Inside Story - Redefining Marriage
We examine the global trend towards same-sex marriage and its implications on traditional family structures. Discussing this on Inside Story with presenter Shiulie Ghosh are Guests: Peter Tatchell, a Gay rights activist & director of the human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation and James Bogle, a lawyer & chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain.

Inside Story: Are the Royals Still Relevant?
As Netherlands' Queen Beatrix plans to step down, we examine the pros and cons of maintaining the modern monarchy.

Dutch Queen to Abdicate in Favour of Her Son, Prince Willem-Alexander
The Netherlands will have its first king after more than 120 years. Queen Beatrix is abdicating after thirty years as head of state in favour of her eldest son, Prince Willem-Alexander, who will become the first Dutch king since 1890. The Queen will revert to the title of Princess, but not until the official handover, on April 30. Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports.

France to Expel Radical Imams to Tackle 'Global Islamic Jihad'
RT.COM: Paris says it will deport a number of radical religious imams to tackle extremism in Europe and "global jihadism". French Interior Minister warned the eviction would happen "in the coming days".

"We will expel all these imams, all these foreign preachers who denigrate women, who hold views that run counter to our values and who say there is a need to combat France,” AFP quoted foreign minister Manuel Valls as saying.

Speaking at the conference in Brussels, he stressed that the move will affect “Salafist groupings, who are involved in the political process, whose aim is to monopolize cultural associations, the school system."

Radical Islam, the key topic at an international conference in Belgium, is a pressing issue for France especially after Mohamed Merah the al-Qaeda inspired murderer, dubbed the Scooter Killer, shot dead three soldiers, three Jewish schoolchildren, and a rabbi in March 2012. » | Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Clashes in Athens as Protesters Break into Govt. Building

RT.COM: Austerity enraged protesters broke into a government building and threatened the labor minister, Wednesday. Riot police then intervened with tear gas, batons and pepper spray, with one person taken to hospital. Read on » | Wednesday, January 30, 2013

BBC Accused of 'Extraordinary' Censorship after Cutting Honour-killing References from Radio Drama for Fear of Offending Muslims

MAIL ONLINE: Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's episode of DCI Stone is to be broadcast on Radio 4 / Dialogue linked to honour killing removed in 'betrayal' because of 'fear-ridden culture', she says / BBC admit cutting words 'potentially misrepresenting majority British Muslim attitudes to honour killing' / She received death threats after her 2004 play Behzti offended Sikhs

The BBC has been accused of 'extraordinary' censorship by a leading playwright after she had dialogue cut from her hard-hitting drama because it could have offended Muslims.

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, whose 2004 production Behzti was pulled from a Birmingham theatre after it sparked Sikh protests, has accused the Corporation of tampering with her work because it involved an honour killing.

Ms Bhatti's drama The Heart of Darkness will be played on Radio 4 this Friday as part of its popular DCI Stone series, but she says the BBC has caused an 'awful situation' which has led to a 'betrayal' of her work.

At the centre of her story is the honour killing of a 16-year-old Asian girl, and DCI Stone is told by his bosses to treat the case 'sensitively' because she is Muslim.

Although they have admitted removing dialogue from its afternoon drama, the BBC claims they did it to avoid 'potentially misrepresenting majority British Muslim attitudes to honour killing'.

Describing the play's final line, Ms Bhatti told The Independent: 'At the end, a character says: "There is so much pressure in our community, to look right and to behave right." The compliance department came back and said, "we don’t want to suggest the entire Muslim community condones honour killings". Read on and comment » | Martin Robinson | Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Gedenken an Opfer der NS-Zeit
Der Mittwoch stand für die Politik in Berlin ganz im Zeichen der Vergangenheit, der Machtübernahme der Nationalsozialisten und der Geschichte von deren Opfern.

Blitz: London’s Firestorm
On 29 December 1940 Hitler hoped his Luftwaffe would create a firestorm to destroy central London and break the spirit of the British people. Tens of thousands of incendiary bombs were dropped on the heart of the city.

The story of that awe-inspiring night is told in a feature-length documentary that brings eyewitness accounts to life using dramatic reconstructions and CGI.

Firemen and heavy rescue workers fought desperately all night to control the burning buildings as the fire raged out of control. And in its path was the symbolic form of St Paul's, which Churchill demanded was protected at any cost.

Londoners had come to expect nightly raids, but this was on a different scale and they fled for the protection of shelters, uncertain if their home would still stand after the bombing. Many were to die.

The following morning the survivors emerged after a terrifying and sleepless night to face the smoking ruins of the city.

Watch the Channel 4 documentary here

Obama - Islamist Appeasing Dhimmi - Pat Condell

Pat Condell: Islamic Cultural Terrorism

Enforcing Sharia Law in London: Muslim Patrol

Census 2011: Polish Becomes the Second Language
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Polish has become England’s second language, the latest figures from the 2011 census show.

An influx of workers from Eastern Europe has transformed the face of the UK over the past decade, with some areas such as Boston, Lincs, and Ealing in west London seeing the most dramatic changes.

A total of 546,000 people in England and Wales said that Polish was their “main” language, second only to English in England.

A total of 562,000 people said that they spoke Welsh, predominantly in Wales. Although four million people living in England and Wales – or eight per cent of the population – said English was not their first language, only 138,000 admitted having no English or Welsh at all. » | John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor | Wednesday, January 30, 2013

NS-Forschung: Wer war Adolf Hitler?

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Vier zentrale Fragen zu dem Mann, der heute vor achtzig Jahren zum Kanzler ernannt wurde, sind noch unbeantwortet. Doch statt wirklicher Analyse blüht in Deutschland eine enervierende, obskurantistische Hitler-Folklore.

Das deutsche Hitlerbild des Jahres 2013 erinnert an die ‚Where’s Waldo?‘-Kinderbücher des Briten Martin Handford. Ähnlich wie der mit einem rot-weißen Streifenpullover und einer Bommelmütze versehene Waldo auf jedem Bild halb versteckt zu finden ist, taucht Hitler in jedem in der Vergangenheit spielenden Film oder als Gesprächsstoff in Fernsehdiskussionen irgendwo und irgendwie am Rande auf. Was er da aber eigentlich soll, weiß man oft nicht so genau. Achtzig Jahre nach seiner Machtergreifung ist Hitler im Leben Deutschlands gleichermaßen omnipräsent und ominös. Hitler wird, vielleicht ungewollt, nicht mehr ernst genommen. » | Von Thomas Weber | Dienstag, 29. Januar 2013

I Wasn’t Looking for a Religion … I Just Fell in Love with Islam
Meet four of the 5,000 Brits who become Muslims each year
THE SUN: EVERY year, more than 5,000 Brits convert to Islam.

More than half of those who make the switch are white – and 75 per cent are women.

But what would make someone want to change their lifestyle so dramatically? Police Community Support Officer Jayne Kemp left her Catholic roots behind after “falling in love” with Islam while helping victims of so-called honour violence.

Here EMILY FOSTER, JENNA SLOAN and EMILY FAIRBAIRN speak to Jayne and three other women about why they decided to become Muslim. » | Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Make Me A Muslim is on BBC3 tonight at 9pm.

Sarah Palin, star déchue de l'Amérique conservatrice

LE FIGARO: L'ex-égérie du Tea Party n'a pas renouvelé son contrat d'éditorialiste politique avec Fox News et semble de plus en plus «has-been».

Mais que va donc devenir Sarah Palin ? La presse américaine se pose la question. Il y a un peu plus de quatre ans en effet, cette inconnue amatrice de chasse à l'ours, chantre de la maman (de cinq enfants) moderne, était choisie comme vice-présidente par le candidat à la présidentielle, John McCain. Aujourd'hui, l'ex-gouverneure d'Alaska disparaît des écrans de télévision: la très conservatrice chaîne de Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, a annoncé vendredi qu'elle ne renouvelait pas son contrat d'éditorialiste politique, après trois ans de collaboration. Un contrat d'un million de dollars par an grâce auquel Palin était payée 15,85 dollars (près de 12 euros) par mot, selon une étude d'Eric Ostermeier, de l'université du Minnesota, publiée lundi. » | Par Anne-Laure Frémont | mardi 29 janvier 2013

Adolf Hitler: Germany Marks 80 Years Since Nazi Leader's Rise To Power
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Berlin today commemorates Adolf Hitler's rise to power 80 years ago, with exhibitions exploring what Chancellor Angela Merkel has called Germany's "everlasting responsibility" for crimes committed by the Nazis.

In a black-and-white photo, visitors can make out the Fuehrer saluting the crowd from the chancellery window on the evening of January 30, 1933, after earlier having been made chancellor and been charged by president Paul von Hindenburg with forming a new government.

The picture is on display at "Berlin 1933. On the Path to Dictatorship", due to be opened by Mrs Merkel in the German capital on Wednesday, on a site charged with history as the former headquarters of the Gestapo, the secret police of the Nazi regime.

It now houses The Topography of Terror [D], an open-air documentation centre whose exhibition will trace Hitler's first months in power through photos, newspapers and posters.

"The hour has come! We are at Wilhelmstrasse (the site of the chancellery at the time). Hitler is chancellor of the Reich. Like in a fairytale," wrote Joseph Goebbels, who was to become Nazi propaganda chief, in his diary on January 31, 1933.

Posters go on to show images of the Reichstag going up in flames the following month and then the first measures taken against the Jews on April 1, with the start of a boycott of Jewish shops, doctors and lawyers. » | Wednesday, January 30, 2013

SALZBURGER NACHRICHTEN: Vor 80 Jahren kam Hitler in Deutschland an die Macht: Adolf Hitlers Aufstieg zur absoluten Macht beginnt vor 80 Jahren: Am 30. Jänner 1933 wird der verkrachte Kunststudent aus dem oberösterreichischen Braunau und Anführer der Nationalsozialisten Reichskanzler in Berlin. » | Von Sn, Dpa | Mittwoch, 30. Januar 2013

SUEDDEUTSCHE.DE: Nazionalsozialismus: Wie Hitler an die Macht kam » | Mittwoch, 30. Januar 2013
N-TV MEDIATHEK: Der Weg in die Diktatur, Hitler und das Jahr 1933: Wie die Nazis Deutschland eroberten »

Quilliam Chairman and Co-founder Releases His Autobiography Radical
QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: Radical – My Journey from Islamist Extremism to A Democratic Awakening is the story of a British-Pakistani born and raised in Essex, Maajid Nawaz, who was recruited into Islamism as a teenager. Abandoning his love of hip hop culture, he joined Hizb al-Tahrir, where he played a central role in the shaping and dissemination of an aggressive anti-West narrative, which included the creation of new international cells and the encouragement of military coups.

Arriving in Egypt the day before 9/11 to study as part of his Arabic and law degree, his Islamist views soon led to his arrest and incarceration. Whilst mixing with everyone from Sadat’s assassins to Liberal reformists, an intellectual transformation occurred and Amnesty International adopted him as a Prisoner of Conscience. Upon his release, Maajid renounced political Islamism, while remaining a Muslim, and now travels the world educating and inspiring young people about democracy through both Quilliam and Khudi. » | Thursday, July 05, 2012

New Dark Age Alert! Muslim Patrols Could Become More Prevalent and More Violent, Warns Anti-extremist
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Muslim patrols stalking British streets could become “a lot more dangerous” and perhaps even willing to maim or kill, the head of an anti-extremism organisation has warned.


As British jihadists venture abroad to capitalise on the aftermath of the Arab Spring and then return to the UK, they are likely to bring a greater level of violence back home, Maajid Nawaz, the chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, suggested.

His comments follow incidents in which groups of Muslim vigilantes, dubbing themselves 'Muslim Patrols' have approached Londoners and demanded they behave in an Islamic way by not drinking.

They have also told women to put more clothes on, claiming they are entering 'Muslim areas'.

Their actions could be “a sign of things to come” and are part of a pattern of extremism spreading across Europe in different forms, be it far right fascism or Islamism, Mr Nawaz said.

Writing in The Times, he said: “While this street-level problem festers across Europe, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are busy capitalising on the chaos of the post-Arab Spring world. » | Ross Silverman | Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Gesetz gegen Schwule und Lesben: Westerwelle beschwert sich bei Russlands Botschafter über Homophobie

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Moskau will "Propaganda für Homosexualität" unter Strafe stellen, das Vorhaben ruft Außenminister Westerwelle auf den Plan. In einem Gespräch mit Russlands Botschafter beklagt er das Vorgehen gegen Schwule und Lesben - und warnt vor einer Belastung für die europäisch-russischen Beziehungen.

Berlin - Russland will im ganzen Land "Propaganda für gleichgeschlechtliche Beziehungen" verbieten. Ein entsprechendes Gesetzhat in erster Lesung die Duma passiert. Bislang galt ein ähnliches Verbot in St. Petersburg und anderen, vornehmlich kleineren Städten.

Der Vorgang, der in westlichen Ländern für Empörung sorgt, hat jetzt auch Außenminister GuidoWesterwelle auf den Plan gerufen. Er selbst ist mit seinem langjährigen Partner Michael Mronz verheiratet.

Der 51-Jährige empfing am Montagnachmittag den russischen Botschafter Wladimir Grinin im Auswärtigen Amt. Nach SPIEGEL-ONLINE-Informationen sprach derFDP-Politiker mit seinem Gesprächspartner auch über das neue Gesetzesvorhaben. Westerwelle wurde bei dem Thema, für Diplomaten eher ungewöhnlich, sehr deutlich. In dem Gespräch stellte er klar, dass der Entwurf aus deutscher Sicht gegen die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention verstößt. Ein solches Gesetz werde die europäisch-russischen Beziehungen erschweren und würde auch das Image Russlands in Europa beschädigen, zitierte ein Mitarbeiter die Position Westerwelles.

Weiter habe Westerwelle darauf hingewiesen, dass er als Freund Russlands und Verfechter guter Beziehungen persönlich enttäuscht sei. Es gehe, so der Außenminister, in der Demokratie auch um den Schutz von Minderheiten. » | Von Severin Weiland | Dienstag, 29. Januar 2013

North Korean Cannibalism Fears amid Claims Starving People Forced to Desperate Measures
THE INDEPENDENT: The reports come as sanctions against the country are tightened against the backdrop of angry rhetoric over missile testing

Reports from inside the secretive famine-hit pariah state, North Korea, claim a man has been executed after murdering his two children for food.

The grim suggestion that North Koreans are turning to cannibalism were reported by the Asia Press, and published in the Sunday Times.

They claim a 'hidden famine' in the farming provinces of North and South Hwanghae has killed 10,000 people, and there are fears that cannibalism is spreading throughout the country.

The reports come as sanctions are tightened against the backdrop of angry rhetoric over missile testing.

In one particularly disturbing report, a man was said to have dug up his grandchild's corpse. Other lurid reports included the suggestion that some men boiled their children before eating them.

Asia Press is a specialist news agency based in Osaka, Japan, which claims to have recruited a network of "citizen journalists" inside North Korea. The reports are considered credible. » | Rob Williams | Monday, January 28, 2013