Monday, June 28, 2010
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Julia Gillard doesn't want to move into the Lodge until she gets a democratic tick of approval. Or so she says. Maybe the real reason she is stalling is to test the waters about public reaction to moving her first bloke in there with her.
Most media commentators are relaxed about a de facto first couple. Why not, they say, everyone's doing it. What's the big deal about living together?
They are right about the fact cohabitation - what some call ''marriage lite'' - is changing the social map. Census figures show the proportion of adults in de facto relationships more than doubled between 1986 and 2006. With other countries showing similar shifts, many social scientists studying this trend conclude marriage lite is not a change for the better.
It's fine for Gillard - a 48-year-old woman - to live with her bloke. Yet as a popular role model for women, her lifestyle choice may influence other women into making big mistakes about their lives.
Cohabitation produces two groups of losers among women and children. Most women want to have children - Gillard is an exception - and some miss out after wasting their primary reproductive years in a succession of live-in relationships which look hopeful but go nowhere, leaving them childless and partnerless as they hit 40. (+video) >>> Bettina Arndt | Tuesday, June 29, 2010
BRISBANE TIMES: Prime Minister Julia Gillard has left her predecessor Kevin Rudd out of her new cabinet but says she would be ''absolutely delighted'' to see him serve as a senior minister if the government is re-elected.
Ms Gillard unveiled her new cabinet in Canberra this afternoon, with few changes announced to the frontbench. She said Mr Rudd would be accommodated as a senior minister if the Labor government won the next election.
''It is best to have as limited a reshuffle as possible to keep the maximum stability in the team,'' she added. Instead, Ms Gillard has handed her own portfolios of education, employment, workplace relations and social inclusion to former Labor leader Simon Crean.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith will take on the added role of Mr Crean's portfolio of trade.
Ms Gillard said Mr Smith had been doing a ‘‘great job’’ as foreign minister.
Ms Gillard said she had spoken to Mr Rudd about his future and he had confirmed he would run for his seat at the next election.
‘‘Consequently what I have said to Kevin Rudd is I would be absolutely delighted to see him serve as a senior cabinet minister in the team if the government is re-elected,’’ she said. Gillard leaves Rudd out of reshuffled cabinet >>> Tim Lester and Phillip Coorey | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Staff from foreign embassies in Britain have escaped prosecution despite allegedly committing a range of offences including human trafficking, sexual assault, threats to kill and drinking and driving.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said that a number of diplomats were responsible for “serious offences” which could carry a prison sentence of one year or more, but had escaped charges because of diplomatic immunity. These included a Saudi Arabian national who allegedly carried out a sexual assault while another from his country was supposedly engaged in human trafficking, as was a diplomat from Sierra Leone. Both the sexual assault and trafficking cases involved domestic staff brought into the UK to work at homes of diplomats, it is believed.
A Pakistani diplomat allegedly made a threat to kill someone, a Nigerian could have faced charges of actual bodily harm and one from Cameroon allegedly neglected a young person - a member of his family. A Gambian diplomat was arrested for shoplifting after leaving a London department store with unpaid for items including pairs of socks, the man is believed to be a “repeat offender”.
Diplomats from Brazil, Germany, Russia, Tanzania, the US, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) were stopped drinking and driving and one allegedly drunk Bahraini diplomat was driving uninsured. >>> Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Belgium will support the enlargement of the European Union to include Croatia, Iceland and Turkey during its forthcoming presidency of the bloc.
Olivier Chastel, the Belgian secretary of state for EU affairs, in a joint news conference with Spanish counterpart Diego Lopez Garrido, raised the possibility of the opening of a new chapter in negotiations with Turkey in the coming months after Spain, which currently holds the EU presidency, backed Ankara's bid despite resistance from France and Germany.
Belgium takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency from Spain on July 1.
The EU began membership talks with Turkey in 2005 but the process has made slow progress. Only 12 of the 35 policy chapters, which all EU candidate countries must successfully negotiate prior to membership, are open.
Eight chapters remain totally blocked due to Ankara's failure to open its borders to EU member Cyprus. >>> | Monday, June 28, 2010
LE FIGARO: Lors de l'inauguration d'une grande mosquée à Argenteuil, le premier ministre a loué l'Islam de France, une religion du «juste milieu», et promis d'être «intraitable» à l'égard du racisme.
A quelques jours du débat parlementaire sur le niqab, qui démarre le 6 juillet, François Fillon s'est livré à un éloge de l'islam de France lundi. Le premier ministre inaugurait la mosquée al Ihsan, à Argenteuil, dans le Val-d'Oise. Et ce sans le ministre de l'Intérieur et des cultes, Brice Hortefeux, dont la présence avait pourtant été annoncée. Interrogé sur cette absence, Matignon a expliqué que le premier ministre lui avait demandé de «préparer le texte sur les collectivités territoriales» qui sera discuté en fin de journée au Sénat.
Pour cette première inauguration d'une mosquée de la part d'un chef du gouvernement français sous la Ve République, François Fillon a assuré que «la réalité de l'islam de France aujourd'hui» était «celle d'un islam de paix et de dialogue», une religion du «juste milieu» où l'on vit sa foi dans le respect «des principes de la République». Devant plusieurs représentants d'une communauté musulmane en partie ébranlée par le débat sur l'identité nationale et celui sur le port du voile intégral, le premier ministre a martelé : «Aujourd'hui les personnes de confession musulmane et leurs lieux de cultes sont encore trop souvent l'objet de discriminations et la cible d'agressions que nous ne pouvons tolérer. Oui, il y a en France des actes anti-musulmans», a-t-il poursuivi, promettant d'être «intraitable» contre ces actes. Continuez à lire et écrire un commentaire >>> Par lefigaro.fr | Lundi 28 Juin 2010
CYBERPRESSE: La Cour suprême américaine a lâché la bride lundi à la possession des armes à feu aux États-Unis, que les pouvoirs locaux auront davantage de difficulté à limiter ou à interdire, au nom du Deuxième amendement de la Constitution.
«Il s'agit d'un grand jour dans l'histoire des États-Unis», a immédiatement réagi après l'annonce de la décision la puissante NRA, un groupe d'influence qui prône une complète libéralisation des armes.
Plus de 200 millions d'armes à feu sont en circulation aux États-Unis (pour 300 millions d'habitants), régies par les pouvoirs locaux, et provoquent 30 000 décès par an, selon les statistiques de la Brady Campaign, qui milite à l'inverse pour un durcissement des limitations.
Dans une décision à cinq voix contre quatre, la plus haute juridiction des États-Unis a estimé lundi que «le Deuxième amendement garantit le droit individuel de chacun de conserver et de porter une arme à feu pour servir des intérêts légaux, notamment l'auto-défense chez soi». >>> Lucile Malandain, Agence France-Presse | Lundi 28 Juin 2010
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Supreme Court extends rights of gun owners: The court's 5-4 decision in the 2nd Amendment case paves the way for challenges to laws restricting gun ownership, but Justice Samuel Alito says it will not 'imperil every law regulating firearms.' >>> David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE CHRISTIAN POST: PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Muslim students attacked a Christian professor at the University of Peshawar this month after he refused their demand to convert to Islam, the instructor told Compass.
Psychology professor Samuel John, a father of four who has been teaching at the university in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province for 12 years, said that as he came out of his house on the university campus at 8:30 a.m. on June 14, about 20 to 25 students rushed and assaulted him.
“I shouted for help, but no one came to help,” he said.
When his wife learned what was happening, she ran to help him, but the students beat her as well. Both John and his wife were rushed to Lady Reading hospital, where they were treated for their injuries, with John listed in critical condition.
“I am still getting threats,” the professor told Compass. “They say, ‘Leave the university or accept Islam – if you don’t convert, we will kill your family.” >>> Compass Direct News | Monday, June 28, 2010
BBC: New Zealand is to ban smoking throughout the country's prisons from 1 July 2011, Corrections Minister Judith Collins has announced.
The announcement has prompted concerns that violence in prisons could increase if prisoners are denied tobacco.
But Ms Collins dismissed the warnings and said high levels of smoking were a risk to staff and prisoners.
About 5,700 prisoners - two-thirds of the current total in New Zealand prisons - are smokers.
The corrections minister said smoking bans had been introduced in prisons in the US, Canada and Australia.
"We don't supply alcohol to prisoners because they are alcoholics, we don't supply them with all sorts of drugs and methamphetamine because they happen to be addicted to methamphetamine," Ms Collins said.
"This is a prison. It's not home. It's actually a prison. So it will be a total ban across all prisons. Not in the cells, not even out in the yard."
Prisoners will also be banned from having matches and lighters which some use to damage property, such as throwing burning balls of toilet paper at guards and setting fires in their cells. >>> | Monday, June 28, 2010
NZ HERALD: Prison guards have been threatened with "the bash" when the ban on inmates smoking takes effect in a year, says the guards' union.
President Beven Hanlon says the ban will put guards and staff such as tutors who remain smokers in danger from prisoners.
"Not just prisoners who get frustrated at smelling fresh smoke on you and just lash out, but because you are introducing an item that is suddenly a high-priority contraband item.
"The prisoners will do anything to get hold of it."
He said staff from around the country had phoned him yesterday to report prisoners saying, "If you guys are going to get rid of smoking, you are going to get the bash. We'll just take it out on you."
Mr Hanlon said he was threatened at Hawkes Bay Prison yesterday by two prisoners who identified him as someone who had talked about the issue on television.
"They were saying, 'We'll punch you in the head'."
Corrections staff will be encouraged to give up smoking, but will be allowed to smoke in designated areas - although not near prisoners. >>> Andrew Young | Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Related: Ending duty-free tobacco unlikely: Key >>> NZPA | Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Watch NZ Herald video here
THE TELEGRAPH: Foreign workers face having to use private health care if they want to work in the UK to ease the social pressure of immigration, the Home Secretary has signalled.
Employers wanting to bring in migrants would have to provide them with private health insurance to avoid placing any "undue burden" on the NHS, under the proposals.
It came as Theresa May said the planned annual cap on migrants will be based on the impact they have on public services and communities as well as economic need.
The Coalition Government has pledged to bring net migration down to the "tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands" and a limit of foreign workers from outside the EU is a key part of that move. >>> Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Johanna Sigurdardottir, Iceland prime minister, married her long-time partner on Sunday as a new law legalising homosexual marriages came into force.
Miss Sigurdardottir, 68, formally married Jonina Leosdottir, a writer, after the couple submitted a demand for their civil union to be transformed into a marriage, the RUV broadcaster said.
Iceland's parliament on June 12 unanimously adopted legislation allowing gay marriage, in a law that came into force on Sunday. >>> | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE JERUSALEM POST: The White House’s June 20 statement on the Gaza blockade shows that the Obama administration has abandoned all strategic concepts in its approach to the matter.
The White House’s June 20 statement on Gaza is immensely revealing of the shortcomings in US policy. It isn’t at all just a matter of policy toward Israel but of a failure to consider the broader US national interest.
Here’s the real issue: Does the US want the long-term existence of a revolutionary Islamist mini-state on the Mediterranean, spreading terrorism and anti-Semitism, eager to go to war with Israel again, working hard to block any Israel-Palestinian peace, expelling Christians, oppressing women and subverting moderate Arab states? It begins: “The president has described the situation in Gaza as unsustainable and has made clear that it demands fundamental change.”
One would expect the words “unsustainable” and “demands fundamental change” to mean the president demands the overthrow of the Hamas regime. In fact, it signifies the exact opposite: He demands that regime’s stabilization.
The statement continues by describing Obama’s plan to give roughly $200 million to Gaza as “a down payment on the US commitment to the people of Gaza, who deserve a chance to take part in building a viable, independent state of Palestine, together with those who live in the West Bank.”
Just think of that paragraph’s implications: a “down payment” on a “US commitment,” that is, not an act of generosity for which the US must get something in return. Rather, the phrasing makes it seem the US owes them the money.
Moreover, such aid retards rather than advances building a Palestinian state by shoring up a Hamas government which is against the Palestinian Authority, against peace with Israel and against a two-state solution. >>> Barry Rubin* | Sunday, June 27, 2010
*The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs and Turkish Studies. He blogs at www.rubinreports.blogspot.com
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Eigentlich will der Schweizer Staat verhindern, dass Kinder mit homosexuellen Eltern aufwachsen. Das Partnerschaftsgesetz verbietet homosexuellen Paaren den Zugang zur Fortpflanzungsmedizin und die Adoption. Aber egal, was sie sollen oder dürfen: immer mehr Lesben und Schwule gründen sogenannte Regenbogenfamilien.
*Das Video wurde zum Teil in Schweizerdeutsch ausgestrahlt worden.
LE TEMPS: Cinq présentatrices de la chaîne qatarie ont démissionné, lassées d’être harcelées sur leur tenue vestimentaire. Un symbole de la dérive islamiste de la direction, que dénonce une partie de la rédaction
Le tournant date du 1er novembre 2009, jour anniversaire de la chaîne. Al-Jazira fête ses 13 ans en innovant, avec une opération new-look. Présentateurs et présentatrices ne sont plus des hommes et des femmes troncs, ils se déplacent face à la caméra. Et ce jour-là, ironise une présentatrice, la direction fait une découverte: lorsqu’on met une femme debout, elle a des jambes.
En treize ans, la chaîne d’information de langue arabe a pris beaucoup de coups: elle en a fait sa force. Il a fallu composer avec les attaques de Washington, ulcéré de voir Oussama ben Laden et les talibans à l’écran. Batailler contre les régimes du Maghreb et l’Egypte, furieux d’entendre la parole des intégristes à l’intérieur de leurs frontières. Se taire en serrant les dents lorsque les médias occidentaux se gaussaient en diabolisant la chaîne. Les charges venaient de l’extérieur, la tour de Babel résistait.
Ce 1er novembre, une nouvelle crise s’enclenche. Cette fois, elle touche au cœur de la famille et aboutira, huit mois plus tard, à la fin du mois de mai 2010, à la démission de cinq présentatrices (une sur trois). Cinq bonnes professionnelles, intelligentes et jolies, au visage connu à travers tout le monde arabe. Venues du Liban, de Syrie et de Tunisie, elles étaient fières d’exercer à Doha, la capitale du Qatar, pour la plus grande chaîne de télévision de langue arabe, celle qui contribuait à changer la société, celle qui a révolutionné le monde des médias du Maroc aux pays du Golfe en passant par le Proche-Orient avec son slogan: «Une opinion et son contraire.»
Quelques jours après le lancement de la formule new-look, les journalistes ont reçu un code vestimentaire. La direction leur fait savoir qu’il est «préférable» de ne pas porter des pantalons moulants. Les jupes doivent descendre au minimum 2 inches (5,1 cm) sous le genou. Le chemisier ne révélera que 2 inches de peau à partir de la base du cou. Avec une jupe, mieux vaut porter une veste longue… Curieusement, pas une ligne ne concerne les hommes. Page 2 >>> Marie-Pierre Subtil envoyée spéciale à Doha (Qatar) | Lundi 28 Juin 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Die Türkei hat ihren Luftraum für israelische Flugzeuge gesperrt. Ministerpräsident Erdogan erklärte, er habe diese Massnahme nach der Militäraktion gegen eine Flotte mit Hilfsgütern für den Gazastreifen getroffen. >>> ddp | Montag, 28. Juni 2010
MIRROR: Ministers are to review the smoking ban amid claims it is crippling Britain's £6billion[-]a-year pub and bingo industry.
Around 130 bingo halls - 20 per cent - have closed in the three years since the ban in 2007. Thirty-nine pubs go bust a week.
The Government has ordered a review of anti-smoking laws this autumn. >>> | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT – AN EXTRACT: The biggest import from Pakistan today is jihadism. That ideology was, for decades, given succour by our government. Democratic, progressive Muslims fearfully witness the consequences of that engagement. We are told to be more vocally pro-British. That would be easier if our political masters were not guilty of duplicitous transactions that undercut the Britishness we admire and look up to.
Support for Islamicist terrorism is growing partly because more and more Muslims can see how the West plays its games – no rules, no accountability – and partly because it happily does business with Muslim despots and villains. Successive British governments have backed regressive Muslim movements and nations from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to Saudi Arabia, arguably the world's most dangerous Islamic realm. The rulers of that kingdom are today our old best friends despite evidence showing the Saudis are funding Salafism across the globe. That Islamicist ideology is causing untold damage to the spirit of Islam, and spreads – but unlike the BP oil, our politicians do not believe they need to disable the source.
Domestic relations between Muslims and the state are built on the same dodgy model. Some key departmental British Muslim advisers follow Abul ala Maududi, a Pakistani revivalist, founder of the fanatical Jamat-i-Islam which fantasises about worldwide domination. Nobody checked how that determined the advice given. The Muslim Council of Britain, still excessively influential, has among its affiliates groups which promote Saudi religious ideologies. The result is all around us: enlightened Islam is pushed out, and in march the bearded and veiled ones with the blessings of the state. Read it all and comment >>> Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Monday, June 28, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Barack Obama has been criticised for continuing to play golf while oil spills into the Gulf of Mexico.
He has played at least seven times since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, creating America’s biggest environmental disaster.
Having already racked up 39 games since taking office, Mr Obama is approaching the record as the U.S. President spending the most time on the golf course.
Republican Party chairman Michael Steele has called on the President to stop playing until the oil leak has been curbed.
Steele said he was outraged ‘that President Obama finds himself on yet another golf course as oil continues to spew into the Gulf’.
Democrat Senator Bill Nelson said Mr Obama needs to have a ‘higher command and control operation’. You're playing too much golf during oil spill, Barack Obama is told >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A senior Israeli diplomat has warned that the Jewish state's relationship with the United States has suffered a "tectonic rift".
The sobering assessment comes a week before Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, meets President Barack Obama at the White House.
There had been hope the two could lay to rest a row that erupted between the two allies in March but the new comments have raised fears of long-term damage.
Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington, told foreign ministry colleagues at a private briefing in Jerusalem that they were facing a long and potentially irrevocable estrangement.
Sources said Mr Oren told the meeting: "There is no crisis in Israel-US relations because in a crisis there are ups and downs. [Instead] relations are in a state of tectonic rift in which continents are drifting apart."
Mr Oren's privately-voiced pessimism stands in stark contrast to public declarations in both Jerusalem and Washington that differences between the two states amount to nothing more than "disagreements" between allies. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Le Monde's journalists' association, the paper's main shareholder, have voted for the daily to be taken over by three French investors who President Nicolas Sarkozy sought to block.
The consortium is made up of Pierre Berge, ex-partner of the late fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent, Lazard banker Matthieu Pigasse and internet tycoon Xavier Niel.
Mr Niel made his fortune on internet pornography, chat lines and peep shows.
The trio have promised journalists at the paper a "blocking" vote on future changes and complete editorial independence.
The journalists' association voted 90 per cent in favour of their bid and rejected an offer by a group that includes France Telecom subsidiary Orange, the Nouvel Observateur group and Spain's Prisa, which owns El Pais newspaper.
The newspaper is expected to make its final decision on the offer by the end of the month.
Le Monde, France's flagship daily, is being crushed by a mountain of debt and put out a call to investors capable of injecting between 80 and 120 million euros to come to its aid. >>> | Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prizewinner who predicted the global crisis, delivers his verdict on the Chancellor's first Budget and tells Paul Vallely it will take the UK deeper into recession and hit millions – the poorest – badly
George Osborne will probably not be very bothered that there is a man who thinks he got last week's emergency Budget almost entirely wrong. But he should be. Because that man is a former chief economist at the World Bank who won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on why markets do not produce the outcomes which, in theory, they ought to.
Professor Joseph Stiglitz, who has been described as the biggest brain in economics, is distinctly unimpressed by George Osborne's strategy. This, he predicts, will make Britain's recovery from recession longer, slower and harder than it needs to be. The rise in VAT could even tip us into a double-dip recession.
Stiglitz, who was once Bill Clinton's senior economic adviser, is now professor of economics and finance at Columbia Business School. He was in the UK this week at the University of Manchester, where he chairs the Brooks World Poverty Institute, but he lifted his head from the detail of international development to scrutinise the economic strategy of the Conservative Chancellor whose Liberal Democrat partners recently reversed their judgement that massive public spending cuts now would endanger the economy and joined in the Tory slash-and-burn strategy. They were deeply wrong to do so, he believes. Continue reading and comment >>> | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Victims groups say Vatican criticism of police shameful, as pontiff calls raid deplorable and demands church role in investigations
Groups representing the victims of clerical abuse tonight expressed outrage after the pope criticised raids on the Catholic church by Belgian police.
Last week, police raided the home of a retired bishop, opened the grave of at least one archbishop and detained Belgium's nine current serving bishops as they met, seizing their mobile phones and only releasing them after nine hours.
Pope Benedict described the raids by officers investigating abuse claims as "surprising and deplorable" and demanded that the church be allowed a role in inquiries into child molesters in its ranks.
In a message to the head of the Belgian bishops' conference, Monsignor André-Joseph Léonard, the pontiff condemned the raids and offered his support to the bishops "in this sad moment".
"I want to express, dear brother in the episcopate, as well as to all the bishops of Belgium, my closeness and solidarity in this moment of sadness, in which, with certain surprising and deplorable methods, searches were carried out," he said.
"I hope that justice will follow its course while guaranteeing the rights of individuals and institutions, respecting the rights of victims, [and] acknowledging those who undertake to collaborate with it."
The Vatican has also protested to Belgium's ambassador to the Holy See. Yesterday, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, said: "There are no precedents for this, not even under communist regimes." >>> Tom Kington in Rome | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Gaza campaign includes posters, murals, radio broadcasts and religious speeches, and runs alongside amnesty for informants
Hamas has launched a campaign warning Palestinians in Gaza against collaborating with Israel following the execution of two alleged informants in April.
Posters and murals have appeared across Gaza City, graphically depicting the consequences of providing information to Israeli intelligence. Some include images of nooses, while others warn that "your people's blood will be on your hands".
The Campaign Against Collaborating with the Enemy, which also includes speeches by religious clerics, radio programmes and advertisements and newspaper articles, is running alongside an amnesty for informants which ends on 10 July.
"We are educating people with the aim of reducing or eliminating collaboration," said Abu Abdullah Lafi, who is in charge of the campaign for the de facto Hamas government's interior ministry.
The problem, he said, was not widespread, but Israel was making intensive efforts to recruit informants. "The blockade has created a new scale of people who are unemployed. The IDF [Israeli military] is calling them, offering dollars in exchange for small amounts of information. First they ask who are your friends, neighbours, who is in Fatah or Hamas."
Eventually they demand information that will allow them to carry out assassinations, he said. Lafi declined to give details on how many people had turned themselves in, saying the information was "very confidential". >>> Harriet Sherwood in Gaza City | Sunday, June 27, 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: L'Iran dispose de suffisamment d'uranium faiblement enrichi "pour fabriquer deux armes" nucléaires, a déclaré dimanche le patron de la CIA Leon Panetta. >>> AFP | Dimanche 27 Juin 2010
ZEIT ONLINE: Kehrtwende oder politisches Manöver? Israel hat überraschend mehreren europäischen Außenministern einen Besuch im Gaza-Streifen angeboten. Bundesaußenminister Westerwelle nahm die Einladung an.
Bundesaußenminister Guido Westerwelle (FDP) und mehrere seiner europäischen Amtskollegen sind wenige Tage nach dem Einreiseverbot für Entwicklungsminister Dirk Niebel (FDP) von der israelischen Regierung in den Gaza-Streifen eingeladen worden. Westerwelle will die Einladung annehmen. Mit der Lockerung der diplomatischen Blockade habe Israel einen "Politikwechsel in Sachen Gaza eingeleitet", sagte der Außenminister. "Wenn man bedenkt, was die israelische Regierung damit auch innenpolitisch schultert, so ist das etwas, was man nur sehr begrüßen kann." Er sprach von einer "sehr guten Entwicklung, bei der auch Europa eine Rolle gespielt hat".
Die israelische Regierung hat bislang keine offizielle Stellungnahme zu der Einladung abgegeben. Nahost-Kenner sprechen von einer radikalen Kehrtwende in der bisherigen Gaza-Politik Israels. Ziel der Einladung ist es Berichten zufolge, die Außenminister davon zu überzeugen, dass es im Gaza-Streifen keine humanitäre Krise gibt. UN-Hilfsorganisationen zeichnen schon seit Jahren ein düsteres Bild der Situation im Palästinensergebiet. Die Menschen lebten in bitterer Armut, viele seien arbeitslos und von ausländischer Hilfe abhängig. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> Zeit Online, dpa | Freitag, 25. Juni 2010
CREEPING SHARIA: It ain’t creeping any more. It’s bulldozing. Remember Rashad Hussain is the self-admitted terrorist defending Muslim that the White House lied for. Now Hussain, with Barack Hussein’s support, will be pushing for globalized Islamic sharia law via the Islamic blasphemy law being pushed at the UN by the OIC.
Rashad Hussain, America’s special envoy to the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Saudi-based body formed in 1969 to “protect” Jerusalem from the Israelis, announced a new title this week for President Barack Obama. According to Hussain, Obama is America’s “Educator-in-Chief on Islam.”
Hussain so designated Obama in a keynote speech Wednesday, June 23, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The occasion was another “post-Cairo” conference, following on the event that welcomed Islamist ideologue Tariq Ramadan to Washington in April. Hussain also declared that Obama is “Educator-in-Chief” on the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which has produced diplomatic and political events around the capital for some years. Hussain affirmed with satisfaction that presidential iftar dinners, where the fast is broken after sundown, and which had formerly been limited to diplomats from Muslim countries, now welcomed American Muslims from throughout society.
In his remarks, Hussain also congratulated Obama for sending Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser, to last year’s annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, a notorious front for Saudi-financed Muslim radicalism. Worse, Hussain has now divulged that the U.S. will support the OIC in the latter’s United Nations effort to criminalize “defamation of religion” – widely perceived as a measure to suppress criticism of Muslim practices that violate human rights. ”The OIC and the Obama administration will work together in the UN on the issue of defamation of religion, especially in Europe,” said Hussain. Write a comment >>> Posted by Creeping | Friday, June 25, 2010
Read the whole article here
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Vigil at detention centre broken up by police; more than 400 arrested Saturday as storefronts vandalized, at least three police cars burned
More than 400 people have been arrested in connection with G20-related protests, and skirmishes between riot police and protesters continued into the early morning Sunday in downtown Toronto, only hours before leaders of the G20 are scheduled to begin their summit.
Police officers, with batons out, were searching bushes around a University of Toronto building near Russell Street and Spadina Avenue, in what appeared to be a major raid. At least two police buses were on the scene, along with more than 10 other police vehicles, mostly unmarked minivans. One bus was a "prisoner bus," a police officer said.
Several dozen police officers were searching trash cans. At least two people were seen with handcuffs on. More than 50 people had been arrested for wielding "street-type weaponry", such as bricks, police said. Some of thopse arrested looked much older than typical university students. The raid was at the Bancroft Building, the Earth Science Centre and the Graduate Students Centre.
After more than 14 hours of sometimes-violent confrontations between protesters and officers, the downtown core was largely quiet; discarded water bottles and plastic zip-tie handcuffs littered streets that had been the scenes of standoffs hours before. >>> Anna Mehler Paperny and Chris Hannay | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Summit turns to dilemma of sustaining growth versus cutbacks
Group of 20 leaders meeting in Toronto Sunday will try to come up with an agreement on fiscal belt-tightening that finds the right balance between telling markets they are serious about cutting deficits and debt, and keeping the global economy from backsliding.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper opened the second day of talks by saying the summit must strike the proper balance between sustaining economic growth and pulling back fiscal deficits.
“Here is the tightrope we must walk,” Mr. Harper said. “To sustain the recovery, it is imperative that we follow through on existing stimulus plans. At the same time, advanced countries must send a clear message that as our stimulus plans expire, we will focus on getting our fiscal houses in order.”
Separately Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters the summit leaders will agree to Mr. Harper’s call for countries to slash their budget deficits by half by 2013.
“This will be part of the final document,” she said. Continue reading and comment >>> Jeremy Torobin | Sunday, June 27, 2010
20 MINUTES: Des milliers de personnes ont participé samedi à la Gay Pride à Mexico, saluant la décision historique prise par la capitale il y a six mois d'autoriser le mariage homosexuel.
Durant trois heures, une foule en liesse, à bord de chars colorés ou à pied, a descendu l'avenue de la Réforme, principale artère de Mexico, avant de se rassembler devant le Palais des Beaux-Arts, dans la partie plus ancienne de la ville.
«Nous sommes ici pour célébrer le fait que nous sommes dans une ville qui ne fait pas de discrimination ou ne pratique pas le mépris mais respecte les homosexuels, qui nous permet de nous marier, de travailler et de nous tenir la main dans la rue», a déclaré à l'AFP Orlando Garcia, en marchant main dans la main avec son compagnon.
La municipalité de Mexico, dominée par la gauche, a approuvé le 21 décembre le mariage homosexuel et ouvert la voie à l'adoption par des couples homosexuels. >>> ats | Dimanche 27 Juin 2010
LE FIGARO: Des militaires ayant fui le régime fournissent les preuves d'un programme ambitieux qui vise à défier l'Amérique.
Longtemps une énigme pour les experts, les ambitions nucléaires de la Birmanie sont aujourd'hui démasquées. Au terme de cinq ans d'enquête, la Voix démocratique de la Birmanie (DVB), une chaîne d'opposition basée à Oslo, qui dispose d'un réseau étoffé de journalistes travaillant dans la clandestinité, révèle dans un documentaire les sombres desseins de l'une des pires dictatures de la planète.
La précision des témoignages de plusieurs haut gradés de l'armée birmane et les milliers de photos d'équipement, de maquettes, de prototypes, de plans, de dessins et autres documents classifiés qu'ils fournissent, «permettent d'affirmer pour la première fois, que les généraux tentent de fabriquer des missiles et d'enrichir de l'uranium», constate Bertil Lintner, l'un des meilleurs experts de la Birmanie. «Ils veulent vraiment fabriquer une bombe, c'est leur principal objectif», affirme à la DVB le lieutenant Sai Thein Win, qui a récemment déserté. Formé en Russie comme dix mille autres Birmans, l'ingénieur militaire, spécialiste des missiles, travaillait au «secret le mieux gardé de Birmanie». Jamais de telles images n'étaient sorties du pays.
Cachée dans la jungle montagneuse, protégée par un ordre de tir à vue, l'usine de Myaing, équipée par deux sociétés allemandes, serait utilisée pour mettre au point des missiles de longue portée. Plus au nord, le village de Thabeikkyin abriterait le quartier général d'un bataillon nucléaire. Là le régime entreprendrait la construction d'un réacteur et l'enrichissement de l'uranium.
Robert Kelley, ancien inspecteur et directeur de l'Agence internationale à l'énergie atomique (AIEA), qui a examiné le dossier exfiltré par le transfuge, estime que «la Birmanie est bel et bien engagée dans un programme d'armement nucléaire», mais qu'elle est «loin de pouvoir se doter de la bombe atomique». Continuez à lire et écrire un commentaire >>> Par Florence Compain | Vendredi 25 Juin 2010
HAARETZ: In its letter the Knesset committee noted that from 1998 to 2007 Mosab Hassan Yousef helped improve the security of Israelis and Palestinians by guiding the Shin Bet to thwart terror attacks.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sent a letter of thanks recently to Mosab Hassan Yousef, who for a decade was an important source of intelligence for the Shin Bet security service source. Yousef's father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, was a Hamas leader in the West Bank.
In its letter the committee noted that from 1998 to 2007 Yousef helped to improve the security of Israelis and Palestinians by guiding the Shin Bet to thwart terror attacks and the murder of innocent people, showing great courage, reliability and determination. The letter said that the committee found it particularly moving that although Yousef was raised in a home and in an environment steeped in the militant vision of Hamas he had found the strength to sanctify life and peace and to eschew violence, incitement and terror. >>> Avi Issacharoff | Sunday, June 27, 2010
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Labour leadership contender Diane Abbott was seething after being branded a ‘racist’ and an expenses cheat by political pundit Andrew Neil.
Left-winger Ms Abbott was savaged by Mr Neil on his late-night BBC show This Week over her decision to send her son James to the £12,700-a-year City of London School.
Ms Abbott, who earned £36,000 a year as a regular guest on the show alongside Michael Portillo until stepping down to fight for the Labour leadership, had defended her stance, saying: ‘West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children.’
Mr Neil hit back by demanding: ‘So black mums love their kids more than white mums, do they?’
Furious Ms Abbott said: ‘I have said everything I am going to say about where I send my son to school.’
Mr Neil persisted: ‘Supposing Michael said white mums will go to the wall for their children. Why did you say that? Isn’t it a racist remark?
'If West Indian mums are as wonderful as you say, why are there so many dysfunctional West Indian families in this country? And why do so many young West Indian men end up in a life of crime and gangs?
‘You didn’t want your son to go to a school full of kids who have been brought up by West Indian mums.’
As Ms Abbott repeatedly refused to reply, Mr Neil asked: ‘Would you like to make it clear that West Indian mums are no better than white mums or Asian mums?’
When Ms Abbott, squirming in her seat, replied, ‘I have nothing to say,’ Mr Neil taunted her:
‘You don’t want to do that – you still think West Indian mums are the best?’ Continue reading and comment >>> Simon Walters, Mail on Sunday Political Editor | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Saif al-Islam, the son of Colonel Gadaffi, said the time for 'military regimes, kings, crown princes' had passed
The son of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for more than 40 years, has declared that the country no longer needs a “great leader”.
In an interview last week, Saif al-Islam Gadaffi said the time for “military regimes, kings, crown princes” had passed.
“The future is for managers — people will elect managers and not have kings or great leaders,” he said. “People should be free to elect their own leaders. The future is for democracy. There is no other way for Libya.”
The 38-year-old champion of reform, who is widely seen as a potential successor to his father, warned that his country could face “very serious trouble” if it failed to adopt a more liberal approach to relations with the West.
Dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and trainers, he strolled into the flower garden of a friend’s villa on the outskirts of Rome and said: “Hi, I’m Saif.”
Sitting beneath a wooden gazebo near a pool surrounded by palm and cedar trees, he outlined his vision of Libya as a tolerant, 21st-century state enriched by tourism.
“I would like to make Libya the Vienna of north Africa,” he said passionately, referring to his favourite European city. Luxury hotels were already being built, he added.
Gadaffi, who studied for his PhD at the London School of Economics, smiled as he claimed that tough visa restrictions for westerners would be abolished soon, starting with the British.
Measures had also been discussed to permit the sale of alcoholic drinks to foreigners in hotels, he said. “It will happen,” he added. “We will create the right environment for tourism in Libya. If you have no drink, no visa, no hotels, nobody will come.” Continue reading and comment >>> Sara Hashash and Hala Jaber | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE SUNDAY TIMES: A new hotel in Mecca will be the world's second-tallest building and will feature the world's largest clock face
The world’s largest clock will be the centrepiece of a giant hotel that will dominate the skyline of Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca when it opens this autumn.
The Mecca Royal Clock Tower hotel, an architectural amalgam of Big Ben and the Empire State Building, is part of a £3.3 billion complex which, at 1,939ft, will be the second tallest building in the world.
The four faces of the German-built clock, each 141ft high, will be visible from 10 miles away by day and more than seven miles at night.
It has been deliberately designed to dwarf London’s Big Ben, whose faces are 23ft high. Mohammed al-Arkubi, the hotel’s general manager said: “Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich mean time, this is the goal.”
The clock’s mechanism will be started in August before Ramadan and the opening of the seven-star, 800-room luxury hotel, which will cater for rich participants in the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
The complex, built on the site of an old Ottoman fort, consists of seven towers, two helipads and a shopping centre that will open next year. Three thousand rooms and suites will go on sale, with one-room studio flats starting at £430,000.
The building is capped by a spire topped with a golden crescent.
Many of the rooms directly overlook the Kaaba, the cube-shaped granite building covered in black silk towards which every Muslim turns in daily prayer. Continue reading and comment >>> Rosie Kinchen | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE TIMES: Cameron and Obama renew the ‘special relationship’ with a beer:David Cameron and President Obama have launched their working relationship with a helicopter ride, an exchange of beers and agreement on the need to preserve BP “as an ongoing concern”. >>> Roland Watson, Giles Whittell, Toronto | Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L'Oréal fortune and France's richest woman, is at the centre of a web of revelations about money, power and influence in the French Republic.
Liliane Bettencourt is the nearest thing the French Republic has to the Queen: regal, elegant, impeccably groomed and wealthy.
As France's richest woman, the L'Oréal heiress occupies the constitutional twilight zone where the extraordinarily privileged meet the extremely political.
In this exclusive power group – rather like a masonic lodge without the aprons – influence and favours can be traded: donations given; promises made; gongs awarded; designer-draped backs scratched discreetly over champagne and canapés.
Discreetly, that was, until Mrs Bettencourt, 87, suffered a Paul Burrell moment – a blabby majordomo who secretly taped her private conversations. Now French citizens are reeling from previously inconceivable claims that their hair-dye queen has been fiddling her tax returns, employing a top government minister's wife and involved in what, if true, smacks of plans to pervert the course of justice.
The "Butlergate" tapes have brought a new twist to the bitter legal battle between Mrs Bettencourt and her only daughter who claims her ageing mother is no longer in a fit state of mind to manage the family fortune.
On Thursday, Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt will start a private prosecution against a gay society photographer she claims took advantage of her mother's mental frailty to "manipulate" her out of €1 billion (£800 million).
François-Marie Banier, 63, the photographer, denies the charge of "abuse of weakness". He has received valuable works of art, cash and insurance policies from Mrs Bettencourt – who has also rejected the accusation, saying: "I can do what I like with my money." >>> Kim Willsher in Paris | Saturday, June 26, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Radical plans to relocate the long term unemployed to areas where there are jobs are being drawn up by the Coalition.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, discloses the move in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph today in which he outlines proposals to make the workforce “more mobile”.
The controversial plan echoes the words of Norman Tebbit in 1981 when he told the unemployed to “get on your bike” and look for work.
It is part of tough action to cut spiralling welfare bills and tackle Britain’s record deficit.
Last week a major shake-up of housing benefit and increased health checks for disability claimants were announced as part of the biggest cuts in public spending for almost a century. >>> Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor | Saturday, June 26, 2010
*Bald-headed, too-comfortable politicians, whose livelihoods are paid for by the taxpayer, should also be careful that they are not told BY THE TAXPAYERS to get off their fat arses and do a proper job of work. – © Mark
Saturday, June 26, 2010
BBC: Hizbul-Islam militants in Somalia ordered men in Mogadishu this week to grow their beards and trim their moustaches.
"Anyone found violating this law will face the consequences," a Hizbul-Islam militant said, announcing the edict.
But, is growing a beard obligatory under Islam?
Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem, of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, says it is not.
It is up to the individual whether he lets his facial hair grow or not, Mr Abdel Haleem says, attributing this view to most scholars of Islamic law across a majority of Muslim-dominated countries.
Recommendation
Muslims learn about the Prophet's views on facial hair not from the Koran, but through hadith - or sayings - attributed to Muhammad.
One such hadith, related by Muslim scholar Sahih Bukhari centuries ago, stipulates: "Cut the moustaches short and and leave the beard."
The Prophet Muhammad is believed to have had a beard and those who insist that devout Muslims grow beards argue that they are doing no more than asking the faithful to emulate the Prophet's actions.
The question that arises is one of enforcement.
Mr Abdel Haleem says the body of Islamic law at the core of manuals of Muslim practice puts it as a recommendation - sitting in the middle between an order and absolute free choice.
But, he adds, it is "a recommendation nonetheless". >>> | Saturday, June 26, 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Die umstrittene Piusbruderschaft hat am Samstag trotz heftiger Kritik der katholischen Amtskirche drei Priester geweiht. >>> sda/dpa | Samstag, 26. Juni 2010
BERNER ZEITUNG: Tausende Exil-Iraner aus aller Welt haben am Samstag in Taverny bei Paris für einen «demokratischen Wandel im Iran» demonstriert. Sie unterstützen «Sanktionen gegen das klerikale Regime».
Die Teilnehmer mahnten zudem politische Unterstützung des Westens für den Sturz des Regimes an. Die Erklärung werde von 3500 Parlamentariern aus Europa und Nordamerika unterstützt, erklärte der Nationale Widerstandsrat Iran (NWRI). >>> mt/sda | Samstag, 26. Juni 2010
*Sicherlich kann es nur eine Frage der Zeit sein, bis das Regime auseinanderfallen wird. – © Mark
YNET NEWS: Iranian exiles demand tougher sanctions: Thousands of Iranian exiles rally in France, demand tougher sanctions against Tehran >>> Reuters | Saturday, June 26, 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le jeune homme qui a insulté le président français risquait une peine de prison
Un jeune interpellé de façon musclée pour avoir insulté le président français Nicolas Sarkozy, en visite dans une banlieue de Paris, a été condamné vendredi à 35 heures de travaux d'intérêt général par un tribunal de la région parisienne.
Le jeune homme, âgé de 21 ans, poursuivi pour «outrage» avait lancé, selon les propos rapportés à l'audience et qu'il a reconnu: «Va te faire enculer connard, ici t'es chez moi». Le procureur du tribunal de Bobigny avait requis 210 heures de travaux d'intérêt général. L'accusé risquait une peine maximum de 6 mois de prison et d'une amende pouvant atteindre 7.500 euros.
Lors de son interpellation il a été blessé, des blessures suffisantes pour qu'un médecin lui prescrive neuf jours d'incapacité totale de travail. >>> AFP | Samedi 26 Juin 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Amanda Staveley is best known for orchestrating Abu Dhabi's and Qatar's eye-catching £7.3bn investment in Barclays in 2008
Amanda Staveley, broker to the sheikhs, has pulled off another high-profile property deal for the emirate of Qatar, which is continuing its aggressive buying spree in London.
Staveley advised the Qatari property company Barwa Real Estate on the £250m acquisition of the Park House site in Oxford Street - the biggest development in the area since the Second World War - from the developer, Land Securities.
Staveley is best known for orchestrating Abu Dhabi's and Qatar's eye-catching £7.3bn investment in Barclays in 2008, followed a few months later by the takeover of Manchester City Football Club by Abu Dhabi's ruling family. The 37-year-old former athlete and model reportedly pocketed £5m to £7.5m in fees from the latest deal.
The news came as it emerged that the Qatar Investment Authority, the emirate's sovereign wealth fund, was in talks to take a third share in the Savoy hotel in London. The 120-year-old hotel is owned under a 50-50 joint venture by HBOS and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Holding. It is due to reopen in October after a refurbishment that has taken 18 months longer than expected and is likely to cost more than twice the originally budgeted £100m. The hotel comes with a big debt burden – its 2008 accounts showed loans of $212m and that figure is likely to be higher now.
Another part of the QIA, Qatar Holding, is said to have joined the bidding war for Grosvenor House, the five-star hotel put up for sale by Royal Bank of Scotland at the start of the year. The hotel, on Park Lane in Mayfair, has attracted interest from a handful of bidders, including the Abu Dhabi and Singapore sovereign wealth funds. The sale is expected to raise at least £500m. >>> Julia Kollewe | Thursday, June 17, 2010
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