibbetts | Friday, November 21, 2008

TIMES ONLINE: Michael Jackson: Martin Bashir Interview Damaged Him Deeply

Martin Bashir. Photo: TimesOnline
When Michael Jackson agreed to give the television journalist Martin Bashir unprecedented access to his personal life, he believed that it would help him win public sympathy and repair a reputation that had become heavily tarnished over the years.

It had, after all, worked with Diana, Princess of Wales, a figure with whom Jackson identified closely and who had scored a momentous public relations coup with her Panorama interview with Bashir in 1995.

It was to prove a calamitous error of judgement on Jackson’s part.

The admissions he made in the interview about sleeping with children at his Neverland ranch in California would eventually lead to criminal charges and a trial which, despite his acquittal, would cause him a level of damage from which he would never recover.

Jackson was initially persuaded to let Bashir become part of his entourage for eight months by his friend Uri Geller, who said: “Michael liked Martin and he was happy to have him around. I said to him, ‘Michael, maybe it’s time to open up to the world.’”
Jackson did exactly that; and the world did not like what it heard. >>> Valentine Low | Friday, June 26, 2009

YOUTUBE: Thriller


YOUTUBE: Moon Walk


YOUTUBE: Dirty Diana


YOUTUBE: Billy Jean


YOUTUBE: Bad >>>

YOUTUBE: Black or White >>>

YOUTUBE: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough >>>

YOUTUBE: Off the Wall >>>

YOUTUBE: In the Closet >>>

YOUTUBE: Dangerous >>>

YOUTUBE: Liberian Girl >>>

Opinion: The Mullahs Must Go
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Obama is making the same mistake as other presidents -- the only answer is regime change.

Since Iran's controversial and disputed election, President Obama has been noticeably restrained in his reaction. He has flashed his empathy, saying on Tuesday that he was "appalled and outraged" by the regime's brutality, but he has been equally emphatic about not being perceived as meddling in Iran's internal affairs. Despite increasing political heat, even from Democrats and the usually adulatory U.S. media, Obama persists in his low-key approach, clinging to emotive generalizations.

But it is the president's underlying policies that are wrong, not just his rhetoric. Saying that he does not want the "debate" inside Iran to be about the United States is disingenuous at best. Obama's real objective is to launch negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, in the belief that he can talk Iran out of its 20-year effort to acquire deliverable nuclear weapons. He said it during the 2008 campaign, during his inaugural address and repeatedly thereafter.

Viewed in the light of this near-religious obsession with negotiation, Obama's reticence is entirely understandable: He does not want to jeopardize the chance to sit with the likes of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

In fact, everything we know about the regime indicates that Iran, and the Revolutionary Guard in particular, will never voluntarily give up its nuclear program, so Obama's policy is doomed to failure. (Inevitably, of course, if negotiations start, Obama would change the definition of success to include accepting a "peaceful" Iranian uranium- enrichment program, which means Tehran would retain its "breakout" capability to quickly produce nuclear weapons -- but exploring this further Obama failure has to wait for another day.)

Accordingly, it is Obama's policy errors, not his rhetorical ones, that should be opposed. Rhetoric itself is not policy but only the adjunct of policy, albeit often an important one. Obama's reticence reflects his larger misjudgment -- the dangerous misconception that there is a negotiated solution to Iran's nuclear threat that can satisfy both Iran and the United States.

Pursuing that objective is perilous for America, its allies and its friends -- in Europe, Israel and the Arab world alike. Moreover, Obama rarely mentions Iran's continuing role as the world's central banker for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, yet this is another threat that negotiation will not eliminate.

Obama's policy, and that of the United States, should be the overthrow of the Islamic revolution of 1979. The massive resistance to the June 12 elections is just another fact supporting that conclusion. >>> John R. Bolton | Friday, June 26, 2009

John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "Surrender Is Not an Option."