Faisal Shahzad: Accused Times Square Bomber 'Gave Up American Dream for Jihad'
THE TELEGRAPH: Faisal Shahzad seemed like a perfect embodiment of the American Dream but, US prosecutors allege, gave it up for jihad.

The quiet, privately-educated son of an retired air force officer had enjoyed almost textbook success since moving to America in 1998 on a student visa.

He earned a degree in computer applications and, after working at Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics maker, he found a well-paid job for a financial services company.

Having secured his future in the US by finding an American wife, Huma Mian, the couple and their two young children appeared destined for a life of stable, suburban life in Connecticut. >>> Tom Leonard in New York and Ashfaq Yusufzai in Muhib Banda | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

LE TEMPS: La crainte d’un «nouveau modèle» terroriste : Si on ignore encore si l’auteur de l’attentat manqué à Times Square a agi seul ou en lien avec les talibans pakistanais, les actions de ce type sont de plus en plus difficiles à repérer >>> Luis Lema | Jeudi 06 Mai 2010

Crisis in Greece Leaves EU Future in Balance, Warns Angela Merkel
THE GUARDIAN: German leaders issue stark warnings and insist on punitive new regime for euro countries if monetary union is to survive

Europe was threatened with its gravest modern crisis tonight as Germany warned that the EU's future was on the line in the Greek emergency.

The spiralling tension over Greece's ballooning debts and Europe's first ever bailout of a country in the single currency has exposed fundamental questions about the EU and Germany's pivotal role as the union's biggest power.

In Berlin, where Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a groundswell of hostility to sending the Greeks a €22bn lifeline next week, leaders issued stark warnings about the prospects for the EU and insisted on a punitive new regime for the 16 euro countries if the monetary union is to survive.

The leaders of the eurozone's 16 nations are to assemble for an emergency summit on the Greek crisis in Brussels on Friday evening, with the mood bleak and the stakes high.

"Europe is at a crossroads," Merkel declared to the German parliament in Berlin today. "This is about no more and no less than the future of Europe and about Germany's future in Europe."

Her sombre tone was echoed by the opposition leader and former foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who said the Greek crisis presented the EU with its biggest challenge since the union was created in the 1950s. >>> Ian Traynor in Brussels | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Vorzeitiger Abgesang auf Gordon Brown: Der Premierminister wird nun auch in den eigenen Reihen verschmäht
NZZ ONLINE: Rastlos reisen die britischen Parteichefs noch durch die Lande, um letzte Wählerstimmen zu gewinnen. Gordon Brown erscheint immer mehr auf verlorenem Posten. Ein Kandidat der eigenen Partei nennt ihn gar den «schlechtesten Premier» aller Zeiten.

Gordon Browns Chancen auf einen Sieg sind gesunken. Bild: NZZ Online
Am letzten Tag vor den britischen Parlamentswahlen legen die Parteiführer noch den üblichen Endspurt hin und hasten von Rede zu Rede, schütteln unzählige Hände und beantworten Bürgerfragen. Der Vorsitzende der Konservativen, David Cameron, soll die Nacht durchgemacht haben, Labour-Parteichef Gordon Brown und der Liberaldemokrat Nick Clegg waren schon im Morgengrauen auf den Beinen. >>> Ruth Spitzenpfeil | Mittwoch, 05. Mai 2010

Anti-dhimmitude! Burqa, niqab, hidjab, quelles différences?
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVES: DÉFINITIONS | La réflexion est lancée en Suisse: faut-il interdire la burqa? Quelques définitions utiles.

Le parlement argovien a adopté hier mardi une motion demandant une interdiction de la burqa dans l'espace public en Suisse. Le débat qui est né en France il y a neuf mois s'est rapidement étendu au reste de l'Europe. Les députés belges ont ainsi approuvé la semaine dernière à une très large majorité le principe de l'interdiction de cette tenue.

Le voile, dont de nombreuses musulmanes à travers le monde se couvrent la tête, comporte de nombreuses versions et se retrouve dans de nombreuses traditions. Avant d'entamer la réflexion sur le sujet, voici des éléments de définitions utiles. >>> AEC | Mercredi 05 Mai 2010

Canton d'Argovie / Kanton Aargau / Canton Aargau >>>

Nein zur Burka, Ja zur Frau – Gegen Vermummung im öffentlichen Raum: Die heutige Debatte des Grossen Rates begann sehr emotional.
Das Thema Burkaverbot stand auf der Traktandenliste. Das aargauische Parlament will, dass eine Standesinitiative zu Handen des Bundes ausgearbeitet wird mit dem Ziel, gesamtschweizerisch ein Verbot der Burka im öffentlichen Raum zu erreichen. >>>

Greece Anti-austerity Protests Escalate

General Election 2010: New Government Must Tackle Rising Debt, Says EU
THE TELEGRAPH: The new Government must tackle the country's rising debt level as a top priority, the European Commission has warned, as figures show public borrowing is the highest in the EU.

Europe's economic and monetary affairs Commissioner, Olli Rehn, was speaking after unveiling EU economic forecasts which show the stirrings of an economic recovery across Europe.

Latest forecasts show Britain's debt at 88% of GDP in 2011/12, well above the eurozone permitted maximum of 60%.

Britain's annual deficit is also running at more than four times the eurozone permitted ceiling of 3% of GDP. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Greek Crisis: Clashes Turn Deadly as Thousands Protest Against Cuts
THE TELEGRAPH: Greek protests turned deadly on Wednesday as three died in an Athens bank set alight while tens of thousands demonstrated against harsh new spending cuts aimed at saving Greece from bankruptcy.



Protesters set a bank in the Greek capital on fire as scores of demonstrators tried to storm parliament, throwing chunks of marble at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades. The fire brigade said at least three people had died in the fire.

The clashes took place during a march against austerity measures, the largest since the country was gripped by a debt crisis in October last year.

Violence also broke out in the northern city of Thessaloniki, with youths smashing windows of stores and fast food restaurants.

The demonstrations came as Greece ground to a halt on Wednesday, paralysed by a nationwide general strike in the first major test of the socialist government's resolve to push through unprecedented austerity cuts needed to avert a fiscal meltdown. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Greece: Bail-out Money Is 'Reparation' for Second World War
THE TELEGRAPH: While high-finance will – or maybe not – save Greece, it is the low-ground that people both there and in Germany are scrabbling over to play the blame game.

Greece is already into a boycott of German goods and services, ranging from Miele fridges to VW cars to pharmaceutical products.

But it is the war, and the brutal German occupation of Greece, that really gets up the noses of Teutons whose leader pledged 22 billion euros this week to save them from themselves.

An altered picture from the 'Eleftheros Typos' newspaper showing the statue of Victoria in Berlin holding a swastika was the forerunner for Greeks to mention the war.

The mayor of Athens, Nikitas Kaklamanis, led the call for Germany to pay reparations for the conquest and occupation, saying; "You owe us 70 billion euros for the ruins you left behind."

Greece's deputy prime minister, Theodoros Pangalos, also dragged up the war, stating; "The Nazis took away the Greek gold that was in the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back."

A Greek magazine also last month carried a 10-page article detailing for its readers Germany's Nazi past. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Pop Star Claims Bible Written by Drunks
THE TELEGRAPH: One of Poland's most famous and controversial pop stars faces two years in gaol after suggesting that the Bible was written by drunks and people with a fondness for "herbal cigarettes".

Dorota Rabczewska, famed for an unabashed attitude when it comes to flaunting her flesh, and a string of hits, has been charged by Warsaw prosecutors with insulting religious feeling for comments she made in a television interview a year ago. >>> Matthew Day in Warsaw | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

The Independent Endorses Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems
THE INDEPENDENT: For five years this paper has fought for electoral reform. Britain now has a historic chance to end our unfair and discredited voting system for ever

This election campaign has felt almost like a liberation. The prison walls – the stultifying, spirit-crushing assumptions of the long era of two-party politics – have crumbled. The surge in support for the Liberal Democrats has unlocked something precious: a feeling among the public that, for the first time in a generation, a radical overhaul of our political settlement could be possible.

That feeling – combined with the enduring uncertainty over the result of the election – is a tonic for our democracy. The public sense that their vote matters. When one considers that this campaign began against a backdrop of rampant cynicism and apathy, stirred up by MPs' abuse of their expenses, this transformation looks all the more remarkable. And welcome. Leading article: This historic opportunity must not be missed >>> Editorial | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

North Korea Masses 50,000 Troops on Border
THE TELEGRAPH: North Korea has completed deployment of about 50,000 special forces along the border with South Korea, amid high tensions over the sinking of a Seoul warship.

The deployment began two or three years ago and seven 7,000-strong divisions are now in place, an unidentified senior government official told Yonhap news agency.

"The threat that North Korea may infiltrate special forces for limited warfare has become real," the agency quoted a separate senior defence ministry official as saying.

The defence ministry refused to confirm the Yonhap report, but President Lee Myung-Bak discussed the North's special warfare capabilities at an unprecedented meeting Tuesday with 150 top officers from all armed services. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: New Sanctions 'Will Mean Iran US Relations Will Never Be Improved'
THE TELEGRAPH: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that more UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme would not stop them but could permanently wreck its ties with the United States.

The United States and five other major powers are negotiating a fourth set of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. They expect the resolution to go through within the next few weeks. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

‘We’re in the Final Days of White Life in South Africa’
TIMES ONLINE: The gunman leant forward and pushed the pistol hard into Manie Potgieter’s neck. “Listen, you white bastard,” he whispered, his breath heavy with alcohol. “I have Aids. We are now going to rape your wife and give her Aids too. Then, we kill you, got it?”

From his position on the floor, hands tied behind his back, he could hear his assailant’s three accomplices pulling the tracksuit bottoms off his wife, Helena, 28.

“I was sure they were going to shoot me, but I just prayed she would be OK. She was telling me in Afrikaans not to worry. I just prayed,” Mr Potgieter, 30, a blond giant of a man, told The Times.

Suddenly, a clang of metal echoed through the early morning air — and the attackers took fright. They had been in the remote farmhouse for an hour and dawn was fast approaching. “Let’s go, someone is coming,” one of them shouted in panic. Without firing a shot they were suddenly gone.

The Potgieters’ nightmare was over — but it was one of the very few happy endings to a spate of attacks on South Africa’s white Afrikaner farming communities in which an estimated 3,000 people have been killed since 1994. >>> Jonathan Clayton in Vredefort | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Angela Merkel: EU Future at Stake in Greek Crisis
THE TELEGRAPH: Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has warned that the future of the Europe Union is at stake as the crisis over the Greek bailout pushed the euro to a 13-month low against the dollar.

Ms Merkel on Wednesday defended her decision to back the unpopular measure and called on fellow politicians to give their support.

"The future of Europe and the future of Germany within Europe is at stake," Ms Merkel told the parliament, which will vote on Friday on a package that would see Germany lend 22.4 billion euros (£19 billion) in taxpayers' money to Greece.

As Ms Merkel attempted to calm fears in Germany, the euro fell on Wednesday to $1.2937 - the lowest level for more than a year.

The slide was the latest sign of continued loss of investor confidence in European economies. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Merkel Links Europe's Future to Greek Aid Plan
THE INDEPENDENT: An international rescue plan for debt-stricken Greece must succeed or other European countries may suffer the same fate, threatening the bloc's future, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today.

In an impassioned speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Merkel said Germany was now convinced of the need to bail out Greece and confident the Greek government would carry out the swingeing cuts it had pledged to tackle its deficit.

"We're at a fork in the road," Merkel told the assembled lawmakers. "This is about nothing less than the future of Europe - and with it the future of Germany in Europe."

"There is no alternative to the aid to be agreed for Greece if we want to secure the financial stability of the euro area."

"It must come to avoid a chain reaction in the European and international financial system and the risk of contagion of other euro member states," she added.

At the weekend, officials from the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed details of a 110-billion euro ($147 billion), three year aid package conditional on strict austerity measures that have led to mass protests in Greece.

"Europe today is looking to Germany. Without us, or against us, there cannot or will not be a decision that is economically sustainable," she said to a Bundestag session in which she was regularly interrupted by shouts from opposition lawmakers. >>> Reuters | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Pakistanis React to NYC Bomb Plot

Who Is Nick Clegg?

Nouriel Roubini: Forget Sub-prime Mortgages. It's the Sub-prime Financial System We Need to Fix
THE TELEGRAPH: Here's an exclusive extract from Nouriel Roubini's new book.

For the past half century, academic economists, Wall Street traders, and everyone in between have been led astray by fairy tales about the wonders of unregulated markets and the limitless benefits of financial innovation. The crisis dealt a body blow to that belief system, but nothing has replaced it.

That’s all too evident in the timid reform proposals currently being considered in the United States and other advanced economies. Even though they have suffered the worst financial crisis in generations, many countries have shown a remarkable reluctance to inaugurate the sort of wholesale reform necessary to bring the financial system to heel. Instead, people talk of tinkering with the financial system, as if what just happened was caused by a few bad mortgages.

Throughout most of 2009, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein repeatedly tried to quash calls for sweeping regulation of the financial system. In speeches and in testimony before Congress, he begged his listeners to keep financial innovation alive and “resist a response that is solely designed to protect us against the 100-year storm”.

That’s ridiculous. What we’ve experienced wasn’t some crazy once-in-a-century event. Since its founding, the United States has suffered from brutal banking crises and other financial disasters on a regular basis. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, crippling panics and depressions hit the nation again and again. The crisis was less a function of sub-prime mortgages than of a sub-prime financial system. Thanks to everything from warped compensation structures to corrupt ratings agencies, the global financial system rotted from the inside out. The financial crisis merely ripped the sleek and shiny skin off what had become, over the years, a gangrenous mess. The road to recovery will be a long one. >>> | Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Global Shares Tumble on Greece Debt Fears
THE TELEGRAPH: Global stock markets tumbled on growing fears that a rescue package for Greece might not be enough to prevent a debt crisis from spreading in Europe.

Stock markets in Europe and the US fell heavily on Tuesday, hit by continued jitters over Greek debt. Photograph: The Telegraph
Asian markets mirrored heavy falls in the United States and Europe, extending the biggest fall in global shares in three months.

It came at Greece was paralysed by a nationwide general strike on Wednesday - the first major test of the socialist government's resolve to push through unprecedented austerity cuts needed to avert a fiscal meltdown.

The euro continued to weaken against the dollar in Asian trading, hitting $1.2958, as investors doubted whether €110bn (£95bn) of loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund could stop contagion to other vulnerable countries such as Spain and Portugal.

Investors are worried that these countries may need even larger debt bailouts. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Euro Plunges as Club Med Debt Fears Spread
THE TELEGRAPH: Fleeting relief over the EU-IMF bail-out for Greece has given way rapidly to a fresh bout of investor panic across southern Europe, pulling the euro down to its lowest level against the dollar in over a year.

Yields on German two-year debt reached a record low, falling to 0.71pc on safe-haven demand in echoes of credit stress at the height of the financial crisis. This is below the European Central Bank's short-term rate of 1pc. "This is very unusual and indicates concern about systemic risk from sovereign debt," said Stephen Lewis from Monument Securities.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told ARD television that banks and creditors should be forced to share the pain if further rescues are ever needed, suggesting "an orderly restructuring" of debt in future.

The words were an icy warning to investors that the €110bn (£95bn) aid package for Greece is a one-off case. Banks, insurers, and pension funds with high exposure to Club Med debt cannot count on a second rescue to protect their portfolios if the crisis spreads. >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor | Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Trust Me, I'm Nick Clegg: How the Also-ran Stole the Show
THE GUARDIAN: Nick Clegg has one great advantage over his Tory rival: no one raises the question of his sincerity

Nick Clegg, pictured in Liverpool with Kay Cummins, who has leukaemia, has drawn large, enthusiastic crowds. Photograph: The Guardian
Spend a few weeks following the leaders of the three main parties and you soon realise that – regardless of the results of tomorrow's vote — a hierarchy has emerged in this campaign. When Gordon Brown turns up somewhere, he's lucky if there's more than a smattering of party faithful ready to greet him, perhaps two dozen souls holding the odd placard. That could be a function of his security arrangements, with details of his travel not released in advance, or it could be a commentary on his public standing. But the harsh truth is that a visit from Brown generates little hoopla.

Next up the pecking order comes David Cameron. There's always a healthy number of people at his events, usually arranged photogenically – white men in suits nudged out of shot; those who are young, female, black or Asian ushered to the front – and reliably ready with a cheer. But the suspicion lingers that the crowd has not exactly gathered spontaneously, that it has been convened through diligent advance work.

And then there's Nick Clegg. When he pops up, there can be up to 400 people waiting for him – even on a rainy morning in Lewisham, south London. Sure, that's a tribute to the Liberal Democrats' famous knack for pavement politics and, admittedly, the local party had a week to organise its people. But that doesn't explain the large number standing in the cold who are neither party members nor even past Lib Dem voters. Nor does it explain the crowd of onlookers across the street, waiting for the speaker to arrive, nor the people in the flats overlooking the common who open their windows to see the show. >>> Jonathan Freedland | Wednesday, May 04, 2010