Iran to Make University Courses More Islamic
REUTERS – BLOGS – FAITH WORLD: Iran plans sweeping changes to university courses to make them more compatible with Islam, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday. Deputy Minister of Science for Research and Technology Mohammad Mehdi Nejad Nouri, quoted by IRNA, said at least 36 courses would be changed by September after revision by a group of university and seminary experts.

The report did not name the subjects that would be changed, but officials said last year Iran would review 12 disciplines in the social sciences, including law, women’s studies, human rights, management, sociology, philosophy, psychology and political sciences, as their contents were too closely based on Western culture. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for modification of these studies in August, saying that many humanities subjects are based on principles founded in materialism rather than divine Islamic teachings. » | Mitra Amiri | Friday, May 06, 2011

Bahrain Puts Opposition Leaders and Activists On Trial
REUTERS: Bahrain put 21 mostly Shi'ite activists, including a prominent hardline dissident, on trial on Sunday, charged with trying to topple the government during weeks of protests in February and March.

Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island kingdom, cracked down on the protests demanding greater political freedoms, a constitutional monarchy and an end to sectarian discrimination.

The crackdown, in which neighboring Sunni-led Gulf states sent troops to back Bahrain's forces, has boosted regional tension with Iran, which Bahrain accuses of manipulating its Shi'ite co-religionists to expand its influence.

Those on trial on Sunday face a hybrid civilian-military court where military prosecutors try the case before a panel of one military and two civilian judges.

Those on trial include Shi'ite dissident Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the opposition group Haq who has called for the overthrow of the Sunni al-Khalifa monarchy, and Ebrahim Shareef, the Sunni leader of the secular Waad group that has called for a constitutional monarchy but has not joined those seeking to oust the king.

Bahrain's state news agency said the defendants were accused of involvement in an "attempt to overthrow the government by force and in liaison with a terrorist organization working for a foreign country."


Rights groups said the defendants should be tried before civil courts, saying the military courts did not allow the accused to defend themselves properly. » | MANAMA | Sunday, May 08, 2011

Muslime gegen Christen: Viele Tote bei religiös motivierter Gewalt in Ägypten
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Bei Auseinander-setzungen zwischen Muslimen und koptischen Christen sind in Kairo mindestens zehn Menschen getötet worden. Im Armenviertel Imbaba wurde eine Kirche in Brand gesteckt. Auslöser waren Gerüchte, dort werde eine vom Christentum zum Islam konvertierte Frau festgehalten.

Bei Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Christen und Moslems in Kairo sind nach Medienberichten zehn Menschen getötet worden. 186 weitere seien verletzt, zwei von ihnen schwebten in Lebensgefahr, berichteten staatliche Medien am Sonntag. Der geschäftsführende Ministerpräsident Ägyptens, Essam Sharaf, sagte eine Reise in die Golfstaaten ab, um eine Krisensitzung der Übergangsregierung einzurufen. » | FAZ.NET mit dapd/dpa/Reuters | Sonntag, 08. Mai 2011

LE POINT: Affrontements meurtriers entre chrétiens et musulmans en Égypte : Un quartier populaire du Caire a été le théâtre d'affrontements confessionnels samedi soir. » | Source AFP | Dimanche 08 Mai 2011

Nasty War of Words over AV in the Coalition
THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: David Cameron was branded a ‘toffee-nosed slimebag’ by a senior Liberal Democrat peer yesterday as recriminations over Nick Clegg’s shattering referendum defeat threatened to wreck the Coalition.

The Prime Minister found himself in a Coalition tug-of-war as angry Lib Dems called on him to scrap NHS reforms to make up for Mr Clegg’s failed bid to axe Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system.

Tory Right-wingers hit back by warning Mr Cameron will face a revolt from his grassroots if he made concessions to save the Deputy Premier.

The war of words came as The Mail on Sunday’s ‘referendum map’ showed that outside the bastions of elite university towns and the London liberal elite, virtually every region of Britain voted against the Alternative Vote.

The torrent of abuse at Mr Cameron was led by Lib Dem Lord Tony Greaves. ‘A lot of people in our party never liked Cameron,’ he said. ‘He is seen as a toffee-nosed slimebag, which is what he is. That is being polite to the man.’ The day an angry Lib Dem peer called Cameron 'a toffee-nosed slimebag'... and the people of Britain held the liberal elite to ridicule » | Simon Walters and Brendan Carlin | Sunday, May 08, 2011

GB : les riches toujours plus riches
leJDD.fr: Malgré la crise, les grandes fortunes britanniques ont vu leur richesse gonfler en moyenne de 18% sur les 12 derniers mois, sans toutefois détrôner de la première place le magnat de l'acier Lakshmi Mittal, selon le classement publié dimanche par le Sunday Times.

Dans un pays qui compte désormais 73 milliardaires contre 53 l'année dernière, soit presque le record de 75 atteint avant la crise, la reine n'arrive, elle, "qu'à" la 257e place avec une fortune évaluée à 300 millions de livres, en hausse de 3%. [Source: leJDD.fr] | Dimanche 08 Mai 2011

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Wealth goes through the roof » | Philip Beresford | Sunday, May 08, 2011 [£]

The Forgotten Frontline in Libya's Civil War
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A town in western Libya is coming under almost as much fire as Misurata, writes Andrew Gilligan. But no one is paying much attention.

It is the unknown frontline in Libya's civil war, a rebel town besieged by Gaddafi's forces but almost ignored by the outside world.

Rockets and Scud missiles pour down. Water is running short. Tens of thousands are desperately trying to flee.

But transfixed by the horrors of Misurata, the international community - and the Nato military alliance - have all but overlooked the closely parallel drama in the mountain towns of Zintan and Yafran, little more than an hour's drive from the capital.

"We have been under fire for about an hour and a half now," said one Zintan resident, Mustafa Haider, by telephone from the town on Friday afternoon.

"From the south, from the north, from the east, from everywhere. They fire with Grad missiles, Scud missiles, anything. They have tried to enter Zintan many times but they couldn't." Homes, schools, and the town's main hospital had been hit, causing panic, he said.

A spokesman for Human Rights Watch, Fred Abrahams, accused the Libyan regime of committing "indiscriminate attacks" in the district. "They are firing into residential areas without targeting a military object," he said. "It is in essence the same tactic as in Misurata."

Zintan and Yafran are at the tip of the largest rebel-held pocket in western Libya - a crescent running along the Nafusa mountain range from the towns, south-west of Tripoli, to the Tunisian border. » | Andrew Gilligan, Ras al-Jedir, western Libya | Sunday, May 08, 2011

Bahrain's Rulers Cast Net for Loyalty Oaths Online
USA TODAY: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — While Bahrain's justice minister was making the latest accusations against alleged enemies of the state -- this time medical staff -- other officials were busy organizing a patriotic blitz that encourages pledges of loyalty on Facebook and Twitter.

These are the parallel worlds of one of Washington's linchpin military allies in the Gulf.

On one side is a grinding campaign to break the spirits of Shiite-led opponents whose pro-reform uprising was smothered by martial law. On the other: An expanding PR offensive to portray the Sunni monarchy as firmly in charge, and Bahrain as a firewall against Iranian influence in the nation that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Bahrain's current spin -- shifting from state media to the web -- could appear as just more boosterism in a region where rulers are constantly bathed in state-sponsored praise. But there is a distinct undercurrent in the island kingdom: pumping up its own rhetoric to match Iran's increasing barrage of criticism.

It serves as further recognition that Bahrain's crisis doubles as a window into the region's collective phobias -- the mutual mistrust of Sunni Arab leaders and Shiite powerhouse Iran -- as America effectively watches from the sidelines.

"So many of the Gulf's big issues are squeezed into this one tiny country," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. » | Brian Murphy And Barbara Surk, Associated Press | Saturday, May 07, 2011

Saudi Arabia's Influence in the Middle East
ABC.NET.AU – ELIZABETH JACKSON’S REPORT: Syria has again been in the headlines this weekend with yet more protesters shot after Friday prayers.



The EU has announced it'll impose sanctions against Syria and the UN has sent in teams of people.



One rather large and influential country in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia.



Its influence in the region is considerable and it's becoming increasingly nervous as its neighbours deal with these political uprisings.



Madawi Al Rasheed is a professor of social anthropology at Kings College in London.



I asked her about the influence of Saudi Arabia in the region.



MADAWI AL RASHEED: Saudi Arabia tries to project itself as a stabiliser, as a force that would stabilise the region, but this means that they interfere in a very big way in other countries' affairs.



For example in Bahrain now, we know that Saudi Arabia was the first country to seize the opportunity and move its troops. The same thing happened in Yemen. Saudi Arabia had always interfered in Yemen, and again, the problem is you have a neighbour that is extremely vulnerable and poor in Yemen and a very, very wealthy, economically strong state like that of Saudi Arabia and therefore it is very easy for Saudi Arabia to interfere in Yemeni affairs and also play political game with the various tribal groups and with the regime. (+ audio) » | Elizabeth Jackson | Sunday, May 08, 2011

While Bahrain Demolishes Mosques, U.S. Stays Silent
KANSAS CITY STAR: In the ancient Bahraini village of Aali, where some graves date to 2000 B.C., the Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque had stood for more than 400 years - one of the handsomest Shiite Muslim mosques in this small island nation in the Persian Gulf.

Today, only bulldozer tracks remain.

In Nwaidrat, where anti-government protests began Feb. 14, the Mo'men mosque had long been a center for the town's Shiite population - photos show it as a handsome, square building neatly painted in ochre, with white and green trim, and a short portico in dark gray forming the main entrance.

Today, only the portico remains.

"When I was a child, I used to go and pray with my grandfather," said a 52-year-old local resident, who asked to be called only "Abu Hadi." "The area used to be totally green, with tiers of sweet water wells.

"Why did they destroy this mosque?" Abu Hadi wailed. "Muslims have prayed there for decades."

In Shiite villages across this island kingdom of 1.2 million, the Sunni Muslim government has bulldozed dozens of mosques as part of a crackdown on Shiite dissidents, an assault on human rights that is breathtaking in its expansiveness.

Authorities have held secret trials where protesters have been sentenced to death, arrested prominent mainstream opposition politicians, jailed nurses and doctors who treated injured protesters, seized the health care system that had been run primarily by Shiites, fired 1,000 Shiite professionals and canceled their pensions, detained students and teachers who took part in the protests, beat and arrested journalists, and forced the closure of the only opposition newspaper.

Nothing, however, has struck harder at the fabric of this nation, where Shiites outnumber Sunnis nearly 4 to 1, than the destruction of Shiite worship centers.

The Obama administration has said nothing in public about the destruction. Continue reading and comment » | Roy Gutman, McClatchy Newspapers, with contributions from Hannah Allam in Cairo | Sunday, May 08, 2011

In the Court of Carla Bruni
THE OBSERVER: The latest sensation in France's love-hate relationship with its first lady has been whether Carla Bruni is pregnant. And her appearance this week at Cannes in Woody Allen's latest film only adds to the fun. Here, five people in the know reveal what she really means to the republic

The long-suffering French public sometimes feels it knows a little too much about its first lady. In three years of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni's whirlwind romance and marriage, we've been treated to their first dates, joint jogging sessions, pet names, expensive love tokens and taste for kissing in public – unprecedented at the Elysée Palace. We know Bruni hired a personal trainer who tones up the muscles of the couple's private parts, that beer makes her bloated and can lead to mistaken speculation that she's pregnant, that she's addicted to cigarettes and likes to watch DVDs with her husband after work (Stanley Kubrick or Pasolini). We were even treated to Madame Bruni-Sarkozy's old tissues and loose change when she once publicly tipped out the contents of her handbag for the nation (hairbrush, reading glasses, teddy and a notebook for jotting down song lyrics. "I've got writing like a psychopath," she helpfully explained).

We've listened to Bruni's album of love songs to her husband ("I want your laugh in my mouth" was one line) and now we'll inevitably troop to the cinema to watch her cameo in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris, shot as the proud president stood watching on set. In France, Allen is a god who can do no wrong. Perhaps Bruni's cameo is a way to redeem herself to a nation so embarrassed by her husband. Bruni's stint as première dame de France was never going to be easy. It wasn't the fact that she was a multimillionaire Italian former supermodel turned folk-pop singer who once dated Mick Jagger. It was more that the circumstances of her marriage to Sarkozy were stacked against her from the start. In autumn 2007, the newly elected Sarkozy went to pieces when his adored wife Cécilia finally divorced him. A teetotaller normally in bed by midnight, he begged friends to organise dinner parties to distract him. At one dinner he met Bruni, who looks uncannily like a younger version of his ex-wife. Less than three months later they married at the Elysée. It was his third marriage and her first. Spending the wedding night at their retreat in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles did little to stop the inevitable comparisons with Marie Antoinette, another fashion-obsessed foreigner married to an unpopular head of state. » | Angelique Chrisafis | Sunday, May 08, 2011

Syria: President Assad Should Be Brought to Book over Violence
THE OBSERVER – EDITORIAL: Sanctions must be used against President Assad for the murderous acts of the state over which he presides

In the Arab Spring, a great deal of violence has been used by regimes against their people. Confronted with these events, the international community has struggled to come up with a coherent response, hesitating over Tunisia and Egypt, then rushing into a military intervention in Libya.

Now, as tanks attack another town in Bashar al-Assad's Syria, the response of the EU and the US appears to be based on a wild gamble. The plan appears to be to apply limited sanctions which exclude Mr Assad himself, while targeting others in his entourage, including his brother, Maher. This discriminating approach is meant to split the regime, with Mr Assad nudged back on to the course of reform he appeared to espouse when he succeeded his father a decade ago. How risky the pursuit of that policy has been should be clear as another Syrian town, Baniyas, has come under vicious assault. Continue reading and comment » | Editorial| Sunday, May 08, 2011

Osama bin Laden: Dead, But Still a Spectre for the World
THE OBSERVER: Barack Obama has been boosted by the killing of the al-Qaida leader, but his followers warn that his blood will not be 'wasted'

…

EXTRACT: Then there is the question: what does the death of Bin Laden mean for al-Qaida, for the phenomenon of contemporary Sunni Islamic militancy more generally and for world security? Are we safer?

On Friday, al-Qaida issued a statement on the internet which pledged that Bin Laden's blood would not be "wasted", that his "university of Koran… and jihad" would not be closed and the organisation would continue the fight against the US and its allies. Signed by al-Qaida's "general leadership", it also predicted that Bin Laden's death would be a "curse" for the US. This weekend security services around the world are on high alert, fearing attacks aiming not so much at vengeance but simply at showing that the group still has capabilities.

The fact that a statement – apparently agreed by a number of different people – was put together and released successfully indicates that, at least for the moment, the few score militants who comprise the "al-Qaida hardcore" still have some cohesion. … Read the whole article and comment » | Jason Burke, Declan Walsh in Islamabad and Paul Harris in New York | Sunday, May 08, 2011

Osama bin Laden Home Video: Terrorist Leader Shown as Frail Figure Watching Himself on TV
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Extraordinary home-made video of Osama bin Laden shows the terror supremo as a frail figure with an unkempt beard, rocking back and forth as he watches himself on television.


The remarkable footage apparently recorded at his Pakistani hideout was part of a cache of videos captured by the US commandos who killed him in a daring night-time raid last week.

It stood in stark contrast to the image he sought to portray of himself to his followers and enemies in other seized videos in which he had dyed his hair and beard a luxuriant black and donned spotless clothing for propaganda recordings. » | Philip Sherwell, New York | Saturday, May 07, 2011

Kate et William : ils partent demain pour les Seychelles
PARIS MATCH: Dimanche, le Duc et la Duchesse de Cambridge devraient s'envoler pour une lune de miel qui ressemble fort à un retour aux sources de leur amour.

La nouvelle est tombée cet après-midi sur le site du Daily Mirror : le couple princier part demain aux Seychelles en voyage de noces. « Ils ne peuvent plus attendre de prendre du recul et d'évoquer ensemble les semaines incroyables qui viennent de s'écouler » confie au tabloïd un proche des jeunes mariés.

Depuis des semaines Kate et William ont parcouru virtuellement la moitié de la planète, au gré de l'imagination baladeuse de la presse britannique : Kenya, île Moustique, Amérique-du-Sud, Jordanie... Les destinations défilaient aussi vite que les stations du métro londonien. » | David Ramasseul, Parismatch.com | Samedi 07 Mai 2011

Osama Bin Laden: Pentagon Releases Home Videos
BBC: The Pentagon has released home videos of Osama Bin Laden, seized at the secret Pakistani compound where he was shot dead by US commandos.

The tapes show him watching himself on television, and preparing a video message addressed to the US.

At a news briefing in Washington, intelligence officials said Bin Laden had been actively leading al-Qaeda from the compound in Abbottabad.

In total, five videos were seized during Monday's raid.

Rehearsals

In the first video, filmed in October or November 2010, Bin Laden is shown wearing a white skullcap and shirt and a golden robe. He speaks to the camera in the style of previous video addresses by the al-Qaeda leader.

Pentagon officials have removed audio from the film, citing security concerns, but said it was a message to the United States.

Three other clips appear to be rehearsals for the video message, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington. (+ video) » | Saturday, May 07, 2011

More Bloodshed in Syria
In Syria, three women taking part in a pro-democracy march are reported to have been shot dead by Syrian forces near the city of Baniyas.



The coastal city has become a flashpoint for anti-government protests in the country.



Witnesses say tanks rolled in before dawn - and residents tried to stop them by forming human shields. The action comes just hours after thousands of people in cities and towns across the country turned out to protest.



Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr has this report from Beirut.



Severe reporting restrictions in Syria mean Al Jazeera cannot verify the content of the amateur footage included in this report.

Manifestation pour la dépénalisation du cannabis
LE POINT: Plusieurs centaines de personnes ont manifesté samedi, à Paris notamment, pour réclamer la dépénalisation de la consommation de cannabis, la régulation de sa production et sa prescription dans un cadre thérapeutique.

Les manifestants étaient 1.500 dans la capitale selon les organisateurs, 250 selon la police. Environ 60 personnes ont défilé dans le centre de Lyon en scandant "cannabis légal", une vingtaine ont été signalées à Cognac (Charente), une dizaine à Marseille... » | AFP | Samedi 07 Mai 2011

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