Editorial: Lockerbie Terrorist's Release Is an Ugly Act of 'Mercy'
LOS ANGELES TIMES: The muted U.S. reaction to the bomber's repatriation to Libya adds to the insult to justice.

The release by Scotland of Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, who was expected to spend his life in prison for the 1988 bombing of a Pan American jetliner, was merciful, certainly, but an outrage nonetheless. The "compassionate release” of the terminally ill Libyan terrorist showed no compassion for relatives of the 270 people killed when the jet exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Compounding their trauma was the muted protest of the Obama administration.

Instead of viewing the special relationship between the United States and Britain as a cause for candor, the president, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. resorted to diplomatic circumlocution. The president called Megrahi's release "a mistake" and was reduced to asking Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi not to treat Megrahi as a hero and to place him under house arrest. Clinton issued a statement calling the release "deeply disappointing." Holder shifted into passive voice to say that the interests of justice "have not been served by this decision."

This country has a special interest in punishment for Megrahi because 189 of the victims were Americans, including 35 Syracuse University students returning home for the Christmas season. But whatever their nationality, they were innocent victims of an attack that virtually defined the term "terrorism." For many of their families, a life sentence was the minimum punishment to be meted out to Megrahi. His release and repatriation after serving only eight years thus upends their expectations and undermines the argument that life in prison is an acceptable alternative to execution. >>> Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times | Friday, August 21, 2009

Gay US Bishop Attacks Treatment of Gay and Lesbian Clergy by Church of England
THE GUARDIAN: Gene Robinson chides Archbishop of Canterbury for talk of two-tier Anglican communion

Gene Robinson, the Espiscopalian bishop of New Hampshire, says gay and lesbian clerby are treated by the Church of England as a problem to be solved. Photo: The Guardian
The first openly gay bishop in the Anglican communion has launched an outspoken attack on the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Gene Robinson, the Episcopalian bishop of New Hampshire, criticised the policy of the Church of England towards gay and lesbian clergy. Alluding to the significant number of clergy who are gay, he said: "I think gay clergy in the Church of England are thought of as a problem to be solved or at least lived with, rather than a gift from God."

Robinson, who is in Britain to speak at the Greenbelt festival at Cheltenham Racecourse this weekend, added that he could not accept the archbishop's recent comments that if the Episcopal church refused to uphold the current moratorium on consecrating actively gay bishops or blessing civil unions, the communion might have to be reorganised into a two-tier, or "two-track" model. "I can't imagine anything that would be more abhorrent to Jesus than a two-tier church," he said. "Either we are children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ, or we aren't. There are not preferred children and second-class children. There are just children of God." >>> Aida Edemariam | Friday, August 28, 2009

Islam, Eat Your Heart Out! Nudists Unite - Whatever the Weather
THE TELEGRAPH: As upmarket Southwold is being considered as a new nudist venue, one writer bares all on Brighton's chilly East Beach, a naturists' favourite.

"Try everything once," said Sir Thomas Beecham, "except incest and folk-dancing."

It's a fine bon mot for a thrice-married conductor, but I bet Sir Thomas never went into work one morning in London and found himself, four hours later, strolling along a nudist beach in Brighton wondering whether he had the courage to throw caution to the bitterly cold wind, swap his M&S suit for his birthday one and join in the naturist fun.

There are a number of uncomfortable questions racing through my mind as I contemplate joining Brighton's most liberated. What is the etiquette for this sort of thing: does one whip one's clothes off in one fluid movement or should one progress in slow, measured stages? More worryingly, still, can anyone see me? Which boxer shorts did I put on this morning? And why is it so very, very chilly all of a sudden?

So let's start with an easier one to answer: why am I here?

On Thursday, this paper reported that Southwold, the Suffolk seaside town nicknamed Chelsea-on-Sea, is being considered as an alternative nudist venue to Corton, 16 miles to the north. Corton, one of Britain's official oldest nudest venues, will be forced to close soon owing to coastal erosion, and the residents of Southwold don't appear too enamoured by the prospect of an invasion of naked flesh. "They would go ballistic," said Joe Annis, a lifeguard. Gordon Brown, who strolled awkwardly along Southwold beach in a blazer on holiday last year, has unfortunately not yet expressed an opinion.

But is Southwold not missing out in its reluctance to embrace naturists with open arms? And is this not the answer to the Prime Minister's annual dress-down sartorial dilemma?

In Britain, we have always tended to snigger at nakedness. While our southerly European neighbours celebrate the nude body – painting it, sculpting it, going topless on a beach at the drop of a sunhat – we seem to prefer the buttoned-up approach. Taking all your clothes off might be just about acceptable before showering alone, but on a public beach? No, thank you very much; we'll leave that to the Swedish. And if I want to keep my stripy socks on while making love, that's my God-given prerogative as an Englishman. >>> Iain Hollingshead | Friday, August 28, 2009

Colonel Gaddafi Party to Outshine the Beijing Olympics
THE TELEGRAPH: Libya is planning a celebrations on the scale of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Colonel Gaddafi to power.

If anything, the superlatives will be even greater as Beijing 2008 did not boast the world's largest tent, 1,000 camels, Toureg nomads or 40 hot air balloons.

Performers are being flown in from all over the planet, from dancers and fireworks specialists to a brass band from Wales.

The giant tent, and the stage within it, longer than a football pitch, are being built by a British special events company, Atlantic Enterprise.

The director is a Frenchman and the party is being put together by a public relations company run by the British government's one-time favourite ad-man.

"Everything is bespoke for this event," said Atlantic's managing director, Shane McCarthy. "Nothing like this has ever been done before."

Organisers are expecting 300,000 Libyans to watch the show being put on next Tuesday to mark the anniversary live, with more on television.

After congregating in Libya's capital Tripoli, newly whitewashed and decorated with Gaddafi posters, hundreds of VIP guests will enjoy an evening buffet.

They will then be escorted into a smaller version of the open Bedouin tent, 130 yards by 45 yards, by 27 yards tall, in which the pageant will take place. Once they are joined by Col Gaddafi himself, the show will begin.

The scale will be vast. Four hundred performers, helped by a crew of 1,100, will lay on a pageant of Libya's history: as centre of Phoenician trade, of Roman civilisation and Arab learning.

Mr McCarthy said the firm was using 15 Antonov aircraft to fly in 8,000 tons of equipment. There would be 100 tons of equipment on the stage itself.

Reference will be made to Libya's period as an Italian colony. But Italy is now one of Libya's closest friends and the "Frecce Tricolori" or Tricolor Arrows, Italy's answer to the Red Arrows, will be joining the celebrations. >>> Richard Spencer | Friday, August 28, 2009

Woman Jailed for 18 Years for Insulting Thai Royals
THE TELEGRAPH: A Thai woman has been jailed for 18 years for insulting the country's revered royal family during anti-government rallies.

Daranee Charncherngsilapakul. Photo: The Telegraph
Daranee Charncherngsilapakul, 46, a supporter of Thailand's ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was found guilty of making speeches considered insulting to the Thai royal family.

The judge at Bangkok's main criminal court said her speeches at Sanam Luang park in the capital during three pro-Thaksin rallies attended by his "Red Shirt" supporters" in June and July last year were against the law of lese majeste, a court official told AFP.

"The court convicted the defendant on three counts and sentenced her for six years on each count," she said.

"Although the defendant testified that she did not intend to insult the monarchy or make the public believe her, she could not escape her wrongdoing," the verdict said. >>> Foreign Staff at The Telegraph | Friday, August 28, 2009

The Dark Side of Martha's Vineyard
THE TELEGRAPH: Beneath its idyllic exterior, Martha's Vineyard – beloved holiday destination of America's well-heeled – is rife with depression, alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence.

President Barack Obama enjoying a bike ride with his family and friends while on vacation on Martha's Vineyard. Photo: The Telegraph
America's First Family will wave goodbye to Martha's Vineyard tomorrow after a week's holiday on an island whose name is rarely uttered without the epithet "idyllic".

As President Obama flies his family back home to Washington, they will rapidly be followed by an armada of private jets from the tiny local airport. After next weekend's Labour Day holiday, the exodus of billionaire businessmen, media tycoons and Hollywood stars who summer on the island will be complete. From Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce to Valerie Jarrett and the Clintons, they'll all be gone. In a matter of days, the island's population withers from 100,000 to just 15,000.

More than a few of the quitters must feel a twinge of jealousy for those lucky few left behind on the 23-mile island. They shouldn't. The reality of out-of-season – and that in holiday-starved America means any month outside July and August – is anything but a paradise for most of those left behind.

Martha's Vineyard's dark little secret is one of desperately high levels of depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence and even suicide attempts among a population that struggles to make ends meet in a billionaire's playground when the billionaires have all left.

The last time the island's social problems were publicly totted up – in 2005 - the number of cases of patients treated each year in hospital for alcohol or drug abuse had soared from almost 200 in 2002 to just over 750 three years later. The caseload of patients struggling with depression had grown from 40 in 2002 to 92 in 2005. Suicide attempts climbed almost tenfold, from three in 2002 to 29 in 2005.

Some local experts believe the situation has not got any better. "It's the shadow side of Martha's Vineyard – all the things you don't expect to exist on a luxury island," said Dr Gail Gordon, its former community services senior psychologist. "And it's the seasonal nature of the island that makes our social problems worse. Everyone works so hard over the summer and then there's this let down when all the others go." >>> Tom Leonard | Friday, August 28, 2009

Gaddafi Is Everywhere in Libya — Especially as He Celebrates 40 Years in Power
TIMES ONLINE: You are never alone in Libya. From the moment you arrive at Tripoli international airport, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is with you.

Wherever you go, the Great Leader and Father of the Revolution watches benevolently over you, never more so than now as he prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power.

As befits Africa’s longest-serving leader, he stares down from a thousand billboards, from great banners draped down the sides of skyscrapers, from bunting stretched across streets, from official portraits in every shop and hotel lobby, from hoardings at the remotest junctions in the desert. Nobody else gets a look-in.

His image is reproduced in neon, on mosaics and across the sides of the hot-air balloons tethered in Green Square in readiness for next Tuesday’s celebrations. It appears on the huge electronic clocks counting down the minutes to that great occasion.

His is a personality cult that makes Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein or Kim Jong Il look self-effacing. >>> Martin Fletcher in Tripoli | Friday, August 28, 2009

Homophobia in Mexico
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Gay Conversion - USA
Christian lobby groups in the US believe homosexuality is a mental disorder!
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Why Has My Father’s Murder Gone Unpunished?
THE SPECTATOR: Huda Abuzeid, whose father was killed by the Libyan regime, says that we must not turn a blind eye to its acts of intimidation and violence

There is a joke about Libya which goes something like this: why does Libya has [sic] a population of both six million and four million? The answer is that one million are abroad and the other million are in prison.

It’s not a funny joke, but it’s a revealing one. As the country prepares to celebrate 40 years of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule, and despite various of our politicians desperately trying to tell us how much Libya has changed and the numerous Sunday supplement articles extolling the virtues of Libya as a holiday destination, Libya remains one of the most intolerant, totalitarian and repressive regimes in the world. Libyan citizens regularly ‘disappear’ — arrested by the authorities. Their loved ones are often left in the dark.

Since 2003 Libya has been extolled by Britain as an example of a reformed state. Tony Blair was quick to take the credit, rushing over to Gaddafi and saying, ‘People should not forget the past, they should move beyond it.’

On hearing that, I felt physically sick. With that one sound-bite, Libyans inside the country and those who like me were living abroad knew that the political will to push for justice in the many unresolved cases was lost.

Cases such as the murder of my father, Ali Abuzeid, whose body I found in his west London shop on 26 November 1995. He had been stabbed to death. A key member of the leading Libyan opposition group in the 1980s, my father had put all his efforts into ridding his homeland of its dictator. My childhood years were spent worrying about him every time he travelled, learning to be careful around other Arabs. I once had to leave Tunisia accompanied by secret police when they found out that a hit squad had been sent to assassinate him after a failed attempt to overthrow the Libyan regime.

Back in London, I remember hearing his name mentioned in a speech by Gaddafi, who had called for him and others to be hunted down. At one point there was a bounty of millions on his head.

After years in exile and the deaths of many of his friends inside Libya who had been rounded up and executed, my father decided to retire from opposition politics. Revolution, he now believed, could only come from within, instead of being led by those in exile. However, from his shop in a neighbourhood populated with Arabs, he remained vocal about his opinions and politics and then, after years of being careful and keeping under the radar, he became an easy target.

So when I answered a call early one Sunday morning in November 1995 from one of his staff, who said the door to the shop was open but the lights were off, my heart began to pound with that familiar childhood fear for his safety. I told myself that maybe he had just fallen down some steps or that he had forgetfully left the door open. >>> Huda Abuzeid | Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wilders Compares Prophet Muhammad to a Pig
NIS NEWS BULLETIN: THE HAGUE - Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders has seized on a news report from Saudi Arabia for peppery written questions to the cabinet. In these, he compares the Islamic prophet Mohammed to a pig.

Wilders has requested clarification from Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen on a marriage in Saudi Arabia between an 80 year old man and a 10 year old child. The child had run away from her elderly husband, but was brought back to him by her father, the English-language website Arab News reports based on a Saudi newspaper.

Wilders asks the minister if he shares the view that "this man is behaving like a pig, just like the barbarous Prophet Mohammed, who married the six year old girl Aisha." The PVV leader wants Verhagen to summon the Saudi Arabian ambassador to express his repugnance. [Source: NIS News Bulletin] | Thursday, August 27, 2009

Wilders' Party Loses Support
DUTCHNEWS.nl: Geert Wilders' anti-immigration PVV party would take 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament if there was a general election tomorrow, four down on last month, according to the latest Politieke Barometer opinion poll.

At the beginning of July, support for the PVV had reached an all-time high of 32, making it the most popular party in the country. It currently has nine seats in parliament.

The new poll says the Christian Democrats are now in the lead, with 37 seats. Coalition party Labour (PvdA) is up two seats at 24.

Meanwhile, research by Synovate for tv programme Nova shows that almost 40% of Wilders' supporters back the PVV because they have lost faith in the government and other political parties. >>> AD | Friday, August 28, 2009

États-Unis: Un chapitre de l’histoire américaine se clôt
LE TEMPS: Le lion politique est mort mardi soir à l’âge de 77 ans.

En été 2008, bien que rongé par la chimiothérapie, il s’était fait violence pour se rendre au Sénat et voter contre des coupes dans Medicare, l’assurance maladie publique pour les plus de 65 ans. Certains républicains en furent tellement émus qu’ils retournèrent leur veste. L’anecdote révèle ce qu’a été Edward Kennedy durant ces quarante-six ans au Sénat: un politicien passionné qui n’a jamais eu honte de s’afficher sous l’étiquette «liberal», progressiste.

«Une figure unique»

Le dernier patriarche des Kennedy, l’une des familles les plus glamour de l’histoire politique américaine, est décédé mardi soir à 77 ans des suites d’une tumeur cérébrale dans sa maison du Massachusetts. Il sera enseveli samedi au cimetière d’Arlington à proximité de ses frères John Fitzgerald et Robert. La nouvelle a suscité une vague d’émotion à travers toute l’Amérique. Le président Barack Obama a déclaré avoir le «cœur brisé», soulignant que Ted Kennedy a été une «figure unique» aux Etats-Unis.

Considéré comme l’un des sénateurs les plus puissants et plus influents de l’Histoire américaine, le benjamin des neuf enfants de Joseph et de Rosa Kennedy porte en lui le destin tragique de la famille. Après la mort de son frère Joseph durant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, l’assassinat, en 1963, de son frère John, président des Etats-Unis, est un cataclysme. Un an plus tard, Ted échappe miraculeusement à la mort dans un accident d’avion. Le cauchemar se poursuit en 1968 quand, dans un hôtel californien, un Palestinien chrétien tue son autre frère, Robert, candidat à l’investiture démocrate pour la présidentielle de 1968. Prostré, Edward Kennedy se réfugie, dix semaines durant, dans le silence, naviguant seul sur son voilier, au large de Cape Cod. Plus tard, l’alcoolisme et sa réputation de coureur de jupons font les gros titres de la presse américaine. En 1969, un mystérieux accident de voiture sur l’île de Chappaquiddick, où la passagère de Kennedy perd la vie, finira de ternir l’image du politicien.

Après le divorce d’avec Joan Bennett Kennedy en 1982, Ted Kennedy se relève et se remarie avec Victoria Anne Reggie, une avocate de Washington. «Ces événements ont montré ses faiblesses, mais ils l’ont aussi humanisé», confie au Temps un Américain proche de l’administration Obama. D’autant que Ted Kennedy n’a jamais éludé ses problèmes en en assumant publiquement les conséquences avec une franchise quasi désarmante. >>> Stéphane Bussard | Jeudi 27 Août 2009

Europe Launches Major Push for New Banker Bonus Rules
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: France, Germany and the EU are launching a major offensive to change the system of bonuses paid out to bank employees. Knowing that it won't work anywhere if it isn't implemented everywhere, they are hoping to make it a major issue at the upcoming G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.

The debate surrounding bankers' bonus payments has finally reached Brussels. In an interview with the daily Hamburger Abendblatt, European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen said that the European Union will reach an agreement very soon on limiting the income of bank managers.

Verheugen also told the paper that the European Commission believes that, when it comes to a bank's system of compensation, there should be "no direct relation with a company's short-term profits." Instead, he is confident that the EU's member states and parliament will be able to reach a swift agreement on the issue.

Likewise, Verheugen also voiced his support for measures to impose high taxation rates on the bonuses of bankers whose companies receive state support. "What we're really talking about here," Verheugen told the paper, "is figures arising when a company has been kept alive by the state for a long time." >>> wal/jtw - with wire reports | Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Despite Progress, Former East Germany Still Lags Behind
Wittstock, East Germany. Photo: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Billions have been pumped into the former East Germany, but 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, its economy has not caught up with the West. A new report praises the progress so far but warns that the region needs well-educated young people and an influx of immigrants if it is to thrive.

When the Berlin Wall finally fell in November 1989, a wave of hope and optimism swept across Europe -- perhaps nowhere more so than in the once divided Germany. Hope, however, soon gave way to disillusionment as the collapse of the Socialist planned economies saw millions of people lose their jobs and many became nostalgic for their old way of life. In Germany, despite the pumping of massive funds into the former Communist East, the stark divisions in income and employment between the two halves of the country rapidly undermined the initial wave of enthusiasm for reunification.

Now, 20 years on, a new study on the economy in the former East has shown that while there has been huge progress in bridging that chasm, a significant gap still remains. While in the 1990s the two halves of the country saw their economies slowly converge, stagnation set in at the turn of the century and since 2008 they have actually begun to drift further apart again. The report by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has found that there are still significant structural problems to be overcome. In particular the region has to battle a demographic slump and is in need of better qualified young people and immigrants to keep its economy growing. 'Exuberant Expectations' in 1989 >>> smd -- with wire reports | Friday, August 28, 2009

Nord- und Südkorea vereinbaren neue Familientreffen
DIE PRESSE: Nach fast zwei Jahren soll es erstmals wieder Familien-Zusammenführungen auf der geteilten Halbinsel geben.

Nord- und Südkorea haben eine neue Runde der Familienzusammenführung auf der seit 56 Jahren geteilten Halbinsel vereinbart. Die Familientreffen sollen bereits im kommenden Monat stattfinden und sind die ersten derartigen Begegnungen seit fast zwei Jahren. Die Vereinbarung wurde am Freitag nach dreitägigen Verhandlungen bekanntgegeben. Die Treffen sollen ab dem 26. September über einen Zeitraum von sechs Tagen zwischen 200 Familien stattfinden. >>> Ag. | Freitag, 28. August 2009

Islamisme: Medvedev exhorte les religieux
leJDD.fr: Le président russe Dmitri Medvedev a exhorté vendredi les hauts dignitaires musulmans à s'unir pour lutter contre les groupes islamistes qui troublent le Nord-Caucase. "Malheureusement, les bandes criminelles réussissent encore à recruter des jeunes gens pour leurs activités", a-t-il dit à des responsables religieux et régionaux. "Il serait bon d'élaborer un programme de travail avec les jeunes dans le Nord-Caucase", région en proie à une violente insurrection islamiste, a-t-il ajouté. Les islamistes multiplient depuis des mois les attentats à la bombe et les attaques armées contre la police et les forces de sécurité en Tchétchénie, au Daghestan et en Ingouchie. [Source: leJDD.fr] | Vendredi 28 Août 2009

US 'Warned Kenny MacAskill that Lockerbie Bomber Would Get Hero's Welcome'
TIMES ONLINE: Kenny MacAskill was warned by his US counterpart that the convicted Lockerbie bomber could get a hero’s welcome if he was returned home to Libya.

The message from Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, is contained in notes of a conversation he had with Mr MacAskill two months before the latter’s decision to free Abdel baset Ali al-megrahi [sic].

Theere was outrage in both the the US and in Britain last week when the freed terrorist was shown returning to Tripoli amid jubilant scenes with some in the crowd waving the Scottish flag.

The scenes came only hours after al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, had walked free from Greenock Prison in Scotland after Mr MacAskill had granted him compassionate release.

Mr Holder’s warning has been revealed by Frank Duggan, the president of a relatives group, Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, the aircraft that was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie on December 21 1888, with the loss of 270 lives.

Mr Duggan says a US Justice Department official read him notes that Mr Holder used during the conversation with Mr MacAskill. >>> Angus Macleod, Scottish Political Correspondent | Friday, August 28, 2009

Popularität von Obama in Israel auf Tiefststand
BERLINER ZEITUNG: Jerusalem - Die Popularität von US-Präsident Barack Obama in Israel hat einen neuen Tiefststand erreicht. Nur noch vier Prozent der Israelis halten die Politik Obamas für pro-israelisch.

51 Prozent glauben, dass die neue US-Regierung die Palästinenser stärker favorisiert. Das geht aus einer am Freitag von der «Jerusalem Post» veröffentlichten repräsentativen Umfrage hervor. Zu Zeiten von Obamas Vorgänger, George W. Bush, hatten noch 88 Prozent der Befragten die US-Politik als pro-israelisch eingeschätzt. >>> © dpa | Freitag, 28. August 2009

4% of Israeli Jews: Obama Pro-Israel
THE JERUSALEM POST: The number of Israelis who see US President Barack Obama's policies as pro-Israel has fallen to four percent, according to a Smith Research poll taken this week on behalf of The Jerusalem Post.

Fifty-one percent of Jewish Israelis consider Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, according to the survey, while 35% consider it neutral and 10% declined to express an opinion. The poll of 500 people representing a statistical model of the Jewish Israeli population had a margin of error of 4.5%. >>> Gil Hoffman | Thursday, August 27, 2009

Nétanyahou à Berlin reçoit les plans d'Auschwitz
LE FIGARO: En visite à Berlin, où Angela Merkel a plaidé pour un retour au dialogue avec les Palestiniens, le premier ministre israélien s'est vu remettre les plans orginaux du camp pour le mémorial de Yad Vashem.

Benyamin Nétanyahou, ici avec le rédacteur en chef de Bild (à droite), étudie les plans originaux du camp d'Auschwitz, qui seront conservés au mémorial de l'Holocauste. Crédits photo: Le Figaro
Le premier ministre israélien, Benyamin Nétanyahou, a rencontré, jeudi à Berlin, la chancelière allemande, Angela Merkel, son meilleur soutien en Europe. En raison de l'Holocauste, l'Allemagne s'abstient généralement de critiquer Israël. Merkel devait néanmoins répéter que l'Allemagne, comme les autres membres de l'Union européenne, considère la colonisation comme un obstacle à une solution du conflit israélo-palestinien. La veille, elle avait appelé l'État hébreu… >>> Patrick Saint-Paul (à Berlin) | Vendredi 28 Août 2009

Seif ul Islam al-Qadhafi: Megrahi’s Release Was Linked to Oil Deal
MAIL ONLINE: Gordon Brown came under fresh pressure to reveal details of his Government's dealings with Libya today after claims by the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi over the Lockerbie bomber.

Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi claimed a prisoner transfer deal with Britain had targeted Abdelbaset Ali al Megrahi and was linked to talks on trade and oil.

He said the 'deal in the desert' specifically targeted the bomber but his name was never mentioned, and the prisoner transfer deal was signed at the same time as an oil deal. Gordon Brown under pressure over Lockerbie bomber after Gaddafi son reveals prisoner swap WAS linked to oil deal >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Friday, August 29, 2009