RUSSIA TODAY: Ramadan kicks off amid rise in Islamophobia: It is just another day of the week for most us, but for Muslims worldwide, it’s the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. >>> | Published Thursday, August 12, 2010; Edited Friday, August 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
RUSSIA TODAY: Ramadan kicks off amid rise in Islamophobia: It is just another day of the week for most us, but for Muslims worldwide, it’s the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. >>> | Published Thursday, August 12, 2010; Edited Friday, August 13, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, has said Australia should cut its ties with Britain and become a republic when the Queen dies or abdicates.
Ms Gillard, who was born in Wales and moved to Australia with her parents aged five, acknowledged that many Australians had “deep affection” for the Queen, but said that the status quo could not remain.
“What I would like to see as prime minister is that we work our way through to an agreement on a model for the republic,” she said during an election campaign stop in Queensland.“I think the appropriate time for this nation to move to be a republic is when we see the monarch change.
“Obviously I’m hoping for Queen Elizabeth that she lives a long and happy life, and having watched her mother I think there’s every chance that she will.”
While it has its own flag and national anthem, Australia currently operates as a constitutional monarchy, which means that the Queen, as head of state, has the same formal role as she does in Britain. Her representative, the governor-general, is in charge of the army, must give assent to all laws passed by parliament and has the power to dissolve both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The role of the Queen as Australia’s monarch was laid down at federation in 1901 and a complex system of constitutional ties would have to be unravelled for the nation to become a republic. >>> Bonnie Malkin, Sydney | Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
ZEIT ONLINE: Michail Chodorkowski kommt nicht auf freien Fuß. Ein Moskauer Gericht hat entschieden, dass der frühere Chef des Ölkonzerns Yukos bis November in U-Haft bleibt.
Ein Gericht in Moskau hat die Untersuchungshaft für den früheren Ölmagnaten Michail Chodorkowski verlängert. Das Gericht folgte damit einem Antrag der Staatsanwaltschaft, die eine dreimonatige Verlängerung der Untersuchungshaft für Chodorkowski und seinen früheren Geschäftspartner Platon Lebedew bis Mitte November gefordert hatte.
Richter Viktor Danilkin begründete die Entscheidung damit, dass der im Frühjahr 2009 eröffnete Prozess gegen die beiden Männer nicht bis zum Ablaufen der ersten Frist der Untersuchungshaft am Dienstag beendet werden könne.
Chodorkowskis Anwälte kündigten an, gegen die Gerichtsentscheidung Rechtsmittel einzulegen. Sein Verteidiger Wadim Kljuwgant sprach von einem "ungeheuerlichen Verstoß" gegen geltendes Recht. >>> Zeit Online, AFP | Montag, 16. August 2010
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – DANIEL HANNAN: Barack Obama is abandoned by the Left as his approval ratings collapse: When your own tribe turns on you, you’re in serious trouble. Barack Obama was never going to convert Republican irreconcilables. Many US conservatives had convinced themselves before the election that Obama would be an interfering socialist. Fair enough: he was never really after their support. >>> Daniel Hannan | Monday, August 16, 2010
LE FIGARO: L'acteur américain Michael Douglas va devoir suivre un traitement contre le cancer. Ses médecins lui ont diagnostiqué une tumeur à la gorge. Agé de 65 ans, la star américaine devra suivre une chimiothérapie ainsi que huit semaines de radiations. Il s'est dit confiant quant à son rétablissement et a même déclaré au site People.com - qui a révélé l'information - qu’il était «très optimiste». [Source: Le Figaro] | Lundi 16 Août 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Michael Douglas having chemotherapy for throat tumour: Michael Douglas is to undergo radiation and chemotherapy after doctors found a tumour in his throat. >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles | Monday, August 16, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Douglas could lose his voice: New blow for golden couple as Michael battles throat cancer and Zeta >>> Alison Boshoff | Wednesday, August 18, 2010
CANADA FREE PRESS: The Saudis have unveiled a plan to define Mecca as the center of the world by building a giant clock tower in Mecca. The Bin Laden group’s Royal Mecca Clock Tower which reads “In the Name of Allah”, aims to replace GMT time, with “Mecca Time”. The Royal Mecca Clock Tower, which looks like something you expect to pass on the way to Disneyland, like Dubai’s Burj Tower, or its world islands are pathetic attempts to buy the facade of civilization with petrodollars.
The Royal Mecca Clock Tower is emblematic of the inability of the Muslim world to do the hard work of actually becoming civilized. Instead they build Pharaoh-like monuments to their own glory using imported slave labor. And they finance all that using money given to them by civilized countries in exchange for a particular resource that happens to be located on their territory. A resource that was discovered and developed for them by companies belonging to civilized countries.
The barbaric thinking behind the Royal Mecca Clock Tower is that if they build a really big clock tower, it will become a global standard and the infidels will acknowledge the Koran’s Islamic science “zero magnetism zone” claims for Mecca. That sort of thinking demonstrates a basic incomprehension of how civilization works. It shows no understanding of why Greenwich Mean Time serves the function that it does, which isn’t because England spent money given to it by more civilized countries to build a really big ugly tower that impressed everyone. >>> Daniel Greenfield | Monday, August 16, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: President Barack Obama's weekend remarks supporting the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero reverberated across the country, nationalizing a debate over the New York City project.
A number of Republicans on Sunday folded the president's remarks into their election-year narrative that Mr. Obama, a former constitutional scholar, is out of touch with the American citizenry.
The dispute over the mosque is just the most prominent in a series of debates around the country where Muslim groups have sought to build mosques. In the community of Temecula, Calif., where a proposed mosque has sparked an intense dispute, Mr. Obama's comments spurred a surge of letters to local newspapers decrying his statements. Pastor William Rench of Calvary Baptist Church, next door to the proposed mosque site, said he now expected opposition to the mosque plan to harden.
"It will galvanize their desire for resistance to the mosque," he said. "It confirms in their minds the idea that Mr. Obama seems to be more accommodating to the Islamic world than he is for the Christian representation in America." Mr. Rench said former President George W. Bush, who also spoke of Islam as a peaceful religion, might have made similar statements, but Mr. Rench said he disagreed with those views.
Mr. Rench said initially he opposed the new mosque next door because he thought such a large structure on two acres would tower over the church. But since he has begun reading more commentary from American Islamic leaders, he said, he has grown concerned about extremist statements such as one imam declaring Islam the "dominant" religion. He said he now worried that a large mosque could attract an extremist crowd in contrast to the current local Muslim community. Continue reading and comment >>> Victoria McGrane and Siobhan Gorman | Monday, August 16, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Obama ‘insensitive and uncaring’, say furious 9/11 families >>>
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset” >>>
THE GUARDIAN: Go some place else to build your mosque! >>>
FOX NEWS: NEW YORK -- A Hamas leader says Muslims "have to build" a mosque near ground zero.Mahmoud al-Zahar said Muslims "have to build everywhere" so that followers can pray, just like Christians and Jews build their places of worship.
Al-Zahar spoke Sunday on "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on WABC-AM. He is a co-founder of Hamas and its chief on the Gaza Strip. >>> | Monday, August 16, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Nick Clegg faced a Coalition backlash last night as he prepared to become the first Liberal leader to run the country in more than 80 years.
The Deputy Prime Minister takes the reins of power today from David Cameron, who is on holiday in Cornwall.
But Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes immediately cast a shadow over the Coalition by categorically ruling out the prospect of any electoral pact with the Tories at the next election.
With the Government marking its first 100 days in power on Wednesday, Mr Hughes torpedoed the growing prospect of closer ties, publicly lecturing Mr Clegg about a non-aggression deal at the next election, which would see both parties tactically backing each other.
Mr Hughes denounced a deal as ‘a nonsense’ and said: ‘We will be standing in every seat in the next election, there will be no deals, there will be no pacts.
‘Nick knows that that’s the party’s position, and Nick knows that that’s the party’s constitution.’ Read on and comment >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Monday, August 16, 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: CONDAMNATION | De grands noms du cinéma et de la littérature, ainsi que plusieurs femmes politiques françaises, ont publié dimanche soir une tribune de soutien à Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, suite à ses "aveux" forcés.
Le texte a été publié sur le site de la revue du philosophe Bernard-Henri Lévy "La règle du jeu".
"Il est urgent d'intervenir pour empêcher une mise à mort dont les observateurs de la scène iranienne ont tout lieu de redouter l'imminence", affirment notamment l'écrivain tchèque Milan Kundera et le prix Nobel nigérian Wole Soyinka, la créatrice franco-iranienne de BD Marjane Satrapi ("Persépolis"), les comédiennes Juliette Binoche et Mia Farrow.
Dix-sept personnalités ont signé le texte intitulé "Il faut empêcher la lapidation de Sakineh", qui devait également figurer à la Une du journal Libération lundi.
L'organisation de défense des droits de l'Homme Human Rights Watch a dit samedi qu'elle craignait que l'exécution ne se déroule "bientôt". >>> AFP | Lundi 16 Août 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Abdelbasset al-Megrahi will und will nicht sterben. Der verurteilte Lockerbie-Attentäter war vor einem Jahr aus schottischer Haft entlassen worden, weil er todgeweiht sei. Dank eines gängigen Medikaments lebt er immer noch und bringt die Verantwortlichen in Verlegenheit.
Aus humanitären Gründen war der im Jahr 2001 wegen des Lockerbie-Attentats zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilte libysche Geheimagent Abdelbasset al-Megrahi von der schottischen Regierung begnadigt worden. Er habe wegen eines fortgeschrittenen Prostatakrebses nur noch maximal drei Monate zu leben, lautete die ärztliche Diagnose. Dies erlaubte es der schottischen Regierung, den 59-Jährigen in seine Heimat ausreisen zu lassen. Dort wurde er als Held gefeiert und Oberst Ghadhafi kostete den Triumph vor laufenden Kameras aus.
Deal zugunsten BPs
Inzwischen ist ein Jahr vergangen und Megrahi lebt immer noch. Und damit bringt er die damaligen Entscheidungsträger in arge Verlegenheit. Inzwischen ist nämlich klar geworden, dass die Freilassung Teil eines langen diplomatischen Ränkespiels zwischen der britischen und der libyschen Regierung war, welche schliesslich dem Energiekonzern BP den Zugang zu grosse Ölvorkommen vor der libyschen Küste sicherte. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> spi. | Montag, 16. August 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)