DSK : "Ces derniers jours ont été extrêmement douloureux"
LE POINT: EXCLUSIF. L'ex-directeur du FMI dit avoir démissionné pour épargner son "cauchemar" à l'institution. Lisez son e-mail d'au revoir.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn a adressé dimanche un courrier électronique au FMI, transmis à l'ensemble du personnel de l'institution. Le Point.fr a pu se procurer l'e-mail rédigé en anglais. En voici la traduction :

"Chers collègues

Vous avez pris connaissance de ma lettre de démission du poste de directeur du FMI - une des choses les plus difficiles sur lesquelles j'ai dû communiquer. J'avais très envie de m'adresser à vous personnellement et directement pour vous exprimer ma profonde tristesse et aussi ma frustration d'avoir à partir dans ces circonstances. Je le fais parce que c'est ce que je peux faire de mieux dans l'intérêt d'une institution que je respecte profondément, je le fais pour vous aussi, cette équipe que j'apprécie et que j'admire. » | Le Point.fr | Lundi 23 Mai 2011

ACLU Lawsuit Could End 70-Year Tradition
May 23, 2011 – Cross dispute could stall commencement

'Mass Chaos' in Joplin, Missouri
May 23, 2011 – Mayor pro tem describes aftermath of deadly twister as more severe weather moves into region

New Questions About Future of Mideast Peace Talks
May 23, 2011 – President Obama facing harsh criticism over Israel border proposal

Does the Bible Matter in the 21st Century?
May 20, 2011 – Religion’s role in the Western World

Silvio Berlusconi Attacks Italy's 'Gypsy-loving' Left-wing

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Silvio Berlusconi has accused Italy's left-wing opposition of wanting to turn his hometown of Milan into a "gypsy camp" as the country geared up for a second round of local elections.

"Milan cannot turn into an Islamic city, a 'gypsyopolis' full of Roma camps besieged by foreigners to whom the left wants to give the right to vote," Mr Berlusconi said on his People of Freedom party website.

In the first round of elections last week the centre-left candidate in Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, defied expectations to win 48 per cent, leaving the centre-right mayor Letizia Moratti facing a run-off with only 41.6 per cent.

Mr Berlusconi told voters in the city where he was born and made his fortune that they should support Ms Moratti in the second round scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

"Milan is ... one of the most important capitals in Europe in terms of intelligence, creativity and entrepreneurialism," he said.

"A city like this will surely not want to hand itself over to the extreme left with the risk of becoming a disorderly, chaotic and unsafe city." » | Monday, May 23, 2011

Growing Female Saudi Middle-Class Women Pushing for More Reform
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: What tells us more about Saudi Arabia – the knowledge that it remains the only country in the world where women are banned from driving, or that an increasing number of women are prepared to take the risk of openly flouting the rule?

Manal al-Sharif, 32, was arrested at the weekend after posting a dramatic YouTube video – mundane anywhere else – of herself at the wheel in her home city of Khobar. But then her weekday life as a computer security consultant hardly squares with the popular image of the repressed Saudi woman either.

Much has been written about the Arab Spring this year, and Saudi Arabia has become its leading opponent. It offered asylum to President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali of Tunisia, backed President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to the hilt, and sent troops to crush protests in neighbouring Bahrain.

But in its own way it started the whole process off. Since King Abdullah, the current monarch, came to the throne in 2005 he has eased restrictions on freedom of speech and particularly on women, encouraging them to study and work.

He opened Saudi Arabia's first mixed sex university, and even appointed a woman minister.

In return a small but growing band of middle-class professional women have both expressed gratitude and used the opportunity to press for further reforms, big and small. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Monday, May 23, 2011

Related links here, here, and here

Restrictions on Women in Saudi Arabia
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A woman has been arrested in Saudi Arabia for driving a car, an activity that is restricted to men only.

There are several limitations on what a woman can do in the conservative Muslim country: » | Monday, May 23, 2011

Spain's Zapatero Faces Calls to Resign as Socialists Hammered in Local Elections

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Spain's ruling socialist party were reeling from an unprecedented battering in local elections Sunday as voters punished Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero for his handling of the economic crisis.

The centre-right Popular Party (PP) won a resounding victory across the board in the regional and municipal elections, securing a ten per cent lead over their rivals, in a result seen as a precursor for general elections scheduled early next year.

Spain's Socialists lost control of traditional strongholds including the cities of Barcelona and Seville while the PP took Castilla-La Mancha, which had been governed by the socialists since the first democratic elections in 1979, four years after the death of dictator Gen Francisco Franco.

Pressure mounted for Prime Minister Zapatero to resign and call an early general election. But the socialist leader, who swept to power in 2004 and who has said he will not seek a third term, vowed to carry on reforms until the vote next March.

Conceding defeat, the prime minister blamed discontent on three years of economic crisis which has left Spain with a stagnant economy and 21 per cent unemployment, more than twice the EU average.

"We have suffered a broad setback compared to four years ago," he told a news conference after the first results came through, Sunday night. » | Fiona Govan, Madrid | Monday, May 23, 2011

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President of Spain »

WIKI: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain »

Jerome Corsi: “Obama Birth Certificate 100% Forged; Hawaii Officials Forged It”

Birther Report »

Tornado Leaves Scores Dead in US City
Rescue workers are digging through what is left of the city of Joplin in the midwestern US state of Missouri. They are looking for survivors after tornadoes cut the city in half.

At least 89 people are dead and the state governor has declared a state of emergency.

Al Jazeera's John Terrett reports.

Robert Fisk on Syrian Sanctions
Robert Fisk, a foreign correspondent of Britain's newspaper "The Independent", tells Al Jazeera why he does not believe Western sanctions on top Syrian officials will have a real impact on the ongoing unrest.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy 'Expecting a Boy'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is expecting a boy, a close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed, just days after the French president's father let slip his daughter-in-law is pregnant.

Jacques Séguéla – an advertising tycoon who brought the presidential couple together in 2007 at a dinner party – disclosed the sex of the child in an interview with a Belgian newspaper.
He told Brussels daily Le Soir: "I have it on good authority that the baby will a boy."

It will be the couple's first child. France's 43-year-old first lady already has a nine-year-old son, Aurélien, with the media philosopher Raphaël Enthoven.

Mr Sarkozy, 55, has two sons, Pierre, 25, and Jean, 23, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, who he divorced in 1996. He has a 13-year-old son Louis from his second marriage to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, who he divorced in 2007.

This is not the first time Mr Séguéla has filled the public in on the presidential couple's private lives. In 2009, he gave a blow-by-blow account of how they met at an impromptu "blind date" soirée, describing the scene as an "unexpected game of seduction between two wild beasts". » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Monday, May 23, 2011

Remember That Atrocious Hat Princess Beatrice Wore to The Royal Wedding? It’s Just Sold for $131,000 on eBay! At Least the Money Is Going to Good Causes
Money from Ebay bid for Princess Beatrice's bizarre headpiece will go to Children in Crisis and Unicef

Inside Story: Sudan Divided
Inside Story, discusses with Rabie Abdul Atti, member of the NCP and advisor to Sudan's information minister; Eddie Thomas, an author on Sudan; and Barnaba Benjamin, Southern Sudan's minister of information

O'Bama? Oh puh-lease!
TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – JAMES DELINGPOLE: Ah Bejaysus and Begorrah! Oi’ll be swearin’ boi the auld shrine to the Vorgin with the shamrocks growin’ round it next to the hill where Cuchullain slew the Great Leprechaun of Kildare on St Patrick’s Day that Barack Seamus O’Toole Flaherty Joyce O’Bama is the most Irish US president that ever set foot on the Emerald Oisle, so he is, so he is.

Except, when he’s in Africa, of course, when he disappears into the dry ice and re-emerges with a grass skirt and a bone through his nose and declares himself to be Mandingo, Prince of the Bloodline of the Bonga People, Drinker of Cattle Urine, Father of A Thousand Warrior Sons, Keeper of King Solomon’s Mines, Barehanded Slayer of Lions, Undaunted Victim of the Evil Colonial British Empire.

And in the Middle East, where he is Al-Barak Hussein Obama, Protector of the Holy Shrine, Smiter of the Kuffar, Lion of the Desert, Tent-Loving-Aficionado-of-the-Oversweetened-Coffee, Chomper of Sheeps’ Eyeballs, Restorer of the Caliphate.

Etc.

Tony Blair used to do this trick too, his accent mutating from broad Glaswegian to genteel Edinburgh to Mummerset to Estuary to Richard E Grant to Sarf London Grime – often in the course of one Downing Street reception – the better to persuade his target audience that he was their kind of guy. And it is, of course, the hallmark of an unutterable charlatan. » | James Delingpole | Monday, May 23, 2011

CACTUS THORNS: Wait a second Steven, his nibs is claiming to be Irish? This changes everything » | Dan Obrien | Friday, May 06, 2011

This Week, Obama and Cameron Should Compare Notes – and Then Wake Up

THE SLOG: This is the last chance to put our banks back in the cage

For a few days starting tomorrow, President Obama will smile at the well-wishers in Britain, show deference to the Queen, and generally pretend to like us. While he’s around (and I’m not breaking any injunctions here) I understand he’s going to have an economics session with Prime Minister David Cameron.

If and when that meeting of barren minds takes place, they should be able to reach a simple conclusion: no matter how hard you try to get banks to behave like social animals, they will screw you and pump up their bonuses.

Obama tried to get help to the repossession sector of the US housing market, using Federal funds. The idea was ill-conceived (chucking good money after bad) but at least three major banks used the funds fraudulently, and are now the subject of SEC investigations. His man Bernanke has been pumping Fed funds into the banking sector, in an effort to increase liquidity into the economy, for nigh on two and a half years – depending on who you believe about when it stopped, or if it ever stopped. This ‘POMO’ (Permanent Open Market Operations) scheme’s main achievement has been to send the Dow through the roof: the banks used the money for two purposes – to underwrite multinational megamergers, and buy stocks on behalf of their clients. Jobs have been lost, not created, as a result of this double-cross.

Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne first of all tried to get the banks to set an example, and forego bonuses for 2010. Bob Diamond explained that this item would not be on the agenda, and they ended up paying themselves more than ever. Almost no money has filtered through to the small business sector after QE, and the financial sector – that’s the banks, remember – is still the only bit of the economy holding its end up. Not hard when you consider they’ve been doing it mainly with taxpayers’ money. Manufacturing has grown, but much as the Government tries to hype this, growth on a base of 12% of all economic output is a spit at the tornado of problems we face. » | John Ward |Monday, May 23, 2011

Saudi Woman Arrested for Challenging Driving Ban

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Saudi authorities arrested a female activist on Sunday who launched a campaign to challenge a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom and posted a video on the Internet of her driving, activists said.

The YouTube video, posted on Thursday, has attracted more than 500,000 views and shows Manal Alsharif, who learned to drive in the United States, driving her car in Khobar in the oil-producing Eastern Province.

“Police arrested her at 3 a.m. this morning,” said Maha Taher, another female activist who launched her own campaign for women driving four months ago to spread awareness of the issue.

An Eastern Province police spokesperson declined to comment and an interior ministry spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. » | Reuters | JEDDAH | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Related video »

Libya: What Remains after the Battle for Misurata
Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley takes a look at some of the heavy artillery used in the battle for Misurata

Syrians Speak of Deaths in Custody
Families of protesters are accusing Syrian security forces of torturing their relatives in custody. An Al Jazeera exclusive shows their testimonies on the Bashar al-Assad regime's brutality against pro-democracy protesters. Florence Looi reports.

Spanish Protesters Challenge Status Quo
In Spain's most politically conservative of cities, an unexpected and growing revolt - against the status quo, established political institutions, and against the old acceptance that nothing much will ever change.

The country's ruling party is facing growing anger over Spain's economic problems, and many people shunned the polls and chosen to protest instead.

Al Jazeera's Tim Friend reports from Madrid.

Revolution Halts Tourists Visiting Egypt
The recent uprising in Egypt brought political changes to the country, but it has also scared the tourists away.

In February, there were just over 200,000 foreign visitors, while the year before the number was 1.1 million.

With this loss, many businesses are now struggling to cope. And even the finance minister admits that when the tourist industry is hit, the entire economy takes a knock.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports from Giza.

Sudan Takes Control of Oil-rich Abyei
The UN Security Council has urged Khartoum to withdraw soldiers from the disputed oil region of Abyei, after northern Sudanese tanks entered the oil rich area.

The UN condemned the attack as the north accused South Sudan of targeting one of its military convoys on Thursday.

The South meanwhile says the North has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Abyei.

And as Nazanin Sadri reports, there are fears this latest escalation of could derail Sudan's peace agreement.

Christian Doctors Back GP over 'Jesus' Remarks

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The medical standards watchdog is facing a backlash from doctors after censuring a Christian GP who raised his personal beliefs with a patient of a different faith.

Dr Richard Scott, a family GP with 28 years’ experience, is facing disciplinary action and fears he could lose his job after he discussed his faith in Jesus with a patient last year.

The 50-year-old is being investigated by the General Medical Council but Christian doctors rallied to his defence and criticised the way that the professional standards regulator had handled the case.

In 2010, Dr Scott, who works at Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate, Kent, a practice known for its Christian partners, saw a patient at the request of the patient’s mother. He maintains that he only discussed how his faith in Jesus had helped him at the end of the consultation, and with the patient’s consent.

But the GMC wrote to Dr Scott, warning him that he had distressed the patient and risked bringing the profession into disrepute. He has appointed a human rights lawyer to fight the reprimand.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said doctors should not normally discuss their personal beliefs with patients “unless those beliefs are directly relevant to the patient's care”. » | Tim Ross, Social Affairs Editor | Sunday, May 22, 2011

TELEGRAPH VIDEO: Christian GP reprimanded by the General Medical Council for talking to a patient about God »

Saudis, Emiratis Were Funding Extremists
US cable says Gulf countries fund Pakistani militancy - Pakistan newspaper

Affaire DSK : à la recherche de la femme sans visage
LE POINT: Les images de DSK abondent. Son accusatrice, elle, est invisible depuis le début de l'affaire. Direction le Bronx, son quartier.

C'est la femme sans visage. Où est Nafissatou Diallo, alias Ophelia, la jeune femme que DSK est accusé d'avoir agressée sexuellement ? Alors que, depuis une semaine, les images sous toutes les coutures de l'ex-patron du FMI, de son épouse, de sa fille (sur)abondent, aucune photo "officielle" de la victime présumée ne circule. On sait qu'elle a 32 ans, serait musulmane et originaire de Guinée et a une fille adolescente.

Le Sofitel où elle est employée depuis trois ans assure qu'elle donnait "toute satisfaction" et son avocat a expliqué à la télévision que c'était une femme qui travaillait dur et qu'elle "a(vait) peur", qu'elle était "perdue". Le reste, ce sont des rumeurs. Un jour, elle est mère célibataire, le lendemain, divorcée, le troisième, veuve. Elle a un frère qui n'est pas son frère, une soeur qui l'aurait fait venir aux États-Unis il y a 7 ou 15 ans. Elle est très grande, a le visage grêlé par l'acné...

Bouche cousue

Alors, après la traque DSK, tous les médias se sont lancés sur la piste de la jeune femme. Une piste qui commence dans le Bronx. Le coeur de la communauté guinéenne se trouve sur la 3e avenue et la 166e rue, un quartier pauvre avec des garages, un petit restaurant qui propose des plats traditionnels, une épicerie, un boucher qui vend des chèvres et des moutons vivants... et une mosquée, le centre islamique Fouta, un petit bâtiment de briques avec deux gros rideaux de fer au rez-de-chaussée. En ce samedi, la salle de prière au premier étage, une grande pièce moquettée, est occupée par l'école coranique pour les enfants. » | Dimanche 22 Mai 2011

„DSK“ und Anne Sinclair: Szenen einer Ehe

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Anne Sinclair kämpft mit Format, Geld und Engelsgeduld um die Zukunft ihres Mannes Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Eine-Million-Dollar-Kaution hat sie gezahlt, damit ihr Gatte aus dem New Yorker Schwerverbrecherknast Rikers freikam.

Was für eine Frau! Er hatte ihr den Elysée-Palast versprochen – und jetzt muss sie ihn mit ihren Millionen vor dem Gefängnis retten. Anne Sinclair hat die Eine-Million-Dollar-Kaution gezahlt, ihre Luxusvilla im Washingtoner Stadtteil Georgetown als Hypothek freigegeben, damit Dominique Strauss-Kahn aus dem New Yorker Schwerverbrecherknast Rikers freikam. Sie hat eine Wohnung gemietet, in der er mit einer elektronischen Fessel am Fuß bleiben kann. Auch wenn erst einmal nichts daraus wurde. Wegen des Medienrummels waren die Nachbarn dagegen, sitzt Strauss-Kahn nun in einem Apartment in der Nähe von Ground Zero in Hausarrest. Anne Sinclair, die unschuldig in einen entehrenden Sexskandal gezogene Ehefrau, setzt ihr Vermögen aufs Spiel, damit die besten Anwälte ihren Mann vor Gericht verteidigen. „Die Beweislast gegen ihn ist umfangreich“, sagt der New Yorker Staatsanwalt. „Sie wächst jeden Tag weiter.“ „Dominique Strauss-Kahn kann sich glücklich schätzen, dass er eine Frau wie Anne Sinclair hat“, sagt Robert Badinter, der sozialistische Justizminister, der 1981 in Frankreich die Todesstrafe abschaffte.

Ohne zu wissen, was in der Suite 2806 des New Yorker Luxushotels Sofitel zur Mittagsstunde wirklich geschah, entschloss sich Anne Sinclair zu unbedingter Solidarität. Ihr Mann soll ein schwarzes Zimmermädchen vergewaltigt haben? „Ich glaube keine Sekunde lang den Anschuldigungen, die gegen meinen Mann erhoben werden“, schrieb sie in einem Kommuniqué. „Ich zweifle nicht daran, dass sich seine Schuldlosigkeit erweisen wird.“ » | Von Michaela Wiegel, Paris | Sonntag, 22. Mai 2011

Strauss-Kahn aus Haft entlassen

Le «purgatoire» d’Anne Sinclair

CYBERPRESSE.CA – BLOGUE – RICHARD HÉTU: Le New York Times publie aujourd’hui en première page un excellent papier sur le «purgatoire» que vit Anne Sinclair depuis l’arrestation de son mari, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Le quotidien raconte qu’elle était prête à mettre au service des ambitions présidentielles de DSK une partie de l’importante fortune dont elle a hérité de son grand-père maternel, Paul Rosenberg, marchand d’art et galeriste célèbre pour avoir représenté Picasso, Braque et Matisse, entre autres.

Selon les confidences d’un ami de Sinclair au journal Le Monde, l’ancienne journaliste voulait «prouver que, 75 ans après Léon Blum, les Français étaient capables d’élire un juif». Un autre ami, Alain Duhamel, confie cependant au Times que la femme de DSK appréhendait la campagne présidentielle et qu’elle et son mari considéraient leur religion comme «une question pratique pour la campagne» et non une quelconque grande cause. » | Richard Hétu | Samedi 21 Mai 2011

Culture Wars across the Atlantic

OTTAWA CITIZEN: While media fire shots over U.S. 'puritanism' and French 'perversion,' little thought is given to Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim, writes Keith Spicer

Manacled, unshaven, and dazzled by media lights, a grim and shaken Dominique Strauss-Kahn did the "perp walk" toward a Rikers Island jail cell. French observers called the stunning fall of the managing director of the International Monetary Fund a Greek tragedy. Most rushed to defend him as a respected national figure who had likely been headed to the French presidency.

Americans tended to judge "DSK" (as Strauss-Kahn is known in France) as a disgusting, violent sex criminal -already showcased as a "perpetrator" by New York police. These sharply differing views highlight again how wide the Atlantic really is in perceptions of justice, culture, rationality, media and class.

The scandal, most French feel, is about a U.S. justice system visually sabotaging the presumption of innocence. Sober top jurist Robert Badinter (a close friend of DSK) called the perp walk "a lynching, murder by media." In France, it's illegal to insinuate guilt by parading a handcuffed accused before news cameras.

French intellectuals, also pals of DSK, spluttered their fury at U.S. justice. All-purpose philosopher-opinionator Bernard-Henri Levy (as BHL, an acronym guy like DSK) assured that his renowned skirt-chasing friend was "not a Neanderthal." On the perp walk, BHL said: "Nothing in the world justifies throwing a man to the dogs like that."

English-speaking opinion-makers, however, saw DSK's humiliation as noble evidence that U.S. justice treats everybody - rich or poor, famous or obscure - exactly the same. Mistreats everybody the same might seem more apt. But in American minds, sticking to strict police procedures designed partly to prevent escapes is a normal precaution.

Why else do U.S. police routinely, and rather gleefully, choreograph the shaming of suspects? Because spiriting them in and out in blacked-out vans doesn't delight the police's key publics: picture-hungry media and crowd-pandering elected district attorneys. » | Keith Spicer | OTTAWA CITIZEN | Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wave of 'Arab Spring' Refugees Heading for Britain
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Refugees fleeing conflict in Libya are gathering in Calais in an attempt to enter Britain.

n a filthy squat two miles from the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, Mohammed Yosif and his friends are hoping for a new life in Britain.

The 21-year-old is one of at least 40,000 to have fled to Europe as a result of the Arab Spring that has seen political unrest sweep north Africa.

Many are migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa who now believe their lives are at risk, especially in Libya where the regime used black mercenaries to attack rebel forces.

A growing number have now arrived in France and are sleeping rough near ports in a bid to sneak into the UK or at the Gare du Nord Eurostar station in Paris.

“It is very difficult to get on the train, but I dream of England,” said Mohammed, who arrived in Calais on Tuesday after fleeing the war in Libya, where he was a migrant worker from Chad.

“Maybe I will hide, but I hope to find a way to get there somehow. England is a great country where I can have my human rights.”

Until he can sneak onto a lorry heading for Britain, he is living with up to 400 other migrants in a squalid, chaotic encampment nicknamed 'Africa House’. » | Alastair Jamieson | Saturday, May 21, 2011

My comment:

Isn't this in part a spin-off of Cameron's war on Libya? So the bottom line is this: The UK will increasingly be subjected to Islamisation; Libya will eventually be improved. But in the meantime, the UK will have to suffer still more. Gee! Thanks David! You've 'done us proud.' Again, yet another politician who can't tell his a*** from his elbow! And doubtless, as tigerchopper rightly said: These people will get their council houses, welfare benefits, breeding assistance, etc. This ties in with my other comment today: here – © Mark

This comment is also appears here

Saudi Woman Campaigns for Right to Drive
And a Saudi woman is held after mounting an internet campaign to get more females driving

A woman has been detained in Saudi Arabia for defying the ban on driving.

The kingdom is the only country in the world where women are discouraged from getting behind the wheel.

Manal al Sharif is part of an online campaign group determined to get women in the driving seat more.

Al Jazeera's Anu Nathan reports.

Obama to Address Pro-Israel Group AIPAC
Barack Obama will make his first appearance as US president at the annual conference of America's largest Jewish lobby.

His speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee comes days after the Israeli prime minister publicly rejected Obama's views on the Middle East peace process.

Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman reports.

Turkey Sex Scandal
Six senior members of Turkey's far-right opposition have resigned over a sex video scandal, shortly before national elections.

The National Action Party is accusing the government of engaging in political blackmail.

Al Jazeera's Iain Bruce reports.

'Scores Killed' in Syrian Protests
Syrian rights groups say security forces there killed more than fifty anti-government activists during the last two days.

President Bashar al-Assad has been meeting with local dignitaries over the two-month long unrest, with a view to urging a national dialogue.

But opposition groups within and outside the country are setting strong conditions for any talks.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Iceland Volcano Prompts Airport Closure
Iceland's most active volcano has started erupting, prompting the closure of the country's main international airport.

But experts say the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano is unlikely to cause a repeat of the disturbance to European air traffic caused by another Icelandic volcano last year.

Last year, another eruption led to a major air travel chaos for days, affecting some 10 million travellers.

Al Jazeera's Catherine Stancl reports.


Lien en relation avec cet vidéo »

Bahrain Special Court Upholds 2 Death Sentences in Protest-related Case
ARAB NEWS: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A special appeals court in Bahrain upheld death sentences Sunday for two people convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations in March.

A report by the Bahrain News Agency said the court upheld death sentences against Ali Abdullah Hassan Al-Singace and Abdul Aziz Abdul Redha Ibrahim Hussein, who were accused of killing the policemen intentionally by running them over with a car.

BNA identified two other accused whose death sentences were reduced as Qasim Hassan Mattar Ahmed and Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed.

Bahraini state media last month aired government-produced videos that including clips of purported confessions of the policemen’s killings. They also included testimonials from alleged relatives of one of the slain policemen and a taxi driver killed in the unrest.

The case was the first related to this year’s unrest, which was inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Capital punishment is extremely rare in Bahrain and is typically not applied to the country’s citizens. A Bangladeshi man was executed last July after being convicted of premeditated murder. » | Adam Schreck | AP | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Inside Story - Spain in Pain
Street protests in Madrid over austerity measures may turn political with elections just around the corner

Syria's Defiant Women Risk All to Protest against President Bashar al-Assad
THE GUARDIAN: Women on the frontline of demonstrations against Syria's brutal regime are now being targeted by security forces


They came for the men first, as the security forces of Syria's PresidentBashar al-Assad killed, beat and arrested people protesting against his regime.

Next, they came for the women of Syria's revolution. Despite the threats, however, they refuse to be silenced.

As the violence has become worse, women activists have organised a Friday protest of Free Women showing solidarity with those seized or killed. Women-only protests in towns across the country have led the effort to let the outside world know what is happening in Syria. But they are now being targeted as well, with the same lethal brutality.

Two weeks ago three women were shot dead at an all-women march near the besieged city of Banias. A week later human rights activist Catherine al-Talli, 32, was detained in the Barzeh district of Damascus after being forced off a minibus when it was stopped at a checkpoint by the secret police.

Others, such as Razan Zeitouneh, whose husband has been arrested, have been forced into hiding as evidence emerges that the regime is targeting relatives of those it is seeking to arrest.

Yesterday it was Zeitouneh who reported that the final death toll for the latest crackdown on Friday protests by the regime had been 30. Twelve were reported dead in Ma'aret al-Nu'man, south of the city of Aleppo, after tanks entered the town earlier in the day to disperse protesters; 11 in the central city of Homs and seven in Deraa, Latakia, the Damascus suburbs and Hama. » | Peter Beaumont | Saturday, May 21, 2011

Armed Saleh Supporters Trap US, European Envoys
ARAB NEWS: SANAA, Yemen: The US, European and Gulf Arab ambassadors were trapped inside a diplomatic mission Sunday by an armed mob angry over a deal for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 32 years in power.

Prospects that Saleh would sign the pact as promised were thrown into doubt.

Wielding knives, daggers and swords, hundreds of Saleh loyalists blocked the entrances to the United Arab Emirates Embassy, where at least five ambassadors were gathered in expectation the embattled leader would arrive to sign the deal.

“Everybody is worried. We can’t leave the embassy,” said a Saudi diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Pro-Saleh militiamen dressed in traditional Yemeni dress roamed the streets of the capital, especially outside embassies, and blocked the road to the presidential palace. » | Ahmed Al-Haj | AP | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Ex-Nato-General Wesley Clark: "Gaddafi wird stürzen"

DIE PRESSE: Wesley Clark, einstiger US-Oberbefehlshaber im Kosovo-Krieg, ist überzeugt, dass Luftangriffe ausreichen, um Libyens Diktator Gaddafi zu Fall zu bringen. Die USA werden ihre globale Machtposition beibehalten.

Sie leiteten 1999 die Nato-Militäroperation im Kosovo. Damals beklagten Sie den fehlenden Willen, Bodentruppen einzusetzen. Müsste diese Kritik nicht nun auch für den Libyen-Krieg gelten, der seitens der Alliierten ebenfalls nur aus der Luft geführt wird.

Wesley Clark: Wir mussten damals im Kosovo die Eskalationsdominanz erreichen: Wenn die Luftangriffe allein nicht ausgereicht hätten, wäre die Nato zum nächsten Schritt gezwungen gewesen. Gott sei Dank war das nicht notwendig, aber wir hätten darauf vorbereitet sein müssen. In Libyen schlägt die Nato denselben Weg ein.

Ist denn irgendjemand bereit, Bodentruppen nach Libyen zu schicken?
Nein, diese Bereitschaft gibt es nicht ... Gibt es überhaupt eine Strategie in Libyen » | Von Christian Ultsch (Die Presse) | Samstag, 21. Mai 2011

Iran Arrests 30 People Suspected of Spying for the U.S.
HAARETZ: Washington has had no diplomatic presence in Iran since the 1979 revolution; arrests come two days after Obama made a speech reiterating that the U.S. views Tehran as a sponsor of terrorism.

Iran has arrested 30 people it said were spying for the United States, official media reported on Saturday.

"The Intelligence Ministry's active and pious forces, in their ardent confrontations with the agents of the CIA ... arrested 30 people who were spies for America," state television's lunchtime news announced.

According to the semi-official Fars news agency, the suspects had passed information to U.S. officials at embassies and consulates in third countries, including Malaysia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. » | Reuters | Saturday, May 21, 2011

Strauss-Kahn's Lawyer to Haaretz: Former IMF Chief Will Be Acquitted

HAARETZ: Attorney Benjamin Brafman says that if Strauss-Kahn had not been famous and had not been a foreigner, the court would not have demanded the unusually high bail.

The lawyer of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn told Haaretz Sunday that his client would be acquitted of the sexual assault charges that have shocked the economic world.

"He'll plead not guilty and in the end he'll be acquitted," said attorney Benjamin Brafman in his first interview since his client was arrested last week for the alleged attack on a New York City chambermaid.

Brafman, on a short trip to Israel to attend to family obligations, spent the weekend in north Jerusalem with his son - a rabbi - and his grandchildren.

Brafman met with Haaretz while he was on his way to light a Lag Ba'omer bonfire with the grandchildren.

Brafman, 62, is used to scandals and high-profile cases. He has defended Michael Jackson, crime boss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, online gambling king Jay Cohen and rapper Jay-Z. Another of his clients, rapper Sean Combs, gave him the nickname "Uncle Benny." » | Chaim Levinson | Sunday, May 22, 2011

French Weekly Magazines Review

rfi ENGLISH: The French weeklies all put up special dossiers on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair. The right-leaning magazines aren’t mincing words. "Shame" headlines Le Figaro. "Downfall" writes Le Point. "The scandal that changes everything" says l’Express and “descent to hell”, according to left-leaning Le Nouvel Observateur.

France is ashamed of Strauss-Kahn’s humiliating pictures writes Le Figaro - ashamed of being ridiculed in the eyes of the world. The conservative journal says in an editorial, that the affair lends credence to the erroneous, but long –upheld view, that France is a nation of pleasure seekers. Le Figaro states that Strauss-Kahn has always had a soft spot for women which he often boasted about. The journal lambasts the socialists for rushing out to support him as the scandal broke out.

Some said it was a diabolical smear and lynching campaign hashed by a black cabinet to prevent him from becoming president of France. Le Figaro regrets that the politicians who piled-up all the blind support for DSK had no word for the poor black woman at the centre of the case. Le Figaro dispatched a team to New York’s Bronx district, home to the alleged rape victim, Nafissatou Diallo. It reports that the Guinean community there has been staging demonstrations in support of her clamour for justice.

Le Point agrees with Le Figaro that the Strauss-Kahn affair has claimed a terrible toll on France’s image abroad."What a fall" screams the journal which runs a 10-page dossier on the tragic descent to hell of the popular politician who had been poised to possibly become France's next president. Le Point runs excerpts from the New York tabloids reporting of the damaging story including The Daily News, The New Yorker and even the respected Wall Street Journal. The magazine says Strauss-Kahn's name has been tarnished forever, no matter the outcome of the case, pointing to the fact that his socialist comrades are already burying him, some with flowers, others without. » | William Niba | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Guinean Woman Nafissatou Diallo Is Reportedly the Accuser in Strauss-Kahn Affair
HAMSAYEH.NET – EXTRACT: The Sofitel Hotel is run by its French owners and is considered one of the most expensive hotels in New York. There have been numerous reports of a frame up by powerful political factions in particular those connected to Nicholas Sarkozy and his supporters. Also, it seems that powerful interest groups have been worried over Strauss-Kahn’s future plans to reorganize the way the IMF nromally functions. Read it all » | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Nafissatou Diallo, la femme qui a repoussé les avances de DSK
ECHOS D’AFRIQUE: Qui est vraiment LA VIERGE Nafissatou Diallo? Celle qui a dit NON comme le president Sekou Toure.

Une jolie femme de nationalité guinéenne sans histoire, sérieuse et qui n’a pu être manipulée selon ses collègues et employeur.

Selon sa famille, qui préfère rester anonyme, Nafissatou Diallo, 32 ans, est aux États-Unis depuis treize ans, où elle menait jusqu’à samedi 14 mai 15H09 une vie sans histoire.

Fille d’un commerçant guinéen, originaire de la région de Labé Guinee-Conakry ou Sekou Touré, Nafissatou Diallo a suivi son mari, un commerçant guinéen, aux États-Unis en 1998. Ce qu’on appelle en France un regroupement familiale. » | Source: Afrohistorama | Mercredi 18 Mai 2011

Was DSK Stitched Up?
COUNTER PUNCH: The French are for the millionaire. The Americans are for the maid. Among the French, three out of five think the IMF’s former managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been framed. (Strauss-Kahn tendered his resignation as head of the IMF May 18.) Here in the USA there’s not been a reliable poll, but public sentiment is clearly against Strauss-Kahn, amplified by self-congratulation that America is a nation of laws, a maid’s word as potent as that of a millionaire, in contrast to the moral decay and deference to the rich prevalent in France.

The French, for their part, stigmatize America as a puritanical, omnipotent imperial police state, whose intelligence agencies are efficiently capable of any infamy. But even as they charge that Strauss-Kahn was set up, the French press is rather weak on identifying or even suggesting the precise mastermind or group working to destroy a man who might have been the French Socialist Party’s candidate, evicting Sarkozy from the Elysee Palace. (They miss the real damage to France's reputation, not to mention balance of payments, which is that previously women from the US or northern Europe have booked costly tours to France hoping to be seduced by Charles Boyer or Michel Piccoli or Alain Delon or, if you like heavy smokers, Jean-Paul Belmondo, or Gerard Depardieu. They will will now, rather than be attacked by a Gallic sexual psychopath, elect to go straight to Italy notwithstanding the chances of a semi-senile Berlusconi jumping out of the bushes, shouting "Bunga, Bunga.")

In Parisian financial circles some charge that this is an attack on “les juifs”. Following this line, they suggest it’s a plot by the Muslims, presumptively eager to contrive any embarrassment to a well-known Jew, and indeed ardent Zionist, also perhaps because the agent of Strauss-Kahn’s downfall, the 32-year maid accusing Strauss-Kahn of a serious sexual assault – widely identified on French and West African websites as Nafissatou Diallo -- is a Muslim from the West African nation of Guinea. (And yes, the name Diallo does ring a bell. Amadou Diallo (September 2, 1975–February 4, 1999) was a 23-year-old Guinean immigrant in New York City who was shot and killed on February 4, 1999 by four plain-clothes members of the NYPD who fired 41 rounds at him. They were all subsequently acquitted.) » | Alexander Cockburn | Weekend Edition, Friday, May 20, 2011 – Sunday, May 22, 2011

“Strauss-Kahn is being framed up because the IMF recently announced that ‘the age of America is over,’ that China will be the number one economy within five years. This was a massive blow to Washington, and they are taking their revenge.” – Paul Craig Roberts, assistant secretary of the US Treasury in Reagan’s time