The Saudi Executioner’s Sword Reaches as Far as Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: WASHINGTON — For the past four months, home for Mohamed Kohail has been a filthy prison cell in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he says he has been pushed, slapped and abused, and forced into signing a confession for a murder he did not commit.

In a country where capital punishment by beheading is still the law of the land, the 22-year-old Canadian citizen says he fears the worst from the Saudi judicial system, which has accused him of killing a Syrian youth in a vicious schoolyard brawl. His 16-year-old brother also is being held in relation to the death.

“It's going to be death for now,” Mr. Kohail told The Globe and Mail Monday in an extraordinary interview on a friend's cellphone from inside the prison. “That is what the investigators asked from the court.”

“I'm afraid of everything,” he continued in accented English, saying he never wanted to return to Saudi Arabia after spending five years in Canada. “I really want to go back to Canada now. I like everything in Canada.” Canadians face beheading in Saudi Arabia (more) By Alan Freeman

Mark Alexander

”Beheading Spree”
KUWAIT TIMES: RIYADH: Four Saudis were beheaded by the sword yesterday after being convicted of rape and murder, while an Iraqi and a Pakistani nationals were executed for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said. The six beheadings-one of the highest numbers of executions in one day-brought to 72 the number of executions announced by the Saudi authorities this year, almost double the figure in 2006. Saudi Arabia on beheading spree (more)
Mark Alexander

David Hockney on Why He Will Always Be Devoted to Cigarettes
GUARDIAN UNLIMITED: On July 1 2007, the most grotesque piece of social engineering will begin in England: the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, imposed easily by a political and media elite. They think it will lead to healthier people and a cleaner atmosphere. They believe they can change people easily. The science of marketing has been absorbed by them and they think they can control everybody. I don't think they can. People will stay at home and do drugs instead - legal and illegal.

I have lived in California for a number of years. They started smoking bans, but they didn't affect smokers that much. In California you move around in your own private space. If one goes to a public space, say the opera or Disney Hall, then because the climate is ideal the smoker can just step outside, at all times of the year. Many restaurants have gardens and the bans have never really bothered me. But something else has happened in California since the bans came in, unreported by the media, and it took me a while to notice because I have spent the past seven years working in England.

The amount of drugs advertised on television tells me what has replaced tobacco (although 20% still smoke): painkillers, Prozac and antidepressants, mostly prescription drugs - you just tell the doctor what you need. When prescription drugs are advertised in the press there is always a lot of small print listing side effects, and on television you get a speedy talking voice listing the side effects. You perhaps hear one word in four - paralysis, diarrhoea, death, headaches. I expect it all to come here. Drugs (legal and illegal) are the world's largest business, and one can understand why, since they make us feel better. ’I smoke for my mental health’ (more)

Mark Alexander

Attentats d’al-Qaida planifié contre plusieurs installations pétrolières du Golfe persique
LE FIGARO: Arrêtés il y a un an, quatre membres du groupe terroriste ont avoué avoir planifié des attentats contre plusieurs installations pétrolières du Golfe persique. Terrorisme : al-Qaida voulait viser l’Arabie Saoudite (encore)

Mark Alexander

The Evangelical Divide on Global Warming
BBC: BBC Washington correspondent Matt Frei goes to Virginia to take a look at how the issue of climate change is dividing America's evangelical movement.

Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is one of the biggest evangelical colleges in the world.

With some 5,000 students, it is the creation of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, one of America's most influential Christian leaders.
The technology used here is modern - it uses the latest internet gimmicks and sermons are podcast - but the message is less so.

"The jury is still out on global warming," says the Rev Falwell, in a sermon broadcast on the internet in February this year.

"Despite all the hype by liberal politicians, the media, Hollywood and so forth, it is not yet proven by any means that greenhouse gas emissions are the cause of global warming."

His word is taken as gospel by the university's students. Evangelicals split on global warming (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO: US Christians split on climate

BBC: US evangelist Gerry Falwall dies

Mark Alexander

Venezuela Comes Under Socialism’s Deadly Grip
BBC: Private investors and the political opposition hate it, President Hugo Chavez's supporters love it. A whirlwind of nationalisations and threats to private companies is changing Venezuela's economic climate and threatens to widen a tense social divide.

Mr Chavez is stepping up his campaign to turn Venezuela into a socialist state.

He is taking more control of the country's assets and warning companies that do not agree with his vision that he will take them over. Nationalisation sweeps Venezuela (more)

Mark Alexander

Paul Wolfowitz could well stand down
TIMESONLINE: World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, may finally stand down after he broke rules by awarding his girlfriend a pay rise

Paul Wolfowitz, the embattled president of the World Bank, will today learn whether he has a future at the institution after a panel of executives found he had violated his contract when he awarded his girlfriend with a pay rise. Guilty Wolfowitz to face World Bank Board (more)

BBC: Wolfowitz ‘broke World Bank laws’

SPIEGELONLINE: Für Bushs langjährigen Wegbegleiter Paul Wolfowitz wird es jetzt eng: Nach dem Ethikrat hat auch der Untersuchungsausschuss der Weltbank sein Verhalten verurteilt. Die üppige Gehaltserhöhung für seine Freundin habe gegen die Regeln der Institution verstoßen.

Washington - Ein vom Weltbank-Direktorium eingesetzter Untersuchungsausschuss kam in seinem gestern in Washington veröffentlichten Bericht zu dem Ergebnis, dass Wolfowitz mit der Gehaltserhöhung gegen die Regeln der Institution verstoßen habe. Zugleich empfahl er dem Direktorium zu prüfen, ob Wolfowitz unter diesen Umständen die Weltbank weiter führen könne. Das Direktorium wollte heute Abend zu Beratungen zusammentreten und dabei auch Wolfowitz anhören. Zweiter Schuldspruch für Wolfowitz (mehr)

FAZ: Weltbank grübelt über Wolfowitz

LEMONDE: Un nouveau rapport remet en cause la capacité de M. Wolfowitz à diriger la Banque mondiale

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy: Die letzte Hoffnung für die Randalierer Frankreichs
WELTONLINE: Brennende Autos, fliegende Steine und Schlägereien. Die Revolte der Pariser Jugend im vergangen Jahr hat das Land erschüttert. Warum gerade Luxus-Yacht-Urlauber und Hardliner Nicolas Sarkozy als neuer Präsident die einzige Hoffnung dieser Kinder ist.

Wahlen in Europa lösen heutzutage ebenso viel Langeweile aus, wie sie tiefe Leidenschaften aufwühlen. Sie sind ein notwendiges Übel, das man am besten schnell hinter sich bringt, wie eine chronische Krankheit, für die es keine Heilung gibt; sie sind das Mittel, durch das Macht – eigentlich eher Amtsgewalt – von einem misstrauisch beäugten Teil der politischen Klasse auf einen anderen übergeht. Niemand erwartet ernsthaft, dass viel daraus folgt, sei es im Guten oder Bösen; wie auch immer das Ergebnis ausfällt, wird das Staatsschiff gemächlich weiter in dieselbe Richtung segeln, sogar dann auch, wenn in dieser Richtung die Klippen liegen.

Die Wahlen in Frankreich waren anders. Wochenlang gaben sie Gesprächsstoff in den meisten Familien ab. In Nicolas Sarkozy – genannt Sarko – gab es wenigstens einen Kandidaten, der liebens- oder hassenswert erschien. Obwohl er sein ganzes Erwachsenenleben lang Politiker war, so dass er eher ein Insider als ein Außenseiter ist, zieht Sarko die Franzosen an (und stößt sie zugleich ab), weil er aus anderem Holz geschnitzt zu sein scheint als jene Figuren von olympischem Format, die vor ihm das Präsidentenamt der Fünften Republik innehatten. Er ist ein kleiner Mann, ein Hansdampf voller Energie, deutlich nicht das Produkt von Privilegien, sondern seiner eigenen Entschlossenheit, seines Ehrgeizes, seiner harten Arbeit und seines Talents. Monsieur Sarkozy und der Pöbel (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Uran-Anreicherung in Iran weiter voran als wir uns vorsgestellt haben
SPIEGELONLINE: Die Internationale Atomenergiebehörde schlägt Alarm: Iran habe größere Fortschritte in der Uran-Anreicherung erzielt als bisher vermutet, berichtet IAEA-Chef ElBaradei. In Washington macht sich Nervosität breit.

Washington - "Wir glauben, dass sie die Anreicherung im Wesentlichen verstanden haben", zitierte die "New York Times" den Chef der Internationale Atomenergiebehörde (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei. "Ab jetzt müssen sie das Wissen nur noch perfektionieren. Das werden die Leute nicht hören wollen, aber es ist eine Tatsache." Iran kommt mit Uran-Anreicherung schneller voran als vermutet (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Bandar Bush and All That


Mark Alexander

Iran: Have a sex change on us!


Mark Alexander

Craggers Want to Plunge Our World into Darkness
BBC: Would you switch everything off and rely on natural light to save the planet? It's the only answer for the families going to extreme measures to cut emissions. 8am: Shower. Save the water. Save the planet (more) By Robert Greenall (Is this man trying to live up to his name?)

Mark Alexander

”Le Pakistan est plongé dans une crise”
LE MONDE - OPINION: Le Pakistan est plongé dans une crise d'une gravité dont il est nécessaire de prendre toute la mesure. Car on aurait bien tort de réduire les scènes d'affrontements sanglants (41 morts) dont la capitale économique du pays, Karachi, a été le théâtre ce week-end à un simple "folklore" politique d'une région rituellement secouée de troubles ethniques ou religieux.

Ces violences marquent un tournant inquiétant. Elles signent la fin d'une époque, celle où le général Musharraf, arrivé au pouvoir en 1999 par un putsch, avait pu diriger le Pakistan sans trop de heurts. Le chef de l'Etat doit désormais faire face à un mouvement de contestation d'une ampleur sans précédent. Ce défi est lourd de périls pour la cohésion du pays autant que pour la stabilité régionale. Le Pakistan en danger (encore)

Mark Alexander

Décapitations en Arabie Saoudite
LE MONDE: Quatre Saoudiens, un Irakien et un Pakistanais, reconnus coupables de meurtre ou de trafic de drogue, ont été décapités au sabre lundi en Arabie saoudite, a annoncé le ministère de l'Intérieur.

Dakhil Nakhli, Mohammad Sahli ainsi que Fahd et et Raëd Lahibi, des Saoudiens, ont été condamnés à mort pour le viol et le meurtre d'un adolescent, Fahd Harbi, a précisé le ministère dans un communiqué. Six décapitations lundi en Arabie: 4 Saoudiens, un Irakien et un Pakistanais (encore)

Mark Alexander

Ahmadinejad Calls for End to Presence of US Troops in Gulf
KUWAIT TIMES: ABU DHABI: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for an end to the presence of US troops in the Gulf during a visit to the US-allied United Arab Emirates yesterday, an Iranian news agency reported. "With each other's help, we can turn the Persian Gulf to the gulf of peace and friendship," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a meeting with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan. "We all wish that foreign troops would leave the region and give a chance to countries in the region to establish security in the region themselves," Mehr quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at the start of his two-day visit, the first to the Gulf Arab country by an Iranian head of state. Ahmadinejad calls for US forces to quit Gulf (more)

ARAB NEWS: We Can Turn Gulf into Bastion of Peace, says Ahmadinejad

Mark Alexander

Bald wird Männer Röcke tragen müssen!
WELTONLINE: Der Kommissar für Soziales, Vladimir Spidla, hat Europas Unternehmen und Männer zum Umdenken aufgefordert. "Man muss ganz klar sagen: Die Männer müssen mehr Aufgaben in der Familie übernehmen. " Doch er und seine Kollegen stellen auch fest, wer Babypause macht, riskiert seine Karriere. EU-Minister rufen Männer zur Hausarbeit (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Western Governments’ Sick Obsession with Banning Everything
Not only do we have the threat of our lifestyles being changed out of all recognition by Muslims determined to continue their jihad against the free world, but we also have another form of jihad to contend with these days: the jihad being waged by the health Nazis! Health Nazis ,oh and I forgot the 'safety campaigners', are all obsessed with everything from smoking to consuming alcohol and disciplining your children. (It’s psychologically bad for them, you see.)

This morning, in the Daily Mail, it has been reported that these same health freaks, these same health Nazis now want to ban drivers from smoking in their cars! Where will it all end?

Don’t let these freaks take our rights away from us like this! All these bans are the thin edge of the wedge. Today, it's smoking. What will it be tomorrow? Let the free world remain free! Let people make their own choices! Let people live their lives! Live and let live! - ©Mark Alexander

Photo of smoker courtesy of the DAILY MAIL

DAILY MAIL: Road safety campaigners are urging the Government to ban smoking at the wheel.

Drivers caught lighting up would be given a £60 fine and three penalty points added to their licence under plans put forward by the Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association, which represents councils across the UK.

From July 1, smokers in England will be banned from lighting up in enclosed public places and at work. The ban is already in place in the rest of the UK.

This means that smokers who drive company vehicles will not be allowed to light up while driving, even if there is no one else in the car. Plea to ban drivers from smoking (more)

FOREST: SMOKE, LIES AND THE NANNY STATE By Joe Jackson

FREEDOM TO CHOOSE: Pro Libertate

Mark Alexander

Britain’s Appeasement of Terror
MELANIE PHILLIPS: The ending of the Al Qaeda fertiliser bomb plot trial has posed crucial questions about the competence of MI5. In particular, the assurances we were given after the 7/7 bombings, that the perpetrators had been unknown to the security service, have been shown to be utterly false.

Disturbing as that is by itself, the case also raises yet more pressing questions about whether Britain is even now acting effectively enough against the threat to this country from Islamist terrorism.

The fact is that Al Qaeda now sees Britain as both its principal target and its principal recruiting ground. By its own admission, MI5 is monitoring no fewer than 200 terrorist networks, 1,600 identified individual terrorists and 30 known terrorist plots. It says British Muslims are being indoctrinated with horrifying speed, and more terrorists are being recruited every day. When will the British stop appeasing terror? (more)

Mark Alexander

Haleh Esfandiari Detained by Iran
BBC: Iran's foreign ministry has confirmed that the government has detained a leading Iranian-American academic.

Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the arrest of Haleh Esfandiari was lawful and she would be treated like other Iranian nationals.

Ms Esfandiari, one of Washington's best known Iran experts, was visiting Tehran to see her 93-year-old mother.

The incident comes at a time of continuing tension between the United States and Iran.

"It is natural if there is any problem, it will be handled by authorities," said the spokesman.

Iran does not recognise dual nationalities.

Iran admits detaining US academic (more)

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy Shock
TIMESONLINE: Nicolas Sarkozy, the right-wing reformer who becomes French President on Wednesday, upset both the United States and his opponents yesterday by offering the job of Foreign Minister to a Socialist veteran with anti-American credentials.

Hubert Védrine, 59 — a former senior aide to the late President Mitterrand — who served as Foreign Minister from 1997 to 2002, was considering the proposal yesterday.

The prospect of Mr Védrine running foreign policy has infuriated the beleaguered Socialists and amazed the diplomatic world because he is the architect of a doctrine for containing what he called the abusive “steamroller” of American power. His views on “the hyperpower” — the term that he coined in the 1990s — would appear to conflict with Mr Sarkozy’s pro-Atlantic views. Shock as Sarkozy woos anti-US leftwinger (more)

Mark Alexander

Chaos in Karachi
THE TELEGRAPH: Chaos gripped the streets of Karachi yesterday as gun battles left at least 31 people dead and hundreds more injured, threatening a complete breakdown of law and order in Pakistan's largest and most volatile city.

With plumes of black smoke billowing over the city of 12 million people, there were extraordinary scenes as gunmen on motorbikes pumped bullets into crowds demonstrating against Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, while police stood by and watched. Pakistan on brink of disaster as Karachi burns (more)

BBC: Pakistan city shut down by strike

Mark Alexander

Demonstration à Izmir pour proclamer leur attachement à la laïcité

Photo grâce au Figaro

LE FIGARO: Plusieurs dizaines de milliers de personnes ont manifesté dimanche à Izmir pour proclamer leur attachement à la laïcité.

Les pro-laïcs ne désarment pas. Banderoles antigouvernementales, drapeaux turcs rouge et blanc et portraits de Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, fondateur vénéré de la Turquie moderne et laïque : plus de 100.000 manifestants se sont rassemblés dimanche à Izmir, troisième ville du pays, pour protester contre le gouvernement et le parti au pouvoir, accusés de vouloir renforcer la place de l'islam dans les institutions et la société turques.

Plusieurs milliers de policiers avaient été déployés dans les rues d'Izmir en prévision de la manifestation, d'autant que la veille, un attentat sur un marché de la ville avait fait un mort et 14 blessés. Nouvelle demonstration de force du laïc en Turquie (encore)

BBC: Turkish secularists in new rally

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy und die Mehrheit der Franzosen sind gegen Türkei-Beitritt der EU

Foto von Nicolas Sarkozy dank Google Images (Frankreich)

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Deutschland und Frankreich sind - der Begriff sei erlaubt - die Eltern der Europäischen Union und bis heute die Häupter der beständig gewachsenen Familie. Wie in jeder Familie gilt in der europäischen, dass große Entscheidungen nur getroffen werden können, wenn die Häupter sich einig sind. Ist schon einer von ihnen gegen weiteren Nachwuchs, wird es keinen geben. Sind beide abgeneigt, gilt das umso mehr. Erst recht trifft das zu, wenn es sich nicht um eine natürliche Zeugung handelt, sondern um eine Adoption. Bloß dumm, wenn das Adoptivkind schon auf dem Weg zu den neuen Eltern ist, die zu spät begriffen haben, dass es keine gute Idee war, zu den eigenen Kleinen noch ein großes fremdes Kind hinzuzunehmen, um den Kontakt zu den ebenfalls fremden Nachbarn am Ende der Straße zu verbessern. Ankara und die bittere Wahrheit (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Switzerland Begins Criminal Investigations into BAE Amid Suspicions of Money Laundering
TIMESONLINE: THE Swiss authorities have begun a criminal investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption surrounding Britain’s biggest defence firm.

The federal prosecutor’s office said a probe is under way into suspicions of money laundering involving BAE Systems. A spokeswoman for the office, said the inquiry was the result of a report received from the Swiss money-laundering authority.

The move will prove highly embarrassing to the British government, which decided to halt a two-year criminal inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the £40 billion Al Yamamah contract to sell fighter jets and Hawk trainers to Saudi Arabia.

The spokeswoman declined to give further details. Now Switzerland launches bribery probe into BAE (more) By David Leppard

NZZ: Schweiz ermittelt in Affäre um britischen Rüstungskonzern: Verdacht auf Geldwäscherei

Mark Alexander

Al-Qaeda’s Ambition: To Turn Iraq into a Militant Islamic State
TIMESONLINE: A RADICAL plan by Al-Qaeda to take over the Sunni heartland of Iraq and turn it into a militant Islamic state once American troops have withdrawn is causing alarm among US intelligence officials.

A power struggle has emerged between the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, an organisation with ambitions to become a state which has been set up by Al-Qaeda, and more moderate Sunni groups. They are battling for the long-term control of central and western areas which they believe could break away from Kurdish and Shi’ite-dominated provinces once the coalition forces depart. Al-Qaeda planning militant Islamic state in Iraq (more) By Uzi Mahnaimi

Mark Alexander

The BBC Shows Its Unprofessional Side
The BBC has spent six months investigating whether or not Scientology is a legitimate religion. Not really a very wise use of limited resources for the BBC, since Scientology, whatever one thinks of it, is no threat to the survival of the West. It would have been far better for the BBC to have spent its money and time investigating the ‘religion’ of Islam. But since they didn’t, and since they have completed their hatchet job on Scientology, perhaps they could now turn their attentions to investigating whether Islam is a legitimate religion, too. And while they’re at it, they can do a cost-benefit study on allowing Muslims into the West in their droves, when so many of them have no intention of ever integrating (integration goes against their faith), and when so many of them want to Islamize every corner of the earth, including the United Kingdom. In a few words, Muslims want to turn the House of War (Dar ul Harb) into the House of Islam (Dar ul Islam). That means to say that they want to turn the whole world Muslim! – ©Mark Alexander

TIMESONLINE: Scientologists to BBC: what planet are you living on?

BBC reporter losing it!

Click here to watch: BBC Panorama: “Scientology and me”

BBC: Row over Scientology video

THE TELEGRAPH: BBC reporter blows his top at Scientologist

Mark Alexander

Bloomberg for President?

Photo of Bloomberg courtesy of THE TELEGRAPH

THE TELEGRAPH: Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and mayor of New York, is building the foundations for an audacious third-party presidential candidacy that would transform the 2008 race for the White House.

The Daily Telegraph has established that a senior aide to Mr Bloomberg has held three lunch meetings with officials from the Independence Party, during which detailed discussions took place as to how a third-party bid could be launched. Bloomberg readying for a run at the White House (more)

Mark Alexander

”Talking Turkey”: An Alternative Viewpoint


Mark Alexander

Israel wird sich zurückziehen
NZZ: Aussagen von Aussenministerin Livni
Israel wird sich aus weiteren Teilen des Westjordanlands zurückziehen. Das sagte die israelische Aussenministerin Tzipi Livni in einem Interview mit einer ägyptischen Zeitung. Livni nannte jedoch keinen Termin. Israel wird Teile des Westjordanlands räumen (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Truculent Ahmadinejad Remains Defiant in Face of World Pressure to Halt Uranium Enrichment
YNET NEWS: President Ahmadinejad quoted as saying Iran 'won't retreat one step', accuses enemies of 'psychological war'

Iran will not be pushed by sanctions to suspend work on its disputed nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday, two days after six world powers met to discuss Iran's defiance of UN demands.

Senior officials from the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany met in Berlin on Thursday to discuss Iran's refusal to halt its uranium enrichment work, as demanded by the UN Security Council. Iran says won’t bow to sanctions over atomic work (more)

Mark Alexander

Karachi Clashes
KARACHI (Reuters) - Twenty-seven people were killed and 100 wounded in Karachi on Saturday in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists as Pakistan's suspended top judge tried to hold a rally with his supporters. Violence erupts over Pakistan’s top judge, 27 dead (more)

Mark Alexander

Anti-Gay Protests in Rome
ROME (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people gathered in Rome on Saturday for a rally to protest against a proposed law that would give greater rights to unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians.

The draft legislation, which requires parliamentary approval, has divided Italy's ruling coalition, angered the Catholic Church and roused passionate debate in the country. Thousands rally in Rome against gay rights law (more)

Hunderttausende demonstrieren in Rom für traditionelle Ehe

Mark Alexander

José Marie Aznar parle de Nicolas Sarkozy
LE FIGARO: Par José Maria Aznar, ancien président du gouvernement espagnol.
J'admire Nicolas Sarkozy. J'admire son optimisme, sa volonté, sa déter­mi­nation. J'admire sa capacité de travail et son dynamisme. J'admire surtout l'amour patriotique qu'il ressent pour la République et qu'il s'ef­force de faire partager à ses compatriotes. C'est précisément le patriotisme qui fait de Sarkozy un homme politique différent. Différent en quoi ? Différent parce qu'il ne ment pas. Il dit la vérité. Il parle à ses compatriotes sans espérer qu'ils croiront une chose et qu'il pourra ensuite faire autre chose.

Les Français peuvent avoir confiance en Nicolas Sarkozy. Cet homme m'a prouvé qu'il mérite la confiance. Nicolas Sarkozy est fiable, je le sais par expérience (encore)

Mark Alexander

Obamamania
For some time now, the United States has been in the grip of Obamamania. In many ways, it could be classed as a pandemic.

I have been racking my brains for quite some time to understand this phenomenon. This morning I had a breakthough: a friend of mine in the States, the director of Transactions Magazine, drew my attention to the following image of Barack Obama, and my thanks go to him for doing so.

The reason for this phenomenon, for this pandemic, for Obamamania are clear! I don't have to rack my brains any longer! And just in case you were racking yours, then you don't need to do so any longer, either. Here is our answer:

Image courtesy of Google Images

Mark Alexander

Nicolas Sarkozy on Turkey’s Bid to Join the European Union
“Negotiations began in 1964. We are in 2007. The time has rather come to tell the Turks whether we want them or if we don’t want them. For me actually, it is not a question of democracy, it is not at all a question of Muslims, of Islam. It is to say that it’s Asia, it is not Europe. One must tell clearly to this great people that is Turkey that they are meant to be the heart of the Union of the Mediterranean but not the heart of the European Union.” (Televised debate with Segolene Royal, May 2, 2007) – Nicolas Sarkozy [Source: New York Times]

Mark Alexander

Obamamanie
WELTONLINE: Barack Obama überall. Kein Tag, an dem der Demokrat, der gerne Präsident werden will, nicht in den Medien auftaucht. Aktuell allerdings könnte es Obama mit der Medienpräsenz fast schon zu viel werden: Ein Spottlied über ihn macht die Runde. Streit um "Barack the Magic Negro" (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Krise in der Türkei
NZZ: Schulterschluss im Lager der säkularen Opposition
Die Regierung des gemässigten Islamistenchefs Tayyip Erdogan will über eine Verfassungsänderung eine Volkswahl des Präsidenten durchsetzen. Es ist unwahrscheinlich, dass dies gelingt. Das Land schlittert nach Jahren der politischen Stabilität immer tiefer in die Krise. Tiefe politische Krise in der Türkei (mehr)

LE FIGARO: Les islamistes turcs jouent le peuple contre l'armée

Mark Alexander

Iran will not gain nuclear weapons and nor will it dominate the Middle East, says Cheney
BBC: US Vice-President Dick Cheney has issued a warning to Iran from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf.

He said Washington and its allies would keep Tehran both from restricting sea traffic and developing nuclear arms. Cheney warns Iran on Gulf visit (more)

KUWAIT TIMES: Cheney fires salvo at Iran

Mark Alexander

Musharraf Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Photo of President Musharraf courtesy of TIMESONLINE

TIMESONLINE: President Musharraf could declare a state of emergency in Pakistan amid growing civil unrest against his increasingly embattled regime.

Security forces were placed on high alert yesterday, detaining hundreds of activists on the eve of an anti-government rally in Karachi. Rival demonstrations are planned by supporters of General Musharraf, raising fears of violent clashes in the southern port city today. Pakistan set to declare state of emergency (more)

Mark Alexander

’Jihad TV’ Set Up to Mock Coalition Forces

Image courtesy of BBC

BBC: An Iraqi satellite TV channel has started to air Hidden Camera Jihad, a video compilation of attacks on US-led coalition forces in Iraq that has appeared on internet message boards since late 2006. Iraq 'jihad TV' mocks coalition (more)

Mark Alexander

Mother’s Day Flowers
I should like to remind my visitors that your patronage of the following flower sites help keep this Weblog going. Why not buy your flowers for Mother’s Day from Florabunda, Maple Flowers, Le Jardin en Fleurs, or Einfach Gold ?

For internationalflower order, click Florabunda International.

Obviously, I don’t need to remind you that you can support this Blogspot by purchasing my book, too. It is widely available online, and in many bookshops. For example, it can be bought herein the United States, here in Canada, here in France, and here in Austria and Germany.

Thank you for your support, and Happy Mother's Day!

Mark Alexander