Times Are Bleeding Hard!
KUWAIT TIMES: RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is planning to encourage Saudi women to work as housekeepers after some Asian countries raised minimum wage requirements for maids hired for work in the Gulf Arab country, a Saudi newspaper said yesterday. Al-Hayat daily quoted officials saying the labor and social affairs ministries were working on finding "Saudi housekeepers" - a euphemism to avoid the usual Arabic word "khadima", or servant - to help Saudi families needing domestic help. Saudis to work as maids (more)

Mark Alexander

Letter to America
The US is faced with two main problems: The problem with Islam and the problem with the southern border. The first problem has been brought to the forefront by the tragedy of 9/11, but has in no way been adequately dealt with if America has any desire to retain its liberty and safeguard its way of life; the second problem, the problem of the unrelenting inflow of illegal immigrants, is a problem that has grown in magnitude simply because of the government's refusal to deal effectively with the problem.

These problems, on the surface, appear to be intractable ones; but they are not. Both could be solved at a stroke. But they are not being solved because of one thing: The power of big business and commercial interests. Vested interests.

The inflow of illegal immigrants could be solved tomorrow! But the President's hands are tied because American commerce has an insatiable demand for cheap labour. Mexican immigrants satisfy that demand. The big business lobby is a powerful one. That power blocks a satisfactory solution.

Interestingly, it is the power of big business which stops the American government from finding a solution to the growth of Islam in America, too. So many companies have vast commercial interests with the Islamic world, so many contracts have been signed, so many deals have been made, with the potentates of the Gulf that the government finds itself emasculated. One could even say castrated!

How can they take the necessary decisions to safeguard the future of Western civilization when they stand to lose gazillions in deals? How can they stop the building of mosques and Islamic schools and Islamic propagation centres when they cannot countenance losing all those profitable contracts with the Arabs of the Gulf? How can they stop rich Arabs coming to the US to buy up all that prime land and all those viable economic enterprises when they stand to incur the wrath of the oil-rich sheikhs?

It appears that unless the status quo is changed, there will be no future for the free world. Should America ever fall into the hands of Muslims, should Islam ever become the dominant religion in that beautiful country, then there will be no hope for America, and no hope for the free world, either. Without a free America - the beacon of the free world - there will be no free West! Its light will have gone out! Liberty will be no more!

©Mark Alexander

All rights reserved

Sarkozy Moves France to Centre Stage in Europe
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The new French president proved to be the crucial figure during a European Union meeting, helping to break down the resistance of Poland's identical-twin leaders to a deal.

The new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has reasserted his country's traditional role at the diplomatic heart of Europe by emerging as the main force behind a deal that brought the European Union back from the brink of crisis.

Mr. Sarkozy proved to be the crucial figure during a fractious meeting, displaying a hyperactive style that helped break down the resistance of Poland's unyielding leaders. Sarkozy Takes Center Stage in Europe (more) By Stephen Castle and Dan Bilefsky

Mark Alexander

Unease in Many Quarters About Blair’s Appointment as International Envoy for the Middle East
FINANCIAL TIMES: Tony Blair’s appointment as an international envoy for the Middle East looks set to be formally agreed on Tuesday – a day before he leaves office – amid signs that the move is causing deep unease in some quarters.

Representatives of the four parties that comprise the “Quartet” on the Middle East – the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States –- will gather in Jerusalem on Tuesday at a specially convened meeting that will confirm Mr Blair as the Quartet’s new envoy, the FT has learnt. Blair set for Mideast envoy role (more) By James Blitz

Mark Alexander

Spare a Thought (and Prayer) for Alan Johnston
BBC: The kidnappers of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston have released a new video of him in which he is wearing what he says is an explosives vest.

In the tape, Mr Johnston says his captors have said they will detonate the vest if force is used to try to free him.

It is the second such video released since Mr Johnston was abducted in Gaza on 12 March.

The BBC renewed its appeal for Mr Johnston's immediate release. BBC captive in ‘bomb vest’ video (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Johnston in new video plea

TIMESONLINE:
Don’t attempt to free me by force, Johnston pleads By James Hider

Mark Alexander

Homo Erectus Appeared 400,000 years Earlier, Says German Archaeologist

Image of Homo erectus courtesy of Google Images

TIMESONLINE: Our earliest ancestors gave up hunter-gathering and took to a settled life up to 400,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to controversial research.

The accepted timescale of Man’s evolution is being challenged by a German archaeologist who claims to have found evidence that Homo erectus — mankind’s early ancestor, who migrated from Africa to Asia and Europe — began living in settled communities long before the accepted time of 10,000 years ago.

The point at which settlement actually took place is the first critical stage in humanity’s cultural development. Rise of man theory ‘out by 400,000 years’ (more) By Dalya Alberge

Mark Alexander

Faith Has Been Hijacked, Says Obama
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama, the Illinois senator aiming to become America's first black president, has accused evangelical Christian leaders of "hijacking faith" and politicising religious beliefs in an effort to divide the country.

In a daring speech before a packed church convention, he said the powerful religious Right had exploited its stance on abortion, same-sex marriage and creationism to attack the Democrat Party.

"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart," he told the national meeting of the United Church of Christ, the liberal church of which he is a member.

"Faith got hijacked partly because the so-called leaders of the Christian Right are all too eager to exploit what divides us.

"At every opportunity they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design." Obama says Right wing has hijacked religion (more) By Alex Spillius

Mark Alexander

Gmail May Soon Be a Thing of the Past for Germans
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: If a proposed German surveillance law goes into effect unchanged in 2008, Google says, it would shut down Gmail for German customers rather than comply.

In a showdown with the German government, Google, Inc. has threatened to shut down its popular e-mail service in Germany if a planned telecommunications law goes into effect unchanged -- a law Google's chief data-protection advisor has called a "heavy blow against the private sphere." Google Threatens to End E-Mail Service in Germany (more)

Mark Alexander

La conférence internationale sur le Darfour s’ouvre à Paris en présence de Condoleezza Rice

Photo grâce aux Google Images (US)

LE FIGARO: L'errance des réfugiés du Darfour dure depuis quatre ans. La conférence internationale s'ouvre ce matin à Paris en présence de Condoleezza Rice mais sans représentant soudanais.

LE CAMP surgit au bout d'une longue route poussiéreuse. Des centaines de maisons de torchis sont cachées derrières des palissades de branchages. Au fil du temps, le camp d'Ardamata, planté à quelques kilomètres d'el-Geneina, dans l'ouest du Darfour, a perdu ses airs anarchiques des premiers temps, prenant l'allure d'un immense village placide. La vie s'est organisée avec l'aide de dizaines d'ONG. Quelque 20 000 personnes s'y massent désormais, des familles entières arrivées par flots d'un coin ou d'un autre du Darfour, fuyant, souvent les mains vides, les attaques de leurs villages pour trouver un peu de sécurité auprès des villes. Les premiers sont arrivés, paniqués, à l'aube de la guerre, en 2003. Les derniers, il y a seulement cinq mois, presque en bon ordre. Mais le calme d'Ardamata est trompeur. La peur est toujours là. Les réfugiés du Darfour veulent encore espérer (suivant) Par Tanguy Berthemet

Mark Alexander

Cover Yourselves Up, You Whores!

Photo of woman in burkini care of the the Daily Mail

THE DAILY MAIL: Schools have been told they should allow Muslim girls taking swimming lessons to cover themselves from head to toe in special outfits dubbed burkinis.

An increasing number of pupils are insisting that conventional swimming costumes are "immodest" and, citing religious grounds, have been refusing to wear them.

Now councillors in Ealing, West London, are encouraging local pools to stock the £29 Lycra "burkinis" and instructing local schools to let girls wear them.

Teachers have even been given details of an online swimwear company that will deliver the two-piece burka-like outfits, which cover every bit of skin from the ankle to the neck and come with a head covering to conceal the hair. Now schools are told to let Muslim girls wear head-to-toe 'burkinis' for swimming lessons (more) By Daniel Boffey

Mark Alexander

Blair Sells Out to Europe
TIMESONLINE: TONY Blair has landed Gordon Brown with a dilemma over Europe’s expanding role in foreign affairs after the European Union summit that ended yesterday.

While Blair left Brussels insisting he had preserved Britain’s control over its foreign policy, the small print of the treaty prepares the way for a powerful new EU diplomatic service with ambassadors worldwide.

They will report to a “high representative” who will be vice-president of the European commission and will chair meetings of EU foreign ministers. Anger over Blair's EU ‘sell-out’ (more) By sabel Oakeshott and Nicola Smith in Brussels

THE GUARDIAN:
Referendum calls utterly absurd, Blair tells Tories

Mark Alexander

No Referenda for the Europeans: Such is European Democracy!

Photo of Nicolas Sarkozy courtesy of SpiegelOnline International

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: All of Europe's internal divisions were revealed at the Brussels summit. Once again, selfish national interests were promoted with tricks, threats and embarrassing haggling. Nevertheless, the result is a step forward for the European Union.

Of course, in the end there were only winners. Angela Merkel, Germany's new superwoman, chancellor in Berlin and, as a side-line, Europe's savior, summed up. She said, "everything that we wanted was achieved." France's President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that it was "very good news for Europe and for France: Things have been taken care of." Of course he had played a big part in it. As had British Prime Minister Tony Blair and many others.

Even Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, who had continuously threatened to torpedo the European Union summit, saw himself as a winner too. The solution that had been found for the EU Council voting system was "more favorable for Poland than the square root" -- a system the ruling Kaczynski twins had said they were willing to die for prior to the Brussels summit. The Fresh Impetus that Europe Desperately Needs (more) By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp in Brussels

Mark Alexander

Is America Ready for President Bloomberg?
THE NEW YORK TIMES: He no longer brags about his dating exploits or shows off his impolitic side. He has largely reined in his temper with reporters and loosened his manner with voters. But Michael R. Bloomberg, New York’s once-improbable mayor, would still be a highly unlikely presidential contender.

A zealot for privacy, he slips away to Bermuda on weekends to practice his golf game. Divorced with a steady companion, he frequently indulges a louche sense of humor, joking at a dinner one night that if Salma Hayek joined him at the official mayor’s residence, he might actually live there. And he still likes to end his evenings with a nightcap out, leading to the occasional public admission of having had perhaps a merlot or two too many.

New Yorkers may have become accustomed to the eccentricities of the billionaire information mogul who took an unorthodox path to public service. But, as he has thrust himself more fully into national politics, even Mr. Bloomberg has questioned whether the rest of the country is ready for him. An Eccentric Mayor Raises His Profile (more)

Mark Alexander

’Franco Confronto’ Sums Up Blair’s Meeting with Pope Benedict
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Tony Blair's eagerly awaited meeting with the Pope resulted in discomfort for the Prime Minister when he found himself on the receiving end of a stern lecture over his record in office.

During a 25-minute face-to-face audience in the Pontiff's private apartments, Pope Benedict XVI tackled Mr Blair on the continuing crisis in Iraq and the Middle East.

Italian news agency reports said Pope Benedict also made direct criticism of New Labour laws allowing greater stem cell research on human embryos, easy access to abortion, same-sex marriages, and adoption by gay couples.

Downing Street officials said the issue of gay adoption arose between Mr Blair and senior Vatican figures, not the Pope. But it was nevertheless an unexpected turn of events for Mr Blair, whose visit to the Vatican - his final foreign engagement as Premier - had been widely believed to presage his conversion to Catholicism. Pope: Miracles hard to come by in Britain (more) From Jason Lewis and Nick Pisa

MAIL ON SUNDAY:
Convert? Blair’s been a Catholic for 25 years already By Garry O'Connor

Mark Alexander

The Decriminalisation of Homosexuality in the UK: Forty Years of Enlightenment
THE OBSERVER: For most people the Sixties was a time of sexual awakening and experimentation. But it wasn't until 1967 that gay and bisexual men could share that freedom. On the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, we revisit the appallingly repressive atmosphere of the Fifties and Sixties that ruined lives, destroyed reputations and finally sparked a campaign for change

Forty years ago in Britain, loving the wrong person could make you a criminal. Smiling in the park could lead to arrest and being in the wrong address book could cost you a prison sentence. Homosexuality was illegal and hundreds of thousands of men feared being picked up by zealous police wanting easy convictions, often for doing nothing more than looking a bit gay. Coming out of the dark ages (more)

Mark Alexander

Moves Afoot to Further Restrict Smokers’ Rights
THE GUARDIAN: Children are developing diseases because adults light up in front of them

Children are contracting serious illnesses because of their parents smoking at home, says the government's chief medical officer, who has warned adults not to light up in front of their sons and daughters.

In an interview with The Observer, Sir Liam Donaldson, Britain's most senior doctor, pledged that there would be a further sustained crackdown on smoking after the ban comes into force in England next Sunday.

He promised renewed public health advertising campaigns to try to educate parents who smoke. 'We will strengthen and make regular the message to parents about the risks to their children of smoking. This is something we will need to constantly remind them about. Parents warned not to smoke at home (more) By Denis Cambell

Mark Alexander

Muslim Fanatics Use Internet to Spread Terror in UK
Allowing all these people into the UK has turned
into a nightmare for us. And things will only get
worse as their population swells. Where is all the
money, and manpower, going to come from to
police them and their dangerous activities?

A far better solution would be to kick these
people out. We have to get tough with them. Our
politicians and leaders today seem never to have
learnt the art of being tough. It's no good being
'touchy-feely' when one is dealing with the likes
of these fanatics.

We had better get used to the fact that we are in
a fight to the death with these people: They want
our land, our country, our nation; and they're
going to get it, too, if we go on pussyfooting
around as we have been doing. - ©Mark Alexander
THE TELEGRAPH: It is 11pm on Tuesday and Omar Bakri Mohammed's loyal band of followers hunch over computers and laptops at secret locations across Britain to listen to his defiant message to the west.

Many are hoping that the Muslim cleric, who lives in the Lebanese capital Beirut after being banned from the UK, will spell out his views on the Government's decision to give Salman Rushdie a knighthood. Bakri does not disappoint them.

After listening to Bakri's lecture for more than two hours on a secretive internet chat room, one participant asks in a written question: "Is there a new fatwa against salman and the queen for giving [the knighthood]?"

Speaking with a heavy middle eastern accent, Bakri responds: "Salman Rushdie, no doubt what he did was an apostasy… not because he get knighthood but because he insulted the honour of the prophet Mohammed (with his book The Satanic Verses)… He is murtadd (a traitor for rejecting Islam) anyway so there isn't any need for a new fatwa… People like him deserve to get the capital punishment." Internet spreads terror to Britain (more) By Andrew Alderson and Miles Goslett

Mark Alexander

Reid Stands By Government's Decision to Knight Salman Rushdie

Photo of Sir Salman courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Britain stands by its decision to honour author Salman Rushdie, despite protests by Pakistan and Iran, Home Secretary John Reid has said.

While agreeing it was "sensitive", the right to express opinions was "of over-riding value" to society, he said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the knighthood was "untimely", but a matter for the British government.

Mr Rushdie went into hiding after an Iranian fatwa ordered his execution, over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses.

Mr Reid told an audience in New York that many Christians had been offended by Monty Python's Life of Brian, while some Jewish people were offended by Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. Reid defends Rushdie knighthood (more)

Mark Alexander

The Fat Lady Has Already Started to Sing, Tone
THE TELEGRAPH: It has been the longest, most stage-managed farewell in British, if not world, political history. After 10 extraordinary years as Prime Minister and global statesman, Tony Blair has, it seems, said his goodbyes to almost everyone - from tribal elders in a village in Sierra Leone, to Colonel Gadaffi in his Libyan tent, and the tea ladies of Number Ten.

No picture opportunity has been left untaken, no stunt unperformed, as Labour's most successful politician has prepared to take his leave. Today, "Blair legacy tours" will even drop in on Pope Benedict XVI for a chat at the Vatican. On Tuesday, the day before he is driven up the Mall to hand in his notice to the Queen at Buckingham Palace, Blair will entertain ex-movie star turned governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to discuss climate change.

The aim of it all, as a leaked Downing Street memo revealed last year, has been to "leave the crowds wanting more" as Tony steps off the stage - to create a picture of a man of constant action rather than a political leader heading, exhausted, for retirement. The final curtain: Toby Helm asks if Tony Blair is in denial about leaving Number 10 (more)

!0 Years of Tony Blair

Mark Alexander

Look What I’ve Done for You: Blair’s Message to Britons on the European Union
Tony Blair took his bow from the European stage with a plea to his fellow-countrymen to see the EU not as a threat but an opportunity.

Mr Blair was speaking after sealing a deal which he said would end years of wrangling over the EU's institutional arrangements and allow it to focus on the issues which matter to ordinary Europeans.

He said that the agreement sealed at the end of his last European Council summit in Brussels secured all of Britain's key demands and meant the treaty would not require a referendum in the UK.

And he said: "The important thing for Britain to understand - and this really is a strong plea to my own country now - is that Europe has changed.

"We have a Commission president who is a reformer, we have got an enlarged EU with real allies for Britain now, we have got a German Chancellor and French President in favour of the trans-Atlantic alliance.

"There is a fantastic opportunity for this country today... Because I think a stronger EU is in Britain's interest, but it should be a union of sovereign states and not a federal union.

"I would say that that is accepted by most people inside the European Union today." Blair’s final plea to Britons on Europe (more)

THE TELEGRAPH:
Blair’s EU ‘cave-in’ ends truce with Brown

Mark Alexander

Sarkonomics & the Sleight of Hand
TIMESONLINE: President Sarkozy’s sleight of hand in removing one of the European Union’s key objectives almost slipped through the final meeting of the 27 nations’ top diplomats preparing for the Brussels summit.

The so-called sherpas took five hours on Tuesday night to go through the draft German proposals line by line. It was a Hungarian diplomat who saw that something was missing.

The failed EU constitution proposed that the EU shall have “an internal market where competition is free and undistorted”. The phrase was included to make free competition one of the objectives of the EU, upgrading its status from the Treaty of Rome, where it features as a sub-clause.

Minutes from Tuesday’s meeting seen by The Times show that, near the mid-point of the discussions, the Hungarians drew attention to the redrafted statement. It included commitment to the internal market but omitted the phrase “where competition is free and undistorted”. Sarkozy secretly tried to rewrite rules on Europe: Germans were persuaded to slant statement in favour of protectionism (more) By David Charter and Charles Bremner

Mark Alexander

Islam in Europa auf dem Vormarsch: In Deutschland wird es mehr Moscheen geben!
FAZ - Kommentar: 22. Juni 2007 Der Streit über die Errichtung einer Moschee im Kölner Stadtteil Ehrenfeld macht wie andere Beispiele deutlich, wie groß das Misstrauen zwischen der eingesessenen Mehrheitsbevölkerung und den muslimischen Einwanderern ist: Die in dem Stadtteil lebenden, sozusagen „indigenen“ Deutschen, die zu dem Projekt zuerst gar nicht und dann nur spät und nicht gerade gründlich befragt wurden, glauben den Versicherungen der Muslime, dies werde eine „gläserne“, also Einblick gewährende Moschee sein, nicht; und umgekehrt vermögen die Anhänger des Propheten Mohammed nicht zu verstehen, warum sich so viel Unbehagen gegenüber ihrer Religion, in der sie wurzeln und die sie trägt, manifestiert.

Es ist nicht nur die lange und schwierige Geschichte zwischen Christen und Muslimen, die da als jeweiliges Vorverständnis hinderlich wirkt. Es ist viel mehr! Große Teile Europas und der „Orient“ haben sich, was die Religion betrifft, auf weite Strecken auseinandergelebt. Gewiss: Auch unter den Muslimen, sogar im „klassischen“ Dar al-islam selbst, gibt es Säkularisierte, die als Kulturmuslime kaum noch über eine nennenswerte religiöse Praxis verfügen - und dies in einer Religion, die weitgehend als Orthopraxie, also „richtiges Handeln“, weniger als Orthodoxie - „richtige Lehre“ - charakterisiert werden kann. Islam unter säkularen Christen (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Blair outmanoeuvred
THE TELEGRAPH: European leaders were this evening close to agreement on a revamped constitution after France won a symbolic watering down of the EU's 50 year commitment to a free market economy.

Tony Blair, attending his last EU summit as Prime Minister, was forced into an embarrassing u-turn after being outmanoeuvred by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the removal of a commitment to "free and undistorted" competition in a list of the EU's defining objectives. Blair outmanoeuvred by Sarkozy on treaty (more) By Bruno Waterfield and George Jones in Brussels

Mark Alexander

Clooney Protests

Photo of George Clooney courtesy of Google Images

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN: U.S. film star George Clooney has joined a protest to stop construction of parking lots and a promenade in the northern Italian lakeside town where he owns a villa because he fears his presence is turning the quiet town into a tourist attraction.

Clooney was among some 300 townspeople who signed the petition against the planned construction in the town of Laglio on Lake Como, according to organizers.

"Yes I signed it. Almost every member of the town signed it," Clooney said on Friday.

"My concern is that this village that has stood for hundreds of years would be destroyed simply because I happened to have lived there for the last six years.

"I told my neighbors that I would do what they wanted.

"And it seemed that they didn't want to demolish the harbor where all the local fishermen keep their boats," Clooney said. Clooney’s holiday hideaway drama (more)

Mark Alexander

Egypt Moves to Isolate Hamas
THE SEATTLE TIMES: CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt moved forcefully Thursday to isolate Hamas, calling a regional summit next week including the Israelis and Palestinians — and shunning contacts with the militant group after its takeover of Gaza.

More than seeking peace with Israel, Egypt and other U.S. Arab allies are seeking to prevent the new power of Islamic radicals in Gaza from strengthening fundamentalists on their own soil. They also fear Gaza will become a stronghold for Iranian influence on their doorsteps.

Egypt, in particular, has much to lose. A strong Hamas ruling Gaza, on Egypt's border, could encourage the Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful and popular political challenger to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government. It also could foment Islamic militants that Egypt has battled for decades to put down. Egypt hopes summit isolates Hamas (more) By Salah Nasrawi

Mark Alexander

Google Takes On Censorship of the Web
THE HONOLULU ADVERTISER: WASHINGTON (AP) -- Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide.

The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers, similar to other hurdles to global commerce, such as tariffs.

Google sees the dramatic increase in government Net censorship, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, as a potential threat to its advertising-driven business model, and wants government officials to consider the issue in economic, rather than just political, terms. Google Asks Gov't to Fight Censorship (more) By Christopher S. Rugaber

Mark Alexander

Un compromis à Bruxelles?

Photo grâce au Figaro

LE FIGARO: Plusieurs compromis ont pu être trouvés avec la Pologne et l’Angleterre, les deux pays les plus hostiles à l’idée du «traité modificateur» proposé par Nicolas Sarkozy pour remplacer le projet de Constitution européenne.

«Nous n'avons jamais été aussi proches d'un accord, comme d'un désaccord». C’est le porte-parole de la présidence française, David Martinon, qui a lâché cette formule aux journalistes vendredi, estimant que le sommet des chefs d’Etat européens, réunis jusqu’à ce soir à Bruxelles, arrive à «un moment de vérité». "Moment de vérité" à Bruxelles (suivant)

FAZ:
Merkel kommt Warschau und London entgegen

Mark Alexander

’What We Have Done In Your Name’, CIA Tells the Americans

Photo of Gen Hayden courtesy of the BBC

BBC: The US Central Intelligence Agency is to declassify hundreds of documents detailing some of the agency's worst illegal abuses from the 1950s to 1970s.

The papers, to be released next week, will detail assassination plots, domestic spying and wiretapping, kidnapping and human experiments.

Many of the incidents are already known, but the documents are expected to give more comprehensive accounts.

It is "unflattering" but part of agency history, CIA chief Michael Hayden said.

"This is about telling the American people what we have done in their name," Gen Hayden told a conference of foreign policy historians. CIA to reveal decades of misdeeds (more)

Mark Alexander

Our Turkish ‘Friends’
IRNA: Ruling party representative at Turkey's National Parliament Professor Nouzad Yalchin Tash here Friday called British Queen's donation of a knight title to apostate Salman Rushdie an "antagonist move by Britain against Islamic World." Turkish MP says calling Rushdie a knight a move against Islam (more)

Mark Alexander

Paranoia in Iran
IRNA: Provisional Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khatami said here in his second sermon Islamic World is fully aware of enemies' plot to sow seeds of discord among Muslims. Islamic World aware of enemies’ plots (more)

Mark Alexander

Ahmadinejad Does Not Want the Annihilation of the Jews! All He Wants Is Régime-Change! He Wants an End to Zionism!
YNET NEWS: Iranian leader’s aide says anti-Israel statements aimed at rallying Arab world around Islamic revolution’s values. ‘All Muslims want to see Zionist regime change into a Palestinian regime,’ he says.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does want the Jews to be annihilated but rather to change the regime in Israel,” a senior aide to the Iranian president said Friday.

On August 3, 2006 the Iranian president said that the Middle East would be better off "without the existence of the Zionist regime." He also called Israel an "illegitimate regime" with "no legal basis for its existence."

During the Iranian-organized conference questioning the Holocaust on December 12, 2006 Ahmadinejad said Israel would "soon be wiped out." ’Ahmadinejad doesn’t want Jews’ annihilation (more) By Dudi Cohen

The Shoah: English version
La Shoah: Version française

Mark Alexander

Angela Merkel legt einen neuen Vorschlag auf den Tisch
TAGES-ANZEIGER: EU-Ratspräsidentin Angela Merkel drückt bei der Suche nach den Leitplanken für einen neuen EU-Reformvertrag aufs Tempo. Zum Nachtessen legt sie den Staats- und Regierungschefs einen neuen Vorschlag vor.

Über diesen Entwurf, der noch vor dem Abendessen vorliegen soll, solle dann weiterverhandelt werden, erklärten Diplomaten. Um die polnischen Widerstände zu überwinden, hat die deutsche Delegation bereits mehrere kleinere Änderungen an Abstimmungsmodalitäten ins Gespräch gebracht. Als schwierig gilt weiter die britische Position. Neuer Kompromissvorschlag auf dem Tisch (mehr)

Mark Alexander

British Muslims Join In the Protests Against the Knighthood of Salman Rushdie

”This honour will have ramifications here and across the Muslim world”, said Anjem Choudray, protest organiser and former head of the banned radical group, Al-Muhajiroun

MAIL & GUARDIAN ONLINE (SOUTH AFRICA): Muslims angered by Britain's decision to honour author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood were rallying in London on Friday, warning that anger over the award could match the fierce reaction to publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark last year.

Organisers of a protest outside Regent's Park Mosque in London claimed several hundred demonstrators planned to denounce the decision to reward Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses led to a death threat from Iran in 1989.

"This knighthood is just another example of [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair and his government's attempts to secularise Muslims and reward apostates," said Anjem Choudray, protest organiser and a former head of the British wing of the banned radical group al-Muhajiroun.

"Rushdie is a hate figure across the Muslim world because of his insults to Islam," Choudray said. "This honour will have ramifications here and across the world" just as with the protests over the Danish cartoon. British Muslims join in global Rushdie protests (more)

Mark Alexander

Hijabs –Yes; Chastity Rings – No!
THE GUARDIAN: A ban on a teenage girl wearing a "purity ring" was attacked at the high court today as an "unlawful interference" with her right to express her Christian faith.

Lydia Playfoot, 16, is one of a group of Christians at the Millais school in Horsham, West Sussex, who wears the ring as a sign of her belief in abstinence from sex until marriage.

The teenager claims her secondary school, which allows Muslim and Sikh students to wear headscarves and religious bracelets, is breaching her human rights by preventing her from wearing the ring. School’s chastity ring ban ‘violated religious freedom’ (more) By James Orr and agencies

THE GUARDIAN:
The issue explained: Abstinence pledges By James Orr and agencies

Chastity ring girl speaks of ‘ethical crisis’

Have your say: The ring of truth

DIE PRESSE:
Junge Britin verklagt Schule wegen Diskriminierung von Christen: Einer Schülerin wurde das Tragen eines "Keuschheits-Rings" verboten

Mark Alexander

Blair Eyes America to Make His Fortune
BBC: Tony Blair is widely thought to be looking to the United States for inspiration and new employment opportunities.

While the links between the British prime minister and America have badly damaged his standing in the UK, his desire to stay influential on the international stage suggests he is likely to spend more time on this side of the Atlantic in future.

It may be that he takes up the White House's reported proposal that he become a Mid-East envoy for the "quartet" of the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia.

But the US could still be his main source of earnings after his departure from Number 10 Downing Street next week.
In spite of the unpopularity of the Iraq war, Americans still like Mr Blair.

"Most have a high regard for him as a friend of the United States and as an extremely talented political leader," says Daniel Benjamin, the director of the US and Europe programme at the Brookings Institution.

"I think Tony Blair will remain far more admired here, certainly in the near-term, than he will be at home." The US offers Blair a rosy future (more) By Yolande Knell

Mark Alexander

The “Young Whippersnapper” Departs the EU With Mixed Legacy
"Blair was keener on him than Chirac was on him. I think Chirac always thought, this guy is a young whippersnapper." - Stephen Wall, former EU adviser to Tony Blair on Blair's relationship with ex-French President, Jacques Chirac.

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: BRUSSELS: A decade after he came to power promising to make the case for Europe, Tony Blair arrived Thursday at his last EU summit meeting deploying the nationalist rhetoric of Margaret Thatcher and threatening to veto a deal designed to give the 27-nation bloc more clout on the world stage.

America's closest and most reliable ally, Blair leaves the European stage a divisive figure, scarred by his support for United States policy in Iraq and locked in familiar disputes with his European partners over national sovereignty.

The outcome of a difficult meeting of EU leaders may determine whether Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, will warm to Europe or continue London's close ties to President George W. Bush's White House.

At a key moment for trans-Atlantic relations, the impasse at the EU summit meeting also underlines how little Britain's attitudes to Europe have changed over a decade during which the EU itself has transformed radically.

Blair has dismissed suggestions that he would want a new role as a European "president" - a new post outlined in the revamped treaty under discussion - even if other nations wanted him. Blair departs the EU with mixed legacy (more) By Stephen Castle

Mark Alexander

Tough Aussies Offered Iranians a No-Nonsense Response
THE AUSTRALIAN: A NO-NONSENSE response enabled Australian sailors to escape a tense four-hour standoff with Iranian gunboats in the Persian Gulf, defence says.

The 2004 incident, which only came to light today, has similarities with the capture of British sailors in the Gulf earlier this year by Iranian forces.

In the previously undisclosed encounter, Royal Australian Navy sailors in December 2004 were evacuated by helicopter after being surrounded by five Iranian gunboats. Aussie crew 'fended off' Iranian gunboats (more)

Mark Alexander

Founder of the 'Council of Ex-Muslims': “Islam Will Never Be Reformed”
“I know Islam and for me it means death and pain.” – Mina Ahadi
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Human rights activists have formed a "Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Germany" to help women renounce the Islamic faith if they feel oppressed by its laws. Its Iranian-born founder Mina Ahadi, under police protection after receiving death threats, talks to DER SPIEGEL about its goals.

An Iranian human rights activist living in Germany has formed a "Central Council of ex-Muslims in Germany" with 40 others and has received anonymous death threats after declaring she wants to help people to leave the religion if they so desire. "Not Possible to Modernize Islam” (more)

Mark Alexander

British Tolerance Wearing Thin

"It says that all men are such brutes that if exposed to any more normally clothed women, they cannot be trusted to behave - and that all women who dress any more scantily like that are indecent. It's abusive, a walking rejection of all our freedoms." – Mr Sexton, columnist for ‘The Evening Standard’

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The increasing numbers of veiled Muslim women are fueling the debate over the role of Muslims in British life.

Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes. On a Sunday afternoon in Hyde Park, groups of black-clad Muslim women relaxed on the green baize lawn among the in-line skaters and badminton players.

Their appearance, like little else, has unnerved other Britons, testing the limits of tolerance here and fueling the debate over the role of Muslims in British life.

Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. Meanwhile, there are growing efforts to place legal curbs on the full-face Muslim veil, known as the niqab.

There have been numerous examples in the past year. A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that she could not represent a client because, he said, he could not hear her. A teacher wearing a niqab was dismissed from her school. A student who was barred from wearing a niqab took her case to the courts, and lost. In reaction, the British educational authorities are proposing a ban on the niqab in schools altogether.

A leading Labor Party politician, Jack Straw, scolded women last year for coming to see him in his district office in the niqab. Prime Minister Tony Blair has called the niqab a "mark of separation."

David Sexton, a columnist for The Evening Standard, wrote recently that the niqab was an affront and that Britain had been "too deferential." Muslims' Veils Test Limits of Britain's Tolerance (more) By Jane Perlez

Mark Alexander

Blair to Become Roman Catholic Soon
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair is planning to announce that he will convert to Roman Catholicism soon after he meets the Pope at the Vatican tomorrow, according to Church sources and friends of the Prime Minister.

Mr Blair, an Anglican, may even inform the Pontiff of his intentions and seek his approval at the audience, which he is due to attend with his wife Cherie, a devout Catholic, and their daughter Kathryn.
Downing Street would not confirm the intended conversion last night.
However, The Daily Telegraph understands that it is the Prime Minister's firm intention to begin formal preparations as soon as possible after the hand-over of power to Gordon Brown next Wednesday. Blair will convert to Catholicism ‘soon’ (more) By Jonathan Petre

Mark Alexander