EDL Founder Claims He Is Target of Islamist Death Threat
THE GUARDIAN: Stephen Lennon says police have urged him to leave his home before English Defence League's anti-Islamist protest in Luton

The founder of the English Defence League claims he has been warned that his life is in danger if he leads a protest in Luton.

Stephen Lennon, 28, said senior police officers were urging him to leave his home town ahead of the anticipated arrival of thousands of EDL supporters.

The militant anti-Islamist campaigner said he was under police protection. He claimed Bedfordshire police had issued him with an "Osman warning", which are given by the police to advise individuals that they are at serious risk of being killed by someone who appears to have the capability to make good their threat. >>> Press Association | Friday, February 04, 2011

Egypt Protesters Hold Their Ground
With protests demanding end to Mubarak's rule entering the 12th day, people in Tahrir Square prepared to wait him out

This Is How Democracy Happens – the West on Egypt

London's Neediest Curse City Bonuses

TERRORWARNUNG: Al-Qaida nimmt Wall-Street-Banker ins Visier
WELT ONLINE: Steht New York ein neuer Anschlag bevor? US-Ermittler befürchten nach Hinweisen einen Angriff auf das Herz des Kapitalismus, die Wall Street.

Sicherheitsbehörden in den USA haben die Banken an der Wall Street und deren Spitzenpersonal vor möglichen Anschlägen des Terrornetzwerks al-Qaida gewarnt. Entsprechende Drohungen kämen von der Gruppe al-Qaida auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, sagte ein Sicherheitsvertreter der Nachrichtenagentur AFP in Washington. "Wir sind wachsam und haben Warnungen angesichts dieser gewalttätigen Pläne herausgegeben“, sagte er weiter. Er bestätigte damit einen Bericht des US-Senders NBC. >>> AFP/mac | Mittwoch, 02. Februar 2011

Egypt Crisis Shines Spotlight on Muslim Brotherhood
Reaction to Hannity's showdown with imam

A Need for Discretion in Egypt
Bolton on Egypt, Obama and secrecy

Mubarak Family Fortune Could Reach $70bn, Say Experts
THE GUARDIAN: Egyptian president has cash in British and Swiss banks plus UK and US property

Gamal and Hosni Mubarak are reported to have built up huge fortunes, including properties in London. Photographs: The Guardian
President Hosni Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn) according to analysis by Middle East experts, with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast.

After 30 years as president and many more as a senior military official, Mubarak has had access to investment deals that have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits. Most of those gains have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in upmarket homes and hotels.

According to a report last year in the Arabic newspaper Al Khabar, Mubarak has properties in Manhattan and exclusive Beverly Hills addresses on Rodeo Drive.

His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. A protest outside Gamal's ostentatious home at 28 Wilton Place in Belgravia, central London, highlighted the family's appetite for western trophy assets.

Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton University, said the estimate of $40bn-70bn was comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries.

"The business ventures from his military and government service accumulated to his personal wealth," she told ABC news. "There was a lot of corruption in this regime and stifling of public resources for personal gain. >>> Phillip Inman | Friday, February 04, 2011

Analysis: Saudi Arabia's War between God and Archaeology
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: For decades, Saudi Arabia's powerful clerics have waged a bitter battle against pagan faiths, idol worship, heresy, alcohol – and archaeology.

News that David Kennedy, an Australian scholar, has succeeded in identifying almost 2,000 unexplored archaeological sites using Google Earth has focused attention on the wages of that battle: the destruction of Saudi Arabia's own heritage More than 90 per cent of the archaeological treasures of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, experts estimate, have been demolished to make way for hotels, apartment blocks and parking facilities.

The $13 billion project that led to a wave of demolitions in the middle of the last decade was part of an effort to modernise infrastructure in the ancient cities, where millions of pilgrims gather for the Hajj each year.

Sami Angawi, an expert on Arabian architecture, lamented that history had been " bulldozed for a parking lot". "We are witnessing now the last few moments of the history of Mecca,", he said.

The Kingdom's ultraconservative clerics believe that the veneration of ancient sites associated with the Prophet Mohammad and his family is heretical, and want potential shrines obliterated.

In October last year, a Saudi clerical body was reported to have renewed long-standing calls for the demolition of several historic Islamic sites – including the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the grave of his mother. >>> Praveen Swami | Friday, February 04, 2011

Muslims Must Embrace Our British Values, David Cameron Says
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: British Muslims must subscribe to mainstream values of freedom and equality, David Cameron will say as he declares that the doctrine of multiculturalism has “failed” and will be abandoned.

Entering the debate on national identity and religious tolerance, the Prime Minister will declare an end to “passive tolerance” of divided communities, and say that members of all faiths must integrate into wider society and accept core values.

To be British is to believe in freedom of speech and religion, democracy and equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality, he will say. Proclaiming a doctrine of “muscular liberalism”, he will say that everyone, from ministers to ordinary voters, should actively confront those who hold extremist views.

He will also warn that groups that fail to promote British values will no longer receive public money or be able to engage with the state.

His speech, to an international security conference in Munich, comes after The Daily Telegraph disclosed the extent to which the British intelligence community fears the “unique threat” of terrorist attacks by radicalised British Muslims.

Mr Cameron will promise a new willingness to argue against and “defeat” extremist ideologies that lead some to engage in terrorism.

That means abandoning the notion that different communities should be able to live according to their own values and traditions as long as they stay within the law. “Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream,” Mr Cameron will say. “We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong.” >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Friday, February 04, 2011

Cairo Protesters: 'We're Not Muslim Brotherhood'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Telegraph reports from Tahrir Square in Cairo where, despite the violence this week, Egyptian demonstrators are determined to continue their protest until they see the back of President Hosni Mubarak.

Watch Telegraph video here

Pat Condell: Islam in Europe

Pat Condell: The Criminal Truth

Explosiver Tag in Ägypten
Die Opposition hat den heutigen Tag zum «Tag des Abgangs» erklärt. Mit einem Sternmarsch ins Zentrum von Kairo will sie den ägyptischen Präsidenten zum sofortigen Rücktritt zwingen. Einschätzungen von André Marty, SF-Sonderkorrespondent in Kairo

Egyptians Rally For Mubarak's Departure
Ten of thousands of protesters remain gathered in Egypt's capital for what is being called the "Day of Departure"

THE TIMES: Mubarak clings on as masses cry ‘Leave’: At least 100,000 protesters packed into Tahrir Square in central Cairo today, renewing their demands for President Mubarak’s resignation in defiance of a vicious two-day crackdown by his supporters. >>> Martin Fletcher and James Hider in Cairo, and Giles Whittell in Washington | Friday, February 04, 2011 [£]

Egypt Crisis: David Cameron Reprimands Baroness Ashton at EU Summit
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has reprimanded Baroness Ashton at a European Union summit, saying she was too soft on "state-sponsored violence" against Egyptian protesters.


The dressing down in front of a room filled with Europe's leaders was the Prime Minister's first open criticism of Lady Ashton since the Labour peer became EU foreign minister just over a year ago.

Mr Cameron was forced to make a "number of interventions" to ensure that the EU sent a tough message to Egypt because a summit declaration, drafted by Lady Ashton, was too weak.

A diplomat close to the talks said: "Cameron said Ashton's declaration did not go far enough and that there needed to be clear and strong language to show Egypt there would be consequences unless the repression stopped."

Britain's prime minister pushed for tougher EU action at a summit lunch, including a hint that sanctions would be used as Western patience runs out with President Hosni Mubarak's attempts to cling to power in Egypt.

Mr Cameron demanded that the EU threw its weight behind an American plan for Mr Mubarak to resign immediately and hand power to a military-backed interim government before speedy elections. >>> Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Friday, February 04, 2011

Google Earth Finds Saudi Arabia's Forbidden Archaeological Secrets
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: An armchair archaeologist has identified nearly 2,000 potentially important sites in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth, despite never having visited the country.

David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia, used Google Earth satellite maps to pinpoint 1,977 potential archaeological sites, including 1,082 teardrop shaped stone tombs.

"I've never been to Saudi Arabia," Dr Kennedy said. "It's not the easiest country to break into."

Dr Kennedy told New Scientist that he had verified the images showed actual archaeological sites by asking a friend working in the Kingdom to photograph the locations.

The use of aerial and satellite imaging has been used in Britain to locate Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain, as well as Nazca lines in Peru and Mayan ruins in Belize.

But few archaeologists have been given access to Saudi Arabia, which has long been hostile to the discipline. Hardline clerics in the kingdom fear that it might focus attention on the civilisations which flourished there before the rise of Islam – and thus, in the long term, undermine the state religion. Read on and comment >>> Praveen Swami | Friday, February 04, 2011

Uncontacted Tribes

BBC: First film footage of remote Amazon rainforest tribe >>> | Thursday, February 03, 2011

Khamenei Hails 'Islamic' Uprisings
AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Iranian supreme leader urges Egyptians to follow in the footsteps of Iran's 1979 revolution.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader has called the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia an "Islamic liberation movement".

In his address, during Friday prayers at Tehran University, he said that people are witnessing the reverberations of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Khamenei said of the current unrest that "this is what was always referred to as ... Islamic awareness in connection with Iran's great Islamic Revolution."

Khamenei has urged Egypt's protesters to follow in the footsteps of the Iranian revolution which toppled a pro-US leader and called on Egyptians to unite around religion.

Referring to the events in Tunisia in Egypt, he said that it is a sign of "Islamic awareness" in the region and that these movements will spell an "irreparable defeat" for the United States.

He said that the embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is a "servant" of Israel and the United States.

"For 30 years this country (Egypt) has been in the hands of someone who is not seeking freedom and is the enemy of those seeking freedom.

"Not only he is [sic] not anti-Zionist, but he is the companion, colleague, confidant and servant of Zionists. It is a fact that Hosni Mubarak's servitude to America has been unable to take Egypt one step towards prosperity."

The spiritual leader's remarks were received by cheering crowds of worshippers who, raising their hands, chanted "Death to America! Death to Israel!" >>> Source: Al Jazeera and agencies | Friday, February 04, 2011

Tahrir Squares Echoes with 'Leave Mubarak' Chant
Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters, from all walks of life protesting regardless of age, gender or religion, gathered at the Tahrir Square in Cairo, to demand the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. After offering the Friday prayer at the Square, the crowd shouted in unison: 'Leave Mubarak'. Friday sermon demanded regime change, prisoner release and constitutional change