THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's long-time second in command, has vowed in a video eulogy to Osama bin Laden that he will pursue his late leader's jihad against the West.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's long-time second in command, has vowed in a video eulogy to Osama bin Laden that he will pursue his late leader's jihad against the West.
He warns that the public is gripped by “fear” over the Government’s reforms to education, the NHS and the benefits system and accuses David Cameron and Nick Clegg of forcing through “radical policies for which no one voted”.
Openly questioning the democratic legitimacy of the Coalition, the Archbishop dismisses the Prime Minister’s “Big Society” as a “painfully stale” slogan, and claims that it is “not enough” for ministers to blame Britain’s economic and social problems on the last Labour government.
The comments come in an article he has written as guest editor of this week’s New Statesman magazine.
His two-page critique, titled “The government needs to know how afraid people are”, is the most forthright political criticism by such a senior cleric since Robert Runcie enraged Margaret Thatcher with a series of attacks in the 1980s.
Lambeth Palace is braced for an angry response but Dr Williams, who became Archbishop of Canterbury nine years ago, is understood to believe that the moment is right for him to enter the political debate. Continue reading and comment » | Tim Ross, Religious Affairs Editor | Wednesday, June 08, 2011
After low key meetings in Washington, Bahrain's crown prince, has made another promise of national dialogue.
But the US president, although welcoming the end of emergency law, has made his position clear: "You can't have national dialogue if you keep locking up the opposition".
The US needs the Gulf state as a port for its fifth fleet and while the price of oil remains so high the US cannot afford to annoy Saudi Arabia whose troops remain in Bahrain as support for the Sunni monarch.
Nearly three months since the crackdown began hundreds of people including activists, students, teachers, hospital staff and member of the political opposition have been arrested but Bahrain insists it is only punishing criminals.
Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reports.
THE INDEPENDENT: Syria in turmoil as resistance turns to insurrection
Syria's revolt against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad is turning into an armed insurrection, with previously peaceful demonstrators taking up arms to fight their own army and the "shabiha" – meaning "the ghosts", in English – of Alawi militiamen who have been killing and torturing those resisting the regime's rule.
Even more serious for Assad's still-powerful supporters, there is growing evidence that individual Syrian soldiers are revolting against his forces. The whole edifice of Assad's Alawi dictatorship is now in the gravest of danger.
In 1980, Assad's father, Hafez, faced an armed uprising in the central city of Hama, which was put down by the Special Forces of Hafez's brother Rifaat – who is currently living, for the benefit of war crimes investigators, in central London – at a cost of up to 20,000 lives. But the armed revolt today is now spreading across all of Syria, a far-mightier crisis and one infinitely more difficult to suppress. No wonder Syrian state television has been showing the funerals of up to 120 members of the security services from just one location, the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. » | Robert Fisk | Wednesday, June 08, 2011
FRANCE SOIR: Alors que le président Saleh, hospitalisé en Arabie Saoudite, est annoncé de retour au Yémen dans les jours qui suivent, les États-Unis et l'Europe demandent la mise en place d'une « transition immédiate. »
L'espoir de l'opposition yéménite aura été de courte durée : le régime a jeté un froid, lundi 6 juin, quand elle a annoncé que le président Ali Abdallah Saleh, hospitalisé en Arabie Saoudite après avoir été légèrement blessé à la tête par le bombardement de sa maison, reviendrait à Sanaa « dans les prochains jours. » Le Yémen ne serait donc pas le troisième des pays arabes a faire chuter son dirigeant suite à une révolte populaire en 2011. » | Par Arnaud Aubry | Mardi 07 Juin 2011
Vom warmherzigen Empfang in Berlin hat der Präsident gesprochen, von seiner Wahlkundgebung 2008 im Tiergarten dort, welchen er nun mit einem Dinner im Rosengarten erwidern wolle. Von Konrad Adenauer sprach er auch, dem ersten Kanzler Deutschlands nach dem Krieg, der auf dem Kapitol vom Freiheitswillen der Deutschen gesprochen habe. Und natürlich von dem kleinen Mädchen Angela, das von dieser Freiheit geträumt habe. Nun wolle er sie ehren, mit der „Medal of freedom“, auch für das, was sie aus ihrer Freiheit gemacht habe. Vormals geehrte Preisträger arrangierte Barack Obama zu einer politischen Hymne auf die Bundeskanzlerin: „Papst Johannes Paul II., Nelson Mandela, Helmut Kohl“.
In Washington neigte sich der Tag dem Ende zu. Die Leute im Rosengarten, sorgsam plaziert an fein eingedeckten Tischen im Geviert am Weißen Haus, erhoben sich. Zum Wohl, sprach der Präsident, und überreichte die Medaille. Vom Weinen ihrer Eltern beim Bau der Mauer sprach die Geehrte. Von Freiheit habe sie geträumt. Auch davon, fügte sie wieder einmal an, später, vermutlich erst als alte Frau, nach Amerika zu reisen. Niemals aber habe sie in ihren Träumen als Bundeskanzlerin im Rosengarten ein amerikanischer Präsident geehrt. „Glauben Sie mir, dieser Augenblick ist ein wirklich bewegender Moment“, sagte die Bundeskanzlerin. „Die Sehnsucht nach Freiheit lässt sich nicht dauerhaft einmauern.“ In Deutschland, daheim, war schon Mittwoch. Im Rosengarten spielte das Nationale Symphonie-Orchester auf. Ein wohliger Abend, die Herren in Schwarz, die Damen in Lang. » | Von Günter Bannas, Washington | Mittwoch 08. Juni 2011
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Was schenkt man als Bundeskanzlerin einer amerikanischen Außenministerin beim Staatsbesuch? Angela Merkel enthüllte eine gerahmte Ausgabe der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung. Hillary Clinton amüsierte sich köstlich.
Lesen Sie den kurzen Artikel » | F.A.Z. | Mittwoch 08. Juni 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Turkey will continue to accept the hundreds of Syrian refugees who are fleeing their nation’s violence, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
About 450 refugees, including more than 30 people who were wounded in clashes, have arrived in Turkey, authorities said. The nations share an 850 kilometer (520-mile) border.
Mr Erdogan also urged Syria’s government to adopt reforms aimed at ending the unrest.
Most of the refugees are fleeing a tense northern town, Jisr al-Shughour, which is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Turkey.
The residents fear a crackdown by their government following a deadly mutiny of Syrian soldiers that set off fighting with officers and security guards. The Syrian government said 120 of its forces were dead and acknowledged losing “intermittent” control of the area.
Erdogan, whose government has close ties with Syrian leader Bashar Assad, said the situation in Syria is of deep concern for Turkey. » | Wednesday, June 08, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Moscow is to be equipped with terrorist-proof public lavatories that are strong enough to contain a bomb blast.
The introduction of the state-of-the-art WCs follows a spate of Islamist terror attacks on the Russian capital over the years.
In the last major attack, in January, a suicide bomber struck Moscow’s busiest airport killing 37 people.
“This lavatory can function on its own and is vandal and terrorist-proof,” said Anatoly Ashikhmin, an official involved in the project.
The new lavatories’ shells will be made from ultra-strong fibrous concrete, while fittings inside will be hewn from a mixture of steel and reinforced plastic. » | Andrew Osborn, Moscow | Wednesday, June 08, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Turin Shroud is neither an authentic cloth in which Christ's body was wrapped nor a medieval forgery, but the creation of early Renaissance artist Giotto, according to new book by an Italian art historian.
Luciano Buso claims to have found Giotto di Bondone's signature hidden in the 14ft-long, sepia-coloured burial cloth, as well as the number 15.
The historian believes that the number is a reference to 1315, and that the artist was commissioned in that year to come up with an exact copy of the relic because the original was badly damaged after centuries of being hawked around the Holy Land and Europe.
Mr Buso, who has laid out his controversial thesis in a new book, said the idea that the existing shroud was created in 1315 agrees with modern carbon dating tests which dated the fabric to the early 14th century.
He told The Daily Telegraph that he believes the original was indeed the sheet used to cover Christ's body but that it disintegrated, or was lost or burned, sometime after the copy was made.
After months of analysis, he claims to have found several 15s and Giotto's name hidden in the imprint of Christ's face and hands – a means by which the artist stamped his mark on his work. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Tuesday, June 07, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A letter by Adolf Hitler believed to contain his first written comments calling Jews a threat has been bought by a Jewish human rights organisation.
Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said the centre paid $150,000 (£91,000) to a private dealer last month to obtain the 1919 writing, known as the Gemlich letter.
Rabbi Hier said the letter was typed by Hitler on a German army typewriter and that it "set the gold standard about for man's inhumanity to man."
At the time it was written, Hitler was serving in the Army, and had taken to riling up the troops with his anti-Semitic rants.
A superior officer urged Hitler to put his ideas on paper.
The letter has long been known to scholars. It is considered significant because it demonstrates how early Hitler was forming his anti-Semitic views. » | Tuesday, June 07, 2011
JEWISH VIRTUAL LIBRARY: The Gemlich Letter »
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Letter of Hitler’s First Anti-Semitic Writing May Be the Original » | Jack Ewing | Friday, June 03, 2011
JEWISH VIRTUAL LIBRARY: Adolf Hitler »
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Erstes antisemitisches Dokument Hitlers veröffentlicht (+Video) » | bim/AP | Mittwoch 08. Juni 2011
SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER: Simon Wiesenthal Center »
WIKI: Adolf Hitler's political views »
Ilyas Kashmiri had convened a meeting of militant leaders to discuss hitting foreign embassies and also trying to poison Nato food supplies en route to Afghanistan to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.
The plans were disclosed as distrust between Washington and Islamabad still surrounded Kashmiri's reported death on June 3.
US officials said their working assumption was that he remained alive despite assurances from Pakistan.
His new squad had plans to target the American, Saudi and Emirati embassies in Pakistan, according to reports.
Kashmiri called Pakistani Taliban commanders, including Asmatullah Maavia, Amjad Farooqui and Badar Mansoor to the meeting in North Waziristan a few days before he was reportedly killed. » | Ben Farmer, Kabul | Tuesday, June 07, 2011
An estimated 34 million people are living with HIV and AIDS across the globe.
Many don't even know they have it, but of those who do more than nine million are still not getting vital treatment.
That ratio is particularly bad in countries where the virus is stigmatised, such as Egypt. The UN estimates around 11,000 people there have HIV, but only 400 are seeking treatment.
But now one man is trying to change that. Magid is the first HIV positive person to speak out in Egypt about his experience.
He told Al Jazeera his story.
The Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour was besieged by columns of government tanks on Tuesday night as the army massed for what is feared will be an all-out assault on residents it claims killed more than 120 security force members over the weekend.
By nightfall most inhabitants had fled to nearby Turkey before the expected sharp escalation in a three-month uprising that has pitched largely unarmed demonstrators against a regime using increasingly lethal force to suppress the gravest threat to its four-decade rule.
Jisr al-Shughour, a town of 41,000 people, was largely abandoned. The hospital stood empty and the intelligence headquarters, which had been the scene of an uprising on Sunday, was now a looted and empty shell, according to three men who had stayed behind.
Human rights activists in Damascus said 59 civilians had been confirmed killed. However they feared the final number was likely to be more than 100.
The prospect of the imminent operation has stirred the ghosts of an infamous assault on the town of Hama 29 years ago, in which tens of thousands of residents were killed by the former president Hafez al-Assad after they launched a failed challenge to his authority.
Assad's son, President Bashar al-Assad, is now facing a more serious threat, with sustained protests in many Syrian towns and cities that are steadily eroding the iron-clad rule of the Assad dynasty. » | Martin Chulov | Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
The daughter of Muammar Gaddafi has launched a lawsuit for murder following the death in April of four members of her family during a Natoair strike.
Legal papers were submitted to the prosecutor's office in Brussels on Tuesday by the French lawyer for Aisha Gaddafi.
During the bombing raid on 30 April the Libyan leader's son Saif el-Arab, 29, as well as three of his grandchildren were killed. Ms Gaddafi's four-month-old daughter Mastoura was one of those who died.
She argues the coalition forces that carried out the attack are guilty of "war crimes", stating the air strike did not target a command and control post held by troops loyal to her father, but was a private residence in Tripoli where members of his family were living. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Tuesday, June 07, 2011
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