EU Presidential Perks: A Villa to Live In, an Art Deco Palace for Work
THE GUARDIAN: A sizeable salary, a generous housing allowance, renovated offices in an art deco pile, cars, chauffeurs, a security retinue and a hand-picked staff await Mr or Ms Europe.

The fine print of the lavish package that goes with the job is still being written. But according to proposals drafted last week by EU bureaucrats, the post of European Council president will cost more than €1.5m in his or her first year.

The president of the European Council will be remunerated in a manner commensurate with the pay and perks enjoyed by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission.

The salary for the post is expected to be between €300,000 and €350,000 a year, subject, it is said, to a tax rate of 25%. This comfortably exceeds the US president's salary of $400,000 (€270,000).

Then there are the perks. There is to be no official residence for the president. Barroso rents a Brussels villa and the council president will be expected to do the same, with a housing allowance of around €40,000 a year, plus perhaps half of that again for accommodating and entertaining guests. >>> Ian Traynor | Thursday, November 19, 2009

How Angela Merkel Quietly Sank Tony Blair's Bid to Become EU President
All smiles: Angela Merkel is believed to have convinced Nicolas Sarkozy of changing his mind on backing Tony Blair for top EU job. Photo: The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: Bolstered by her confirmation as a second-term German chancellor and fresh from dinner and deal-making with president Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Angela Merkel went into theEuropean summit as the key swing voter, making or breaking Tony Blair's chances of becoming the first European president.

Despite Sarkozy being the first European leader to suggest Blair for the job two years ago, Merkel appeared to have talked the French president into changing his mind in Paris on Wednesday night.

Merkel is said not to be particularly opposed to Blair. But the realities of power in the EU, with centre right governments outweighing those of the centre left three to one, appeared to be clinching the job for a European Christian democrat, Merkel's political tribe.

Senior German sources said that at the crucial dinner on Wednesday evening, the two leaders did not discuss names for the two plum new posts of Europe president and foreign minister. They did, however, discuss the mandate for the presidential post. The Germans made clear that Merkel had no problem recommending a contender from a small EU member state.

In the British campaign for President Blair, the contest has been presented as a choice between a weak figure pouring cups of coffee for leaders at EU summits, or a strong leader who can open doors in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing. >>> Ian Traynor in Brussels | Thursday, October 29, 2009

Crux Vaticana Restored to Its Former Glory
THE TELEGRAPH: The Crux Vaticana, a golden reliquary said to hold fragments of the cross on which Christ was crucified, has been painstakingly restored.

A pictures of the Crux Vaticana before (left) and after it was restored. Photo: The Telegraph
The jewel-encrusted golden cross stands about a foot high and was given by the Byzantine emperor Justin II to the people of Rome in the sixth century.

It is one of the most valued treasures held in the Vatican's collection of religious artefacts.

Art experts said on Thursday the two-year restoration rendered the cross much closer to what it would have looked like at the time that it was made.

The restoration involved removing the brightly coloured jewels that had been added to the cross in the centuries after its creation and replacing them with a circle of pearls.

While there are purported fragments of Christ's cross in churches around the world, the Crux Vaticana is considered the oldest reliquary. >>> Nick Squires in Rome | Thursday, November 19, 2009

Hunderttausende nehmen Abschied von Patriarch Pavle
TAGES ANZEIGER: Mehrere hunderttausend Gläubige haben am bei einem Trauerzug Abschied vom Patriarchen der serbisch-orthodoxen Kirche, Pavle, genommen.

Rund eine halbe Millione Gläubige verabschieden sich von ihrem religiösen Öberhaupt: Trauermarsch für Patriarch Pavle in Belgrad. Bild: Tages Anzeiger
Das staatliche Fernsehen schätzte die Zahl der Trauernden in Belgrad auf eine halbe Million Menschen. Nach einer Messe in der Saborna-Kirche wurde der Leichnam des Patriarchen unter dem Läuten der Kirchenglocken von einem Trauerzug bis zur Sava-Kirche geleitet, wo der in Istanbul ansässige ökumenische Patriarch Bartholomäus I. einen Trauergottesdienst zelebrierte. >>> etr/ap | Donnerstag, 19. November 2009

Germany’s Nazi Exception: Constitutional Court OKs Curtailing of Free Speech
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germany's constitution strongly and explicitly protects the freedom of speech. Still, the country's highest court has now said that -- given the injustice and horrors of the Nazi regime -- it is constitutional to make an exception that bans speech glorifying Hitler's ideology.

Wunsiedel is a small town of about 10,000 in the northeastern corner of Bavaria. Every year, on one particular day, this otherwise sleepy town is on high alert. In late August, thousands of people come here from all over Germany and abroad. Dressed in black, these neo-Nazis come to march in commemoration of Rudolf Hess, the Hitler deputy and convicted war criminal who has been buried here since 1987.

Some of the locals board up their houses and get out of town. Others bring banners to protest the parade and even block it with vehicles used for transporting liquid manure. In 2004, the town's mayor, Karl-Willi Beck, launched a campaign called "Wunsiedel is colorful, not brown." Together with town councilors, church officials and citizens, he tried to block the streets. A group of skinheads insulted him as a "traitor to his fatherland" and a "grave desecrator." The neo-Nazis threatened to run him out of town.

But, since 2005, he hasn't had to deal with the crowds. In that year, the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's federal parliament, passed an amendment that strengthened the legal article dealing with incitement to hatred. Otto Shily, who was Germany's interior minister at the time, said that it was done "in solidarity with the democratic public of Wunsiedel." The amendment was meant to make it easier to outlaw neo-Nazi commemorative marches in Wunsiedel and elsewhere. The amendment worked. And, last year, the Federal Administrative Court confirmed the decision upholding a ban on such assemblies based on the new law.

Still, Jürgen Rieger, the recently deceased Hamburg-based lawyer and neo-Nazi who organized the Hess commemorations, was determined to keep marching. To do so, he placed his hope in Germany's Federal Constitutional Court, based in Karlsruhe. Sure, the judges had already dismissed a number of Rieger's expedited motions. But, in this case, they had expressly determined that the new ban "raised a series of difficult constitutional issues." However, they also felt that these were not the type of questions that could be dealt with in expedited proceedings. Challenging the Amendment >>> Dietmar Hipp | Wednesday, November 18, 2009

L'islam radicale nel nuovo thriller 
del portoghese Dos Santos
IL MESSAGGERO: ROMA - José Rodrigues Dos Santos, anchorman di punta della tv pubblica portoghese Rtp e scrittore di successo, in Furia divina (Cavallo di ferro, pag. 507, euro 19.50) rappresenta in maniera inedita, documentata e accattivante il radicalismo islamico e la derivante minaccia terroristica. 



Nella fiction letteraria l’incubo della bomba nucleare s’intreccia con l’interpretazione letterale dei versetti coranici insegnata nelle madrase (scuola in lingua araba) del mondo musulmano. Dos Santos nel suo romanzo thriller, che riporta fedelmente citazioni religiose dal Corano e dati reali sul traffico dell’uranio, richiama l’Occidente distratto e “buonista” a una diversa presa di coscienza del fenomeno. Torna sulla scena il professore e criptologo Tomas Noronha, presente già nel romanzo dell’autore «Einstein e la formula di Dio», chiamato a sventare un attentato nucleare, che vede come protagonista il giovane islamico Ahmed, in uno scenario globale che affonda le radici nelle paure e nelle contraddizioni del nostro tempo. In Furia Divina rievoca scenari da scontro di civiltà tra radicalismo islamico e Occidente. Nel suo romanzo il Corano è un libro di “guerra”? >>> di Gabriele Santoro | Venerdi 30 Ottobre 2009

Le monde a faim
Photo crédits : L’Express.fr
Galerie de photos >>>

Homosexual Muslims Saying Farewell to Allah
Watch Journeyman Pictures video: Act of Faith – USA >>>

Wonderful World?

Mr Dynamo! Herman Van Rompuy
Is this the face of the new EU president? Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy’s? Don’t you think he looks, well, what can I say? … just dynamic? This must surely be one EU president who will set the world alight! This is proof positive, if indeed proof were needed, that one needs to be neither a good-looker nor stylish nor a trailblazer to make it on the world stage today. Simply being moribund will do! – © Mark. Photo: Mail Online.

THE TELEGRAPH: EU president: Tony Blair out of the running: Tony Blair was out of the running as Europe's first president on Thursday after Gordon Brown dropped the former Prime Minister as his candidate. >>> | Thursday, November 19, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Germany wants the central bank presidency: Conspicuously absent in the debate over the two big EU posts up for grabs on Thursday, Germany has aroused suspicions that it wants a different job entirely. >>> Isabelle Le Page, in Frankfurt | Thursday, November 19, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: EU presidential selection process condemned as secretive: Picking the first European Union president has had much in common with naming a pope. All that is missing is the black smoke. >>> Yacine Le Forestier, in Brussels | Thursday, November 19, 2009

America Speaks Arabic
YNET NEWS – OPINION: US accepts Arab terminology in respect to Jerusalem neighborhoods

US Special Envoy Mitchell’s demand that the Israeli government refrain from building in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood is merely the prelude to a process meant to erode the legitimate status of Israel’s Jerusalem neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods (including Gilo, Ramot Alon, French Hill, and Neve Yaakov) were built after the Six-Day War within the jurisdiction of Israel’s capital; now, they are finally being granted American recognition of their traditional Palestinian name: Settlements.

A direct link exists between Obama’s speech in Cairo and the American decision that Gilo and French Hill are just the same as the settlements of Ofra and Elon Moreh. We can therefore conclude that the US Administration has started to speak Arabic. Salam Aleikum, America! >>> Moshe Elad | Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Illiteracy in Arab World Growing: Report
ARAB NEWS: DUBAI: A report on knowledge, released at the Arab Strategy Forum on Wednesday, warned of large-scale illiteracy in the Arab world.

Despite the fact that the region had spent five percent of its gross domestic product and 20 percent of its national budget on education one third of its adult population, (60 million people), remain illiterate -- two thirds of them women.

According to the report this situation will worsen in the future because 9 million children of primary school age are out of school. The report sought urgent action to remedy the problem.

The report highlighted the many obstacles to development focusing mainly on the fact that knowledge doesn't reach all levels of society, in particular the disadvantaged groups.

At the same time education at university level is not necessarily on par with advanced nations which is one of the main obstacles as it creates a critical mass of highly-skilled human capital capable of innovation, creativity and renewal, and essential to development. >>> Shadiah Abdullah | Thursday, October 29, 2009

Osama bin Laden's Son: Why I Refused to Follow in My Father's Footsteps
THE GUARDIAN: Omar bin Laden says he would 'like to be in a position to promote peace' in interview in which he recalls hearing about 9/11 attacks

Omar bin Laden would like to promote peace in a United Nations role. Photo: The Guardian
Having a famous father is not always easy: the burden of expectation can weigh heavily on young shoulders. So what to do when your surname is Bin Laden?

In an interview with the New Statesman, Omar bin Laden, the fourth eldest son of the world's most wanted man, reveals himself as someone definitely not cut from the same cloth as his father.

Asked whether he plans to enter politics or public life, Omar says: "I do not believe that I would be a good politician – I have a habit of speaking the truth, even when it does not serve me well. But I would like to be in a position to promote peace. I believe that the United Nations would be ideal for me."

Omar ended contact with his father, Osama bin Laden, in April 2001. He says he was asked once to take up arms at a meeting with his father's fighters.

"His sons were in attendance, although none of us was a fighter," Omar says. "He spoke of how it is a great honour to give one's life for Islam and said anyone who wanted to give their life should put their name on a paper in the mosque.

"He never asked me to join al-Qaida, but he did tell me I was the son chosen to carry on his work. He was disappointed when I said I was not suited to that life. I do not like disagreement or violence." >>> Mark Tran | Wednesday, November 18, 2009

England’s Extremists
Watch Journeyman Pictures video here

La lutte des princes saoudiens pour succéder au roi Abdallah
Le roi Abdallah entend nouer une alliance de sang, en cherchant à marier un de ses fils avec une fille de son rival et demi-frère, Nayef. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Plusieurs clans de la famille royale briguent le trône du monarque âgé de 84 ans.

Nicolas Sarkozy est arrivé dans un royaume engagé dans une offensive militaire contre des rebelles chiites, qui cherchent à le déstabiliser à partir du Yémen, voisin. Mais cette campagne fortement médiatisée, conduite par le vice-ministre de la Défense, Khaled Ben Sultan, s'inscrit également dans la lutte que les prétendants au trône se livrent pour succéder au roi Abdallah, âgé de 84 ans. Un processus de désignation obscur et complexe à la cour des six mille princes d'Arabie, dont les immenses richesses pétrolières aiguisent les appétits de pouvoir.

Ce dernier devrait échoir à un frère (ou demi-frère) d'Abdallah, mais la plupart sont, eux aussi, âgés. À 83 ans, dont quarante à la tête du ministère de la Défense, l'héritier, Sultan, est malade et absent du royaume depuis un an. En meilleure santé, Nayef, le ministre de l'Intérieur, a tout de même 76 ans.

Le souverain a eu l'idée de créer en 2006 un conseil de l'allégeance pour apaiser les querelles internes, mais surtout pouvoir passer le relais à la deuxième génération, celle des petits-fils d'Ibn Saoud, le fondateur de l'Arabie moderne. Celui-ci ayant eu plusieurs dizaines d'enfants, ses petits-enfants sont évidemment très nombreux à lorgner le trône. Mais aujourd'hui, trois émergent du lot.

Mitab, un fils du roi, qui dirige la garde nationale. Mohamed Ben Nayef, fils du prince Nayef, qui commande les opérations antiterroristes au ministère de l'Intérieur. Et Khaled Ben Sultan (KBS), qui profite de la guerre au Sud pour montrer au roi qu'il pourrait très bien succéder à son père à la tête du ministère de la Défense, quand Sultan mourra. Pacte familial >>> Georges Malbrunot, envoyé spécial du Figaro à Riyad | Mercredi 18 Novembre 2009

L'université mixte Kaust, une «bulle occidentale» à Djedda
La King Abdallah University of Science and Technology, inaugurée en septembre dernier, est une «bulle occidentale» dans un océan islamiste. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: REPORTAGE - Voulu par le roi Abdallah, cet établissement dispose de moyens impressionnants. Autre révolution : entre ses murs, les règles très strictes du wahhabisme sont adoucies.

Surgie du désert en moins de deux ans, la King Abdallah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) est le dernier joyau de la couronne saoudienne. Les 400 chercheurs venus du monde entier, qui ont démarré les cours en anglais en septembre, pourraient tout à fait s'imaginer sur les campus de Stanford ou ­Berkeley aux États-Unis. Ils disposent du troisième plus puissant ordinateur au monde et leurs bourses atteignent jusqu'à 100 000 euros par an.

«Monter avec des crédits illimités un centre de catalyse comme celui que je ­dirige ici, je n'ai jamais vu cela», s'enthousiasme Jean-Marie Basset, venu de l'École de chimie et de physique de Lyon. Il fait partie de la dizaine de Français, polytechniciens pour la plupart, parmi les 73 nationalités présentes sur cette «université mondiale du savoir», dotée de 10 milliards de dollars de budget. Non loin de sa villa, où le chercheur lyonnais vit désormais avec son épouse, s'étendent un golf de neuf trous et une splendide marina pour les amateurs de voile. De quoi faire oublier à tous ces doctorants qu'ils vont phosphorer dans le berceau du wahhabisme, cette doc­trine particulièrement rigoriste de ­l'islam, qui interdit, par exemple, à la femme de conduire une voiture. Mais pas dans cette miniville étudiante de 36 km² face à la mer Rouge, à 80 km au nord de Djedda. L'établissement - qui accueille également 15 % de Saoudiens - jouit d'une véritable extraterritorialité «au pays des deux mosquées saintes» de Médine et La Mecque. Les étudiantes n'y sont pas astreintes au port de l'abaya noire, obligatoire partout ailleurs pour se dérober au regard des hommes. L'opposition des oulémas >>> Georges Malbrunot, envoyé spécial du Figaro à Riyad | Mercredi 18 Novembre 2009

Vidéo: KAUST >>>

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A Saudi Gamble to See if Seeds of Change Will Grow >>> Michael Slackman | Wednesday, November 18, 2009

10 Reasons to Dislike the British, by the Belgians
THE TELEGRAPH: Britons are lazy drunks who have the worst cuisine in the world, according to a Belgian newspaper's list of ten reasons to dislike the British.

Great Dixter in East Sussex. Photo: The Telegraph
Amid growing tensions over the final vote for the EU presidency, the French-language regional newspaper La Capitale offered a list of our most irritating national traits.

Using the boldness of British tabloids as an excuse to slam the national character, La Capitale issued an invitation to Belgians: "Let kick out “les Rosbifs” who are shooting down European opportunities for our important politicians. These English - who are the blockers of an integrated Europe – how do you like them?" >>> | Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Hamas In Their Own Voices


MEMRI >>>

The Land of the Rich: Medvedev's Desperate Fight against Corruption
Models display fur creations from a collection of the Julia Dilua company at the Moscow Millionaire fair in 2009 in October. In Russia, the connection between extreme wealth and government is tight. Photo: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A new novel has drawn attention to the depth of corruption in Russian society. President Dmitry Medvedev has taken steps to combat the problem, but his appeals for improvement are falling flat.

It isn't often that a senior member of the innermost circle of power writes an exposé novel in which he describes the demise of the very system he created. Which explains why a book, written under a pseudonym but widely assumed to be the work of one Vladislav Surkov, is causing such a stir in Moscow. Surkov is the chief ideologue at the Kremlin or, as retired KGB General Alexei Kondaurov describes his former associate, a "genius of cynicism".

The novel, "Okolonolya" (Close to Zero), is being touted as "gangsta fiction," but the political gangsters featured in its 112 pages are very much real. The author paints a shocking picture of the Russian capital, with its "trading in offices, medals and bonuses." It is a place where government funds are siphoned off into the pockets of wives, lovers and nieces. "Corruption and organized crime, next to schools and the police, are the pillars of social order," explains an intelligence service colleague of the protagonist.

There is probably no other European country -- not Silvio Berlusconi's Italy or post-communist Romania -- where political offices and wealth are so closely intertwined than in Russia. The affliction has "struck deep roots in our country" and has "taken on particularly repugnant forms," President Dmitry Medvedev said in a SPIEGEL interview in early November. Bribery and nepotism are pervasive in public life, from the healthcare system to the courts. Last year, it put Russia in a tie with Kenya, Bangladesh and Syria for 147th place on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

"From the political leadership all the way down to local administrations, we are hampered by corruption" Medvedev said, adding how accepted it has become among the Russian population. "In your countries in Europe, drivers don't automatically pull out their wallets when stopped by a traffic policeman," said the president. According to Medvedev, the notion that bribery is a crime must become second nature to citizens. Arbitrary Arrests >>> Uwe Klussmann and Matthias Schepp. Translated from German by Christopher Sultan | Monday, November 16, 2009

Opinion: Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change
Greenpeace activists in Hong Kong urge Obama to take a stand on climate change. Photo: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama.

The folder labeled "climate change" that George W. Bush left behind for his successor on the desk of the Oval Office in January likely wasn't a thick one. Although Bush once said that America is overly dependent on oil, he never got beyond that insight. He was too busy waging war on Iraq and searching for a legal basis for extraordinary renditions to pay much attention to the real threat facing humanity. "Forget the climate" seems to have been Bush's unofficial motto.

But few people expected that Barack Obama, of all people, would continue his predecessor's climate change plan. When he took office at the beginning of 2009, it was clear that the success of the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen in December depended almost entirely on the US -- that America needed to take a clear leadership role on a problem that could shake civilization to its very core.

Only if the US manages to reduce its excessive energy consumption, commit itself to mandatory CO2 emission reduction targets and help finance poorer countries' move away from oil is there still a chance that countries like China and India will do the same and that a dangerous warming of the Earth can be stopped. On the weekend, Obama announced that there would be no agreement on binding rules in Copenhagen. It was the admission of a massive failing -- and the prelude to a truly dramatic phase of international climate policy. >>> Christian Schwägerl | Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The World from Berlin: 'Obama's Soft Approach on China Won't Succeed'
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Though President Obama has not shied away from discussing human rights and censorship on his three-day trip to China, German commentators argue that growing US dependence on China has taken the thunder out of his rhetoric.

It wasn't the kind of town hall meeting that US President Barack Obama normally engages in. Instead of lively debate and tough questions, his audience of handpicked university students in Shanghai was largely passive as they listened to Obama speak of how relaxed Internet laws and free speech were "a source of strength (that) should be encouraged." Using carefully chosen words, he also mentioned human rights.

Obama was eager to avoid offending his hosts. But the Chinese proved even more eager to ensure that few listened in on the Q&A with the president. According to the Associated Press, only one local television station carried the event live. It took four clicks to get to Obama's comments on the Chinese-language transcript published on the Web site of the official Xinhua News Agency. Audio and video feeds of the event were delayed and of poor quality. Bloggers had their transcripts of the event taken down by censors. And coverage in the media generally glossed over any of the comments Obama made on touchier issues.

The trip gives Obama a chance to speak with Chinese President Hu Jintao about a host of issues affecting the two countries, including climate change, the ongoing global financial crisis and nuclear proliferation concerns in Iran and North Korea. But the US is in a new position of dependency in its relations with China. Not only is China the largest foreign holder of US debt, but -- thanks in part to an artificially undervalued yen -- also has a giant trade surplus with the US. Obama seemed intent on treading softly. German commentators on Tuesday take a closer look at the new US tone in China. … >>> Josh Ward | Tuesday, November 17, 2009