Race Thugs Attack Sons of UK’s First Asian Bishop
MAIL ONLINE: The former Bishop of Rochester's two sons have been set upon in a racial attack, it has emerged.

Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the first Asian bishop appointed by the Church of England, last night condemned the gang assault.

Pakistani-born Dr Nazir-Ali, who retired last September, said: 'Any act of violence is concerning but it makes it even worse that it was racially motivated.

'My main concern is making sure the boys are OK. >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Friday, May 07, 2010

Qatari Royal Family Buys Harrods
Fayed invested £400m in Harrods, which was founded in 1840. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: Harrods, the world famous department store, has been sold for more than £1.5bn to the Qatari royal family, Times Online can confirm.

Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian owner of the London landmark, has decided to retire and will hand over the reins to Qatar Holding.

The firm was chosen because they would "maintain the traditions of Harrods", said Ken Costa, chairman of Lazard International - the investment bank advising the family trust on the deal.

Fayed received advances from Gulf-based suitors in the last two months, but initially offered them “two fingers” in a vehement refusal.

“People approach us from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Fair enough, but I put two fingers up to them all,” Fayed said last month.

“It is not for sale. This is not Marks & Spencer or Sainsbury. It is a special place that gives people pleasure. There is only one Mecca.”

But today Costa confirmed that the owner of Fulham football club has changed his mind. Harrods sold to Qatar Holdings for £1.5bn as Mohamed al-Fayed retires >>> Martina Lees | Saturday, May 08, 2010

Cameron's 'Big, Open, Comprehensive' Offer to Lib Dems
Nick Clegg leaves his party's headquarters in Westminster last night. Photograph: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: David Cameron has invited Nick Clegg to transform British politics by joining a Tory-led coalition after voters delivered the first hung Parliament in 36 years.

Mr Cameron sketched out a possible deal for “collaborative government” as party leaders grappled with the most complicated election result in terms of Commons arithmetic since the 1920s.

Mr Clegg was keeping his options open last night after Gordon Brown tried to tempt the Liberal Democrats into power with a promise of full proportional reform to the voting system.

The initiative, though, was with Mr Cameron after he emerged with more votes and seats from a long election night most notable for dashing the highest hopes of all the parties.

The public wooing of Mr Clegg unfolded in three acts of extraordinary Westminster drama that promises to continue through the weekend with potentially far-reaching consequences.

The Tories would like to finalise a deal before markets open on Monday but the Liberal Democrat leader does not want to be bounced into something that he cannot sell to his party. >>> Roland Watson, Political Editor | Saturday, May 08, 2010

‘Greece Is Like a Rat’s Tail. It Will Come Round to Hit Us’
TIMES ONLINE: Eleni is busy. Beyond the doors of the kitchen you can make out her gentle bullying: agape mia, she seems to be saying, my dear, where are the dolmades for Table 3? And back in the restaurant, with its murals of the blue Aegean, she flits from alcove to alcove listening to the sour jokes from her German customers — “Eleni, don’t expect me to pay the bill for the next three years, you Greeks are already emptying our pockets.” The Germans may be angry with the Greeks but they are not about to go without their ouzo. As the country approaches a critical election tomorrow it is becoming clear that bailing out Greece has become a key issue for Germans. “It’s the dominant topic,” says Klaus-Peter Schöppner, the head of the Emnid polling institute. “People are asking what happens to us if we don’t help the Greeks?”

Other questions are beginning to nag the Germans, too: how much Europe do we really need? Suddenly the European project that was for so long the preserve of the elites — the scrapping of the mark, EU eastward enlargement — has become a matter of public debate. It was instructive to study the faces of German trade unionists on May Day as they made their routine pledges of proletarian support to Greek workers; the cameras captured the bemusement of the listening crowds. Solidarity with the Greeks? Paying them money from our taxes so that they could retire in their late fifties while we slog on until 67? Precisely what European idea makes that possible?

The vote that is bringing these doubts to the surface is being held in North Rhine-Westphalia, a region that encompasses the once heavily industrialised Ruhr Valley. There are big cities such as Cologne and Dortmund struggling with the economic downturn and the crumbling of multicultural communities, great swaths of farmland and also pockets of neglect, as impoverished as anything that can be seen in the heavily subsidised eastern Germany. Eighteen million people live in the region compared with only eleven million in the whole of Greece. It is ruled by a coalition of Christian Democrats and Free Democrats, just like the country as a whole.

The election has become a tight contest. If the Government collapses there, Angela Merkel will lose her majority in the Upper House of parliament — and the plans for a radical overhaul of the tax and health systems will be blocked by the Social Democrats. Popular frustration about Greece, and about Europe, has therefore become a critical factor in Ms Merkel’s future. >>> Roger Boyes | Saturday, May 08, 2010

Euro Crisis Goes Global as Leaders Fail to Stop the Rot
THE GUARDIAN: G7 demands action from Europe after markets plunge / Fears that banks' exposure to debt could wreck recovery

Germany's Angela Merkel and other European leaders is [sic] under increasing pressure over the Greek debt crisis going global as markets were in turmoil. Photograph: The Guardian
The growing crisis in the eurozone threatened to undermine the global economic recovery as markets plunged across the world on fears that European leaders may not be able to contain the debt contagion spreading from Greece.

Stock markets in London, New York, and Shanghai dived following criticism that much delayed and half-hearted measures to rescue Greece were undermining confidence in wider efforts to kick start the world economy.

European shares finished the day at a six-month low while the Dow was down around 1% at 10,424. In Asia, the Shanghai stock market fell to an eight-month low of 2688, down 6.8% on the previous day.

An emergency summit of the 16 leaders of the countries using the single currency was held in Brussels , with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France demanding tougher and quicker regulation of the financial markets in what looked like a doomed attempt to contain contagion from the Greek drama.

One factor being discussed last night was to persuade the ECB to launch a new quantitative easing policy – entailing huge loans to distressed governments in the form of buying up their bonds. This is supported by the European Commission, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France, but is certain to run into German opposition.

With the pace of developments outstripping the ability of political leaders to respond, what was initially called as a summit to bless a €110bn (£95bn) rescue package for Greece turned into a frantic exercise in global crisis management.

Alarm bells were ringing in major capitals across the world where leaders voiced their exasperation with European attempts to contain the fallout from Greece. >>> Phillip Inman and Ian Traynor in Brussels | Friday, May 07, 2010

Brutal revenge: In a High-security British Jail, a Serbian Warlord Has His Throat Slashed by Three Muslim Inmates
MAIL ONLINE: A former Serb general convicted of Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War had his neck slashed open by three Muslim prisoners in a British jail yesterday.

Radislav Krstic, 62, serving a 35-year sentence for war crimes, was in a critical condition in hospital after the attack at top security Wakefield Prison.

The Serbs were the deadly enemies of Bosnian Muslims during the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s. At least one of Krstic's attackers is said to be a Bosnian Muslim.

The incident is a huge embarrassment to prison bosses because Krstic is regarded as one of Britain's most sensitive and high-profile inmates.

It is almost certain to be raised at diplomatic level and questions will be asked about how the suspects were able to attack him. >>> David Williams and Stephen Wright | Saturday, May 08, 2010

”Mobilisation générale” pour sauver la zone euro
Nicolas Sarkozy et Angela Merkel lors du sommet européen à Bruxelles vendredi soir. Photo : Le Point
LE POINT: La zone euro a décidé vendredi soir de mettre en place un fonds de soutien sans précédent pour ses pays confrontés à des difficultés financières, dans l'espoir de stopper la contagion d'une crise gravissime qui menace les fondements de l'Union monétaire.

A l'issue d'un sommet de crise à Bruxelles, les dirigeants des seize pays utilisant la monnaie unique ont demandé à la Commission européenne de proposer "un mécanisme de stabilisation visant à préserver la stabilité financière de la zone euro", selon une déclaration commune. Les ministres des Finances de l'ensemble de l'Union européenne sont convoqués dimanche après-midi pour finaliser le fonctionnement et le financement de ce dispositif, qui reposerait notamment sur des emprunts contractés par la Commission européenne. "D'ici à dimanche soir nous ferons en sorte d'avoir en place une ligne de défense de la zone euro imperméable", à temps pour l'ouverture des marchés lundi matin, a déclaré le président de l'Eurogroupe, Jean-Claude Juncker. Le Premier ministre italien Silvio Berlusconi a pris un ton tout aussi martial pour décréter "l'état d'urgence", tandis que le président français Nicolas Sarkozy a sonné la "mobilisation générale". La zone euro va se doter d'un fonds de soutien >>> AFP | Samedi 08 Mai 2010

Euro-Länder nehmen Kampf mit Spekulanten auf
WELT ONLINE: Die Euro-Länder wollen Europas angeschlagene Währung mit einer Radikalkur retten. Morgen sollen die EU-Finanzminister ein Notfallsystem für klamme Mitgliedstaaten festzurren. Das beschlossen die Staats- und Regierungschefs in der Nacht zum Samstag. Spekulanten soll es an den Kragen gehen.

Kündigte ein hartes Durchgreifen bei der Regulierung der Finanzmärkte an: Frankreichs Staatsoberhaupt Nicolas Sarkozy. Bild: Welt Online
Die Euro-Länder haben der Spekulation gegen die Gemeinschaftswährung den Kampf angesagt und einen Rettungsmechanismus zur Abwehr von Schuldenkrisen in ihren Mitgliedsländern beschlossen. Noch vor Öffnung der Finanzmärkte wollen die EU-Finanzminister am Sonntagabend beschließen, dass die Kommission künftig in Krisenfällen am Kapitalmarkt Kredite für strauchelnde Euro-Länder aufnehmen kann. >>> Von Ilona Wissenbach | Samstag, 08. Mai 2010

LE TEMPS: Face aux risques de contagion, l’UE jure de défendre l’euro : Le sommet extraordinaire des dirigeants de la zone Euro s’est achevé vendredi vers minuit par un engagement commun à mettre en place un «mécanisme de stabilisation». Un Conseil des ministres des finances est convoqué dimanche >>> Richard Werly | Samedi 08 Mai 2010

Chávez-Kritiker muss acht Jahre ins Gefängnis: Ex-Verteidigunsminister Baduel wegen Machtmissbrauchs verurteilt
NZZ ONLINE: Der ehemalige venezolanische Verteidigungsminister Raúl Isaías Baduel ist zu knapp acht Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt worden. Ihm wird Veruntreuung und Machtmissbrauch zur Last gelegt.

Der ehemalige venezolanische Verteidigungsminister Raúl Isaías Baduel, ein früherer Vertrauter von Staatschef Hugo Chávez, ist wegen Veruntreuung und Machtmissbrauchs zu knapp acht Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. >>> sda/afp | Samstag, 08. Mai 2010

Why Liberal Dems Want Reform

Zeal and Angst: Germany Torn Over Role in Europe
Helmut Kohl, left, returns to the European stage. Photograph: The Wall Street Journal
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany—Helmut Kohl, frail and confined to a wheelchair, returned to public view this week, imploring his countrymen not to abandon the goal he spent his political life pursuing: a united Europe.

"Today, I am convinced more than ever that European unification is a question of war and peace for Europe and for us, and the euro is part of our guarantee of peace," the former chancellor, his voice uneven and raspy, told guests at a celebration for his 80th birthday.

As Chancellor Angela Merkel looked on, Mr. Kohl issued a thinly veiled critique of her reluctance to help Greece, saying he couldn't understand "people who act as if Greece doesn't matter." Of course the situation is difficult, but Germany must pull out all the stops, he said, drawing applause from the crowd.

The scene underscored the threat Greece's turmoil poses to monetary union, the grandest expression of the European continent's drive toward integration. Mr. Kohl led the unification drive two decades ago. Now the increasingly disruptive debt problems in Greece and elsewhere post the question: What price is Germany willing to pay to save Europe? >>> Marcus Walker and Matthew Karnitschnig | Saturday, May 08, 2010

Riots Up Front and Personal

Epidemic Threatens Haiti


Diphtheria >>>

Medvedev Criticises USSR Over Human Rights
THE TELEGRAPH: Dmitry Medvedev has launched a wide-ranging attack on the Soviet Union as a totalitarian state that crushed individual liberties in the most outspoken comments on the USSR by a Russian leader in recent years.

Mr Medvedev's comments, which also included stinging criticism on the historical role of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, will be interpreted by many as an attempt to distance himself from Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, who has adopted a more ambiguous stance on Russia's often tragic history.

In an interview Mr Medvedev declared that nothing could justify Stalin's crimes against his own people.

"Despite the fact that he worked a lot, and despite the fact that under his leadership the country recorded many successes, what was done to his own people cannot be forgiven." >>> Andrew Osborn in Moscow | Friday, May 07, 2010

Britain to Go to Polls Again Within 12 Months, Experts Say
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain is very likely to go to the polls within 12 months, political experts have warned, costing the parties millions in further expense.

As the Conservatives started to negotiate with the Liberal Democrats about forming some form of alliance, political historians warned that it there was a strong chance that Britain would be forced to go to the polls by as soon as the end of the year.

Dr Richard Toye, an historian at Exeter University, said: "I'd bet on an election in October or November this year." >>> Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor | Friday, May 07, 2010

David Cameron Has Had This Coming to Him
THE TELEGRAPH: Dave Cameron abandoned conservatism five years ago because he believed it would get his party elected. It didn't.

Dave had to fight a widely despised Prime Minister leading a Government incompetent and destructive on a scale unseen in living memory. Seldom has there been a softer target; but seldom has one been missed so unnecessarily. With just 36 per cent of the vote, the Tories stood almost still since 2005. They are now on their knees to their other enemy, the Lib Dems.

Gordon Brown, predicted to cause his party's greatest defeat since 1918, was instead still in office and giving an entirely accurate constitutional lecture to the nation. So low were expectations of him that he looks as though he has done remarkably well. He remains Prime Minister. It is his duty to carry on the Queen's government. Like Baldwin, defeated in 1923, he can stay until he meets parliament with a Queen's Speech. Unless forced out by his party, he need not resign yet. Dave cannot even try to form a government while there is an incumbent prime minister. And there will be an incumbent prime minister until Mr Brown is convinced that the combined forces of the Lib Dems and Tories can defeat him on a motion of confidence or a Loyal Address.

It should not have come to this. As I rang round Tory MPs some were incandescent at the conduct not just of the campaign, but of the whole anti-core vote strategy that has alienated many natural Tory voters. George Osborne, both as campaign co-ordinator and also as an inept shadow chancellor, was quickly selected as the scapegoat. But let us not forget that the roots of this problem go back to 2005. The party has chosen to mimic and validate the policies of its opponents, with the result that the public found little to choose between the main parties. This was exemplified in the television debates, in which the leaders fell over themselves to agree not only with any contention put to them by the public, but even with each other. >>> Simon Heffer | Friday, May 07, 2010

David Cameron Closes In on Deal with Nick Clegg
THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has entered into formal talks with Nick Clegg to try to secure a deal that would force Gordon Brown from Number 10.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron - David Cameron closes in on deal with Nick Clegg. Photos: The Telegraph
During one of the most extraordinary days in British political history, the Conservative leader made an unprecedented “big, open and comprehensive offer” to the Liberal Democrats after the election ended in the first hung parliament for 36 years.

Mr Cameron was compelled to make the public plea to Mr Clegg after it became clear that the Conservatives would be 20 seats short of an overall Commons majority and that Mr Brown would not allow him to lead a minority government.

To the astonishment of many at Westminster and beyond, Mr Brown stubbornly refused to accept election defeat despite Labour losing almost 100 seats.

Instead, the Prime Minister attempted to woo the Liberal Democrat leader with a power-sharing offer of his own.

After a night in which the Tories had appeared confident of securing an overall majority, Mr Cameron looked shell-shocked as he addressed a press conference at which he outlined a ground-breaking and, until yesterday, unthinkable offer to the Liberal Democrats.

He said: “I am prepared to consider alternative options. It may be possible to have stronger, more stable, more collaborative government. >>> Andrew Porter and Robert Winnett | Friday, May 07, 2010

Gordon Brown - Flawed, Failed, Finished.
THE TELEGRAPH: As Gordon Brown clings on to power, his biographer Anthony Seldon delivers his damning verdict on our flawed prime minister

'I did not foresee it,” Gordon Brown was heard to say on May 7, 2010. But then the Gordon Brown story is a Shakespearean tragedy of King Lear proportions. Like King Lear, he lashes out in all directions, now berating, now making sycophantic overtures, a desperate figure clinging by his nails to the vestiges of power. Like Lear, he demeans himself, and fails to see the truth, a truth evident to those all around him.

As John Major said, his remaining in office is beginning to look undignified: quite fairly, the former Tory prime minister observed that his own loss in 1997 was nothing like as severe as Brown’s. He should really, added Major, have taken himself off to watch the cricket by now.

True, Labour avoided falling into third place, and with it the ignominy of achieving its poorest result since 1918. But achieving just 29 per cent of the vote, and losing 90 seats, was still its worst result since 1983, when the party was led by Michael Foot. And however the next few days play out – whether Nick Clegg strikes a deal with David Cameron or even if he opens talks with senior figures in Labour – one thing is certain: Brown is a dead man walking. >>> Anthony Seldon | Friday, May 07, 2010

Hung Parliament Sparks Market Chaos
THE TELEGRAPH: The pound plunged up to 4½ cents against the dollar during a roller coaster 24 hours of trading as the prospect of coalition Government prompted investors to ditch UK assets.

The inconclusive election result unnerved investors already spooked by Greece's deepening debt crisis and a global rout of equity markets.

Gilt yields see-sawed, with investors at one point demanding an extra 1.25 percentage points to hold 10 year gilts rather than German Bunds – the biggest spread since 1998. Shares also fell, with the benchmark FTSE 100 dropping 2.6pc, capping its worst week for 14 months.

Michael Saunders, chief European economist at Citigroup, said Britons should brace for a potential "meltdown" if there is no deal for stable government by Monday.

"Right now there is a firestorm of a sovereign credit crisis sweeping global markets," he said. "If markets do not get some sense on Monday that there is a solid government with a credible route back to fiscal stability, things could get very ugly indeed. A coalition of Labour, Lib Dems and nationalist parties could well precipitate a market meltdown."

The best outcome so far as investors were concerned would be a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition with an outline plan to cut the deficit, he said. >>> Richard Fletcher and Edmund Conway | Friday, May 07, 2010

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: 'Why Are Muslims So Hypersensitive?'
THE GUARDIAN: She says Islam is backward and the Qur'an is terrible. But Ayaan Hirsi Ali – whose provocative new book is extracted here – is not about to let a fatwa intimidate her. She talks to Emma Brockes

Ayaan Hirsi Ali enters an apartment in New York followed by a bodyguard. The 40-year-old, who for the last six years has been unable to turn up at a venue without it being checked by security, is a writer, polemicist and critic of Islam. She is also a Somali immigrant, an ex-Muslim, a survivor of child genital mutilation, an exile many times over, a former Dutch MP, a black woman whose language would not, in places, look amiss in a BNP pamphlet, a remarked-upon beauty and a lady-in-peril, identities that lend her as a figurehead to disparate causes and bring on confusion in the people she meets.

"I'm a serious person," she says, frowning, as the photographer suggests various fashion poses, but she is also quietly, almost coyly glamorous, moving around with fawn-like grace. It's a combination that works particularly well on male polemicists of the muscular left, who can't do enough to defend her: her gentle charm, her small wrists, her big eyes – oh, and her brave commitment to Enlightenment values – in the face of all that extremism. >>> Emma Brockes | Saturday, May 08, 2010

Hung Parliament in the UK: A Very Un-British Election Result
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Britain, it seems, has finally become European, at least in its political system. The UK's much-dreaded hung parliament would be business as usual on the Continent, where parties are used to forming coalition governments. Britain's unfair first-past-the-post system needs to finally be fixed.

British beer is famous for tasting flat to continental Europeans. Equally flat was the mood that set in over the course of the long election night after Britons voted in Thursday's general election. The result is disappointingly undecided: The British wanted change, but not enough to actually get it.

They have obviously had enough of Labour's Gordon Brown and his government, but they do not necessarily want Conservative challenger David Cameron as prime minister. With around 36 percent of the total vote, the Tories narrowly missed their goal of winning a majority of seats in parliament. Now the British have produced a very un-British election result: a hung parliament in which no single party has a majority of seats.

In the eyes of the Brits, coalition governments have been regarded, at least up until now, as an excessively complex invention by those continental Europeans. Such governments were seen as incapable of action, and coalitions were thought to promote haggling between parties and political corruption.

The British are accustomed to having a single government party and a large opposition party in their parliament. The government -- which, thanks to the undemocratic first-past-the-post system, usually had a comfortable majority -- dictated their policies; the opposition railed against them. Once the ruling party had run out of steam, the roles were reversed. New Political Territory >>> A Commentary by Michael Sontheimer | Friday, May 07, 2010