Friday, June 04, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: French defenders of natural wine corks have launched a multi-million pound offensive to counter the rise of the screw cap and plastic stopper, which they argue kill the mystique of bottle-opening.
Debate has been raging for years over whether the familiar sound of popping corks should be ditched in favour of alternatives that reduce the risk of a "corked" wine.
Cork stoppers have been used for centuries, but their dominance has gradually dropped from 95 per cent of the world wine bottle market to 70 per cent over the past 15 years.
But France's cork federation has hit back at those who say the spongy bark has had its day with a poll suggesting that almost nine out of ten French people prefer the traditional stopper.
They are using the figure to spearhead a massive poster campaign featuring wine and champagne bottles with bizarre alternative stoppers - from a perfume spray top to a plastic duck – with the slogan: "Always imitated, never equalled".
Eight out of ten French people, the Ipsos poll suggests, also equate real cork with quality wine, well-preserved aromas and long conservation. Almost all said cork perpetuated age-old savoir-faire. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, June 03, 2010
THE SHREWD ECONOMIST: Put a cork in it! >>>
WATCH SHORT BBC VIDEO: Cork harvest >>> | Friday, September 05, 2008
LISTEN TO BBC AUDIO: Cork industry under threat: Cork has been described as 'the ultimate green product', but the industry is under threat. >>> Paul Henry | Friday, September 05, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Is Turkey a Western outpost in the east or a Muslim country with European aspirations? Unloved in most of the EU, Ankara has been performing an awkward tightrope act in its neighbourhood, preaching Western values to Muslim countries while nurturing close ties with Israel.
Monday’s raid on the Gaza peace flotilla has exposed the flaws in that strategy. As parliament called on the Government yesterday to review military co-operation with Israel, Turkey was drifting where some commentators argue it has always belonged — towards the Middle East.
After cancelling war games and recalling its ambassador, Ankara has become one of Israel’s loudest critics overnight. With the domestic media pumping out ceaseless images of the raid and wounded Turks returning home, security had to be stepped up at Israeli diplomatic missions and across Istanbul to protect the Jewish community from public anger. >>> Analysis: Alexander Christie-Miller | Thursday, June 03, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: New Zealand's prime minister John Key has revealed he's had the snip - and left his audience in embarrassed silence
As a nation, we can let out a well-repressed sigh of relief. There is a country even more prudish about things "down below" than us. John Key, New Zealand's prime minister, has reportedly "silenced a room full of press" by informing them that he'd had – brace yourselves – a vasectomy.
Proceedings ground to a clanging halt as the press mentally processed this horrifying image of the leader of a powerful nation (well, New Zealand) willingly submitting to "the snip".
"Boy, that's slowed things down. Any other questions?" asked the PM, eager to get back to the subject of the press conference: funding for early childhood education centres (he had been asked if his views would change if he were to have another child). But clearly that wasn't going to work – after a pause, the next question was, inevitably: "Did it hurt?" "Not overly," was the measured response. >>> Jon Robins | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Related: Nick It, Snip It, Cut It >>>
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Christian Wulff ist wie geschaffen für das Amt des Landesvaters: Er scheut Kontroversen, fängt Stimmungen auf und gibt sie wieder. Gegenüber der Kanzlerin ist er zwar loyal - vertraut oder gar herzlich sind seine Beziehungen zu ihr aber nicht.
Christian Wulff schätzt sanfte Töne. Der Kandidat für das Amt des Bundespräsidenten scheint wie geschaffen für das Amt des Landesvaters, auch wenn er das anders sehen mag: Er scheut Kontroversen, fängt Stimmungen auf und gibt sie wieder. Auch in einer großen Versammlung beobachtet er Reaktionen und Anwesende und vermag über viele Stuhlreihen hinweg gezielt Botschaften zu vermitteln. >>> Von Robert von Lucius | Donnerstag, 03. Juni 2010
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YAHOO! TV: Rue McClanahan, who was best known for her role in 'The Golden Girls', has died at the age of 76.
The actress played man-eater Blanche Deveraux in the hugely popular US sitcom for seven years between 1985 and 1992.
Before finding worldwide fame in the series, McClanahan had acted on Broadway and later co-starred with future 'Golden Girl' Bea Arthur in the US series 'Maude'.
Her manager told People magazine that she passed away earlier today with her family by her side following a massive stroke.
Her death comes just over a year after that of her former co-star Bea Arthur, who played Dorothy in the series. Estelle Getty, who played Dorothy's mother Sophia, died in 2008.
Rue McClanahan's death leaves 88-year-old Betty White the only surviving star of the series.
Leave your tributes to the actress... here >>> Paul Johnston | Thursday, June 03, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: A woman has been fined for driving while wearing a burka because the garment "reduced her field of vision".
Police stopped the Muslim woman during routine drink-drive checks on motorists in Louvroil, northern France.
The Islamic driver had not been drinking but instead officers issued her with a £17 fine for breaking road safety rules.
Two months ago, a separate woman was pulled over in Nantes, western France, for driving in a full face veil and also fined.
The latest incident comes as French MPs prepare to vote on whether to impose a full ban on wearing burkas and niqabs later this year.
Moves to ban the burka in France come after a year of heated national debate and mounting public tensions over the issue.
Last month, France's reported its first known case of 'burka rage', when a female lawyer ripped off a Muslim woman's veil in a bust-up in a clothes shop.
And last year a Muslim woman took her local council to court after she was banned from wearing a 'burqini' swimsuit at her local pool for 'hygiene reasons'. >>> | Thursday, June 03, 2010
WELT ONLINE: Entscheidung in der Köhler-Nachfolge: Merkel, Seehofer und Westerwelle haben sich auf Niedersachsens Ministerpräsident Wulff (CDU) geeinigt.
Niedersachsens Ministerpräsident Christian Wulff (CDU) soll neuer Bundespräsident werden. Drei Tage nach dem Überraschungs-Rücktritt von Horst Köhler einigten sich Kanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU), CSU-Chef Horst Seehofer und der FDP-Vorsitzende Guido Westerwelle auf den 50-jährigen Regierungschef, wie aus Koalitionskreisen bekannt wurde.
Am Abend wird Merkel den Unions-Ministerpräsidenten die Personalie abschließend präsentieren.
Bis Mittwoch galt zunächst Bundesarbeitsministerin Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) als Favoritin für das höchste Staatsamt. Gegen sie habe es Widerstände in der Union geben, hieß es. Zudem sei es ein Problem gewesen, sie in ihrem Schlüsselressort zu ersetzen. >>> | Donnerstag, 03. Juni 2010
WELT ONLINE: Sein eigener Chauffeur soll den Vorsitzenden der türkischen Bischofs-konferenz erstochen haben. Als Grund werden "psychische Störungen" vermutet.
Der katholische Bischof Luigi Padovese, apostolischer Vikar für Anatolien und Vorsitzender der türkischen Bischofskkonferenz, ist am Donnerstag in seiner Sommerresidenz im südtürkischen Iskenderun ermordet worden. Die Polizei geht davon aus, dass sein Fahrer Murat Altun ihn nach einer Auseinandersetung erstach. Padovese starb auf dem Weg ins Krankenhaus.
Der Tatverdächtige wurde nach kurzer Flucht gefasst und verhaftet. Die Tatwaffe war nach Auskunft der Behörden noch bei ihm. Die Polizei geht nicht von einem politischen oder religiösen Hintergrund für die Tat aus, sondern vermutet „psychische Störungen“ des Täters als Grund für den Mord. >>> Von Boris Kalnóky | Donnerstag, 03. Juni 2010
LE FIGARO: Monseigneur Luigi Padovese, vicaire apostolique d'Anatolie, a été tué par son chauffeur. Ce meurtre n'aurait pas de mobile politique.
Le Vatican s'est dit «consterné et horrifié». Son vicaire apostolique d'Anatolie et président de la conférence épiscopale turque a été mortellement poignardé jeudi dans le jardin de sa maison d'été de Karaagac, dans la banlieue d'Iskenderun au sud de la Turquie. Retrouvé gisant dans une marre de sang, Monseigneur Luigi Padovese, 63 ans, est mort lors de son transfert à l'hôpital.
L'agresseur du prêtre italien a été rapidement interpellé. Selon le gouverneur de la région, il s'agit du chauffeur de Luigi Padovese. Murat A., qui était en possession de l'arme du crime, travaillait pour le religieux depuis 4 ans et demi. Selon les premiers éléments de l'enquête, le meurtre n'aurait pas de mobile politique. Murat A. souffrait de troubles psychiatriques. «Cela relève à priori d'une affaire privée», affirme le gouverneur. Des précédentes attaques contre des religieux >>> Par lefigaro.fr | Jeudi 03 Juin 2010
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
No one should hold his breath that anything will be done about this most vexing of questions in the near future. It takes balls to tackle the problem of immigration; and balls are what most politicians these days sorely lack. – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: With Labour at last accepting that immigration is an issue, the Coalition needs to move fast, says Benedict Brogan
It is still just about possible to go through life without spotting how Britain is being changed by immigration – if you are a hermit, or live on one of the more remote of the Hebridean islands, or are insulated from the realities of everyday life by money or power.
If you are a politician, of course, you can choose not to see. Gordon Brown presided, both as chancellor and prime minister, over a record influx of migrants, but was indifferent to the consequences. Isolated in a world bounded by Downing Street, his official Jaguar and his ethnically homogenous Scottish village above the Forth, his was never the experience of most citizens, in particular those in the capital.
When Gillian Duffy tried to raise the issue with him during the campaign, his instinctive response was to dismiss her as a bigot. No matter that six months before, he had found it politically expedient to identify himself with such concerns. "I have never agreed with the lazy elitism that dismisses immigration as an issue, or portrays anyone who has concerns about immigration as a racist," he assured us, before doing just that to Mrs Duffy. "Immigration is … a question about what it means to be British."
In fact, immigration ranks as one of Labour's greatest, most durable failures. Worse than that, it was a wilful failure – as secret documents revealed earlier this year, Labour opened the floodgate for social as well as economic reasons, in an attempt to change the culture of the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity".
The consequences, in terms of social tensions and pressures on local services, can be seen almost everywhere. During the election campaign, immigration was consistently the most important issue for voters, after the economy. Yet Mr Brown was oblivious to it. He was the dealer who got us hooked on cheap foreign labour, and its artificial highs of unsustainable growth and low inflation. Ministers learned not to ask awkward questions. With no reliable statistics on who was coming in, who was here, and who was going out, "I don't know" become [sic] a legitimate excuse.
Tony Blair set the orthodoxy by proclaiming that we were not a "high-immigration country", and his followers duly repeated it. David Blunkett, who could normally be relied on to speak plainly on behalf of those who knew things were changing but could not say why, pronounced that there was "no obvious upper limit" on immigration.
And until the economic crisis hit, he was right. The numbers say it all. Net immigration jumped in a decade from about 41,000 a year to 233,000 in 2007. It fell to 163,000 in 2008, but only because more people left the country. The number of people entering Britain that year actually rose, from 574,000 to 590,000. Even now, they keep on coming, drawn to a country that offers more opportunities (and even greater welfare support) than just about anywhere else. >>> Benedict Brogan | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has launched an outspoken attack on the Israeli authorities over their arrests of British detainees from the flotilla.
As the detainees were deported from a prison camp via Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Mr Hague said he was "seriously concerned" at the seizure of British nationals in international waters.
He added that nine had still not been seen by consular staff, and complained of the difficulty in gaining access to the other 28.
"We are urgently pressing the Israeli government to resolve this situation within hours," Mr Hague said. "There is real, understandable and justified anger at the events which have unfolded.
"In some cases consular staff have been having to go to the prison at Beersheva, hammer on doors and ask people if they are British. It has been a chaotic situation, it is completely unsatisfactory."
Earlier in the day the prime minister, David Cameron, used question-time in the House of Commons to call the Israeli attack on the flotilla "completely unacceptable".
Together the attacks on Israel and its government amount to a new low in the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Britain and Israel.
While the Foreign Office has often notoriously been criticised for pro-Arab leanings, the Israelis have always been assured of an understanding ear in Downing Street, particularly under the governments of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. That may now have changed. >>> Richard Spencer and Murray Wardrop | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Divided over its commitment to the eurozone, riven by the resignation of its president, Germany is a nation set against itself
Talleyrand once said that the problem with Russia is that it is always both too weak and too strong at the same time. After the upheavals in the eurozone over the Greek bailout and now the resignation of the country's president over military policy, is the same now true of Germany?
Germany's position as primus inter pares in both the eurozone and the European Union always underscores her economic and political strength. The bailout for the Greeks boiled down to whether the Germans, inevitably, were prepared to take on the lion's share of the loans. In the end, in last month's fractious Bundestag vote, they did so. But German taxpayers, who (the British often forget) have spent most of the last 20 years bearing the cost of the economic rescue of East Germany, are fed up of spending so much of their money on bailouts for others.
Last month's Land election in North Rhine-Westphalia proved there is no political reward to be harvested from good deeds for others. The crisis has left Angela Merkel weakened and with few good options. As a result Germany has one large party, the CDU, which vacillates about doing the right thing and is punished, and another, more diminished party, the SPD, which would once have been ready to do the right thing but is now more interested in profiting from voter anger – as its ringing abstention in the Bundestag over Greece proved. A similar uncertainty runs through the saga of President Horst Köhler's resignation this week. >>> Martin Kettle | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Germany is increasingly resentful of being seen as the cashpoint for its cash-strapped southern neighbours
At a recent summit of European leaders in Brussels, Angela Merkel was feeling tetchy.
As the 27 government chiefs wrestled with compulsory jobs targets for the decade ahead, the German chancellor balked when asked to stick to the same employment rate as everyone else.
"Not all the member states will reach that target," she answered, according to a note of the summit made available to the Guardian. "If some don't go so far, does this mean Germany has to [go further]?" No one asked Berlin to do more than its partners. But Merkel suspected otherwise. The discussion turned to climate change targets. Again Merkel complained. Germany, she signalled, was getting a raw deal in Europe, a sentiment reinforced by senior people in her entourage such as Uwe Corsepius, her influential European adviser.
The prickliness is symptomatic of the change in how Berlin sees the EU. For 50 years, Europe has been Germany's passport to peace, prosperity and power. When Germany pursued its national interests, it did so effectively, benignly and called it "Europa". Those days are over. The German elite feels maligned and misunderstood. In public, and much more frankly in private, senior figures talk of robustly asserting the German national interest.
"It may be new for Europe that Germany is representing its interests with new vigour," said Thomas de Maizière, the interior minister and a Merkel confidant. "But for Britain, France or Italy, this was always a matter of course."
"The mood among the Germans is quite defensive. They feel people are ganging up on them," said an EU ambassador.
A senior official in Brussels who deals regularly with Merkel added: "The love affair [with Europe] is over. When I meet German journalists, they ask 'what is the added value of Europe for Germany'."
The change – from pushing Europe forward to balking at the sacrifices Germany has to make – is a tectonic shift in the EU.
Nowhere has the new approach been more striking than in the euro crisis, where Merkel's mixture of hectoring and hesitation has shocked fellow EU leaders and generated mutual recrimination. The financial crisis exposed fundamental differences in outlook between northern and southern Europe, and conflicts of national interest between Germany and France. Egged on by both the tabloids and quality newspapers engaging in an orgy of Greece-bashing and injured outrage verging on self-pity, Berlin is slumped in surly resentment at being seen as the cashpoint for cash-strapped southern Europeans. >>> Ian Traynor in Brussels | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Idris Tawfiq, Former Catholic Priest, and Convert to Islam
THE TELEGRAPH: Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has compared the Gaza flotilla attack with America's fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
In an interview with Fox News, he described the operation, in which nine people died, as "perfectly legal, perfectly humane – and very responsible".
He defending the attack in open waters, saying: "Israel acted in accord with international law. Any state has the right to protect itself, certainly from a terrorist threat such as Hamas, including on the open seas.
"The US acted under similar international law when it fought the Germans and the Japanese in World War Two."
His comments came as Israel began deporting hundreds of activists seized from the flotilla, including more than 120 activists from Muslim countries who were taken to the border with Jordan early this morning.
There is no immediate word on the fate of 42 British nationals who were on the convoy of ships.
US President Barack Obama has spoken to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey, which had branded the attack a "bloody massacre", the White House said.
The President expressed "deep condolences" over the deaths on board a Turkish flagged ship that was part of the flotilla and said Washington was working with Israel on the release of impounded vessels and passengers.
In his television interview, Mr Oren said Israel "has to make some hard choices sometimes," adding: "We live in a rough neighbourhood." >>> Alastair Jamieson | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: The era of the personal computer is coming to an end and the tablet will take its place, Steve Jobs predicted yesterday.
As Apple’s iPad racked up sales for more than two million since launch two months ago, the company’s chief executive said the transition was inevitable.
In a 90-minute performance on stage at the All Things D Conference near Los Angeles, Mr Jobs trashed Adobe over its Flash technology, spoke of his concern at the spate of suicides at the Foxconn factory in China and deflected questions about his rivalry with Google by talking about his sex life.
Mr Jobs, dressed in his trademark black polo necked top and jeans, said the iPad and other tablet-style computing devices would not completely replace laptops and desktop computers in the “post-PC era” but they would consign them to a smaller niche market.
“The transformation of the PC to new form factors like the tablet is going to make some people uneasy because the PC has taken us a long ways,” he said.
He revealed that he had started working on a tablet long before the iPhone - launched in 2007 - but switched to making a phone when he saw the possibilities of the touchscreen. Handsets are a much bigger market than personal computers. Apple has now sold more than 50 million iPhones worldwide in three years.
Worries that tablet computers were not suitable for word processing and other complex types of content creation such as photo-editing would be solved in time, Mr Jobs said, standing by his description of the iPad as a “magical” device. Tablets provided a more direct and intimate computing experience, he said. Read on and comment >>> Mike Harvey, Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
HAARETZ: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogu [sic] says future of Turkish-Israeli relationship depends on Israel's attitude.
Turkey said on Wednesday it was ready to normalize ties with Israel if the Jewish state lifts a blockade on Gaza and said "it was time calm replaces anger" in the wake of Israel's deadly raid on a Turkish-backed flotilla.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogu, in Ankara after a visit to the United States to discuss the diplomatic crisis, also told a news conference that the future of Turkish-Israeli ties depended on Israel's attitude. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel following Monday's storming of Gaza bound aid ships. >>> Reuters | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Israel has begun deporting hundreds of activists seized from the flotilla of ships intercepted with lethal force in international waters off Gaza earlier this week.
More than 120 activists from Muslim countries were taken to the border with Jordan early this morning. Around 60 Turkish detainees were waiting for flights at Ben Gurion airport, while another 70 were en route to the airport to be repatriated.
There was no immediate word on the fate of 42 British nationals who were on the convoy of ships taken over by the Israeli navy with the loss of nine lives. One was deported immediately but the remainder were being seen by British consulate staff on Tuesday afternoon and evening.
The man deported, Hasan Nowarah, from Glasgow, flew home on Tuesday evening. (+ video) >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East correspondent, and Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
YNET NEWS: Culture of lies good for Israel, leaves Arabs mired in cesspool of misery
Dishonesty and deceit have become part and parcel of current-day politics worldwide. Yet even within this reality, the culture of lies prevalent throughout the Arab world goes far beyond the “norm.” The utterance of lies by Arab leaders and politicians has become so deeply rooted, blatant, and irrational that it cannot be compared to the usual manipulation of information we see elsewhere.
While the sight of club-wielding “activists” claiming to be “peace lovers” or Knesset Member Zoabi insisting that IDF troops were not met with violence on board the Marmara – in the face of unequivocal video footage – may be infuriating at first, these and similar examples are in fact good news for Israel.
Indeed, the culture of lies and web of deceit that has taken root in Arab political life is a source of great weakness; Arabs are paying the price for it every day and will continue to do so as long as this mentality persists.
In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “You can't fool all of the people all the time." While global public opinion has been largely receptive to Arab lies, their sheer scope and ludicrousness have left many shaking their heads. When one lies so much and so blatantly, one is bound to get caught. In this respect, it would be worthwhile to pay less attention to online talkbacks and more to actual political developments. >>> Yigal Walt | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: A council has been accused of dis-crimination after white people were barred from applying for two £18,000-a-year jobs.
Bristol City has created the management training posts for graduates in an effort to recruit more minority employees.
As a result the council will only accept applications from ethnic minorities for the two-year placements.
But this has prompted criticism from white graduates struggling to find work.
One jobseeker, who did not wish to be named, described the posts as 'totally racist'.
He said: 'I am a tolerant white person who has lived in Bristol for 27 years.
'I am searching for a job and stumbled across a job advertisement on Bristol City Council's website that I see as totally racist. The £18,000 council job you can't apply for if you are white >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Israel's attack on the Gaza flotilla was the main story of newspapers around the world.
Under the headline "Complicated relationship with the US grows more so", The Washington Post said that incident, coming days before Mr Netanyahu was due to meet President Obama at the White House for what they term a "kiss and make up session", has cast a serious cloud over US-Israeli relations.
"The timing of the incident is remarkably bad for Israel and the United States," the paper said.
The New York Times reported on street protests erupting around the world under the headline: "After deadly raid at sea, Israel is sharply criticised".
In France, the right-wing Le Figaro held back from outright condemnation, taking a cautious tone under the headline "Israel isolated after assault off Gaza". >>> | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
GALA.fr: Les lecteurs du magazine américain GQ ont désigné le Prince Harry, comme l’homme le plus sympathique du moment.
Le jeune prétendant au trône d’Angleterre a séduit les lecteurs de GQ >>> LC | Mardi 01 Juin 2010
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM: Just recently, John Brennan, Deputy National Security Advisor, announced that we may no longer describe our enemy as ‘Jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because Jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam.
I have news for Mr. Brennan: it is not Americans who invented the word “Jihad”; it is Muslims who have used that word for 1400 years. Brennan is right in that Jihad is a major tenet of Islam, but he is wrong in calling it legitimate because it is a declaration of war and violence against non-Muslim individuals, governments and nations.
The Obama administration refuses to understand that the doctrine of Jihad challenges the sovereignty of any non-Muslim country and denies it exercising its right to remain non-Muslim. But after standing against the Arizona law, the current administration seems to care little about protecting the sovereignty of the United States.
If John Brennan is interested, this is the definition of Jihad given in mainstream Shafii law: “to war against non-Muslims, derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare, to establish the religion” (Shafii law # o9.0 p. 599).
To ensure that all Muslims perform or at least support Jihad, there is also a law that states that not performing Jihad or fleeing from combat with “unbelievers” is considered an enormous crime (Shafii law 377 p. 987). Not only is Jihad the duty of every Muslim, but of every Muslim head of state. Sharia says: “The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim” (o9.9 p. 603).
This Muslim notion of Jihad is being taught today across the Muslim world and producing thousands of young men and women who are committed to killing us. Jihadi commandments to kill and engage in aggressive wars against non-Muslims are all over Muslim scriptures and preached from mosques across the Middle East and even in the West. Such violent Jihadi commandments have never been amended, annulled or denied by any Muslim group with authority in the Middle East. >>> Nonie Darwish | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Part 1:
Part 2:
*This pro-Islam president is bad news for America. Where on earth does Obama get the notion that Islam has “an extraordinary tradition of tolerance and peaceful coexistence” and that “that tradition is being distorted and being warped”! What a load of BS this president speaks! Talk about deception! This is it! – © Mark
NRC HANDELSBLAD: As the Dutch election campaign centres on the economy, the populist Islam-basher Geert Wilders has lost momentum.
Geert Wilders makes clear choices about which media he talks to. He refuses to be interviewed by NRC Handelsblad, for example, and to give reasons for his refusal. Interviews with media that are, apparently, unacceptable to him don’t seem to fit into his campaign strategy. He also denied daily Trouw an interview and generally avoids public television, though he participates in their prime ministerial debates in the run-up to the June 9 election.
When he does appear in the media, Wilders tries to send a clear message: Islam is a huge danger, mass immigration costs billions, and the average Dutch voter is best served by the left socio-economic programme of his PVV. Wilders, who until 2004 sat in parliament for the right-wing liberal VVD, promises the state pension age will not be raised, tax benefits on mortgages will remain intact, and there will be no cuts in unemployment benefit. But he turns every political debate to his core business. “Other parties want to slash unemployment benefits while seven billion euros are spent each year on mass immigration,” was one of his first contributions to last Wednesday’s TV debate on the economy.
The remark was his attempt to regain lost ground in the final weeks of the election campaign. Six months ago, his party was leading some of the polls, but it has been overtaken by the right-wing liberals, Labour and the Christian democrats. When the government fell in February, Wilders proclaimed that the election battle would be between his party and Labour. But the real fight is now between the traditional left and right. Primary combatants are Job Cohen, the labour party leader, Mark Rutte, head of the right-wing liberal party VVD, and Jan Peter Balkenende of the Christian democrats. Wilders has been edged to the sidelines now the principal electoral issue is the economy rather than immigration. Changed his tone >>> Barbara Rijlaarsdam and Herman Staal | Monday, May 31, 2010
NRC HANDELSBLAD: Dissident breaks ranks with Wilders' party: For years, Geert Wilders' PVV party presented a remarkably unified front to the outside world. Now, for the first time, one of the PVV's members of parliament is openly breaking ranks. >>> Barbara Rijlaarsdam and Herman Staal | Published Wednesday, May 12, 2010; Updated Friday, May 14, 2010
SAUDI GAZETTE: JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia and US were cooperating closely on security, and both shared a deep concern about militant activities in Yemen, said US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano here Monday.
“The security coordination is very strong with Saudi Arabia,” she said after meetings with King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and senior officials.
“We all share a concern about terrorist activity emanating from Yemen,” Napolitano said.
Speaking at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Napolitano said that she met Saudi officials to discuss security issues and US visas for Saudi students, but that she did not discuss terror financing. >>> Jassim Alghamdi | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
ARAB NEWS – Editorial: Israel has once again shown its true colors to the world with its murderous piracy in international waters.
What Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so rightly called “a massacre” saw the death of at least 10 peace activists on board the lead ship of the six-vessel Freedom Flotilla and the injury of scores others, as heavily armed Israeli commandos seized the convoy and sailed it toward their port of Ashdod. Israeli sources put the toll at nine. The full details of this outrage are not yet clear since the Israeli authorities are censoring all reports and used sophisticated jamming technology to halt media broadcasts from the vessels as they were assaulted. The truth will only become known when 700 journalists and peace activists are released and can give their testimony. >>> | Monday, May 31, 2010
SAUDI GAZETTE: JEDDAH – The Cabinet condemned on Monday the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, describing it as an “act of aggression reflecting Israel’s inhumane practices and its evident challenge to the whole of the international community and international law and its persistence in starving the Palestinian people and depriving them of aid, as well as the killing of innocent people”.
The Cabinet appealed to the international community to “take action against the hostility and barbaric policy of the Israeli occupying forces”. >>> SPA | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Chairman of Kingdom Holding Company Prince Alwaleed bin Talal with billionaire businessman Bill Gates at the 14th Microsoft CEO Summit in Washington, Seattle. The summit was attended by 100 top CEOs. Prince Alwaleed and Gates are co-owners of the Four Seasons group of hotels and resorts. [Source: Arab News]
THE SCOTSMAN: Israel is isolated by world condemnation after attack on aid flotilla: THE international community united in condemning Israel yesterday following an attack on an aid flotilla bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip that left at least ten people dead. >>> Claire Smith and Mark Smith | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: UN formally condemns Israel's deadly assault on Gaza aid flotilla: UN security council calls for impartial investigation after pro-Palestinian activists killed by Israelis in Mavi Marmara raid >>> Harriet Sherwood in Ashdod and Matthew Weaver | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Guardian video here
THE INDEPENDENT: Al-Qa'ida's third-in-command, whose role spanned from operations to fundraising, is believed to have been killed last month in a US missile strike in Pakistan, dealing a serious blow to the embattled group.
Sheikh Sa'id al-Masri, also known as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was believed to be killed along with members of his family in a strike by a pilotless CIA-operated drone attack. al-Qa'ida confirmed his death in a statement on a Islamist website earlier on Monday.
"We have strong reason to believe ... that al-Masri was killed recently in Pakistan's tribal areas," a US official in Washington said on condition of anonymity. "In terms of counterterrorism, this would be a big victory." >>> Zeeshan Haider, Reuters | Tuesday, June 01, 2010
TRIBUNE MAGAZINE: Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns Oxford University Press, £16.99
At last! A well balanced book about Ayn Rand (1905-82), the guru of selfishness. After all the attack memoirs and right-wing adulation, Jennifer Burns has finally given us an intellectual biography of the founder of objectivism that can truly be described as objective. Burns explains Rand’s integrated system of ideas in clear language, showing us how it developed out of her life experiences and personal relationships, both intellectual and emotional. To her credit, Burns resists the temptation to snipe at such an inviting target as the elitist and dogmatic Rand and, wherever possible, she presents negative criticism using the original words of Rand’s colleagues and contemporaries.
Goddess of the Market traces Rand’s irresistible rise from bourgeois Russian origins to fame and fortune in America and shows how the success of her two blockbuster novels – The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) – which both glorified heroic individualism – allowed her to use her celebrity as a platform for her subsequent career as political ideologue and philosopher. She invented an abstract rational system called objectivism, which was designed to keep the world safe from communism by proving (mostly by assertion) that capitalism was the most rational and moral form of human society.
But even as an anti-communist in America, she discovered that she didn’t quite fit in. She was an atheist iconoclast, not a traditionalist reactionary, and was forced to create her own niche on the contrarian far right, promoting guilt-free wealth creation and denouncing the state, but viciously opposed to libertarians, anarcho-capitalists and religious conservatives. Thus she escaped from the tyranny of collectivism in Russia only to end up in a self-created dystopia of heightened rhetoric where she lived out a life of extreme alarmism, always imagining civilisation was crashing around her ears. >>> Roddy Matthews |Friday, May 28, 2010
HT: Guido Fawkes >>>
THE TELEGRAPH: Public sector rich list: salaries of civil servants who earn more than PM: The pay of more than 170 senior civil servants who earn more than the Prime Minister have been disclosed as the starting point of a radical move towards more open government. >>> Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor | Monday, May 31, 2010
Fat Cat Civil Servants >>>
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