Screens to Separate Saudi Advisory Body
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A screen will separate genders on the country's main advisory body to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah when women join it for the first time.

Following a decision by Abdullah, women will be allowed to join the Shura Council, his main group of advisers expected to reconvene early next year. The format is seen as a compromise with hardline Islamic factions that oppose even small reforms in the ultraconservative kingdom, where sex segregation is a widespread custom. » | Wednesday, November 07, 2012

La grand-mère d'Obama fête la victoire de son petit-fils au Kenya

LE POINT: La seconde épouse du grand-père paternel du président américain lui a prodigué ses conseils pour un second mandat.

Brandissant sa canne en l'air et tout sourire, la grand-mère par alliance de Barack Obama a fêté mercredi la réélection de son petit-fils à Kogelo, au Kenya, le village d'origine du père du président américain. "Prends cet excellent travail qui t'a été donné par les gens et dirige-les bien. Ils t'ont montré un immense amour en votant pour toi", a conseillé à son petit-fils Sarah Obama, seconde épouse de feu le grand-père paternel du locataire de la Maison-Blanche.

Devenu le premier président afro-américain des États-Unis en 2008, Barack Obama, aujourd'hui âgé de 51 ans, est né à Honolulu d'une mère américaine blanche et d'un père kényan noir, tous deux décédés à présent. Il mentionne sa "Mamie" dans son autobiographie intitulée Les rêves de mon père et y raconte sa rencontre avec elle lors d'un voyage au Kenya en 1988. » | Source SIPA | mercredi 07 novembre 2012

In Egypt Streets, Islamists Throw Weight Around

REUTERS.COM: (Reuters) - Mohamed Talaat didn't like the fact Christian music was being played at a party to promote interfaith harmony in the Egyptian town of Minya south of Cairo, so together with a group of like-minded Islamist hardliners, he showed up to put a stop to it.

It was simply un-Islamic to broadcast Christian songs, Talaat explained.

"Egypt is Islamic and so we all have to accept Islamic rules to halt any strife," he said by telephone.

Four months since Egypt elected veteran Muslim Brotherhood politician Mohamed Mursi as president, human rights activists say hardliners are trying to impose Islamist ways on society.

Although reliable data on social trends is hard to find in Egypt, many people believe that cases of religious intimidation have increased.

"There is no doubt that the rate of strange and violent practices by strict Islamists has increased tremendously since the election of Mursi," said Gamal Eid, founder of The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, a human rights group.

"We have in a few months seen many more of such incidents than we have seen in years before Mursi," he said.

Seemingly sporadic incidents are turning into what rights activists describe as an emerging pattern of abuses in the street by radicals, defying both the authority of the state and Mursi's own promises to protect personal freedoms.

From the fatal stabbing of a young man who was out with his fiancée to the case of a conservative teacher who cut schoolgirls' hair because it was uncovered, the examples are stacking up. » | Yasmine Saleh | CAIRO | Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Marijuana Legalization, Same-sex Marriage Win Big
Historic changes made in social policy at the ballot box

Internationale Reaktionen zur Wiederwahl Barack Obamas
Die US-Präsidentschaftswahlen interessieren die ganze Welt. Wie reagieren die grossen Nationen wie Russland und China oder der Nahe Osten auf die Wahl? «10vor10» bei seinen Korrespondenten und beim Obama-Biographen Christoph von Marschall nachgefragt.

Mitt Romney Concedes Victory to Obama: Full Speech
Wed, Nov 7: Mitt Romney speaks to a crowd of supporters at his election headquarters - conceding defeat to Barack Obama who has been elected to office for a second term. For more info, please visit www.globalnews.ca

US Election: America Goes Liberal with Gay Marriage, Abortion and Cannabis Votes

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: US states backed legalising marijuana for recreational use, allowing gay marriage and rejected a call to ban public funding for abortions, in a swathe of state-wide ballots Tuesday.

The generally liberal moves were decided among more than 170 ballot initiatives and referendums held across the country, as it re-elected Democratic President Barack Obama for four more years.

Mr Obama came out in favor of gay marriage months before the election which pitted him against Republican rival Mitt Romney, who insists that marriage should be reserved for a relationship between a man and a woman.

During his first four-year term Mr Obama had also fulfilled a pledge to repeal the controversial Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) law banning openly gay servicemen and women from serving in the US military.


Three states voted Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage, including Maine - which voted in a referendum against it in 2009, but reversed that decision with 54 percent in favor to 46 percent against.

Washington state and Maryland also appeared set to approve the move, which had already been passed by state lawmakers. Both states voted 52-48 percent in favor, according to CNN projections based on partial results. » Source: AFP | Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Obama Re-elected as President: Victory Speech in Full

Inside Story: What Is the State of Corruption in Greece?
As a Greek journalist stands trial for violating data privacy laws, we ask how it may affect the country's next bailout. (November 02, 2012)

Bahrain Hit by Deadly Blasts
Two foreign workers have been killed and a third seriously injured by bomb blasts in Bahrain. Police say there were five explosions, caused by homemade devices. They happened in two areas of the capital, Manama. Al Jazeera's Dominic Kane reports.

Fighting Intensifies Across Syria. David Cameron Calls for Safe Passage for Assad

«Mama Obama» betet für ihren Enkel

TAGES ANZEIGER – AUSZUG: Die Präsidentschaftswahlen in den USA werden auch im Ausland gespannt verfolgt, doch wahrscheinlich nirgendwo so sehr wie in dem Dorf Kogelo im Westen Kenias. «Ich bete für ihn, dafür, dass ihm Gott zur Seite steht», sagte in Kogelo die 90-jährige Sarah Obama (im Bild), die Grossmutter von US-Präsident Barack Obama.

Die alte Dame ist die dritte Frau von Obamas Grossvater väterlicherseits. Auch ohne Blutsverwandtschaft sprach der Amtsinhaber stets liebevoll von seiner «Mama Sarah», die in der Grenzregion zu Uganda wohnt.

Die prominente Oma wagte sich kurz vor der Wahl kaum aus ihrem Haus und wurde rund um die Uhr von einem Polizisten bewacht. Sie sei «glücklich» mit dem, was ihr Enkel erreicht habe, sagte sie. Den ganzen Artikel hier lesen » | Von Simon Knopf | Dienstag, 06. November 2012

Regardez Nasser se moquer des Frères musulmans !
LE POINT: VIDÉO. Les Frères musulmans semblent tenir le haut du pavé dans la nouvelle Égypte. Pourtant, dans les années 50, ils faisaient rire.

Nous sommes en 1953. Nasser est le chef incontesté de l'État égyptien. Soucieux de la concorde nationale, il tend la main aux Frères musulmans. Il espère qu'ils sauront convenir d'un "pacte social". Mais le responsable de ce parti exige un préalable non discutable. Que l'Égypte impose à ses femmes de porter le voile ! Non seulement Gamal-Abdel Nasser, alors chef de file du monde arabe, refuse d'accéder à la demande du parti religieux, mais en plus il se permet de se moquer ouvertement, avec humour, ironie et un solide bon sens de cette extravagante demande. La salle écoute d'abord religieusement avant de rire de bon coeur du pilonnage en règle mené par le Colonel. » | Par Jérôme Béglé | mardi 06 novembre 2012


WIKI: Gamal Abdel Nasser »

Benjamin Netanyahu 'Ready to Press the Button' on Iran
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that he will not allow Iran to continue its progress towards nuclear armament if he is re-elected in January.

"I am of course ready to press the button if necessary," he told Israel's Channel 2 in an investigation aired on Monday evening.

"As long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have the atomic bomb. If there's no other way, Israel is ready to act."

The report revealed that the prime minister had in fact ordered his armed forces to prepare a unilateral strike on Iran's nuclear facilities in 2010, only to pull back from the brink of war.

Two years ago, Mr Netanyahu, supported by Ehud Barak, his defence minister, issued an order raising the military alert level to "P-Plus" – a rarely issued command signalling imminent war. » | Phoebe Greenwood, Tel Aviv | Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Destroyed by Total Capitalism: America Has Already Lost Tuesday's Election
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germans see the US election as a battle between the good Obama and the evil Romney. But this is a mistake. Regardless of who wins the election on Tuesday, total capitalism is America's true ruler, and it has the power to destroy the country.

The United States Army is developing a weapon that can reach -- and destroy -- any location on Earth within an hour. At the same time, power lines held up by wooden poles dangle over the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy ripped them apart there and in communities across the East Coast last week, and many places remain without electricity. That's America, where high-tech options are available only to the elite, and the rest live under conditions comparable to a those of a developing nation. No country has produced more Nobel Prize winners, yet in New York City hospitals had to be evacuated during the storm because their emergency generators didn't work properly.

Anyone who sees this as a contradiction has failed to grasp the fact that America is a country of total capitalism. Its functionaries have no need of public hospitals or of a reliable power supply to private homes. The elite have their own infrastructure. Total capitalism, however, has left American society in ruins and crippled the government. America's fate is not just an accident produced by the system. It is a consequence of that system.

Obama couldn't change this, and Romney wouldn't be able to either. Europe is mistaken if it views the election as a choice between the forces of good and evil. And it certainly doesn't amount to a potential change in political direction as some newspapers on the Continent would have us believe. » | A Commentary by Jakob Augstein | Monday, November 05, 2012

Divided States of America: Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The United States is frittering away its role as a model for the rest of the world. The political system is plagued by an absurd level of hatred, the economy is stagnating and the infrastructure is falling into a miserable state of disrepair. On this election eve, many Americans are losing faith in their country's future.

The monumental National Mall in Washington, DC, 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) long and around 1,586 feet wide at its broadest point, is a place that showcases the United States of America is in its full glory as a world power. A walk along the magnificent swath of green space, between the white dome of the Capitol to the east and the Lincoln Memorial, a temple erected to honor former president Abraham Lincoln, at its western end, leads past men in bronze and stone, memorials for soldiers and conquerors, and the nearby White House. It's a walk that still creates an imperial impression today.

The Mall is lined with museums and landscaped gardens, in which America is on display as the kind of civil empire that promotes the arts and sciences. There are historic sites, and there are the famous steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King once spoke of his dream, and of the dreams of a country to be a historic force, one that would serve the wellbeing of all of mankind. Put differently, the National Mall is an open-air museum for an America that, in 2012, is mostly a pleasant memory.

After a brilliant century and a terrible decade, the United States, in this important election year, has reached a point in its history when the obvious can no longer be denied: The reality of life in America so greatly contradicts the claim -- albeit one that has always been exaggerated -- to be the "greatest nation on earth," that even the most ardent patriots must be overcome with doubt.

This realization became only too apparent during and after Hurricane Sandy, the monster storm that ravaged America's East Coast last week, its effects made all the more devastating by the fact that its winds were whipping across an already weakened country. The infrastructure in New York, New Jersey and New England was already in trouble long before the storm made landfall near Atlantic City. The power lines in Brooklyn and Queens, on Long Island and in New Jersey, in one of the world's largest metropolitan areas, are not underground, but are still installed along a fragile and confusing above-ground network supported by utility poles, the way they are in developing countries. » | SPIEGEL ONLINE Staff | Monday, November 05, 2012

How Will the New Coptic Pope Deal with the New Islamist Egypt?
TIME – EXTRACT: Shenouda’s ultimate legacy is probably twofold. He made it nearly impossible for Coptic married couples to divorce within the church; and he made a strategic decision to ally his church with Mubarak’s government as a means of assuring his community’s safety. That last stance often led Shenouda into embarrassing situations like repeated public endorsements of Mubarak — including one in the midst of the 2011 revolution that ended Mubarak’s reign.

Under Shenouda, the Coptic Church struck a common Middle Eastern bargain: the religious or ethnic minority allies itself with an authoritarian ruler as protection against the Muslim majority. But in Egypt and elsewhere, that bargain is now obsolete. Secularist dictators like Mubarak have been replaced and Christian communities must fend for themselves — often with elected Islamist governments. With Morsy, a lifelong Muslim Brotherhood official, occupying the presidential palace and a new constitution being drafted by a council dominated by Islamists, one of Tawadros’ first challenges will be managing this redefined relationship between church and state.

It will be a daunting task. Even before the revolution, a younger generation of politicized Copts had long since stopped expecting political courage or leadership from the church. They regarded Shenouda’s policies as far too conciliatory — desperately dedicated to staying on the good side of the Mubarak government, no matter what the cost was. Read the whole article here » | Ashraf Khalil | Monday, November 05, 2012

Sarkozy Faces Court Over Allegations He Accepted Illegal Cash From Wealthy L'Oreal [sic] Heiress

MAIL ONLINE: Sarkozy will be grilled about his highly suspicious relationship with l’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt / The 57-year-old is said to have personally accepted brown envelopes full of cash from the multi-millionaire’s family / It is alleged they were paid to help fund Mr Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign in return for massive tax breaks when he came to office

Nicolas Sarkozy will this week appear before a judge to answer allegations that he accepted illegal cash from France’s richest woman, it emerged today.

In a humiliating process which could end with the former president being jailed, Mr Sarkozy has been summoned to a court in Bordeaux.

There he will be grilled by Judge Jean-Michel Gentil about his highly suspicious relationship with l’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Mr Sarkozy, 57, is said to have personally accepted brown envelopes full of cash from the multi-millionaire’s family.

They were paid to help fund Mr Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, in return for massive tax breaks when he came to office, it is alleged.

Fraud squad officers have already raided the Paris home Mr Sarkozy shares with his former supermodel wife, Carla Bruni. » | Peter Allen | Monday, November 05, 2012

Has Mainstream Media Treated Candidates Equally?
Debate over election coverage

Will Romney Take the Sunshine State?
Florida Senator Marco Rubio weighs in