Monday, July 19, 2010
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THE TELEGRAPH: Sarah Palin has run into language difficulties in the course of attempting to write an entry on her Twitter account about plans to build a mosque near the Ground Zero site in New York.
The former vice-presidential candidate, who regularly uses the social networking website to communicate her views, made three attempts before writing an error-free Twitter entry, which can only contain 140 characters.
In her first effort, she asked "peaceful Muslims to "pls refudiate" the mosque. Having invented a word, in her second attempt she used "refute" incorrectly, calling on "peaceful New Yorkers to "refute the Ground Zero mosque plan". >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, July 19, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Indonesia's highest Islamic body has been forced to apologise to the country's Muslims after admitting they have been praying towards Kenya rather than Mecca.
Officials in the world's most populous Muslim country admitted on Monday that they made a mistake when issuing an edict in March saying the holy city in Saudi Arabia was to the country's west.
The Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI, has since asked followers to shift direction slightly northward during their daily prayers.
"After a thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts, we learned they've been facing southern Somalia and Kenya," said Ma'ruf Amin, a prominent cleric of the MUI.
"We've revised it now to the north-west."
He said Indonesians need not worry, however.
"Allah understands that humans make mistakes," he said. "Allah always hears their prayers." >>> | Monday, July 19, 2010
LE POINT: La chambre haute du Parlement russe a a approuvé lundi une loi élargissant les pouvoirs des services spéciaux (FSB, ex-KGB) vertement critiquée par les défenseurs des droits de l'homme, ont rapporté les agences russes.
Ce texte qui permet aux services spéciaux d'émettre des "avertissements" à toute personne soupçonnée de "créer des conditions pour la perpétration d'un crime", avait été voté la semaine dernière par la Douma (chambre basse). >>> AFP | Lundi 19 Juillet 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: A UK public inquiry should be held into the release of the Lockerbie bomber, a backbench Tory MP said today.
Daniel Kawczynski, who chairs the Westminster all-party group on Libya, also called on Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to apologise for the "huge error" in releasing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi almost a year ago.
David Cameron is expected to face criticism from American politicians over claims that BP lobbied for the release of Megrahi to secure an oil deal, as the Prime Minister flies into the US today for his first official visit since taking office.
Mr MacAskill has already said he would be prepared to assist any inquiry held into circumstances surrounding Megrahi's release.
But Mr Kawcynski, the MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, told BBC Radio Scotland today: "Clearly Mr MacAskill has made a huge error which has impacted on British foreign policy. Continue reading and comment >>> Scott Macnab, Press Association | Monday, July 19, 2010
LE POINT: Attentat de Lockerbie - La libération de Megrahi a été une "erreur complète", pour Cameron : La libération, en 2009, du Libyen Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, condamné pour l'attentat de Lockerbie, a été "une erreur complète et totale", a affirmé lundi le Premier ministre britannique David Cameron, avant de s'envoler pour sa première visite officielle aux États-Unis. >>> AFP | Lundi 19 Juillet 2010
Related articles here and here
ZEIT ONLINE: Lippenstiftverbot, "islamisch korrekte" Haarschnitte, Sittenwächter: Teheran zieht mal wieder verstärkt gegen vermeintlich westliche Werte zu Felde.
Erst wurden die Proteste auf den Straßen mit roher Gewalt niedergeknüppelt, jetzt will das Regime Front machen gegen die „kulturelle Invasion des Westens“. Die Islamische Republik soll noch islamischer werden, auf allen Ebenen werden die Zügel angezogen. Ob männlicher Haarschnitt oder weibliches Kopftuch, ob Lehrbücher an Schulen oder Curricula an Universitäten, ob Filme, Bücher oder Konzerte – die allmächtigen Revolutionswächter haben ihren Kulturkampf ausgerufen gegen die verderblichen Einflüsse des Auslands.
So präsentierte das iranische Kulturministerium zum „Festival für Schleier und Sittsamkeit“ neue Richtlinien für „islamisch korrekte“ Haarschnitte für Männer. Das Plakat zeigt bartlose Gesichter mit Scheitel, kurzem Haar und wuchtigen Koteletten, einige auch mit Pomadefrisur – nie aber mit Pferdeschwänzen oder dem im Iran so populären Stachel-Look. Alle Designs seien auf „die Größe des Kinns eines typischen iranischen Mannes sowie das Aussehen seines Nackens abgestimmt“, betonte Jaleh Khodayar, die das Festival organisierte.
Die spezielle Mischung aus islamischer Tradition und modischem Schick sei geeignet, „den kulturellen Angriff des Westen auf unser Land zu parieren“. Bei jedem Coiffeur sollen die Modelle künftig hängen – neue Vorschriften für weibliche Haarmode unter dem Schleier hat sie bereits in Arbeit. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> Von Martin Gehlen | Dienstag, 13. Juli 2010
Verbunden / Related >>>
ZEIT ONLINE: Eine in Deutschland ansässige Bank ist offenbar an iranischen Atomgeschäften beteiligt. Damit hat das Geldinstitut Iran geholfen, die Sanktionen der UN zu umgehen.
Mithilfe einer kleinen Bank in Deutschland hat die iranische Regierung die im Atomstreit verhängten Sanktionen umgangen. Dies berichtet das Wall Street Journal. Demnach wickelte die in Hamburg ansässige Europäisch-iranische Handelsbank (EIH) Milliarden-Geschäfte für iranische Unternehmen ab, die an den umstrittenen Atom- und Rüstungsprogrammen Teherans beteiligt sind. Zu den Kunden des Geldinstituts gehörten auch die iranischen Revolutionsgarden.
Nach Informationen der Zeitung war die EIH im vergangenen Jahr Teil eines groß angelegten Versuchs der iranischen Führung, an den vom UN-Sicherheitsrat verhängten Sanktionen vorbei Geschäfte zu machen. So habe das Institut unter anderem Überweisungen für die iranische Sepah-Bank ausgeführt, die in Europa und den USA wegen ihrer Rolle bei iranischen Rüstungsdeals auf der schwarzen Liste steht. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> Zeit Online, AFP | Montag, 19. Juli 2010
*Where on earth is all this money going to come from? Does this Democratic government not yet realize that America is on its uppers? The US government is already trillions of dollars in debt, and now, not satisfied with the current debt already spiralling out of control, Obama & Co. want to add to the Americans’ woes by giving aid to Pakistan! Isn't it high time this nonsense stopped? – © Mark
LE POINT: Le Pakistan et les États-Unis vantent l'amélioration de leurs relations : Le Pakistan et les États-Unis ont vanté lundi l'amélioration de leurs relations, Hillary Clinton annonçant à Islamabad plusieurs projets d'aide civile destinés à "jeter les bases d'un partenariat de long terme" avec son allié stratégique face au terrorisme. >>> AFP | Lundi 19 Juillet 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Far from the heated debates of Europe, Syria has banned the niqab in classrooms, adding another layer to this complex story
Quietly, away from the fanfare that accompanied the French vote on banning the niqab in public, and calls by Philip Hollobone to impose a ban in Britain, the Syrian government has instituted its own, more limited, ban, removing teachers who wear the full face veil from teaching in public schools.
At first glance, such a move might seem puzzling: Syria, with dozens of religious sects and a nominally secular government, has managed for decades to use a light touch, at least when it comes to personal faith.
But the rise of religion among the population has shaken the leadership: with overt displays of faith on the rise and a rare terrorist attack in Damascus two years ago attributed to Islamists, the government appears to be moving against hardline religious ideas.
The niqab ban in public schools is a fairly blunt instrument but, on such a small scale, it may be intended to send a message. Egypt, too, has instigated a similarly limited ban (for university exams), a move opposed by Islamists but upheld by the courts.
But Syria's struggle with Islamists and visible symbols of Islam is part of a wider clash, a clash within Islam itself. Political Islam is gaining ground across both the Arab world and Muslim-majority countries. What happens in this debate matters profoundly, because the same debate is taking place within Muslim communities in the west.
The debate, crudely put, is over the space between the personal and the political. Secular-minded governments have tried to keep faith out of state institutions; Islamists want their faith to guide those institutions. Personal space has also increasingly been politicised, with a rise in the wearing of the headscarf and the veil in Syria and in most Muslim-majority countries. Read on and comment >>> Faisal al Yafai | Monday, July 19, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: White Christian Britons are being unfairly targeted compared with minority groups for committing hate crimes, a new report says.
The study from think-tank Civitas argues that new hate crime legislation is restricting freedom of speech, and has effectively introduced a new blasphemy law into Britain by the back door.
A foreword attached to the main report, “A New Inquisition: religious persecution in Britain today”, argues that prosecutors and police are unfairly singling out alleged crimes by white Christians, while ignoring other similar offences by minority groups.
It says: “Some police forces and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] seem to be interpreting statutes in favour of ethnic and religious minorities and in a spirit hostile to members of the majority population, defined as ‘White’ or ‘Christian’.”
Report authors said it is “legitimate to ask” whether these agendas are being driven by “sectarian groups” within either police forces or inside the CPS.
It claims “there is evidence of biased application of the law”, citing the case of a Muslim man who sprayed the words “Islam will dominate the world – Osama is on his way” and “Kill Gordon Brown” on a war memorial in Burton-Upon-Trent.
He was prosecuted for criminal damage – “that is neither a racially nor a religiously aggravated offence”.
The CPS had argued that “the defacing the memorial did not attach to any particular racial or religious group” despite the fact that the monument was “a Christian and British memorial, carrying Christian and British symbols.
"People who read the story found themselves thinking that, if a non-Muslim had defaced a Muslim building the system would have thrown the book at him".
This compared with a Christian couple in Liverpool, Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, who were prosecuted and then cleared last December of a religiously aggravated hate crime after a strongly worded discussion with a Muslim guest at their hotel about the relative merits of their respective religions. >>> Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor | Monday, July 19, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Baroness Warsi, Britain's first Muslim cabinet minister, has returned to her Pakistani roots to be feted as a heroine in her grandmother's village.
More than 2,000 people cheered and threw fragrant rose petals in the air – not the sort of reception usually afforded the chairman of the British Conservative Party – as she addressed them deep in rural Punjab.
"My grandmother, she was living in this village of Bewal and no one thought that her granddaughter would ever be a minister in the United Kingdom," she said in Urdu, to cries of "zindabad", which means live-long.
Her father left Pakistan in 1960, arriving in Britain with only £2 in his pocket.
He went from working in a mill to running a bed manufacturing business with a turnover of £2m, providing the inspiration for Baroness Warsi's Conservative politics.
Her appointment to the cabinet in May attracted banner headlines in Pakistan, where people are enthralled by her family's immigrant-to-minister story. >>> Rob Crilly in Bewal | Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Benjamin Netanyahu's fragile ruling coalition is facing its sternest test since coming to power last year after disgruntled cabinet colleagues threatened to bring down the government.
The Israeli prime minister was allegedly treated to a barrage of taunts and insults from disgruntled members of the hardline Yisrael Beiteinu party during a stormy cabinet meeting to approve the country's 2010 budget.
The confrontation represented an escalation in a row that began when the party's leader, Avigdor Lieberman, was deliberately excluded from secret talks with Turkey last month despite holding the position of foreign minister.
The snub led to a rift between Mr Netanyahu and his mercurial coalition partner, who leads the second largest party in the government after the prime minister's Likud.
Having apologised, Mr Netanyahu may have thought that matters had been resolved -- until he headed into a 24-hour meeting on Friday to discuss the budget.
According to Israeli newspapers, one of Yisrael Beiteinu's five cabinet ministers launched into a tirade at the manner in which Mr Lieberman was being sidelined, saying: "You deceived us. That's not the way to work with us."
Another party official said that Mr Netanyahu was "expediting the end of his days as prime minister."
"If he does not learn to keep his word and to respect his most loyal partners, he will fall from power," the Maariv newspaper quoted the official as saying. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Sunday, July 18, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Women in Gaza have been banned from smoking hookah pipes in public after Hamas ruled it was against tradition and lead[s] to divorce.
The sudden edict, the latest in an often arbitrary campaign to improve moral standards in the territory, threatens to bring to an end centuries of tradition.
Without warning, bearded members of Hamas, the Islamist group which controls Gaza, arrived in cafés and restaurants over the weekend to inform proprietors of the ban.
Amid uncertainty about the details of the decision, a large number of institutions stopped serving the scented tobacco altogether, prompting outrage among patrons, many of whom went home in disgust.
Hamas officials subsequently clarified that only women were forbidden from smoking the narghile, the water pipe better known in the West as the hookah or hubble-bubble [hubbly-bubbly].
"The police have decided to ban women from smoking narghile in open, public places because it is against our customs, traditions and social norms," said Ihab al-Hussein, a spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Sunday, July 18, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Rioters in the French city of Grenoble shot at police and torched cars overnight as the authorities struggled to restore order after two days of violence.
Police on Sunday arrested four men for attempted murder by shooting at officers during riots in the poor neighbourhood of La Villeneuve.
The four were seized in a dawn raid in La Villeneuve after two nights of unrest.
The riots broke out after a 27-year-old man was shot dead by police when he allegedly robbed a casino. >>> | Sunday, July 18, 2010
YNET NEWS: France: Riots over killing of Muslim man: Cars burned, police shot at after authorities kill hold-up suspect near Grenoble >>> News agencies | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: With his approval ratings plummeting and his party facing a pummeling in crucial elections, President Barack Obama has turned for salvation to the man who was until recently his harshest Democratic critic - Bill Clinton.
Mr Obama is forging a fragile partnership with his bitter adversary from the 2008 presidential race in the hope of dragging his presidency out of the doldrums and salvaging Democratic prospects in a bleak campaign season.
With his time in the White House linked for many Americans to an era of economic boom, Mr Clinton will be dispatched to campaign in key states where Democratic candidates regard Mr Obama as a political liability.
A senior Clinton advisor recently sat down with Obama aides to map out the strategy to support "endangered" Democratic candidates as the party battles to retain its majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in November.
It is a dramatic transformation from the hostilities of 2008 when Mr Clinton was often reduced to red-faced rants as an unbridled cheerleader for his wife Hillary in her acrimonious battle with Mr Obama for the Democratic nomination.
As The Sunday Telegraph revealed the former president was so furious with the way that he was portrayed by the rival camp, particularly his belief that that they had portrayed him as racist, that he told friends that Mr Obama could "kiss my ass" in return for his support.
Mr Obama for his part ran his campaign against Mrs Clinton on the mantra that he was overturning "politics as usual" – a barely-veiled dig at the Clintonian style of operations.
There was an uneasy truce before the general election in November 2008 and Mr Clinton delivered a handful of set-piece speeches for the Democratic nominee before focusing on his philanthropic work.
But two years is an eternity in politics – as Mr Obama can testify after seeing his sky-high popularity ratings slide inexorably in the meantime. >>> Philip Sherwell in New York | Saturday, July 17, 2010
Physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries.
Its legacy is tangible, with terms like algebra, algorithm and alkali all being Arabic in origin and at the very heart of modern science - there would be no modern mathematics or physics without algebra, no computers without algorithms and no chemistry without alkalis.
For Baghdad-born Al-Khalili this is also a personal journey and on his travels he uncovers a diverse and outward-looking culture, fascinated by learning and obsessed with science. From the great mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, who did much to establish the mathematical tradition we now know as algebra, to Ibn Sina, a pioneer of early medicine whose Canon of Medicine was still in use as recently as the 19th century, he pieces together a remarkable story of the often-overlooked achievements of the early medieval Islamic scientists. [Source: YouTube]
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THE TELEGRAPH: The CIA is investigating whether Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who defected to the US but last week flew back to Tehran, was a double agent.
The strange case of Shahram Amiri has puzzled US intelligence chiefs who approved a $5 million payment to him for information about Iran's illicit nuclear programme.
Former US intelligence agents have predicted that Mr Amiri will disappear into prison or even face death, despite the hero's welcome he was accorded as he was met by his wife and hugged his seven-year-old son.
But his decision to fly back voluntarily, claiming outlandishly that he was kidnapped by CIA and Saudi agents during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last June and then tortured in the US, has prompted suspicions that he was a double agent working for Iran all along, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
There are also questions about why the Iranian authorities allowed him to travel alone to Saudi Arabia, despite his sensitive work, and why he left his family behind if he was intending to leave Iran permanently. >>> Philip Sherwell in New York and William Lowther in Washington | Saturday, July 17, 2010
Related articles here
20 MINUTES ONLINE: Roman Polanski s'est rendu à Montreux (VD) samedi soir pour assister au concert de sa femme Emmanuelle Seigner, lors du Jazz Festival.
Roman Polanski a fait samedi soir sa première apparition publique depuis sa libération lundi: le cinéaste s'est rendu au Montreux Jazz Festival, où son épouse Emmanuelle Seignier donnait un concert. Peu avant dans une interview télévisée, le Franco-Polonais a réaffirmé son amitié pour la Suisse.
«Je suis heureux d'être libre», a indiqué M. Polanski dans le «19:30» de la Télévision suisse romande. Après avoir promis de revenir à Gstaad, le réalisateur a tenu à remercier les milliers de personnes qui lui ont exprimé leur soutien durant ces «neuf longs mois», en particulier les habitants de la station bernoise. Ces derniers lui ont apporté «des fleurs et des bouteilles de vin». >>> ats | Samedi 17 Juillet 2010
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Roman Polanski hat sich erstmals nach seiner Freilassung öffentlich geäussert. In einem Interview mit dem TSR betonte der Regisseur, dass er zur Schweiz weiterhin «grosse Freundschaft» pflegen wolle.
THE OKLAHOMAN: Oklahoma congressional candidate Kevin Calvey says he will not accept money from a state Islamic group. Group's director said he made the personal donation in hopes of starting a dialogue with Calvey.
A congressional candidate has refused a campaign donation from the executive director of an Islamic-American association, saying the group has ties to terrorist groups.
Kevin Calvey, a candidate for the 5th Congressional District seat, said Wednesday he refused a $25 online donation from Razi Hashim, the executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.
Hashim said his donation was a personal contribution and not meant to be affiliated with the nonprofit group that employs him.
"I thought on a personal level, we could talk as two men, as people of God,” Hashim said. "Jesus said to love your neighbor; we have similar teachings in Islam as well.”
Calvey has been vocal in his opposition of the council nationally, pointing to the 2007 case against the Holy Land Foundation in which 307 people and the council were listed as "unindicted co-conspirators.”
In 2008, a jury found members of the foundation guilty of funneling money to the militant group Hamas. One of the men found guilty was a member of the Texas branch of the council.
"That's not my opinion, that is a fact,” said Calvey, an attorney who was deployed to Iraq as a member of the National Guard. "That's what our own government says about CAIR.”
Hashim said Calvey has a history of bashing Muslims. >>> Julie Bisbee | Thursday, July 15, 2010
HT: Jihad Watch >>>
Kevin Calvey >>>
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Wearing a burka can be 'empowering ' and 'dignified' for Mulsim [sic] women, one of the Government’s most senior female ministers has said.
The controversial remarks by Caroline Spelman, who as Environment Secretary is the second most powerful woman in the Cabinet, were immediately described as “moronic” and “bizarre”.
She is also likely to face anger from back bench Conservative MPs, some of whom have called for the burka – the covering which some Muslim women adopt in public to hide their face, hair and body – to be banned outside of private homes.
Mrs Spelman made her remarks when asked in an interview what she thought of the recent decision by French MPs to introduce a law outlawing the burka in public.
Critics of the ban, including her fellow ministers, have argued that while they do not like to see women covering their faces, particularly if forced to do so by male relatives, legislation is heavy-handed and contrary to the principle of freedom of expression.
But the Environment Secretary’s suggestion that wearing the burka could in fact be seen as a feminist statement will raise eyebrows.
She said that she held her view “as a woman,” and claimed that her experience of visiting Afghanistan had persuaded her that “the burka confers dignity”.
Her remarks are particularly controversial given that before the Taliban was driven out of large parts of Afghanistan with the help of British troops, millions of women were forced under threat of physical violence to wear the veil in public.
British soldiers still gauge the level of threat from the Taliban in a particular area by assessing whether local women feel the need to cover themselves.
But Mrs Spelman insisted that the burka was “empowering”. She told Sky News: “I take a strong view on this, actually. Caroline Spelman: wearing burka can be ‘empowering’ >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Sunday, July 18, 2010
SKY NEWS: A senior female Cabinet minister says Britain should not ban the burka. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman told Sky News a ban would be "un-British".
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Banning the burka would infringe a woman's right to 'choose each morning when you wake up what you wear', Cabinet minister Caroline Spelman said today.
The Environment Secretary claimed it was 'empowering' to be able to choose your own outfit, and this must not be taken away.
It came after the immigration minister, Damian Green, resisted demands from within the Tory party to ban the burka - which critics claim is actually a symbol of oppression.
Mr Green said a ban would be 'rather un-British'* and run contrary to the conventions of a 'tolerant and mutually respectful society'.
This is despite a YouGov survey that found that 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of full-face veils to be made illegal. Female minister insists women must be able to choose their own clothes as ban on burka is ruled out >>> James Slack, Home Affairs Editor | Sunday, July 18, 2010
*It is also very un-British to wear such a ridiculous garment! – © Mark
Related article here
THE TELEGRAPH: The Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the late Dr Tantawi, famously, and provocatively made female students remove the face-veil in the classroom. This was a brave thing to do at the premier place of Sunni Muslim learning. Was he right to do it?
It is clear that the fundamental principle of freedom of belief and of the right to manifest one's own belief must continue to be upheld in a free society, whether for Christians, Muslims or anyone else.
Such a principle does not, however, exist in isolation and has to be balanced against other considerations of the common good and of public order.
As far as the wearing of the Burka is concerned, there are, first of all, questions of safety. >>> Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester | Saturday, July 17, 2010
No, Sir! You've got that wrong. The burqah shouldn't be worn anywhere in public in the United Kingdom. Burqahs are an affront to our way of life and our values. – © Mark
THE GUARDIAN: More than 40 killed as members of government-backed militia in Baghdad were queueing up to get paid
A suicide bomber killed more than 40 people in Baghdad this morning in an attack on security personnel as they queued up for their wages.
The victims were all members of a government-backed militia known as Sahwa, or Sons of Iraq, who were waiting for their pay in Radwaniya, a Sunni district in the south-west of the city.
Police put the number of dead at 39, but the interior ministry said 43 had died. >>> Matthew Weaver and agencies | Sunday, July 18, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: The US Senate is determined to uncover the truth behind the early release of the Lockerbie bomber
Alex Salmond has heaped pressure on Tony Blair over his alleged role in the controversial release of the Lockerbie bomber by claiming that the former prime minister should be forced to testify before a US Senate committee investigating the affair.
Amid growing concerns over the potential impact of the forthcoming foreign relations committee hearings, the Scottish First Minister advised senators to question Mr Blair over the infamous "deal in the desert" in 2007, when Mr Blair and the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi agreed plans to open the country up to foreign trade.
The call came as the Daily Mail claimed Mr Blair was flown to Libya for secret talks with Col Gaddafi last month, days after denying he was an adviser to the dictator.
The committee inquiry, led by Senator John Kerry, will investigate BP's alleged involvement in the release last August, on compassionate grounds, of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. But it threatens to turn into an embarrassing episode for a series of senior British figures. Both David Cameron and Foreign Secretary, William Hague, have said the release was "a mistake". But officials in Washington have confirmed that they want to ask past and present UK ministers to give evidence about their handling of the case – casting a shadow over former justice secretary Jack Straw and the Scottish Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, the man who authorised the release.
But, in an attempt to deflect criticism from his own administration, Mr Salmond suggested that the senators look elsewhere. "It is important to understand that what the American senators want to inquire about is whether there was a deal in the desert with Col Gaddafi," Mr Salmond said. "The best [way] to answer that would be to call Mr Blair and ask him directly." Continue reading and comment >>> Brian Brady and David Usborne | Sunday, July 18, 2010
Related article here
THE NEW YORK TIMES: As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.
The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely to appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.
But large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.
The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices. >>> Reed Abelson | Saturday, July 17, 2010
Socialized medicine begins here! Consider this the start of the dismantlement of the old system of medicine provision in the States. By the end, the patient’s opinion will matter far less than the doctor’s. The state will control your healthcare and the management thereof. This is the price Americans will pay for being taken in by a smooth talker! – © Mark
Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain will not follow France by introducing a law banning women from wearing the burka, the immigration minister has ruled.
Damian Green said such a move would be “rather un-British” and run contrary to the conventions of a “tolerant and mutually respectful society”.
He said it would be “undesirable” for Parliament to vote on a burka ban in Britain and that there was no prospect of the Coalition proposing it.
His comments will dismay the growing number of supporters of a ban. A YouGov survey last week found that 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of full-face veils to be made illegal.
Mr Green used a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Telegraph, his first since taking up his post at the Home Office in May, to issue a “message around the world that Britain is no longer a soft touch on immigration”.
He said the summer would see a major crackdown on the main streams of illegal immigration — including sham marriages, illegal workers and people trafficking — and confirmed that this autumn the Government would set an overall cap on migrants entering Britain from outside the European Union.
His firm decision to rule out a burka ban will disappoint some Right-of-centre Tory MPs, including Philip Hollobone, who has tabled a private member’s bill that would make it illegal for anyone to cover their face in public.
Mr Hollobone, the MP for Kettering, said this weekend that he would refuse to hold any constituency meetings with women wearing burkas. >>> Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor | Saturday, July 17, 2010
Not a pair of balls between them! – © Mark
LE POINT: Le ministre de l'Intérieur, Brice Hortefeux, a déclaré samedi à Grenoble qu'il souhaitait "rétablir l'ordre public et l'autorité de l'État" au plus vite et par "tous les moyens", après une visite éclair dans le quartier secoué dans la nuit par des violences urbaines. "Nous allons réagir vite. Quand je dis vite, c'est-à-dire tout de suite, c'est ainsi que nous allons rétablir l'ordre public et l'autorité de l'État", a déclaré le ministre lors d'un point de presse. >>> AFP | Samedi 17 Juillet 2010
LE POINT: Les autorités vénézuéliennes ont exhumé vendredi les restes de Simon Bolivar, héros de l'indépendance décédé en 1830, afin de vérifier une thèse selon laquelle il aurait été empoisonné par des ennemis en Colombie. Le président vénézuélien Hugo Chavez rejette la thèse traditionnelle selon laquelle Bolivar, qui a libéré une grande partie de l'Amérique du Sud du joug espagnol, est mort de tuberculose. "Quels moments extraordinaires avons-nous vécus ce soir ! Nous avons vu les restes du grand Bolivar. Mon Dieu, mon Dieu. (...) J'avoue que j'ai pleuré. (...) Je leur ai dit : Ce glorieux squelette doit être celui de Bolivar parce que vous pouvez sentir sa présence", écrit Chavez sur son compte Twitter @chavezcandanga. >>> Reuters | Samedi 17 Juillet 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: GRANDE-BRETAGNE | Un député britannique du parti conservateur au pouvoir a déposé un projet de loi limitant le port du voile intégral islamique dans les lieux publics.
Philip Hollobone a déposé à la chambre des Communes un texte visant à "réglementer le port de certains voiles" dans le but assumé de provoquer un débat entre les députés qu’il juge "déconnectés de l’opinion publique".
Le texte doit être examiné en décembre mais n’a quasiment aucune chance d’être adopté en raison de la réticence d’une majorité de parlementaires à légiférer sur le voile.
Le député a par ailleurs affirmé samedi dans un entretien au journal The Independent qu’il exigerait des femmes voilées qu’elles se découvrent si elles souhaitent le rencontrer à sa permanence de Kettering (centre de l’Angleterre). >>> AFP | Samedi 17 Juillet 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Former BP chief Lord Browne said this week that despite a shift in attitudes, homophobia is rife — and people in public life are afraid to come out
It hasn't been a great few weeks for those who dare to believe that we are living in enlightened times. It had been looking likely that Dr Jeffrey John, the highly regarded dean of St Albans, who came out in the 1970s and is in a (celibate) civil partnership, would become Britain's first openly gay bishop, but last week his nomination was blocked. There was the teacher in Liverpool who called a pupil "a fat gay boy" and the small but vocal anti-gay protest that tried (but failed) to disrupt the Pride festival in Derby. This week a Tory councillor, Denis Knowles, was cleared of homophobia to the dismay of many who took offence at his description of male Labour activists as being "of the limp-wristed variety". Last week Alastair Campbell revealed on his blog that when he appeared on Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, when questioned about his views on gay rights, said: "I demand the right not to be bummed." Strange that the BBC didn't show that bit.
Meanwhile, some of the rightwing papers got themselves into a state about the "floodgates" being open to gay asylum seekers after last week's landmark ruling that two asylum seekers should have the right to stay in the UK – a story that was given an added dose of hysteria by the bizarre statement from one of the supreme court judges, Lord Rodger, that gay men should have the right "to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts and drinking exotically coloured cocktails".
So who can be entirely surprised by the piece in yesterday's newspaper by Lord Browne of Madingley, the former BP chief executive who resigned after he was outed in 2007, who wrote that homophobia still thrives in British public life? "Even in today's more tolerant age, there are many lonely people out there still afraid to reveal who they really are for fear of marginalisation and abuse." He highlighted the case of David Laws, the Liberal Democrat MP, who was forced to resign as chief secretary to the Treasury in May after he claimed expenses for accommodation owned by his male partner in order to keep their relationship secret. "[Laws' resignation] suggests that public figures continue to feel they have no choice but to cover up their sexuality," wrote Browne.
Perhaps one of the most revealing things about Lord Mandelson's memoirs, which came out this week, is what they didn't reveal. In an interview in the Times this week, he was asked about his position "as the most powerful gay man in the country", and in the closest he has yet come to acknowledging his sexuality publicly, he said: "I think I'm actually quite a good role model for people who, without any fuss or bother, without any self-consciousness or inverse or other discrimination, are able to make it in politics, to make it in public life … If I've demonstrated that, and provided a role model for that, then I think I've done a service."
Mandelson, Browne and Laws are all from a generation who grew up at a time when it was illegal to be gay, which may explain their reticence. But the last 10 years have seen a huge shift in attitudes, and a raft of legislative changes have brought greater equality for gay people: the introduction of civil partnerships; the right to serve in the military; to adopt; for lesbians to have IVF and for same-sex couples to be named on a child's birth certificate. There have been new laws against discrimination at work and in public services, the abolition of section 28 and the age of consent brought into line with that for heterosexuals. >>> Emine Saner | Saturday, July 17, 2010
Additional reporting by Patrick Kingsley
THE GUARDIAN: Being Outed Is a Blessing >>> John Browne | Thursday, July 15, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: As Somalia's al Shebab militants claim responsibility for bombings in Kampala, the Telegraph profiles their spiritual leader, accountant-turned-jihadi Ahmed Abdi Godane.
As befits a man who fears he has a US missile with his name on it, Ahmed Abdi Godane knows the importance of keeping a low profile.
The leader of Somalia's al-Shebab militant movement, he prefers to be heard rather than seen, ranting away in radio broadcasts from his group's strongholds in northern Mogadishu. Thanks to his fatwahs against pop music, foreign films and even televised football, he already has a captive audience - as of last week, though, he made the rest of the world take notice too.
"What happened in Kampala was just the beginning," he warned in his latest broadcast, gloating over Sunday's twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital, in which Shebab-backed "martyrs" slaughtered 76 people as they watched the World Cup final. "If Uganda and Burundi do not withdraw their troops from Somalia, there will be more bombings like these."
Delivered with the same fiery rhetoric with which he recently declared himself "at Osama bin Laden's service", Godane's warning confirmed what many outside Somalia have long dreaded: that the Shebab, which has imposed a Taliban-style regime across much of the anarchic, war-torn land, would one day begin exporting its brand of Islamist violence to the wider world.
Last Sunday's attacks, designed to punish both Uganda and Burundi for providing troops to support Mogadishu's shaky Western-backed provisional government, marked the first time the group had struck outside its own borders. Now, having proved the Shebab's credentials as the world's newest international terrorist group, security officials fear it is only a matter of time before Godane, also known as Abu Zubayr, orders similar attacks against the West.
"This is a move into a different league altogether, and will put Godane and al Shebab on the world map," one Nairobi-based security official told The Sunday Telegraph. "He is very much of the international jihads mindset, and wants Islamic rule across the world, from Somalia to Alaska." >>> Colin Freeman and Mike Pflanz in Nairobi | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama's inability to articulate his plans has generated the sense of a presidency on the verge of failure, writes Alex Spillius.
Buried deep in yet another poll this week cataloguing Barack Obama's declining popularity in his home country was an intriguing nugget of opinion.
Democracy Corps, a Left-leaning research firm, found that 55 per cent of Americans think the world "socialist" fittingly describes their president.
By most received definitions, this is absurd. If socialism is a belief that the means of production and distribution should be owned collectively or by central government, then Obama is no more a socialist than Ronald Reagan ever was.
The reason for this apparent aberration may be that interpretations of the term in the US are much broader than in Europe, where there is some experience of socialism. For some Americans, it means anyone who believes in increased state spending.
But if Obama isn't a socialist, what is he? It is strange to report, but after 19 months of living under his presidency, Americans are still not sure. It is a big part of his problem. >>> Alex Spillius - American Way | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Rioters in France have torched cars and opened fire on police offers [sic] during an overnight confrontation in the southeastern French city of Grenoble.
The incident begun [sic] in the early hours of Saturday morning when rampaging youths stoned a tramway and attacked it with baseball bats and iron bars.
The gangs then set cars on fire and opened fire against officers. The officers returned fire.
Regional security official Brigitte Julien says no one was injured in the incident but one youth, in his twenties, was detained.
The riots came after the death of a Grenoble resident during a robbery in a nearby town.
Karim Boudouda, 27, was one of two men believed to have held up a casino, escaping with more than 20,000 euros (£17,000).
He was killed in a shoot-out with police following the robbery. Violence flared after his memorial service.
Mr Boudouda, 27, had three previous convictions for armed robbery. The other suspect escaped and is still on the run. >>> | Saturday, July 17, 2010
AFP: BUENOS AIRES — Argentina's first gay marriage under a law passed this week was set for August 13 between a 61-year-old man and his 60-year-old partner, officials said Friday.
The first union was authorized by municipal officials in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires for actor Ernesto Rodriguez Larrese, 60, and Alejandro Vanelli, 61, who have lived together for 34 years.
The couple had been denied a request to wed at the same location three years ago. >>> AFP | Saturday, July 17, 2010
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Argentinien hat als erstes Land auf dem südamerikanischen Kontinent die Ehe von Homosexuellen erlaubt. Der Senat gab dafür grünes Licht.
THE GUARDIAN: Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, attacks 'extraordinary and outrageous' waste and predicts tough settlement
The BBC licence fee could be cut as part of the government's public spending austerity drive, the culture secretary has said.
Jeremy Hunt accused the corporation of "extraordinary and outrageous" waste in recent years and warned he could "absolutely" see viewers paying less than the current £145.50 a year after next year's licence fee negotiations with the government.
"The BBC should not interpret the fact that we haven't said anything about the way licence fee funds are used as an indication that we are happy about it. We will be having very tough discussions," he told the Daily Telegraph.
Hunt said the BBC should recognise the "very constrained financial situation" the country was in and it would need to change "huge numbers" of things that it does.
"There's a moment when elected politicians have an opportunity to influence the BBC and it happens every five years. It is when the licence fee is renewed.
"The BBC will have to make tough decisions like everyone else. There are huge numbers of things that need to be changed at the BBC. They need to demonstrate the very constrained financial situation we are now in."
The licence fee review process begins next year and a lower levy could be in place for 2012. >>> David Batty and agencies | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The culture department can offer glamour and excitement but Jeremy Hunt has taken charge with the BBC under fire and the arts facing severe budget cuts, writes Andrew Porter.
And he doesn’t just mean the sight of the massed ranks of luvvies screaming at him — as they have been this week — about the impending cuts to arts budgets.
He is referring to the period after this autumn’s spending review. “We are in an unreal period at the moment where everyone knows they are coming but they don’t know what it means. I’m not sure it’s sunk home yet what the effect of these cuts will be,” he says.
“People probably still don’t assume it’s going to affect the services they use every day so it will be a shock when the penny drops.”
With cuts of up to 40 per cent in Whitehall budgets, the Department for Culture Media and Sport, not being a front-line area, is braced for severe pain. Luckily, much of the money for the 2012 Olympics has been allocated already, but there are nagging concerns, not least about the ability to police such a monumental event. Mr Hunt is candid about the threats.
“We’ve got a number of terrorist networks in the UK at the moment actively plotting to cause major, major carnage. So security is going to be an issue,” he says. “It’s an obvious target. We have to assume they are targeting it and we have to be ready for that.”
Mr Hunt will use the Olympics to try to revive competitive sports in schools after years of neglect by Labour. Refreshingly, he is talking the right language.
“The point about competitive sport is it helps people to deal with setbacks and losing,” he says. “Losing is something that happens just as often as winning in all sports — and in fact more frequently for most people. This is something we should welcome and we have got to bury the myth that everyone has to get a prize and it is damaging to people’s self-esteem if you don’t win first prize. Setting up the Olympic school programme is the way to help do that.”
Mr Hunt has been taking flak this week from unlikely places. Selina Scott accused him of failing to follow up his promise in opposition to make the BBC examine how it treats its women. She says the corporation is guilty of “malign sexism and ageism”. But the Culture Secretary is not in the mood to be conciliatory. >>> | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: A Conservative MP says he will refuse to hold meetings with Muslim women wearing full Islamic dress at his constituency surgery unless they lift their face veil.
Last night Muslim groups condemned Philip Hollobone and accused him of failing in his duty as an MP.
In an interview with The Independent, the Kettering MP said: "I would ask her to remove her veil. If she said: 'No', I would take the view that she could see my face, I could not see hers, I am not able to satisfy myself she is who she says she is. I would invite her to communicate with me in a different way, probably in the form of a letter."
He said the vast majority of Muslim women wore dress allowing people to see their face and claimed no Islamic scholars or clerics said wearing the burka or niqab was a religious requirement. "It is not a necessity," he said.
"I just take what I regard as a common sense view. If you want to engage in normal, daily, interactive dialogue with your fellow human beings, you can only really do this properly by seeing each other's face.
"Seventy-five per cent of the usual communication between two human beings is done with personal experience. God gave us faces to be expressive. It is not just the words we utter but whether we are smiling, sad, angry or frustrated. You don't get any of that if your face is covered."
Mr Hollobone also railed against Turkey's potential membership of the European Union. With David Cameron expected to visit the country this summer to endorse its attempt to join the EU, Mr Hollobone warned that Turkish membership would be "a disaster" because EU rules allowing free movement would encourage many Turks to move to Britain. "I could anticipate hundreds of thousands, if not more than one million, Turks heading our way. I am sure that the Turkish people are lovely people, but Britain is full up. We cannot cope with another mass wave of immigration."
Mr Hollobone is to bring in a Private Member's Bill to ban women wearing the burka or niqab in public and hopes that the French parliament's decision this week to ban the wearing in public of the full-face veil will tip the balance in favour of similar bans in other European nations. "France is a large country, widely respected around the world. People will quite rightly sit up and take notice."
Mr Hollobone's Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill is due to have its second reading on 3 December but, as it lacks government backing, is likely to run out of parliamentary time.
"It is an issue that is not going to go away," he said. "Sadly, the House of Commons is likely to prove itself out of touch with public opinion." >>> Andrew Grice, Political Editor | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Leading article: This burka ban does not translate >>> | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The US has added the American-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to a terrorism blacklist, targeting him with sanctions aimed at cutting off his financial support.
The US Treasury Department placed al-Awlaki – accused by officials of helping plan the failed Christmas Day airline bombing – on its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
That means any bank accounts found in the United States belonging to him are frozen, Americans are forbidden from doing business with him, and he is banned from travelling to the US. >>> | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Arizona has turned off every speed camera on its highways after complaints that they violated privacy and were designed to generate revenue rather than promote road safety.
A spokesman for Jan Brewer, the state's Republican governor, said she "was uncomfortable with the intrusive nature of the system", which was inherited from her Democratic predecessor.
Opening in October 2008, the scheme was first in the United States to use speed cameras across a whole state. Amid objections of Big Brother-ism, numerous cameras were vandalised, while the operator of a van carrying a mobile camera was shot dead in a lay-by in April 2009. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Film about Margaret Thatcher's life, which is expected to star Meryl Streep, shows the former prime minister as a dementia-sufferer looking back at her life with sadness.
Although the prospect of Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher may have pleased some admirers of the Conservative former prime minister, her children have been horrified to discover more about the film.
Mandrake hears that the screenplay of The Iron Lady depicts Baroness Thatcher as an elderly dementia-sufferer looking back on her career with sadness. She is shown talking to herself and unaware that her husband, Sir Denis Thatcher, has died.
“Sir Mark and Carol are appalled at what they have learnt about the film,” says a friend of the family. “They think it sounds like some Left-wing fantasy. They feel strongly about it, but will not speak publicly for fear of giving it more publicity." >>> Tim Walker. Edited by Richard Eden | Saturday, July 17, 2010
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