Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Americans may have fallen out of love with Barack Obama, but the president of the United States is still an object of affection for the Chinese, who have remodelled him as a blow-up sex doll.
A doll wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, and with Mr Obama's face carefully screen-printed onto its head, was exhibited at the recent 8th Sex Culture Festival in the southern city of Guangzhou.
The doll was photographed by Chinese state media nestling behind several other standard plastic female toys.
Mr Obama is widely popular in China, and a "Maobama" t-shirt, bearing an image of his face crossed with a portrait of Chairman Mao, has become a best-seller. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: A courtroom erupted in protest today after a student who tried to murder a Labour MP was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years.Roshonara Choudhry, 21, stabbed Stephen Timms twice in the stomach after being inspired by a radical Al Qaeda cleric linked to the air cargo bomb plot.
Her attack on the former Treasury minister is thought to be the first Al Qaeda-inspired attempt to assassinate a politician on British soil.
After the sentence was passed, a group of men began shouting in the public gallery 'Allahu akbar' ('God is great'), 'British go to hell' and 'Curse the judge'. A demonstration was also taking place outside the court.
Choudhry knifed East Ham MP Mr Timms as he held a constituency surgery at the Beckton Globe community centre in east London on May 14 after watching online jihadi sermons by US-born extremist Anwar al-Awlaki.
Mr Justice Cooke, sentencing Choudhry, said: 'You said you ruined the rest of your life. You said it was worth it. You said you wanted to be a martyr'.
The judge said Choudhry would continue to be a danger to Members of Parliament for the foreseeable future.
The judge said that if Choudhry had succeeded in killing Mr Timms he would have given her a whole-life sentence, meaning she would never be released. >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Wednesday, November 30, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde, had her pearl earrings, bracelet and ring airbrushed out of a local publication in an apparent attempt to look more austere in the wake of protests against reforms to make the French work longer.
Mrs Lagarde appears on the front cover of Nouvelles du 12 – a local newsletter in Paris' 12th arrondissement where she is a councillor – smiling and standing in front of a viaduct in a red scarf but 'sans' jewellery.
However, it transpires that the cover is a Photoshop montage of a picture of her on a walkabout with journalists in which she is clearly adorned with bulky earrings and other jangly jewellery.
Jacques Kalifa, the editor of the local publication, said he had requested the photo from Mrs Lagarde's office for the cover of the magazine.
Mr Kalifa said: "Rather than take a photo ourselves, we asked for one from her private office then did a montage of her with the viaduct in the background." At first he said the ministry had sent the photo with the jewellery already removed. "Perhaps she wanted to have a softer image, to be seen without her jewellery," he told the Le Poste website. But he later claimed the newsletter's picture editor had taken the initiative to remove the lavish objects himself.
The photo edit was spotted by Le Canard Enchaîné, the satirical weekly, which said the jewels were no doubt viewed as too "bling-bling". >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
FOX NEWS: President holds news conference on election results
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Midterms 2010: Barack Obama facing the prospect of legislative gridlock after election defeats: Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives in a piercing rebuke to President Barack Obama, who now faces legislative gridlock and even a rolling back of his controversial health care legislation. >>> Toby Harnden and Alex Spillius in Washington | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has said he is looking forward to working with Republicans and admitted Americans were deeply “frustrated” with the pace of economy recovery.
Mr Obama spoke after Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives. The president now faces legislative gridlock and potentially a roll back of some of his key legislative reforms.
“After what I’m sure was a long night for a time of you and needless to say it was for me, I can tell you that, you know, some election nights are more fun than others. Some are exhilarating. Some are humbling,” Mr Obama said.
“And yesterday’s vote confirmed what I’ve heard from folks all across America. People are frustrated. They’re deeply frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery and the opportunities that they hope for their children and their grandchildren.”
Mr Obama would not concede that the Republican win represented a public rejection of his agenda but he took "direct responsibility" for the slow economy.
Republicans scored the chamber’s biggest party turnover in more than 70 years. Democrats lost ground in the Senate, but kept their majority, vote tallies showed on Wednesday.
John Boehner, the House Republican Leader on Wednesday claimed a voter mandate to roll back the Obama administration’s health care overhaul, calling it is a “monstrosity”.
The presumptive next speaker of the House said that the Republican takeover of the House and its success in narrowing the Democratic Senate majority in Tuesday’s elections was proof that “the Obama-Pelosi agenda” was rejected by the American people. >>> | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Argentina's president has emerged from mourning vowing to honour the memory of her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, as she leads the country.
Cristina Fernandez spoke to the nation for the first time since the death of Kirchner, a popular former president who was her closest ally and confidant in what many people viewed as a virtual joint presidency.
"It's the greatest sadness I've had in my life. It's the loss of the man who was my companion of 35 years, the companion of my life, of fights, of ideals ... a part of me has gone with him," she said, her voice breaking repeatedly.
Recalling her husband's body lying in state at the presidential palace, she thanked "all the men and women who mobilised, who wanted to see him, who wanted to say farewell, who prayed for him, who cried for him."
Ms Fernandez said she would carry on in pursuing the couple's left-of-centre economic and social policies. >>> | Tuesday, November 02, 2010
LE POINT: Le verdict final dans l'affaire Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani n'a pas été prononcé par la justice iranienne, selon le chef de la diplomatie iranienne Manouchehr Mottaki, a affirmé mercredi le ministre des Affaires étrangères, Bernard Kouchner. Lors d'un entretien téléphonique mercredi, "Manouchehr Mottaki m'a affirmé que le verdict final dans l'affaire concernant Sakineh Ashtiani n'avait pas été prononcé par la justice iranienne, et que les informations concernant son éventuelle exécution ne correspondaient pas à la réalité", a déclaré le ministre dans un communiqué. >>> Le Point | Mercredi 03 Novembre 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Organisers use Facebook to form 'queer kissing flashmob' in front of Barcelona's cathedral on Sunday
Spanish gays and lesbians will welcome Pope Benedict XVI to their country at the weekend with a massive homosexual kiss-in to be staged in front of Barcelona's cathedral.
Organisers have invited gays and lesbians from around Spain to congregate in Barcelona during the papal visit on Sunday to form what, on their Facebook page, they call a "queer kissing flashmob".
The plan is for participants to meet at the city's gothic cathedral and start kissing as soon as the pope steps out of the building at 10am.
"No placards, no flags, no shouting and no slogans. Only kissing allowed," the Facebook page reads.
"When Benedict XVI passes in front of us we will kiss, man-to-man and woman-to-woman," Marylene Carole, one of the organisers, told the Spanish news agency EFE.
A whistle or horn will mark the beginning of a two-minute period during which couples are expected to maintain mouth-to-mouth contact. "Once the kiss is over we will go on our way as if nothing had happened," she said. >>> Giles Tremlett in Madrid | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: YouTube has begun removing al-Qaeda videos from its website after the British Government contacted the White House to complain about the material.
A number of clips by Anwar al-Awlaki, believed to have been the mastermind of the cargo bomb plot, were deleted from the video sharing site last night. However scores more, including incendiary calls to wage war on non-Muslims, remain.
A Google search for one of the most provocative videos - entitled 44 Ways to Support Jihad - on Google brings up more than a hundred results from YouTube. Two of the three top results have now been blocked although the bulk of the rest remain available.
Users clicking on the deleted content were confronted with a message saying "This video has been removed because its content violated YouTube's terms of service."
YouTube says its community guidelines "prohibit dangerous or illegal activities such as bomb-making, hate speech or incitement to commit specific and serious acts of violence”.
A source at Google, which owns the video sharing site, confirmed that staff had begun to take down al-Awlaki's videos after being alerted by the Telegraph's report. >>> Duncan Gardham, Gordon Rayner and John Bingham | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Marco Rubio, a young Tea Party-backed Republican, was last night elected Senator for Florida - and gave an acceptance speech fuelling speculation that he could one day be US president.
Mr Rubio, the 39-year-old son of Cuban exiles, comfortably beat Charlie Crist, the outgoing Republican state governor, who he forced to run as an independent.
He told hundreds of supporters at a rally in Coral Gables: “Our nation is headed in the wrong direction and both parties are to blame.”
Conceding the night’s results were not an endorsement of his party, Mr Rubio said they offered “a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be.”
Nonetheless he promised the “clear and genuine alternative” he said American voters had shown they wanted over [sic?] the agenda followed by Barack Obama since 2008.
Supporters hailed Mr Rubio’s win as a victory for “common-sense conservatism”. Jeb Bush, the former Governor of Florida, welcomed him to the stage with an impassioned introduction.
“Marco Rubio makes me cry for joy,” Mr Bush said. “We need great leaders who can lift the cloud above us.'' >>> Jon Swaine in Miami | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: William Hague's decision to hold taboo-breaking talks with representatives of three groups at the forefront of the Palestinian civil disobedience movement has set him on collision course with Israel's government.
The Foreign Secretary will meet the leadership of the increasingly assertive Palestinian groups on Wednesday, during his first visit to the Holy Land after taking office, and Israel fears the meetings could confer international legitimacy on the protesters.
Israeli officials declined to comment on the meeting because the identity of the Palestinian leaders involved has not yet been publicly disclosed. Privately, though, some officials voiced misgivings. "All I can say is that I hope he tries to get all opinions at hand from all sides," one said. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Tuesday, November 02, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Arianna Huffington tells WSJ's Jerry Seib and Alan Murray that the Obama Administration's big flaw was to underestimate the extent of the economic devastation on Main Street. The answer to a solution, she says, is to stop seeing everything as a left/right division.
LE POINT: Les démocrates ont évité l'apocalypse annoncée. Le camp Obama devrait conserver la majorité au Sénat. Mais alors que l'Amérique compte encore ses bulletins de vote, les républicains sont assurés de reprendre le contrôle de la Chambre des représentants en raflant plus de 60 sièges. L'issue de ces élections de mi-mandat, qui se tenaient mardi 2 novembre, est inhabituelle, car, d'habitude, les deux chambres changent de main en même temps.
C'est surtout un vote sanction. Les électeurs, notamment beaucoup de seniors plus nombreux à s'être déplacés d'après les sondages à la sortie des urnes, se disent très inquiets et très mécontents de la situation économique et de la gestion Obama. >>> De correspondante du Point à Washington, Hélène Vissière | Mercredi 03 Novembre 2010
WELT ONLINE: Die Kongresswahlen sind ein Debakel für US-Präsident Obama. Seine Gegner haben die republikanische Antwort auf ihn gefunden.
Auf der Bühne steht ein Mann, der das darstellt, was er verspricht. Davon sind zumindest die rund 1000 Besucher bei der Siegesfeier des am Dienstag furios in den Senat gewählten Republikaners Marco Rubio überzeugt.
Der 39-jährige Sohn kubanischer Flüchtlinge prophezeit die Wiederherstellung des amerikanischen Traumes, und er selbst, Sohn eines Barkeepers und eines Hausmädchens, scheint zu bestätigen, dass in den Vereinigten Staaten jeder alles erreichen kann, wenn er nur an sich glaubt. Marco Rubio, an dessen Wahlsieg im März 2009 nur drei Prozent in Florida glaubten, wird seit dieser Nacht in den USA als die republikanische Antwort auf Barack Obama gehandelt.
Denn den Präsidenten und seine Demokraten haben die Midterm-Elections wie ein Hurrikan gepackt, geschüttelt und gerupft. Die Mehrheit im Abgeordnetenhaus ist bei den Wahlen zur Halbzeit der ersten und möglicherweise letzten Obama-Legislatur an die Republikaner gegangen. Im Senat haben die Demokraten ihre Mehrheit gehalten, aber sie ist geschrumpft.
Der Präsident, angeschlagen durch hohe Arbeitslosigkeit und schlechte Wirtschaftsdaten, ist künftig selbst in der Tagespolitik auf den Kompromiss mit den Republikanern angewiesen. Gegen Mitternacht, so hieß es, rief Obama bereits John Boehner an, der als republikanischer Kongressabgeordneter aus Ohio der nächste Sprecher des „Hauses“ und damit der nach Präsident und Vizepräsident mächtigste US-Politiker werden soll. >>> Von Ansgar Graw | Mittwoch, 03. November 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: America has taken stock of Mr Obama’s presidency – and it doesn’t like what it sees, says Simon Heffer.
The extent of the kicking the Democratic party has received in the mid-term elections will be clear by the time you read this. America has been concentrating in recent days not on who would win – that seemed obvious – but on how big the Republican gains would be among the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, the 36 Senate seats, the 37 governorships and the 6,118 seats in state legislatures being contested. There is a more striking consideration, however: why has the Obama phenomenon imploded with the force it has, just two years after the President’s stunning triumph? For it is so mighty a fall that it is something of an achievement.
In recent days both the President and his rather clumsy Vice-President, Joe Biden, have been touring America trying to get the Democratic vote out. They do not appear to have been very successful. Two years ago, hundreds of thousands of people turned up for great outdoor rallies for candidate Obama. When he went to Cleveland, Ohio, on Sunday the indoor sports stadium he spoke in was a little over half-full. The media here are full of former Democratic voters voicing different degrees of disappointment with him. The greatest criticism is about his failure to improve the economy; the second greatest is about his apparent inability to modify foreign policy. In this lies the truth of what the difficulty is: a fundamental failure to manage expectations.
On the morning after Mr Obama’s election two years ago, I watched on television an Illinois woman weeping with relief at the outcome, on the grounds that her house would not now be foreclosed upon. She made it clear where she got this idea from: the Democrats had promised prosperity and, she believed, to protect the homes of those facing foreclosure on their loans. I hope that woman still has the same roof over her head, but I wouldn’t bet on it. The wild economic promises and the failure to damp down some of the inferences drawn from them have proved disastrous for the Democrats’, and the President’s, reputation and credibility.
Many states are going broke. Nevada, home of the Senate leader Harry Reid, is $3 billion in the red. The combined level of their debt is $134 billion. That is a drop in the ocean compared with America’s total debt, which is around $15 trillion, a figure incomprehensible to most people. Unemployment nationally has risen from 7.7 per cent two years ago to 9.6 per cent today. The President’s own economic advisers said it would peak at 8 per cent and Mr Biden recklessly said it would fall month-on-month. Last month, 96,000 more people joined the dole queues. Unemployment has risen disproportionately among young people, black people and the white working class, precisely the groups who supported Mr Obama two years ago. The President has a particular problem in northern rust-belt states where he was supported heavily in 2008 because he represented the last hope. He and Mr Biden have been again and again to the states around the Great Lakes trying to maintain that support. There, as elsewhere, they appear to have failed. There is no real anger against them, though: just a fog of disappointment. Read on and comment >>> Simon Heffer | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Republicans seize momentum in House of Representatives as voter disillusionment leaves Democrats facing a tough futureA conservative wave roared across the American political landscape last night, humbling President Barack Obama and instantly redrawing the landscape in Washington with a new place on the high perches of power for the flag-bearers of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement.
As night gave away to dawn in America, a huge power-shift had materialised with the Republican Party set to seize control of the House of Representatives with a significant majority. Television networks projected that the Democrats had held on to control of the US Senate.
Thus utter humiliation was averted - but barely.
“Tonight there is a Tea Party tidal wave,” declared Rand Paul, the victor of the Senate race in Kentucky and among the most high profile winners backed by the insurgent conservative movement. “They tell me that the Senate is the most deliberative body...deliberate on this: the American people are unhappy with what’s going on in Washington. >>> David Usborne, US Editor | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Republican Party has recaptured the House of Representatives from the Democrats, delivering a stunning rebuke to President Barack Obama just two years after he won the White House.
The party won a slew of Democratic seats in America's eastern time zone such as Indiana and Virginia, and were on course for an overall gain of 52-55 seats by the time votes in the rest of country had been counted.
But Republicans fell short of their ambitious target of the ten seats needed to win the Senate, which would have given them total control of Congress.
The Democrats keep a narrow lead in the Senate, which will give the party considerable leverage against what is expected to be a barrage of Republican legislation from the House designed to unpick President Barack Obama’s achievements in his first two years.
Early in the evening the Republicans celebrated as Tea Party favourites Marco Rubio and Rand Paul won in Florida and Kentucky respectively.
Mr Paul achieved the historic feat of becoming the first member of the anti-tax, small-government Tea Party member to win a Senate seat. The committed libertarian, son of Representative Ron Paul, who was a maverick 2008 presidential candidate, prevailed in Kentucky.
In his victory speech, he proclaimed that "tonight there is a Tea Party tidal wave and we are sending a message” He continued: “It's a message of fiscal sanity, limited constitutional government and balanced budgets."
Mr Rubio delivered a warning to the Republican leadership in Washington that the party had to learn from the mistakes made after it last won a majority in 1994, when it abandoned the principles of balanced budgets and small government. >>> Toby Harnden and Alex Spillius in Washington | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: An Iranian woman who faced being stoned to death will hang tomorrow, a human rights group has claimed.The International Committee Against Stoning said that the authorities had given the go-ahead for the execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.
Her fate has provoked international outcry after she was sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery.
Under huge pressure, Tehran eventually ruled that the 43-year-old mother-of-two would be hanged instead.
Ashtiani has been on death row ever since.
'The authorities in Tehran have given the go-ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani,' the human rights group said on its website.
'It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday, 3 November.' >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Tuesday, November 02, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Switzerland is poised to vote on a controversial law that will allow for all immigrants – EU citizens included – to be automatically expelled from the country if they commit a crime.
Even benefit fraudsters and burglars are targeted by the proposed new law, which polls show is likely to be passed in a referendum scheduled for November 28.
The pro-expulsion campaign involves posters featuring a black sheep being kicked out of the country by several white sheep. The referendum will be held almost exactly a year after a previous plebiscite banned minarets on mosques. >>> Allan Hall in Berlin | Tuesday, November 02, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: This is the moment caught on CCTV when Roshonara Choudhry stabbed former Labour minister Stephen Timms in the stomach.
Armed with a three-inch kitchen knife, the 21-year-old student smiled before plunging the knife twice into the MP.
Grainy images filmed in the local community centre and released on Tuesday show Choudhry walking up to Mr Timms’ desk.
They emerged at the end of a two-day trial in which she was convicted of attempted murder and two counts of possessing an offensive weapon.Choudhry refused to go to the Old Bailey because she did not accept the authority of the court and will be sentenced via videolink on Wednesday.
The CCTV footage of the attack showed her wearing floor length black Islamic robes, her head covered by a scarf and her face can be clearly seen. >>> Caroline Gammell | Tuesday, November 02, 2010
How long is it going to be before our mentally-challenged leaders figure out that these barbarians really don’t belong in the civilized West? – © Mark
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has hailed a "new chapter" in the history of defence co-operation between Britain and France after two signing two treaties with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The Prime Minister and the French president signed agreements for greater military co-operation including aircraft carriers, submarines, nuclear technology and ground forces.
As part of the agreement, the two countries will share aircraft carrier capability.
When France’s single carrier is out of service, Britain’s one vessel could conduct missions for both nations, and vice versa.
Mr Cameron said the British Prime Minister said citizens of both countries would be "better protected" as a result of the two treaties.
"Today we open a new chapter in a long history of co-operation on defence and security between Britain and France," Mr Cameron told a press conference at the Anglo-French Summit in London.
"The result will make our citizens safer, more secure and better protected in the global age of uncertainty in which we now live," Mr Cameron said.
Mr Sarkozy said the “unprecedented” agreement marked “a level of trust and confidence between the two countries never equalled in history.” Read on and comment >>> James Kirkup, Political correspondent | Tuesday, November 02, 2010
NEWS.COM.AU: LAUREN Booth, a broadcaster, journalist and sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, defiantly explains her conversion to Islam."It is the most peculiar journey of my life. The carriage is warm and my fellow passengers unexpectedly welcoming. We are progressing rapidly and without delay. Rain, snow, rail unions, these things make no difference to the forward rush.
Yet I have no idea how I came to be on board nor, stranger still, quite where the train is heading, apart from this: the destination, wherever it might be, is the most important place I can imagine.
I know this all seems gloriously far-fetched, but really it is how I feel about my conversion, announced last week, to Islam.
Although the means and mechanisms that brought me to this point remain mysterious, the decision will determine every aspect of my life to come as firmly as the twin rails beneath that exhilarating express.
Asked for a simple explanation of how I, an English hack journalist, a single working mother, signed up to the Western media’s least-favourite religion, I suppose I would point to an intensely spiritual experience in an Iranian mosque just over a month ago.
But it makes more sense to go back to January 2005, when I arrived alone in the West Bank to cover the elections there for The Mail on Sunday. It is safe to say that before that visit I had never spent any time with Arabs, or Muslims.
The whole experience was a shock, but not for the reasons I might have expected. So much of what we know about this part of the world and the people who follow Mohammed the Prophet is based on disturbing - some would say biased - news bulletins.
So, as I flew towards the Middle East, my mind was full of the usual 10pm buzzwords: radical extremists, fanatics, forced marriages, suicide bombers and jihad. Not much of a travel brochure.
My very first experience, though, could hardly have been more positive. I had arrived on the West Bank without a coat, as the Israeli airport authorities had kept my suitcase.
Walking around the centre of Ramallah, I was shivering, whereupon an old lady grabbed my hand.
Talking rapidly in Arabic, she took me into a house on a side street. Was I being kidnapped by a rather elderly terrorist? For several confusing minutes I watched her going through her daughter’s wardrobe until she pulled out a coat, a hat and a scarf.
I was then taken back to the street where I had been walking, given a kiss and sent warmly on my way. There had been not a single comprehensible word exchanged between us. >>> Lauren Booth | From: Mail on Sunday |November 01, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anwar al-Awlaki, the man believed to be behind the cargo plane bomb plot, is tried in his absence in Yemen for crimes against foreigners.Yemen, under pressure to crack down on militants operating there after a foiled bomb plot involving US-bound parcels, began the trial in absentia on Tuesday of the radical US-born preacher, wanted dead or alive by Washington.
Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been linked to a failed bombing of a US-bound plane in December 2009 that was claimed by Yemen's al Qaeda wing, is thought to be hiding in southern Yemen.
Also on Tuesday, the trial of a Yemeni journalist and al-Qaeda expert was set to continue in Sanaa. Abdulelah Shai is being tried for alleged links to al-Qaeda, including helping to publicise the views of Anwar al-Awlaki. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Tuesday, November 02, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Prisoners will be given the vote in general elections for the first time in 140 years after David Cameron conceded there was nothing he could do to halt a European court ruling demanding the change, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
For months, the Government’s lawyers have tried to find a way to avoid allowing 70,000 British inmates the right to take part in ballots.
But tomorrow a representative for the Coalition will tell the Court of Appeal that the law will be changed following legal advice that the taxpayer could have to pay tens of millions of pounds in compensation.
The decision, which brings to an end six years of government attempts to avoid the issue, opens the possibility that even those facing life sentences for very serious crimes could in future shape Britain’s elections. >>> Andrew Porter, Political Editor | Monday, November 01, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia's top clerics have challenged the government's policy to expand jobs for women with a fatwa ruling that they should not work as cashiers in supermarkets, according to reports.
The Council of Senior Scholars, the official fatwa issuing body, said that "it is not permissible for a woman to work in a place where they mix with men," the news website Sabq.org said.
"It is necessary to keep away from places where men congregate. Women should look for decent work that does not make it possible for them to attract men or be attracted by men," it said. >>> | Monday, November 01, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: As the US Federal Reserve meets today to decide whether its next blast of quantitative easing should be $1 trillion or a more cautious $500bn, it does so knowing that China and the emerging world view the policy as an attempt to drive down the dollar.
The Fed's "QE2" risks accelerating the demise of the dollar-based currency system, perhaps leading to an unstable tripod with the euro and yuan, or a hybrid gold standard, or a multi-metal "bancor" along lines proposed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1940s.
China's commerce ministry fired an irate broadside against Washington on Monday. "The continued and drastic US dollar depreciation recently has led countries including Japan, South Korea, and Thailand to intervene in the currency market, intensifying a 'currency war'. In the mid-term, the US dollar will continue to weaken and gaming between major currencies will escalate," it said.
David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC, said the root problem is lack of underlying demand in the global economy, leaving Western economies trapped near stalling speed. "There are no policy levers left. Countries are having to tighten fiscal policy, and interest rates are already near zero. The last resort is a weaker currency, so everybody is trying to do it," he said.
Pious words from G20 summit of finance ministers last month calling for the world to "refrain" from pursuing trade advantage through devaluation seem most honoured in the breach.
Taiwan intervened on Monday to cap the rise of its currency, while Korea's central bank chief said his country is eyeing capital controls as part of its "toolkit" to stem the flood of Fed-created money leaking out of the US and sloshing into Asia. Brazil has just imposed a 2pc tax on inflows into both bonds and equities – understandably, since the real has risen by 35pc against the dollar this year and the country has a current account deficit.
"It is becoming harder to mop up the liquidity flowing into these countries," said Neil Mellor, of the Bank of New York Mellon. "We fully expect more central banks to impose capital controls over the next couple of months. That is the world we live in," he said. Globalisation is unravelling before our eyes. Read on and comment >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor | Monday, November 01, 2010
Monday, November 01, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Americans are set in Tuesday's midterm elections to make their president and Democrats pay heavily for their failure to stem unemployment amid gathering fears that the American dream has moved beyond reach for a generation.
In poll after poll in the long run-up to the midterm elections, voters have said that the economy was their main concern. Unemployment has risen by 20 per cent under Mr Obama, remaining stuck on or close to 9.6 per cent for since May 2009.
Julietta Strauss, of New York, lost her administrative job with the US census bureau in March, and has struggled to find work since.
More and more people were taking an "apocalyptic view" of America's prospects, she said. "The general word on the street seems to be that middle-class jobs are disappearing, and while there's an increasing tendency for the rich to get richer, middle-class wages are stagnant," she said.
At the Tailhook Tavern in Philadelphia, a city visited by Mr Obama in his final campaign swing, Joseph Carroll said he had not had steady work for two years. "The economy sucks. They talk about trickle down but we don't see it round here," said the 44-year-old, who specialises in fire suppressants in new constructions. "They bailed out the banks, they are making billions in profits again, they are making millions in bonuses again, but they don't want to lend to people who want to build up businesses." >>> Alex Spillius in Washington and Jon Swaine in New York | Monday, November 01, 2010
WELT ONLINE: Am Ende konnte auch Helmut Schmidt seine Tränen nicht zurückhalten. Seine Frau Loki hatte die Trauerfeier selber mit vorbereitet.
Am liebsten, hat Loki Schmidt vor wenigen Jahren in einem Gespräch gesagt, am liebsten wäre es ihr, sie und ihr Mann Helmut gingen am Ende zur gleichen Zeit, gemeinsam. Mit liebevollem Spott fuhr ihr Mann ihr damals in die Parade. „Das hast Du nicht zu entscheiden.“
Jetzt sitzt Helmut Schmidt im Hamburger Michel allein in der ersten Reihe, nur seine Tochter Susanne und deren Mann Brian Kennedy an der Seite. Er muss Abschied nehmen von der Frau, mit der er mehr als sieben Jahrzehnten lang verwachsen war.
Wie schwer ihm dies fällt, ist dem sonst so spröden, stets um Haltung bemühten früheren Bundeskanzler anzumerken.Er ist nicht durch das Hauptportal gekommen, sondern hat sich im Rollstuhl durch den Kapellenzugang auf kürzestem Weg in das Kirchenschiff schieben lassen, weil er noch einen Moment für sich sein wollte.
Als Bachs Ouvertüre in h-Moll erklingt, ringt Helmut Schmidt um Fassung. Neben dem eigenen trägt er den Ehering seiner Frau an der Hand. Tochter Susanne streicht ihm über den Rücken.2000 Gäste sind in die Hauptkirche St. Michaelis gekommen, darunter Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel und die früheren Bundespräsidenten Richard von Weizsäcker und Horst Köhler, Ex-Kanzler Gerhard Schröder, amtierende und frühere Ministerpräsidenten. >>> Von Insa Gall | Montag, 01. November 2010
Kondolenzbuch >>>
NZZ ONLINE: Deutschland hat auf die versuchten Anschläge mit Paketbomben aus Jemen reagiert: Ab sofort werden keine Flugzeuge aus Jemen mehr in den deutschen Luftraum gelassen. Das gilt auch für Maschinen, die ohne zu landen nur über Deutschland fliegen würden.
Nach dem Fund von zwei Paketbomben in Frachtflugzeugen aus dem Jemen hat Deutschland für alle Flüge aus dem Land ein Einflugverbot verhängt. Die deutsche Flugsicherung sei angewiesen worden, direkte und indirekte Flüge aus Jemen abzuweisen, sagte ein Sprecher des Verkehrsministeriums am Montag in Berlin. >>> afp/ddp | Montag, 01. November 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Die Kaida hat es sich in Jemen bequem gemacht: Warum das Regime wenig gegen die Terrororganisation unternimmt >>> hoh. | Montag, 01. November 2010
NZZ ONLINE: In der griechischen Hauptstadt Athen haben am Montag mehrere Paketbomben für Aufregung gesorgt. Eine Bombe detonierte und verletzte eine Angestellte eines Kurierdienstes an der Hand. Die Absender der explosiven Fracht werden dem linksnarchistischen Spektrum zugeordnet.
In der griechischen Hauptstadt Athen sind mehrere Paketbomben gefunden worden, von denen eine an Frankreichs Staatschef Nicolas Sarkozy adressiert war. Wie die griechische Polizei am Montag mitteilte, wurde die an Sarkozy gerichtete Sendung bei zwei Verdächtigten gefunden, die der linksanarchistischen Szene in Griechenland zugerechnet werden. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> ddp/afp | Montag, 01. November 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Baroness Thatcher has arrived home after being released from a London hospital this afternoon.The former Prime Minister looked frail as she appeared on her doorstep to give a brief wave and a smile before returning inside.
She had been whisked by car out of the private Cromwell Hospital in west London for the short journey back to her Belgravia home.
Lady Thatcher was admitted almost two weeks ago with an infection after suffering from the flu.
Her spokesman said she had now been given the all-clear by doctors. Read on and comment >>> Victoria Ward | Monday, November 01, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: On the eve of the US midterm elections, Gary Younge attends a breakfast and bull meeting in rural Nevada, where local conservatives discuss jobs, judges and the pros and cons of armed insurrection
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Airline passengers could be faced with "ludicrous" new changes to airport security in the wake of the al-Qaeda parcel bomb plot, industry figures have warned.
Airport screening changes would leave passengers facing a raft of "inaffective [sic]", "useless" and unnecessary safeguards, warned Michael O'Leary, the boss of budget airline Ryanair.
But while he cautioned against overreacting, some industry experts called for an urgent overhaul of passenger security and the introduction of "package to package" checks.
A review of airline security is now likely after investigators concluded that the terrorists had designed a package to blow up passenger jets in a Lockerbie-style terrorist outrage. >>> Andrew Hough | Monday, November 01, 2010
THE JERUSALEM POST – BLOG – ELWOOD MCQUAID: When concessions are the fruit of fear, the bullies always win.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the crusade to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, trashed his “moderate” pose when he disregarded millions of concerned Americans and declared that moving the proposed facility could cause a violent backlash from Muslim extremists and endanger national security.
Rauf told CNN, “The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack... Anger will explode in the Muslim world.” The fury, he said, could be worse than the violence that followed the publication of Danish cartoons of Muhammad in 2005.
No moderation here. Islamist muscle-tactics are now in full swing, threatening violence and retaliation and creating an air of intimidation that offers surrender as the only alternative to placing innocent lives in jeopardy.
And why not use fear as a weapon of choice? The publication of the cartoons of Muhammad by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark was used by radical Muslim clerics to foment extreme violence. Muslims rioted, burned embassies, and boycotted Danish goods. Many people died because Muslims claimed they had a right to commit murder and mayhem because their religious sensibilities were offended.
The editor of the Danish newspaper explained he commissioned the cartoons to respond to the self-censorship being imposed in Europe when dealing with issues related to Islam. In other words, he objected to the press being intimidated into silence. Islamic extremists justify their long list of atrocities as Sharia-compliant and therefore acceptable for striking fear in the hearts of “infidels.”
Extremist Muslim aspirations were made clear when Islamic cleric Anjem Choudary told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour in October, “We believe that one day the flag of Islam will fly over the White House.” Those who dismiss his statement as the ranting of the radical fringe are not listening. His words echoed a pledge made by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who vowed the Palestinian flag would eventually fly over the churches of Jerusalem.
These are not idle threats. They are the long-term goals of Islamists who want a global caliphate that will destroy Israel and reduce Western Christianity to humiliating subservience. >>> Elwood McQuaid | Friday, October 29, 2010
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