China to Build $2bn Railway for Iran
THE TELEGRAPH: China is poised to sign a $2bn (£1.3bn) deal to build a railway line in Iran in the first step of a wider plan to tie the Middle East and Central Asia to Beijing.

The Chinese have already built a railway line serving Tibet, above, and now plan a modern variant on the old 'Silk Road' through Central Asia. Photo: The Telegraph
China's railways minister, Liu Zhijun, is expected to visit Tehran this week to seal the deal, according to his Iranian counterpart, Hamid Behbahani.

"The final document of the contract has already been signed with a Chinese company and the Chinese minister will visit Iran on September 12 to ink the agreement," said Mr Behbahani.

The new line will run from Tehran to the town of Khosravi on the border with Iraq, around 360 miles as the crow flies, passing through Arak, Hamedan and Kermanshah.

Eventually, the Iranian government said, the route could link Iran with Iraq and even Syria as part of a Middle-Eastern corridor. That could also benefit the 5,000 Iranians who make pilgrimages each day to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.

Nicklas Swanstrom, the executive director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said the contract to build the line was the first step for China to build an entire rail infrastructure for central Asia.

"It makes sense that if you build railways in Iran, you then get deals to stretch the lines into central Asia," he said, referring to a "very concrete plan" to run a railway from Iran through the landlocked countries of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and eventually to Kashgar in China, in a modern "silk route". >>> Malcolm Moore in Shanghai | Tuesday, September 07, 2010

China’s GDP >>>

Western profits wilt on China's surging wages: Rising wage and production costs in China are eating into the profits of Western companies and may soon set off an exodus of multinational companies to cheaper locations. >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Turkey Joins Europe, Electrically Speaking
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Turkey may be frustrated in its bid to become part of the European Union, but by the end of September, it will join Europe’s electric grid.

Most electric systems in continental Europe — including those in countries like Poland and Romania — have synchronized currents, allowing electricity to flow easily from country to country. But other nations, including Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland and until now, Turkey, have remained separate.

Turkey has been trying to connect for 10 years. Like Europe, it uses an alternating current, with the electrons dancing back and forth 50 times a second, but its system has been out of phase with the European grid.

Now, after extensive work by General Electric to enable Turkey’s system to connect, the country will join up for a one-year trial, according to the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity. >>> Matthew L. Wald | Monday, September 06, 2010

Bilal Assad
If you think this man is an Arab, you’ll be mistaken. He’s an Australian! A convert to Islam.

"Bilal was born in Williamstown, Melbourne, Australia. He started his Islamic studies at a very early age and acquired his Shariah knowledge in Lebanon; and continued tertiary education in Bio-Medical Science in Australia. Bilal has been offering his service to the community for many years and has been working with the Islamic Society of Victoria for over ten years. idca.org.au " [Source: Kallamullah.com]

Valentina Matviyenko: Meet Russia's Thatcher, the Chemist Who Could End Up in the Kremlim
Valentina Matviyenko. Photo: The Independent
THE INDEPENDENT: Russia's next presidential election is not until 2012, but speculation is already rife about whether Dmitry Medvedev will try for a second term or whether his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, will want to reclaim his old job. The one thing almost everyone can agree on is that they will not stand against each other. But there might just be a third way, and that third way could give Russia its very own Margaret Thatcher or Angela Merkel.

Even to mention the possibility risks crushing Valentina Matviyenko's prospects well before nominations open. But if anyone can do it, the 61-year-old Governor of St Petersburg may be the one. In the past seven years, during which she has been essentially the city's chief executive, the city has changed conspicuously for the better.

Vast investment by the central government improved the city's dilapidated fabric in time for the 300th anniversary in 2003. But the bigger changes have happened since, with huge new housing and commercial building projects and, most conspicuously, a transformation of the public mood. For the first time in my more than 30 years of visiting, people on the streets of St Petersburg seem confident and content with themselves. >>> Mary Dejevsky in St Petersburg | Monday, September 06, 2010

Väterchen Staat als Unternehmer
NZZ am SONNTAG: Washington greift so stark in die US-Wirtschaft ein wie nie zuvor. Kaum ein Sektor, in dem das Weisse Haus nicht mitmischt. Damit will der Staat den Abstieg Amerikas verhindern. Von Felix Wadewitz, New York

Offiziell strebt General Motors (GM) an die Börse, um sich aus der Umarmung des Staats zu lösen. Kein Kritiker soll mehr über «Government Motors» spotten können. Seit Präsident Obama GM mit 50 Mrd. $ vor dem Untergang bewahrte, gehören 61% dem Staat. Für viele Amerikaner ist das ein Unding. Die Hälfte der Bevölkerung lehnt laut Umfragen die Rettung ab. Der schnelle Börsengang soll deshalb zeigen: Die Intervention des Weissen Hauses war erfolgreich; der Konzern steht nun wieder auf eigenen Beinen.

Staatskapitalismus pur

Ohne Einfluss wird das Weisse Haus aber auch in Zukunft nicht sein: Nach dem geplanten Börsengang bleibt Uncle Sam der grösste Anteilseigner. Und der neue Mann an der Spitze, Daniel Akenson, geniesst ohnehin das Vertrauen der Regierung. Das Finanzministerium entsandte ihn vor einem Jahr in den GM-Verwaltungsrat, um die Interessen der Steuerzahler zu wahren.

Das Klischee vom Kapitalismus in Reinform stimmt längst nicht mehr. Die Autoindustrie ist nur das prominenteste Beispiel in einer langen Reihe von staatlichen Eingriffen in die US-Wirtschaft. Die Rettung der Banken, die Ausweitung der Gesundheitsfürsorge, die Förderung von Exporten und neuen Technologien, Konjunkturspritzen und die Stabilisierung des Immobilienmarkts – all das resultiert in einer dramatisch steigenden Staatsquote. >>> Von Felix Wadewitz | Sonntag, 05. September 2010

Verbunden >>>

Iran on Brink of Nuclear Weapon, Warns Watchdog
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran has passed a crucial nuclear threshold, weapons inspectors have warned, and could now go on to arm an atomic missile with relative ease.

Hillary Clinton during the imposition of sanctions. The may be hurting the economy but Iran's weapons programme is continuing. Photo: The Telegraph
A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iranian nuclear scientists had made at least 22 kilograms of enriched uranium at least 20 per cent purity, a technical hurdle that is the hardest to overcome on the way to weapons-grade uranium.

Experts estimate that 20 kgs of uranium is the minimum required to arm a warhead. The uranium would still need to have its purity raised to 90 per cent, but that is a relatively easy process.

The agency's report comes in spite of the recent imposition at the United Nations of a fresh round of sanctions against Iran and will heighten fears of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear plants. The prospect of an attack had receded only recently with American assurances that Tehran was more than a year away from acquiring a bomb.

The Vienna-based nuclear watchdog said Tehran had maintained its absolute defiance of international pressure to curb its programme despite the imposition of harsh sanctions in May. The IAEA has grown increasingly alarmed at Iran's behaviour and the latest report, which will be presented to the agency's governors at a meeting next week, lambasted Tehran on a series of fronts. >>> Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Monday, September 06, 2010

While the West dilly-dorks and faffs around with sanctions which will never have the desired effect, Iran continues with its nuclear programme. When the Iranians will have the bomb, and will be able to threaten Israel and Europe, it will be too late. And all this is taking place on Hussein Obama's watch. Sanctions won't work against the mullahs of Iran, no more than they'd have worked against Hitler and Nazi Germany. Find your backbone and deal with the matter. Get with the story! – © Mark

TV Evangelist Vows to Build Christian Centre at Ground Zero to Counter 'the Lies of Islam'
MAIL ONLINE: An evangelical preacher has vowed to build a Christian centre at New York’s ground zero in protest at the mosque proposed to be built there.

Bill Keller said he is raising funds to build a house of worship within a few blocks of where terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

As tension mounted ahead of the ninth anniversary of the attack this Saturday, Keller said Muslims were ‘going to hell’ and he had to intervene to counter ‘the lies of Islam’.

Keller, a TV evangelist, has ratcheted up the ill-feeling directed towards Muslims and his inflammatory language sparked renewed fears of Islamophobic responses.

His first sermon was on Sunday at the New York Marriott Downtown Hotel, his temporary headquarters, and he plans to open his Christian centre on January 1 next year.

The mosque, called Park 51, is scheduled to begin construction next year and will be a 13-storey community centre with enough space for 500 worshippers.

'When they decided to build a mosque and decided to preach what I consider a 1,400-year-old lie from Hell, I decided that somebody should be down there preaching the truth of God's word,’ Keller told the crowd.

‘All these people will die and burn in hell. Islam is not and has never been a religion of peace.

‘How could you build bridges with people who ask their Muslim brothers to fly a plane into the Twin Towers and killed thousands of innocent people?’ >>> Daniel Bates | Moonday, September 06, 2010

Bill Keller Ministries >>>

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani va être fouettée, selon son fils
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: TEHERAN | Le fils de Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, une Iranienne condamnée à la lapidation pour adultère, a annoncé lundi que les autorités iraniennes lui avaient infligé une nouvelle peine, 99 coups de fouet, après la publication dans un journal britannique d’une femme non voilée et présentée par erreur comme sa mère. >>> AP | Lundi 06 Septembre 2010

La lapidation de Sakineh pourrait avoir lieu après le Ramadan
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: IRAN | Le fils de l'Iranienne Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condamnée à mort par lapidation, a déclaré lundi craindre l'exécution de la sentence après la fin du Ramadan.

Cette possibilité a été évoquée lors d'une conversation téléphonique devant la presse avec l'écrivain français Bernard-Henri Lévy. Le Ramadan doit s'achever cette année autour du 10 septembre.

Sajjad Mohammadi Ashtiani, 22 ans, a déclaré ne plus avoir de nouvelles de sa mère depuis que ses "aveux", que sa famille et ses avocats considèrent comme forcés, avaient été diffusés par la télévision iranienne le 11 août. "Les visites hebdomadaires sont interdites", a-t-il dit. >>> AFP | Lundi 06 Septembre 2010

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Iranian woman could be executed after Ramadan, lawyer says: Confirmed Iranian woman sentenced to stoning was lashed 99 times last week for photo in British Newspaper mistakenly identified as her >>> Nasser Karimi, Tehran, Iran, The Associated Press | Monday, September 06, 2010

Hussein Obama Goes On Another Spending Spree On Taxpayers’ Dollars
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama yesterday unveiled a $50 billion plan to expand and renew roads, railways and airports in a late bid to boost confidence in the economy and prevent the Democratic Party from suffering a landslide defeat in forthcoming polls.

The plan was one of several economic initiatives Mr Obama was due to unveil this week, when campaigning begins in earnest for the Nov 2 midterm elections.

Speaking in Wisconsin on the Labour Day holiday, which marks the end of summer in the United States, President Obama proposed building 150,000 miles of roads, constructing and maintaining 4,000 miles of rail and rehabilitating 150 miles of runway, as well as modernising the air traffic control system.

He also proposed setting up an infrastructure bank to coordinate private, state and local capital to invest in projects.

A senior administration official said the American President's goal was to "create a substantial number of jobs in the short turn [sic] and lay the foundation for jobs growth in the long run".

The plan, which needs the approval of Congress, would spend $50 billion (£32 billion) in the first of its six years, and would be paid for by ending tax breaks for oil companies, the official said. Obama unveils $50 billion roads, rail and air plan to win votes >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, September 06, 2010

ZEIT ONLINE: Obama will mit weiteren Milliarden Aufschwung sichern: Die US-Wirtschaft kommt nicht auf die Beine. Präsident Obama plant daher erneut ein gigantisches Konjunkturprogramm – zumal seine Demokraten ein Wahldebakel fürchten. >>> Zeit Online, Reuters, AFP | Montag, 06. September 2010

Stone Mason Sparks Cathedral Row with 'Muslim' Gargoyle
THE TELEGRAPH: A Lyons stone mason has provoked a row after creating a gargoyle for the city's cathedral in the image of his Muslim foreman with a sign saying "Allahu Akbar" (God is great[er]) in both Arabic and French.

A new gargoyle on Lyon cathedral, which looks like Benzizine Ahmed (R), the Muslim foreman who led the restoration of the tower and worked on the cathedral for 30 years. Photo: The Telegraph
The 12th century Saint-Jean cathedral of Lyons, southeastern France, has hundreds of gargoyles around its roof whose traditional role has been to ward off evil spirits.

Since August, this seat of the Archbishop of Lyons has a new addition – a face remarkably similar to Ahmed Benzizine, a Muslim foreman who has been restoring churches and cathedrals in France for the past 37 years.

Emmanuel Fourchet, a local stone mason decided to immortalise his friend according to an age-old tradition of carving gargoyles resembling associates that stretches right back to the cathedral's construction.

"It could have been the face of a Portuguese man or anyone else but it happens to be an Algerian Muslim Arab – my friend Ahmed," he said.

However, while some have praised the initiative as a unifying "ecumenical gesture", the move has sparked cries of blasphemy among the more conservative elements of the churchgoing community who have sent angry letters of complaint. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, September 06, 2010

Berühmte Moslems finden Jesus

Ein Moslem tritt vom Islam zum Christentum über

Ahmadinejad met en doute la version des attentats du 11 septembre 2001
LE POINT: Le président iranien Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a de nouveau mis en doute, dans une rencontre avec la presse, dimanche soir, au Qatar, la version officielle des attentats du 11 septembre 2001 aux États-Unis, qu'il accuse de s'en être servis comme prétexte pour intervenir en Afghanistan. "Quelque chose s'est produit à New York et personne ne sait encore quels en étaient les principaux (bien principaux) auteurs. Aucune partie indépendante n'a été autorisée à essayer d'en identifier les auteurs", a déclaré M. Ahmadinejad. Après les attentats contre les tours jumelles du World Trade Center (WTC) qui ont fait près de 3.000 victimes, "ils (les Américains) ont dit que des terroristes se cachaient en Afghanistan, et l'Otan a mobilisé tous ses moyens et attaqué ce pays", a-t-il ajouté. Ahmadinejad avait déjà qualifié de "mensonge" la version américaine des attentats du 11-Septembre, … >>> Source AFP | Lundi 06 Septembre 2010

Poll: Majority Of GOP Said Obama Wants Sharia Law
CBS4: MIAMI – A new Newsweek poll of registered voters highlights the divide between Republicans, Democrats, and Independents over the issue of Islam and President Barack Obama.

According to the poll, 51 percent of Republicans think it's definitely or probably true that President Obama "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world."

In addition, 59 percent of Republicans and 28 percent of political independents think "Obama favors the interests of Muslim Americans over other groups of Americans."

The poll results come as conservative circles have exploded in furor over a proposed Muslim community center that would be built a few blocks away from the former home of the World Trade Center. However, the poll found that 72 percent said it would be okay if a Muslim group wanted to build a mosque in their community.

The poll also found that despite all of the evidence to the contrary and the repeated statements from President Obama, nearly one-quarter of those surveyed believe President Obama is a Muslim while 34 percent say he is something else or simply don't know. >>> Tim Kephart | Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Netanyahu: Peace Needs New Approach
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a peace deal with the Palestinians will require a creative, new approach. Deborah Lutterbeck reports. Video Courtesy of Reuters.

A Tale of Two European Remarks: De Gucht and Sarrazin
CANADA FREE PRESS: In August, Thilo Sarrazin a member of the board of the German Central Bank, and a critic of Islamic immigration, mentioned that Jews and Basque and some other ethnic groups have a common gene. What followed was a storm of protests and accusations that Sarrazin was anti-Semitic. Sarrazin was dismissed from his position on the board, and newspaper articles explained that it was for remarks that he had made about Muslims and Jews.

Last week, Karel De Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, gave a radio show his considered opinion of Jews. Naturally De Gucht put on his best jackboots, and explained that there will be no peace because the Jews run America, that Jews believe they are always right, and that it’s impossible to have a conversation with even a “moderate Jew”. While a few Jewish groups have protested, the European Commission has shrugged, and the media has shrugged too. The odds that De Gucht will be forced out of his job, the way that Sarrazin was are minimal.

But the difference between Sarrazin and De Gucht, was that Sarrazin said something truly unacceptable about an untouchable group. Muslims. While De Gucht mainly expressed a popular view among European elites about the Jews. The ferocious charges of Anti-Semitism against Sarrazin hinged only on him stating a casual fact that Jews are genetically related to one another. It isn’t Anti-Semitism, it’s Science. Sarrazin was not charged with Anti-Semitism because of what he had said about Jews, but because of what he had said about Muslims.


The media did not bother to report that Sarrazin had said that he would prefer immigration “if it was by eastern European Jews with a 15-percent-higher IQ than the German population.” An odd remark for an “Anti-Semite” to make. It would indeed seem that Thilo Sarrazin has a more positive view of Jews, than Karel De Gucht does. But it’s not really about the Jews. It’s about Muslims.

The Jews were used as cover by the advocates of multiculturalism to charge Sarrazin with bigotry. And there was a reason for that. Sarrazin had described himself as a mongrel, with French, Italian and Polish ancestry. His criticism of Muslim immigration was not genetic, but based on their refusal to integrate into Germany. Sarrazin had pointed out that other immigrants from Eastern Europe and Vietnam were productive members of society. Muslims however were not.

Muslims are not a genetic group, but a cultural and ideological one. The media couldn’t charge him with racial hatred for pointing out the cultural problems of Muslim immigrants. And discussing his remarks too much, would raise the danger that people might agree. And so the media was forced to treat Sarrazin’s offhand remark about Jews and Basque sharing genes as some sort of Third Reich throwback in order to charge him with racism. Except that there are Basque and Jewish genetic markers. But again this wasn’t about Jews or the Basque—it was about Muslims. >>> Daniel Greenfield | Saturday, September 04, 2010

Is the Dead Sea Dying?
TIME: The Dead Sea has long attracted tourists for its mineral-rich waters. But now man-made problems are causing the sea to shrink

Outside Ground Zero Mosque: Opinions Pro & Con (September 5, 2010)

Why President Obama Is Mr. Unpopular
TIME: TIME White House correspondent Michael Scherer analyzes President Obama's dwindling public support and its effect on the midterm elections

Burqa Barbie: News Anchor
TIME: After fans decided to make Barbie's new career a TV journalist in an online vote, Mona Eltahawy wonders why an Italian designer recently chose to outfit a "Muslim" Barbie in a burqa