Sarkozy : Paris ne cèdera pas au "diktat des terroristes"
Nicolas Sarkozy lors de son discours de voeux aux Français d'outre-mer, en Guadeloupe, dimanche. Photo : Le Monde
LE MONDE: Le président Nicolas Sarkozy a déclaré dimanche 9 janvier depuis les Antilles que la France n'accepterait "jamais le diktat du terrorisme et des terroristes", après la mort de deux otages français au Niger, qualifié d'"acte barbare perpétré par des barbares"

"Ce crime odieux ne fait que renforcer la détermination de la France à lutter sans relâche contre le terrorisme et contre les terroristes. Les démocraties ne peuvent pas accepter cela", a déclaré M. Sarkozy au début de son discours de voeux aux Français d'outre-mer en Guadeloupe. "Les démocraties, c'est leur honneur, c'est leur noblesse, doivent lutter pied à pied contre ces barbares venus d'un autre âge qui veulent terroriser le monde entier", a conclu le chef de l'Etat.

UNION SACRÉE

Le sénateur PS Robert Badinter a estimé que "le président de la République a dit ce qu'il fallait dire" après l'enlèvement et le meurtre des deux Français. "La France est une cible. Nous sommes en présence d'une menace terroriste constante" et "on doit éliminer tout calcul politique. Le président de la République a dit ce qu'il fallait dire", a déclaré l'ancien garde des Sceaux sur sur France Inter, ITV, Le Monde, en jugeant que les "intégristes fanatiques islamiques sont en guerre contre la société occidentale". >>> LeMonde.fr | Dimanche 09 Janvier 2011

Helmut Schmidt - Mein Jahrhundert


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Angela Merkel über Christentum in Deutschland

Defending Christians
BBC: For Coptic Christians this is Christmas Day. In Egypt it is being celebrated behind cordons of police and Christians are wearing black.

This sombre mood has its roots in an attack last week on the al-Qiddissin (All Saints) Church in Alexandria. Twenty-one people were killed and 100 wounded by a suicide bomber.

Militant websites have posted a list of churches to be targeted. There are "how-to" manuals with tips on "destroying the cross".
One site offered a reward to anyone who assassinated "a leading Church figure".

These incidents follow a recent trend of attacks on churches and Christians across the Middle East. In October in Baghdad nearly 60 people were killed when gunmen attacked the Syriac Catholic Cathedral. Only last week bombs were placed near the homes of 14 Christian families in the Iraqi capital.

Concern has been raised, but there has been an absence of international outrage. France is trying to change that. Its Foreign Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, wants a European response. She has written to the EU's foreign affairs czar, Catherine Ashton, asking for the union to draw up a plan of action in response to what is happening to Christians in the Middle East. She is putting the defence of Christians on the agenda and specifically wants Europe's foreign ministers to respond. She said we had moved beyond the situation of being "simply sad and disturbed".

Her intervention has been followed up by President Sarkozy. He said Christian minorities are victims of "religious cleansing" in the Middle East. "We cannot accept," said the French president, "and thereby facilitate, what looks more and more like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East - religious cleansing". >>> Gavin Hewitt | Friday, January 07, 2011

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Bloodshed Puts New Focus on Vitriol in Politics
THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — The shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and others at a neighborhood meeting in Arizona on Saturday set off what is likely to be a wrenching debate over anger and violence in American politics.

While the exact motivations of the suspect in the shootings remained unclear, an Internet site tied to the man, Jared Lee Loughner, contained antigovernment ramblings. And regardless of what led to the episode, it quickly focused attention on the degree to which inflammatory language, threats and implicit instigations to violence have become a steady undercurrent in the nation’s political culture.

Clarence W. Dupnik, the Pima County sheriff, seemed to capture the mood of the day at an evening news conference when he said it was time for the country to “do a little soul-searching.”

“It’s not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included,” Sheriff Dupnik said. “That’s the sad thing about what’s going on in America: pretty soon we’re not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office.”

In the hours immediately after the shooting of Ms. Giffords, a Democrat, and others in a supermarket parking lot in Tucson, members of both parties found rare unity in their sorrow. Top Republicans including Speaker John A. Boehner and Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona quickly condemned the violence.

“An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement. “Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society.”

President Obama made a brief appearance at the White House, calling the shooting an “unspeakable act” and promising to “get to the bottom of this.”

Not since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 has an event generated as much attention as to whether extremism, antigovernment sentiment and even simple political passion at both ends of the ideological spectrum have created a climate promoting violence. The fallout seemed to hold the potential to upend the effort by Republicans to keep their agenda front and center in the new Congress and to alter the political narrative in other ways. >>> Carl Hulse and Kate Zernike | Saturday, January 08, 2011

Is Brandenburg Safe for Jews? Rabbi Fears Anti-Semitism in Eastern German State
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The leading rabbi in the eastern German state of Brandenburg says Jews in the community there are warned not to wear yarmulkes or other visible symbols of Judaism. He says the state has a problem with anti-Semitism, but Brandenburg officials claim they are doing all they can to make Jewish culture part of everyday life.

Some 65 years after the end of World War II, is it safe yet for a Jew to walk through the streets of Germany wearing a yarmulke? Not in Brandenburg, home to Potsdam and its famous UNESCO-listed palaces near Berlin -- at least according to the eastern German state's new chief rabbi, Shaul Nekrich.

A former resident of Berlin, Nekrich said in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper published Wednesday that he had been perfectly comfortable walking around the capital city, wearing a yarmulke and traditional Jewish hat. Not so, however, in Brandenburg, where he now leads the state's six Jewish communities. Nekrich said he now eschews wearing the kippah or hat head coverings when walking the streets of towns and cities in the state.

Asked by the newspaper whether he believed the state has a problem with anti-Semitism, 31-year-old Nekrich, who emigrated to Germany from Russia after studying in Israel, said: "I think so, even if I haven't been here for very long. I hear the stories from the communities. They are wary of being recognized as Jews on the streets. The only way we announce events now is by e-mail. In (the town of) Bernau, the synagogue has been defaced with swastikas several times." >>> dsl | Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Angelina Jolie's Cleopatra Will Show Egypt's Queen as More Than a Sex Kitten
THE OBSERVER: British director Paul Greengrass will portray the serpent of the Nile as political strategist and warrior in a new blockbuster film

Actress Elizabeth Taylor in golden headdress and robes in a seductive interpretation of the Egyptian ruler Cleopatra. Photograph: The Observer
Dio Cassius, the Greek historian, said Cleopatra "was a woman of surpassing beauty… and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone". So it stands to reason that the greatest Hollywood beauties of succeeding eras have been cast as the Egyptian queen: from Claudette Colbert and Vivien Leigh, to Elizabeth Taylor and, now, Angelina Jolie. But, judging by the creative team being lined up by Sony Pictures, Jolie's 3D outing in the royal barge of beaten gold is set to rip up all our other assumptions about the fabled temptress.

The screenplay of the forthcoming blockbuster is risking a budget that rivals the studio-busting Taylor epic of 1963 on a fresh, revisionist interpretation of Cleopatra and, it seems, the vision of a maverick British director: Paul Greengrass. >>> Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and media correspondent | Sunday, January 09, 2011

The Tea Party Rules Washington as Barack Obama Braces for Savage Cuts
THE OBSERVER: New breed of right-wingers takes over the Capitol with a slash-and-burn agenda that threatens the White House

Republican John Boehner receives the gavel from outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Photograph: The Observer
Dick Armey's black, lizard-skin cowboy boots lay on the floor while he relaxed on the couch in stockinged feet. The former Texas congressman was in a jovial mood in his office just off the Washington Mall – and for good reason. He may no longer be a politician but as chairman of FreedomWorks, one of the main forces behind the conservative Tea Party movement, he is once more a major player in the new Washington DC.

"My wife likes the terminology of a 'paradigm shift'," he said in a western drawl. "And I like to agree with that. It is a paradigm shift. It's a phenomenon."

Democrats might not agree, but it is hard to argue the Congress sworn in last week – now with a Republican-dominated House of Representatives – has not made Washington a very different place from the "New Camelot" hailed by the media when Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009.

The new influx of GOP politicians that has swaggered into the American capital, represents a massive change in political culture. A staggering 87 new Republican congressmen and six new Republican senators have landed on the banks of the Potomac river.

But it is not just the numbers; it is the way they were elected. The 2010 midterm elections, which sank the Democrats, were propelled by the energy of the right-wing Tea Party movement. Many of those new Republicans are Tea Partiers themselves or beholden to its activists and their conservative agenda.

That's why people such as Armey will shape the new face of the capital. To its critics, FreedomWorks is a corporate-backed front group exploiting the Tea Party. To its fans, it helps to co-ordinate and focus an outpouring of anti-government rage and desire for personal liberty the like of which have not been seen for a generation. Either way, Armey's cheerfulness seems justified given the sudden change of fortunes between Republicans and Democrats.

"The Obama White House forgot about America," he declared, as a young fan from a Republican-leaning website walked in and asked him to sign a book. >>> Paul Harris | Sunday, January 09, 2011

Spanish State Television Drops Bullfighting as Too Violent for Children
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Spain's state-run broadcaster has banned the televising of bullfights to protect children.

Bullfighting is too violent for children, says the broadcaster. Photo: The Sunday Telegraph
Radiotelevision Espanola [sic] (RTVE) has pledged not to show bullfighting on its channels given that the evening corridas usually occur during peak viewing times for children.

In its latest style book, presented to the parliamentary commission that oversees its mandate, the organisation puts bullfighting under the chapter "violence with animals", a controversial listing given the tradition in Spain. >>> Fiona Govan, Madrid | Sunday, January 09, 2011

Last week, the socialist government of Spain headed up by Zapatero decided to clamp down on smokers, by passing the most draconian legislation against smokers in the whole of the EU (even though Zapatero is himself a smoker). This week, the socialist régime wants to clamp down on bullfighting. Soon there will be nothing left of Spain as we used to know and love it. Political correctness will have destroyed it. Political correctness and socialism. Socialism has a nasty habit of destroying the freedoms of all who have the misfortune to live under it.

I do not endorse bullfighting. I have never been to a bullfight in my life; and nor do I have any intention of attending such a cruel spectator sport. But isn't bullfighting a quintessential spectator sport in Spain? Isn't it part and parcel of Spain's heritage, like fox hunting is part and parcel of Britain's?

Children, by the way, have to be raised in the real world. They have to be raised in the world as it is, and not in the world as it would be were things to be ideal. Only when children are raised in the real world can they ever hope to be able to deal with life as an adult as it really is. Trying to protect them from all and sundry is a great mistake. It is tantamount to trying to bring them up in a vacuum.

Socialists do this kind of thing. They always seem to want to control everything in the environment. It's where they always go wrong. – © Mark

American Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Fights for Life After Being Shot in Head
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic Congresswoman, was fighting for her life after being shot in the head by a gunman who opened fire on a public meeting in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people.

The dead included a nine-year-old girl, a Giffords aide and a federal district judge whose life had previously been threatened over a contentious illegal immigration lawsuit that he was hearing. A further 12 people were injured in the rampage.

Miss Giffords, 40, who is married to an astronaut, survived the murderous shooting spree, despite being shot at point blank range by a single bullet that passed through her brain and out of her head.

President Barack Obama said she was "battling for her life". Initial reports listed the congresswoman among those killed, but doctors later said they were "optimistic" after emergency surgery.

"We cannot tell what kind of recovery but I'm about as optimistic as it can get in this situation," said Dr Peter Rhee, trauma surgeon a Tucson University Medical Centre.

The suspected gunman, identified by law enforcement officials as Jared Loughner, 22, also from Tucson, was in custody after being tackled by bystanders as he tried to flee the scene. >>> Philip Sherwell, in New York | Sunday, January 09, 2011

Related >>>

BLUTTAT IN ARIZONA: "Wir sind zu einem Mekka des Hasses geworden"
WELT ONLINE: Nach dem Blutbad von Tucson wird über die aufgeheizte Stimmung in Arizona gesprochen. Der Schütze soll sich über die Regierung empört haben.

Schock in Amerika: Mit einem gezielten Kopfschuss hat ein Attentäter im US- Bundesstaat Arizona eine Kongressabgeordnete schwer verletzt. Der 22-Jährige feuerte mit seiner halbautomatischen Pistole auch auf weitere Menschen – sechs starben, darunter ein neunjähriges Mädchen. Mindestens ein Dutzend erlitten teils schwere Verletzungen. >>> dpa/dapd/cn | Sonntag, 09. Januar 2011

WELT ONLINE: Der Amoklauf von Tucson, Symptom des Irrsinns: Die Schüsse auf Gabrielle Giffords lösen in den USA Betroffenheit aus. Doch sie enthüllen auch uramerikanische Probleme. >>> Autor: Uwe Schmitt | Sonntag, 09. Januar 2011

Grace Kelly: A Life In Pictures

White Girls Seen as 'Easy Meat' by Pakistani Rapists, Says Jack Straw
THE GUARDIAN: Row erupts after former home secretary says grooming for sexual abuse is a problem among some Pakistani men

The former home secretary Jack Straw has been accused of stereotyping Pakistani men in Britain after he accused some of them as regarding white girls as "easy meat" for sexual abuse.

The Blackburn MP spoke out after two Asian men who raped and sexually assaulted girls in Derby were given indefinite jail terms.

Straw said there was a "specific problem" in some areas of the country where Pakistani men "target vulnerable young white girls".

His comments were criticised by Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, who said it was wrong to "stereotype a whole community".

Yesterday Mohammed Liaqat, 28, and Abid Saddique, 27, were jailed at Nottingham crown court after being found guilty at a trial in November of charges including rape.

The judge in the case said he did not believe the crimes were "racially aggravated", adding that the race of the victims and their abusers was "coincidental".

Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme yesterday, Straw said: "Pakistanis, let's be clear, are not the only people who commit sexual offences, and overwhelmingly the sex offenders' wings of prisons are full of white sex offenders.

"But there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men ... who target vulnerable young white girls.

"We need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and to be more open about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani heritage men thinking it is OK to target white girls in this way."

Straw called on the British Pakistani community to be "more open" about the issue. "These young men are in a western society, in any event, they act like any other young men, they're fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically," he said.

"So they then seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care ... who they think are easy meat.

"And because they're vulnerable they ply them with gifts, they give them drugs, and then of course they're trapped." >>> David Batty and agencies | Saturday, January 08, 2011

Gewaltsame Islamisierung im Kaukasus
Besuch im Heimatdorf einer Selbstmordattentäterin aus Dagestan
NZZ am SONNTAG: In den Bergen von Dagestan hat die Scharia das weltliche Gesetz längst abgelöst. Extremisten verbreiten von dort aus Terror. Korruption und staatliche Willkür geben ihnen Auftrieb.

Balachani ist ein verschlafenes Nest in den Bergen Dagestans. Im Schritttempo kämpft sich der Lada auf der Schotterpiste ins Hochtal hinauf. Frauen im schwarzen Ganzkörperschleier huschen über die staubige Dorfstrasse, bevor sie wie Schatten in den Höfen verschwinden. Nur ein paar Kühe sind sonst unterwegs. Balachani liegt im schroffen Vorgebirge des kaukasischen Hauptkammes, vier Autostunden von der dagestanischen Hauptstadt Machatschkala am Kaspischen Meer entfernt. Im März erlangte der 1000-Seelen-Ort traurige Bekanntheit, nachdem sich zwei Selbstmordattentäterinnen in der Moskauer Metro in die Luft gesprengt und 40 Personen in den Tod gerissen hatten. Eine dieser sogenannten schwarzen Witwen, Mariam Scharipowa, war in Balachani zu Hause. >>> Klaus-Helge Donath, Machatschkala | Sonntag, 09. Januar 2011

Terry Murden: Bank Bonuses Are Back as Politicians Roll Over
THE SCOTSMAN: NO-ONE should be surprised that the banks are expected to defy public opinion and once again pay multi-million pound bonuses.

Difficulties in controlling the bonus culture have been made plain by the frustrations felt by politicians across the spectrum and were highlighted here as far back as August 2009 after the then shadow chancellor George Osborne demanded that bonuses should be banned altogether in banks that had been bailed out by the taxpayer.

Well, he's moved a long way from that particular argument and now doesn't even see eye-to-eye with the bite-your-legs business secretary Vince Cable, who has found himself muzzled over the issue.

The bankers believe the Lib Dems who have been making most of the noise on this issue are now a bit of a spent force in the debate and that the slightly more banker-friendly tone emanating from Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron will leave them free to award themselves the sums they see as their right.

The banks argue that they contributed towards the £53.4 billion paid in taxes last year by the financial services industry, equal to 11.2 per cent of Britain's total tax receipts. No wonder the Treasury should consider it inappropriate to bite the hand that feeds it.

Before Christmas there were more threats of a new bonus tax, an idea revisited by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and warnings from Cable that the banks would be punished if they didn't change their ways. But opinion in the City is that there is not much substance behind them.

The bankers are now said to feel so confident of getting away with paying large bonuses that they see no further need for Project Merlin, the initiative led by Barclays former chief executive John Varley to repair relations with the government. Expect the next round of bonuses to be trimmed, but only marginally, and as an acknowledgement of, rather than a concession to, public outrage. >>> Terry Murden | Sunday, January 09, 2011

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Lib Dems tear into Tories 
on bonuses: Ministers are furious at George Osborne’s apparent cave-in over unacceptable bank bonuses in a time of austerity >>> Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor | Sunday, January 09, 2011 (£)

THE OBSERVER: Britain's best-paid bank boss set for showdown with MPs over huge bonus: Barclays chief Bob Diamond is under intense pressure to lead by example and give up payout >>> The Observer | Sunday, January 09, 2011

France : Voeux du Président aux autorités religieuses pour l'année 2011

Salmaan Taseer, Aasia Bibi and Pakistan's Struggle with Extremism
THE GUARDIAN: In the home village of the Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, there was little sympathy for the politician who was assassinated for supporting her


Maulvi Saalim, the village cleric who led the blasphemy prosecution of Aasia Bibi in Pakistan. Photograph: The Guardian
Aasia Bibi isn't at home. Children play at the blue gate of her modest home in Itanwali, a sleepy Punjabi village. Bibi, the woman at the heart of Pakistan's blasphemy furore – which triggered the murder of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer last week – is in jail, desperately praying that she won't be executed. Her neighbours are hoping she will be.

"Why hasn't she been killed yet?" said Maafia Bibi , a 20-year-old woman standing at the gate of the house next door. Her eyes glitter behind a scarf that covered her face. "You journalists keep coming here asking questions but the issue is resolved. Why has she not been hanged?"

Maafia was one of a group of about four women who accused Bibi, also known as Aasia Noreen, who is Christian, of insulting the prophet Muhammad during a row in a field 18 months ago. But she will not specify what Bibi actually said, because to repeat the words would itself be blasphemy. And so Bibi was sentenced to hang on mere hearsay – a Kafkaesque twist that seems to bother few in Itanwali, a village 30 miles outside Lahore.

A few streets away Maulvi Muhammad Saalim is preparing for Friday prayers. The 31-year-old mullah, a curly-bearded man with darting, kohl-rimmed eyes and woolly waistcoat, played a central role in marshalling the blasphemy charge. When a court sentenced Bibi to death last November – the first woman in Pakistan's history – he "wept with joy", he says. "We had been worried the court would award a lesser sentence. So the entire village celebrated."

The young cleric excuses himself: it is time for Friday prayers. Padding across the marble floor in his socks, he plugs in a crackly speaker, and issues a droning call that rings out across the village. A madrasa student shoos a stray goat out of the mosque courtyard. Villagers wrapped in wool blankets shuffle in.

Judging by the sermon it is not Christianity that was preoccupying Saalim this Friday. For 30 minutes he rails against the evils of drinking, gambling, kite flying, pigeon-racing, cards and, oddly enough, insurance. "All of these are the work of the devil," he says, before launching into a fresh recitation. >>> Declan Walsh, in the village of Itanwali, Pakistan | Saturday, January 08, 2011

JYLLANDS-POSTEN: Wie es ist, wenn Muslime einen töten wollen
WELT ONLINE: Die Mitarbeiter von "Jyllands-Posten" leben wegen der Mohammed-Karikaturen mit einem ständigen Gefühl der Bedrohung. Ein Besuch.

Kurt Westergaard hat sich schick gemacht. Schwarze Hose, schwarzes Hemd, schwarze Lederweste, dazu ein farbiges aber dezentes Halstuch. In der rechten Hand hält er einen schwarzen Stock mit einem Knauf aus Silber. Seit zwei Wochen hat er einen Herzschrittmacher, den ihm seine Frau Birgitta zu Weihnachten geschenkt hat. „Der ganze Eingriff hat nicht mal eine Stunde gedauert“, staunt Westergaard, „kaum war ich aus der Narkose aufgewacht, durfte ich nach Hause gehen.“

Vor einem Jahr, am 1.Januar 2010, wurde Westergaard in seinem Haus von einem somalischen Islamisten heimgesucht, der ihn mit Hilfe einer Axt belehren wollte, dass man den Propheten Mohammed nicht ungestraft karikieren darf. Westergaard hatte Glück, die Tür zum Badezimmer hielt den Axthieben stand, bis die Polizei eintraf, ihn befreite und den Besucher abführte. Damals nahm er sich vor, alt zu werden und auf seine Gesundheit zu achten. Jetzt, witzelt Westergaard, schlage „ein Peacemaker“ in seiner Brust. „Die hätten dir besser einen Troublemaker einsetzen sollen“, sagt Erik Guldager, der Westergaard als Agent und Galerist betreut. „Hab ich nicht nötig, bin selber einer“, antwortet der Künstler mit einem Anflug von Trotz.

Guldager ist 47, Westergaard 75 Jahre alt. Der eine könnte der Sohn des anderen sein. Westergaard hat 25 Jahre als Lehrer an einer Grundschule unterrichtet, bevor er Karikaturist wurde. Guldager hat „absolut nichts“ gelernt, aber viel unternommen. Er war Vertreter von BASF, Kellog's und Kodak in Dänemark, 2005 machte er sich mit einer Galerie für zeitgenössische dänische Kunst in Skanderborg bei Aarhus selbstständig.

Auch für Westergaard war 2005 ein Schicksalsjahr. Am 30. September druckte „Jyllands-Posten“, Dänemarks größte Tageszeitung, zwölf Mohammed-Karikaturen. Eine davon hatte Westergaard gezeichnet: Der Prophet mit einer im Turban versteckten Bombe auf dem Kopf. Es dauerte ein paar Wochen, bis Millionen von Muslimen in aller Welt bewusst wurde, dass sie beleidigt worden waren, von einem Mann, dessen Namen sie nicht aussprechen konnten, und von einer Zeitung, die sie bis dahin nicht einmal zum Anzünden von offenen Feuern benutzt hatten.

Während die anderen Zeichner auf Tauchstation gingen, stellte sich Westergaard der Welle der Empörung entgegen. Heute ist er der bekannteste Däne zwischen Nordkap und Kap Horn, ein Symbol der „bürgerlichen Anarchie“, die das Rückgrat der dänischen Leitkultur ausmacht. „Wir lassen uns nicht gerne sagen, was wir machen sollen oder nicht machen dürfen.“ Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> Autor: Henryk M. Broder | Samstag, 08. Januar 2011

Arizona State Senator on Giffords' Condition

FOX NEWS: Rep. Giffords in Intensive Care After Being Shot in the Head at Public Event: Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is in an intensive care unit following surgery for a gunshot wound in the head at close range, the University of Arizona Medical Center announced Saturday afternoon. >>> | Saturday, January 08, 2011

Salman Taseer Murder Sparks Fear and Loathing in Pakistan
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: After the murder of liberal politician Salman Taseer, Pakistan's moderate, educated classes are growing ever more fearful.

Sana Saleem, 23, a human right activist received death threats on her blog after protesting against the killing of Salman Taseer. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
With her frilly black hijab, eyeliner and Macbook, Sana Saleem does not look like a doughty human rights campaigner. Yet every day she shrugs off death threats and anonymous text messages promising to rape her in the street, in order to champion progressive causes on her blog.

Even she, though, was unprepared for the outpouring of hate that has engulfed Pakistan this week, with the murder of a high-profile politician who was leading a campaign to reform the country's draconian blasphemy laws.

"I was devastated, really shocked," said the 23-year-old medical student. "They were celebrating his death, showering the killer with rose petals. I never expected this, [sic]" >>> Rob Crilly, Karachi | Saturday, January 08, 2011

Somali Militants Ban Handshakes Between Men and Women
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Islamic militants in southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public.

Somali women holding banners reading 'Allah is Great' during a mass demonstration in support of the recent merger between Islamist group Hizbul Islam and al-Shabab. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
People who break the rules could be imprisoned, whipped or even executed.

Al-Shabab, the Islamic extremists, have already banned women from working in public, leaving many mothers with a terrible choice: risk execution by going to sell some tea or vegetables in the marketplace, or stay safely at home and watch the children slowly starve.

"It's an awful rule. I feel like I'm under arrest. I've started to ignore the greetings of the women I know to avoid punishment," said Hussein Ali, a resident of the southern Somali town of Jowhar. The edict is also being enforced in the town of Elasha.

Gunmen are searching buses for improperly dressed women or women travelling alone, said student Hamdi Osman in Elasha. She said she was once beaten for wearing Somali traditional dress instead of the long, shapeless black robes favoured by the fighters.

The Islamists' insistence that women wear the long, heavy robes also forces many women to stay at home because they can't afford the new clothing. >>> | Saturday, January 08, 2011