Vladimir Putin and His Wife Lyudmila Announce Split

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and his wife Lyudmila have ended years of speculation about their 30-year relationship, admitting that they had decided to end their marriage.

In a stilted – but clearly staged – interview on Russian state television after a night together at the ballet, the couple said they had agreed to a “civilised break-up” because they barely saw each other. It appeared that a formal divorce had not yet taken place.

The announcement will likely only fuel speculation about Mr Putin’s private life. The 60-year-old Russian president has been dogged by rumours for years that he had an affair with Alina Kabayeva, a 30-year-old politician and former Olympic rhythmic gymnast, although no hard evidence has ever been presented to confirm that.

The Russian leader and his wife, 55, spoke after attending a performance of La Esmeralda – a ballet inspired by the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame – at the State Kremlin palace, their first public engagement together since his returned to the presidency in May last year.

Mrs Putina appears only very rarely in public. She was said to be living far away from the Kremlin, in a £1m state-owned retreat on the border with Estonia. Some reports even suggested she joined a convent. » | Tom Parfitt, Moscow | Thursday, June 06, 2013

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Vladimir Putin breaks Kremlin taboo by revealing break-up with wife: President Vladimir Putin's carefully stage-managed announcement that he and his wife of 30 years were divorcing came as a true shock in Russia. ¶ That his marriage to Lyudmila, a quiet ex-stewardess with an inherent dislike of publicity, may have long been dead has for years been the subject of gossip among the elites and ordinary Russians. ¶ But the Kremlin's move to officially announce Putin's divorce smashed a long-standing taboo on the private lives of the country's leaders. » | AFP | Friday, June 07, 2013

Don't Be Too Hard On Turkey's Islamists – They Are Just the Sort the West Should Want
TELEGRAPH BLOGS – COLIN FREEMAN: Watching the turmoil in Istanbul in the past few days, it’s easy to see why there is talk of Turkey hosting its own version of the Arab Spring. The scenario, at first glance, seems very familiar. First of all, thousands of protesters, mainly but not exclusively young and metropolitan, accuse their government of being authoritarian. The police respond with tear gas and truncheons. Then the country’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, denounces the crowds as “bums and extremists”, and insists that this is not a “Turkish Spring”, thank you. Such blunt responses to people power elsewhere in the Middle East recently have often heralded a leader’s imminent demise.

Yet we in the West should perhaps be careful what we wish for in Turkey. For one, Mr Erdogan is democratically elected, with popularity ratings that many of his European counterparts would envy. And for another, whatever its shortcomings – and judging by the size of the crowds on Turkey’s streets in recent days, there are plenty – his Justice and Development Party is the nearest thing we have to an Islamist government that the West can work with. Read on and comment » | Colin Freeman | Thursday, June 06, 2013

My comment:

Another whitewash of Islamic Turkey! Colin Freeman clearly doesn't have a proper understanding of what Islam is all about. You can't compare Protestantism with Islamism, for goodness' sake. How naïve!

It seems to me that this blog post was written to soften us up for the accession of Turkey into the EU. No, Sir! We don't want Turkey in the EU. I don't care what an economic stick of dynamite it is. Europe has already got enough Muslims residing in it. It doesn't need any more.

I think I speak for the many when I say that I am tired of Muslims, Islam, the Jihad, the Prophet Muhammad, and all that goes with that political ideology wrapped up as a faith. For Christ's sake (and I am not blaspheming or swearing when I write that; I'm being literal), leave us alone! Islam has been allowed into the West by ignorant fools, by people who should have known better. Our forefathers did; alas people today do not.

This is not to say that all Muslims are bad; they are not. I have worked for many years with many delightful ones. But my experience of working with them, and my knowledge of Islam tell me that Islam and Western liberal democracy are immiscible: they cannot co-exist. That should be clear and obvious to most people by now.

Let Muslims do their thing in their own countries; and let us do our own thing in ours. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Douglas Murray - The Woolwich Attack
Douglas Murray, Anjem Choudary and Julie Siddiqi discuss the implications of Michael Adebolaj one of the perpetrators of the attack taking part in one of Choudary's protests previously on Channel Four News.

Douglas Murray - Fear of Radicalism is Not Irrational

The Vatican and Islam
THE JERUSALEM POST: As the world focused on a pope’s election and the enthusiasm that immediately followed, another significant religious event escaped detection.

As the world focused on a pope’s election and the enthusiasm that immediately followed, another significant religious event escaped detection.

Two weeks after Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis I, a prominent Italian commentator who converted from Islam to Catholicism in 2008 announced he would leave the Church.

Magdi Allam – an emigrant from Egypt who fights Islamism in Europe and who was baptized by Pope Benedict XVI – wrote in his March 25 column for Milan’s Il Giornale that he was leaving “because this Church is too weak with Islam.”

Allam is right.

Since Pope John Paul II’s tenure, the Catholic Church has refused to hold Muslim theologians and clergy accountable for the hatred and violence many of them preach. Instead, the Vatican promotes dialogue and mutual understanding at all costs – even at the cost of moral credibility.

John Paul II condemned what he called a “culture of death,” referring to the West’s tolerance for abortion and birth control. Yet when faced with a more virulent culture of death – a Palestinian Authority that promotes genocide by teaching children to become suicide bombers – the late pope fell silent. Given Pope Francis’ history and recent actions, Israelis and Palestinians can expect more tired, limp rhetoric about peace that hides Catholicism’s sentimental complacency. » | Joseph D’Hippolito | Thursday, June 06, 2013

Now Half of Sham Marriages Involve Foreign Students: Members of Bogus Colleges Who Face Being Kicked Out Marry Britons and EU Citizens to Prolong Their Stay
MAIL ONLINE: Figures come from a snapshot Home Office survey over three months / It is revealed 50% of ceremonies involved people who had first entered as students

In a major new immigration scam, half of all bogus weddings now involve foreign students.

The revelation shows the full scale of the past abuse of the student visa system.

The non-EU nationals faced removal from Britain after their bogus colleges were shut down in a crackdown by the Government.

But, instead of returning home, they are arranging fake weddings with British nationals or EU citizens to prolong their stay, often paying thousands of pounds in fees to 'fixers'.

Under a Brussels edict, marrying an EU citizen can grant the same rights to stay as marrying a Briton.

Officials say the trend shows that the migrants' true reason for travelling to the UK in the first place was to settle, not to study. Last year, they identified a suspected 2,000 sham marriages. » | James Slack | Thursday, June 06, 2013

Choudary ‘To Lose Benefits’

Blitz on preachers of hate
THE SUN: HATE clerics like Anjem Choudary may soon lose benefits.

Any claimant whose behaviour is ruled to be deeply offensive or harmful to society would be stripped of their handouts under a new law planned by ministers.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s move is aimed at extremists like Choudary — and hate preacher Abu Qatada, who is fighting deportation.

IDS met Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday to plot a joint approach.

Choudary scoops up nearly £26,000 in state giveaways a year — leading to accusations British taxpayers are being forced to fund terrorism. » | Tom Newton Dunn | Thursday, June 06, 2013

THE SUN: Serial offender – The case against Anjem Choudary » | Stephen Moyes, Dan Sales and Neil Syson | Thursday, June 06, 2013

Can David Cameron Explain Why He Has Put Us On Al-Qaeda’s Side?
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Just like Tony Blair over Iraq, the Prime Minister has lost touch with reality when it comes to Syria

The longer a prime minister remains in 10 Downing Street, the more likely he or she is to go mad. Something of the sort happened to Gordon Brown and also, from 2003 onwards if not before, to Tony Blair. No prime minister has left office in full possession of his or her mental faculties since Jim Callaghan in early 1979. » | Peter Oborne | Wednesday, June 05, 2013

My comment:

Why has Cameron put us on Al-Qaeda's side?

Do you want the short answer or the long answer?

If it's the short answer you want, it's this: He's a duffer when it comes to Islam. He needs to read a book such as Islam for Dummies. And if it's available, Islam for Duffers too.

If it's the long answer you want, I don't have the time right now; and in any case, it would probably be taken down by the moderators. In short, Cameron knows diddly sh** about Islam. – © Mark

This comment can also be found here.

La communauté turque de France soutient les manifestants
LE FIGARO: Plusieurs centaines de personnes se sont réunies mardi soir à Paris pour appeler à la fin des violences policières et à la démission du premier ministre Erdogan.

Loin de la place Taksim, au coeur d'Istanbul, où les manifestants hostiles au premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan sont toujours mobilisés, la communauté turque de France (environ 550.000 personnes) suit de très près le mouvement de contestation. Après quelques petits rassemblements la semaine dernière, ils étaient plus d'un millier à manifester mardi soir au Châtelet, à Paris, pour apporter leur soutien à la contestation. «Un rassemblement hétérogène, de gens qui ne manifestent pas normalement ensemble», selon Merve Ozdemirkiran, 30 ans, enseignante à Sciences Po Paris, présente mardi.

«Tayyip t'es foutu, la Turquie est dans la rue», «La Turquie est laïque et elle le restera», «Erdogan démission», ont scandé les manifestants, parmi lesquels de nombreux jeunes. Initialement dirigée contre un projet d'aménagement urbain menaçant le parc Gezi à Istanbul, la mobilisation turque s'est muée vendredi dernier en un mouvement de contestation politique après l'intervention musclée des forces de l'ordre. Les manifestants dénoncent l'autoritarisme du premier ministre. Le mouvement a gagné plusieurs villes, les heurts ont déjà fait deux morts. » | Par Anne-Laure Frémont | mercredi 05 juin 2013

La «femme en rouge» devient le symbole de la révolte en Turquie

LE FIGARO: Une photo montrant une jeune femme aspergée de gaz lacrymogène est devenue l'un des symboles de la révolte menée contre le gouvernement du premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

«La femme en rouge» est devenue malgré elle l'égérie du mouvement de contestation qui secoue depuis plusieurs jours la Turquie. Vêtue d'une robe rouge et d'un sac de toile blanc, la jeune fille apparaît sur des clichés capturés le 28 mai dans le centre d'Istanbul. On y voit notamment un policier, protégé par un masque à gaz, qui lui envoie du gaz lacrymogène à bout portant. Sur les différents clichés, la jeune femme semble impassible. Ses cheveux volent mais elle se contente de fermer les yeux.

La scène se déroule dans le parc de Gezi, dont l'améngaement en centre commercial est à l'origine de la contestation. Osamn Orsal, un photographe de Reuters, a réalisé plusieurs photos de l'incident lorsque la police est intervenue contre des opposants manifestant pacifiquement contre l'abattage d'arbres. » | Par Emmanuelle Germain | mercredi 05 juin 2013

Related »

Türkei: Erdogan lässt Twitter-Aktivisten verhaften

DIE WELT: Der türkische Regierungschef Erdogan geht hart gegen Nutzer sozialer Netzwerke vor: 14 User des Kurznachrichtendienstes wurden in der Nacht verhaftet. Sie sollen "Desinformation" betrieben haben.

Es gibt Sprüche des türkischen Ministerpräsidenten Recep Tayyip Erdogan, die sind so beliebt bei den Demonstranten, dass sie bereits als Graffiti an Hauswänden prangen, nur diesmal gegen ihn gerichtet.

Etwa: "Geh, und nimm deine Mutter gleich mit." Das hatte Erdogan mal zu einem Bauern gesagt, der sich bei ihm zu beklagen wagte. Oder sein neuester Spruch: "Es gibt eine neue große Gefahr. Sie heißt Twitter."

Das hatte er am Montag gesagt, und es war einer der Augenöffner dieser Tage gewesen. Es zeigte den kulturellen Abgrund zwischen dem konservativen, patriarchalischen Erdogan und der Jugend seines Landes, die zu den Internet-freudigsten der Welt zählt. Konkrete Drohung gegen Twitter-User » | Von Boris Kálnoky | Mittwoch, 05. Juni 2013

Massenproteste: Iraner erheben sich gegen das religiöse Regime

DIE WELT: Bei der Beerdigung eines regimekritischen Ajatollahs sollen Tausende Menschen in Sprechchören die Freilassung der Oppositionsführer gefordert haben – und den Tod des religiösen Führers Chamenei.

In der zweitgrößten iranischen Stadt Isfahan ist aus einer Beerdigung ein Protest gegen die religiöse Führung des Landes geworden. Tausende forderten offenbar in einem Trauerzug am Dienstag in Sprechchören die Freilassung der Oppositionsführer Mir Hussein Mussawi und Mehdi Karrubi und den Tod des religiösen Führers Ajatollah Ali Chamenei, wie BBC berichtete. "Karrubi und Mussawi müssen freigelassen werden!", hört man Menschen in einemAmateurvideo, das auf der Videoplattform YouTube veröffentlich wurde, rufen. Und das nur zehn Tage vor der Präsidentenwahl.

Anlass der Unterstützungsbekundungen für die Oppositionskandidaten von 2009 war die Beerdigung des regimekritischen Ajatollahs Dschalaluddin Taheri. Der 87-jährige Geistliche, der im Jahr 2002 aus Protest gegen die religiöse Führung als Freitagsprediger für Isfahan zurücktrat, war am Sonntag verstorben.

Er galt als Unterstützer des Reformkandidaten Mussawi, nach dessen Niederlage vor vier Jahren im Iran viele Menschen gegen das Wahlergebnis protestierten. Die Regierung hatte die Proteste brutal niedergeschlagen. Mussawi und Karrubi stehen seit Februar 2011 unter Hausarrest. » | Von Sonja Gillert | Mittwoch, 05. Juni 2013

Related »

BANNED: British Shopkeeper Forced to Stop Selling 'OBEY OUR LAWS OR GET OUT' T-shirt
EXPRESS: A SHOPKEEPER was threatened with arrest by police after he displayed a T shirt in his shop window with the statement: "Respect out beliefs or get out of our country."

T shirt printer Matthew Taylor created the shirt in the wake of Drummer Lee Rigby's tragic death.

But following a complaint from a member of the public, police came to his store in Newport, South Wales, and threatened to arrest him unless he removed the T shirt from sight.

Matthew said: "I had a visit from two community support officers because it has been reported by someone who felt it was offensive.

"It's not meant to be offensive, and that's not the reason I produced it. It's what I believe. » | Charlotte Meredith | Wednesday, June 05, 2013

TELEGRAPH BLOGS – SEAN THOMAS: The Muslim hate preacher and the T-shirt salesman: a bizarre study in double standards: Compare and contrast. A few days ago, one of Britain’s best-loved hate preachers, Anjem Choudary, a man so widely admired that we pay him £25,0000 a year in benefits so he can live in this country, was filmed saying murdered Woolwich soldier Lee Rigby will "burn in hellfire" as a non-Muslim. » | Sean Thomas | Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Police Investigating Whether London Mosque Fire 'Racially-motivated'
Counter-terror police are investigating whether a fire that destroyed an Islamic community centre was started deliberately in a racially-motivated attack.

Read the article here | Josie Ensor | Wednesday, June 05, 2013
BBC: Al-Rahma Islamic Centre destroyed in 'racist attack': An Islamic centre in north London has been destroyed by a fire in an apparent racially motivated attack. (+ BBC video) » | Wednesday, June 05, 2013

THE INDEPENDENT: Muswell Hill mosque fire: Counter-terror police investigate 'EDL' graffiti found on wreckage after arson attack amid fears of Woolwich reprisals: Right-wing group denies involvement as police investigate potential link to Woolwich attack » | Rob Williams | Wednesday, June 05, 2013


THE SUN: Fire at mosque in Muswell Hill - feared to be EDL attack: A MOSQUE in north London has been destroyed after a blaze which began in the early hours of this morning – feared to be a revenge attack by the English Defence League. » | Karen Morrison | Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Russia: Smoking Ban Met With Skepticism

THE MOSCOW TIMES: The new anti-smoking law that came into force last week and is seen by the government as a measure to fight population decline has been met more with skepticism than strict implementation.

The measures that took effect on June 1 are the first phase in a large-scale program designed to change the public's attitude to smoking by imposing strict restrictions in public places and significantly increasing prices on tobacco products.

Many of the restrictions introduced last Saturday pertain to smoking in places where it has already been prohibited, such as on public transportation and in schools, museums and hospitals.

But now, added to that list are universities, sports facilities, stairwells of apartment buildings, municipal and office buildings, playgrounds, beaches, filling stations and any area within 15 meters of a metro entrance, as well as bus stops, train stations and airports.

The law, developed by the Health Ministry and signed in February by President Vladimir Putin, was designed to put a dent in the death rate caused by smoking and help boost a dwindling population. » | Yekaterina Kravtsova | Tuesday, June 05, 2013

Inside Story: Is Turkey in Turmoil?
As anger over plans to develop city park fuel nationwide protests, we ask if these tensions will tarnish Turkey' image.

Turkish Cops Squelch Protesters as Violent Clashes Continue
Turkey is currently being rocked by its biggest wave of anti-government protests in years. At least two people have been killed and thousands injured from clashes with police since the protests began on Friday. Videos and images have emerged on social media showing police in riot gear firing tear gas, using pepper spray and physically beating demonstrators.

Muhammad, Cross-Dressing, and the London Muslim Patrol
A group called the Muslim Patrol has been harassing people on the streets of London. But would they harass their prophet as well? Since Muhammad wore women's clothing, he wouldn't last long in one of London's Muslim-controlled areas.

Tens of Thousands in Iran Protest against Khamenei, Chant 'Death to Dictator'
A funeral of a senior dissident cleric turns into biggest anti-government protest in years.

Read the Haaretz article here | Haaretz and Reuters | Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Elbe-Hochwasser: Evakuierungen in Dresden: Video
05.06.2013 - Die Elbe steigt weiter und noch ist nicht abzusehen, wann der Scheitel des Hochwassers Dresden erreichen wird. Die Behörden haben mit Evakuierungen begonnen.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Großes Bangen an der Elbe: Die Pegelstände der Elbe steigen bedrohlich - immer mehr Einwohner in Sachsen müssen sich vor dem Hochwasser in Sicherheit bringen. Auch die Menschen in Sachsen-Anhalt, Niedersachsen und Brandenburg blicken besorgt auf den Fluss und seine Nebenläufe. » | wit/dpa/AFP | Mittwoch, 05. Juni 2013

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Europe Under Water: Record Floods Hit Eastern Germany – As flooding continues across Central Europe, the eastern German city of Dresden is bracing for near record high water levels. Some residents have already evacuated their homes. ¶ Though some areas reported improved conditions, flooding continued across Europe on Wednesday, with the eastern German city of Dresden bracing for near record water levels. ¶ Officials in the baroque city said that they expect the Elbe River to continue to swell, though it is unlikely exceed levels seen in the disastrous flood of 2002, which caused widespread damage in eastern Germany and neighboring countries. Authorities are preparing for evacuations all along the Elbe, and some residents have already been forced leave their homes in Dresden, where electricity was shut off as a precautionary measure in some places. » | kla -- with wires | Wednesday, Hune 05, 2013