Monday, June 06, 2011
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC NEWS AGENCY: HOUSTON - Watching his son sitting in his classroom decorated by cartoon characters, projects and artworks, Syed Shahzad, whose 13-year-old son Shayan attends Houston’s largest Islamic school, was very proud of the level his son reached in memorizing Qur’an and Islam’s true teachings, Houston Chronicle reported.
“I’m blessed with this kid,” said Syed, Shayan’s father, who moved to the US from Pakistan when he was 12. ”At his age, I didn’t know anything.
Shahzad, from Richmond, was one of the few parents who preferred to send their kids to Madrasah Islamia, or Islamic school, to memorize the Holy Qur’an.
Enrolling his son Shayan, a straight-A student, at the madrasa two years ago, the father was proud of his brilliant son who has managed to memorize more than half of the Qur’an, a best way for Syed to keep Qur’an from loss.
“This is something nobody can take away from you,” said Shahzad.
“Even if the Quran gets lost, you still have it in your heart.”
At their school, the largest and oldest in Houston, students are also taught about prophets such as Moses, Jesus and Muhammad as well as respecting their classmates and help others.
“Our children should have some sort of knowledge of Islam, of who they are, where their roots come from,” said Shahzad.
“It’s important for every kid, whatever religion, whatever culture.” » | IINA | Saturday, June 04, 2011 (3 Rajab)
HT: Jihad Watch »
*Antifa is an anti-fascist network
"Tired of being made a sacrificial lamb by lies and injustice, President Ben Ali has exceptionally dropped his discretion," Jean-Yves Le Borgne, who represents the former leader in France, said in a statement to AFP.
Ben Ali fled Tunisia in January following a revolt against his 23-year rule and is thought to be in Saudi Arabia. Family members say he suffered a stroke in February and he has made no public appearances.
Tunisia's new authorities are preparing to try him and his wife Leila Trabelsi on drugs, guns and graft charges in absentia.
The French statement represents the first time the 74-year-old leader has spoken out since fleeing Tunis, even indirectly, and is the first sign he plans to fight the various legal challenges hanging over him.
"The searches conducted in his official and personal offices are just stage-dressing designed to discredit him," Le Borgne alleged.
"The case that Tunisia is building against him is nothing but a masquerade which serves no purpose other than to mark a symbolic break with the past."
The French lawyer told AFP he was working alongside Ben Ali's main counsel, the renowned Lebanese jurist Akram Azouri, to represent his client's interests in Paris, capital of Tunisia's former colonial power.
But he insisted that reports that the ousted strongman has significant assets in France are false, declaring that he has "no real estate, no bank accounts in France and none in any other foreign country." » | Agence France Presse | Monday, June 06, 2011
Dominique Strauss Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, has pleaded not guilty to charges he raped a hotel maid.
The one-time French presidential hopeful will face trial over the allegations that cost him his job and sent the IMF into crisis. He will be back in court on 18 July.
At a brief hearing at Manhattan criminal court he pleaded not guilty in a strong voice, standing between his defence team and watched by his wife, the millionaire former journalist Anne Sinclair.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said they needed six weeks to assess evidence that has been collected by the US authorities. DNA matching Strauss-Kahn's has reportedly been found in semen on the maid's clothing and on a section of carpet from his hotel room. Experts say the defence will probably argue that any sexual contact between the maid and Strauss-Kahn was consensual. » | Dominic Rushe in New York | Monday, June 06, 2011
As Dominique Strauss-Kahn sat in a New York court for a bail hearing, accused of attempting to rape a hotel maid, the focus was on the stomach-churning allegations. One of the world's most powerful men stood charged with locking his hotel suite, dragging an immigrant cleaner from room to room, grabbing and assaulting her, using brute strength to twice force her to give him oral sex, pinning her down and trying to rape her. But one subtle moment in his televised hearing captivated France. After he was granted bail, Strauss-Kahn raised his eyes to his wife sitting in the front row of the public seats, smiled and blew her a kiss. She, a feminist and former political journalist, pressed her lips to the palm of her hand and blew him a kiss back.
What intrigues France about the political rape scandal of the century is that behind it all there is a bizarre and gripping love story. Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, once the most famous, brilliant and beautiful TV star in France, is still utterly in love with him, her friends say. Locked up in the notorious Rikers Island jail for four days after his arrest, the head of the International Monetary Fund and once the great hope to become Socialist president of France wrote that he loved his wife "more than anything". She said she didn't believe "for a single second" that her husband was guilty.
Sinclair has long been an institution in France: the star French TV interviewer of the 80s – a cross between Terry Wogan, Angela Rippon and Jeremy Paxman – famous for her blue eyes and mohair jumpers. But now, at 62, she has become something much more controversial: France's martyred wife, both a heroine of bravery and object of pity, a potent symbol of women's humiliation not just in the face of French male philandering, but possible sex crime. Celebrity magazines have boosted sales by putting her "smile of suffering" on the cover. Paris Match likened her to Marianne, the woman warrior symbol of France, but "more blind and deaf". » | Angelique Chrisafis | Friday, June 03, 2011
THE INDEPENDENT: Dozens of doctors and nurses who treated injured anti-government protesters during the months of unrest in Bahrain have gone on trial accused of trying to overthrow the monarchy.
The 23 doctors and 24 nurses have been detained since March, when martial law was imposed to quell a wave of Shiite-led demonstrations for greater freedoms.
Emergency rule was lifted on Wednesday and protesters again marched on the capital's Pearl Square on Friday, facing tear gas and rubber bullets from Bahraini police.
The doctors and nurses were charged during a closed hearing in a security court authorised under emergency rule. The court has military prosecutors and military and civilian judges.
They were charged with participating in efforts to topple Bahrain's Sunni monarchy and taking part in illegal rallies. Other charges against the doctors and nurses, who mostly treated injured protesters in the state-run Salmaniya Medical Complex in the capital Manama, include harming the public by spreading false news and denying medical attention. » | PA | Monday, June 06, 2011
Skimming fast and low over the ground, bristling with missiles and heavy with armour, the Army’s Apache AH64 attack helicopters are British might incarnate, a muscular show of power and self-assurance from a country that remains (just) in the global premier league of military players.
Yet their presence over western Libya this weekend is also a tacit sign of British failure, the failure of 11 weeks of aerial bombardment to remove Col Muammar Gaddafi from power.
Deploying the Apaches is final proof of something that all but the most partisan of RAF devotees have long conceded: you can start a war from 30,000 feet, but you can only win it on the ground. “Boots on the ground” may have been ruled out, but Britain’s military operation is undeniably moving closer to Libyan soil. » | James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Sunday, June 05, 2011
My comment:
We should never have gone to war with Libya in the first place. This war was caused by Cameron's vanity. The end result will be that British troops will have to go in on the ground, and risk their lives to save Cameron's face. Fools rush in where angels...
Why should we be at war with Libya, but not with Syria or Bahrain? Those two countries also treat their people brutally and shabbily. Perhaps no better than the awful Qadhafi. But for some reason, it's okay to be at war with Libya; but with the other régimes, we just turn a blind eye. Such hypocrisy! – © Mark
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WIEN. Im österreichischen Außenministerium ist man verärgert, sehr verärgert: Die Türkei hat die Ernennung Ursula Plassniks als neue Generalsekretärin der Organisation für Sicherheit und Zusammenarbeit in Europa (OSZE) vereitelt – „Die Presse am Sonntag“ berichtete exklusiv – und so für schwere Verstimmung in Wien gesorgt.
Von einem „deutlichen Schatten auf die bilateralen Beziehungen zwischen Österreich und der Türkei“ sprach der österreichische Außenminister Michael Spindelegger noch am Samstag. Einen Tag später legte er nach: Das Veto der Türkei sei nicht nur „unverständlich und durch nichts begründet“, sondern „schlechter Stil“ sowie eine „Ansage der Türkei gegen Österreich“. Diese Aktion werde auch nicht zu einer Euphorie hinsichtlich einer EU-Aufnahme der Türkei führen - „ganz im Gegenteil“, wie Spindelegger in der ZiB 1 des ORF anfügte. Im ohnehin schwierigen Verhältnis zwischen Wien und Ankara scheint erneut eine Eiszeit ausgebrochen zu sein. » | Von Irene Zöch und Martin Fritzl, Die Presse | Sonntag 05. Juni 2011
A rumpled, self-deprecating figure with more of the look and manner of a barman than a seasoned diplomat, Eagleburger was guided in his approach to foreign policy by an antipathy to what he described as “modern-day American imperialism, which is the imposition of our standards of conduct on the rest of the world”.
This had led, he explained in 1988, to situations in which either “we end up feeling good about what we say, but with no ability to affect the outcome. Or we end up getting ourselves involved in issues which, when put to the test, we will not be prepared to carry through.”
Eagleburger’s scepticism showed itself most strikingly in the early 1990s in his resistance to pressure for America to become involved in the Balkans. In the 1970s he had served under Jimmy Carter as ambassador to Yugoslavia and, before taking charge at the State Department, he was deputy to Secretary James Baker and chief adviser to President Bush on Balkan affairs.
He gained a reputation as a strong partisan of Serbia, most controversially denying that Serbian paramilitaries and the Yugoslav National Army had committed atrocities in the breakaway republic of Croatia and in Bosnia. » | Sunday, June 05, 2011
My comment:
Lawrence Eagleburger’s antipathy to “American imperialism” and the imposition of America’s standards on the rest of the world, regardless of indigenous culture and its suitability for democracy, has landed America in deep trouble for far too long. And American administrations still haven’t learnt that their foreign policy needs to be substantially modified. The Americans’ dogged determination has got them nowhere; on the contrary, it has led to the Americans being hated in many parts of the world. Winning over “hearts and minds” is a meaningless pursuit with such pig-headed policies. The Americans’ love of raw capitalism and democracy blinds them to the realities on the ground. Simple fact is that democracy isn’t suitable for all; and not everyone wants to live in a democratic system anyway.
Long may Lawrence Eagleburger rest in peace. – © Mark
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The head of a German farm facing an inquiry over a deadly E.coli outbreak has denied that bean sprouts grown at his farm could be to blame.
Klaus Verbeck, managing director of the "Gaertnerhof Bienenbuettel", told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung that no fertilisers are used to produce his bean sprouts and that there are no animals on his organic farm.
German officials said on Sunday his bean sprouts could be behind an E.coli outbreak that has killed 22 and made more than 2,200 people ill across Europe. The farm has been shut, produce recalled and further test results are due on Monday.
"I can't understand how the processes we have here and the accusations could possibly fit together," Mr Verbeck told the paper. "The salad sprouts are grown only from seeds and water, and they aren't fertilised at all. There aren't any animal fertilisers used in other areas on the farm either."
Neither Mr Verbeck, himself a vegetarian, nor anyone else from the farm would talk on Monday to journalists and television crews, including Reuters, outside his farm in the rural town of 6,600 that is located about 70km (40 miles) south of Hamburg.
German officials, under intense pressure to identify the source of the E.coli outbreak, have warned consumers for weeks to avoid tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, and at one stage said Spanish cucumbers might be the source of the outbreak. The rare E.coli strain has killed 21 Germans and one Swede. » | Monday, June 06, 2011
NEUE OSNABRÜCKER ZEITUNG: Betroffener Betrieb gesperrt – Sprossen aus Niedersachsen wohl Ursache für EHEC-Epidemie: Hannover. Die Experten sind sich ziemlich sicher. Auch wenn der letzte Beweis fehlt: Sprossengemüse aus Niedersachsen ist wohl dafür verantwortlich, dass EHEC grassiert. Ob alle gefährlichen Sprossen bereits verzehrt sind, ist unbekannt. Die Fahndung läuft. » | dpa/NOZ | Sonntag 05. Juni 2011
C’est sans doute la dernière apparition publique de Dominique Strauss-Kahn avant plusieurs semaines. Lundi matin, le patron déchu du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) est convoqué, pour la deuxième fois, devant l’« honorable juge » de la Court suprême de New York Michaël Obus. Une audience cruciale qui dictera la ligne de défense du Français le plus célèbre de Manhattan depuis qu’il a été arrêté le 14 mai, alors qu’il venait d’embarquer sur un vol d’Air France à destination de Paris.
Accusé de tentative de viol et d’agression sexuelle sur Nafissatou Diallo, une employée de l’hôtel Sofitel Times Square où il avait résidé deux nuits, DSK était placé en garde à vue dans les locaux de la Special Victims Unit, le service de police de New York spécialisé dans les affaires de mœurs. Dans les jours qui suivaient, l’ex-ministre français était envoyé derrière les barreaux d’une cellule de Rikers Island – un immense complexe pénitentiaire situé sur une île au large de Manhattan – avant d’être officiellement inculpé. » | D’envoyée speciale à New York du France Soir, Sandrine Briclot | Lundi 06 Juin 2011
The personal cost of tyranny in the Arab world is rising. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali escaped from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is to stand trial for murder and corruption, and now Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has been evacuated to Riyadh with burns and a shrapnel wound.
In each case, the president, once supported by the West as a stabilising factor, resisted the demands of protesters and became a liability. Mr Saleh, who repeatedly equivocated over a peace plan proposed by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), had long passed that point. Instead of the “honourable exit” which he said he sought, he has suffered the humiliation of being injured in a rocket attack on his palace in Sana’a and forced to seek medical treatment abroad. Read on and comment » | Telegraph View | Monday, June 06, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Home Secretary has criticised universities for their “complacency” in tackling Muslim extremism as she prepares to publish the Government’s updated strategy for countering Islamic radicalism.
Theresa May told The Daily Telegraph that universities were not taking the issue of radicalisation seriously enough and that it was too easy for Muslim extremists to form groups on campuses “without anyone knowing”.
She also said the Government would cut funding to any Islamic group that espoused extremist views, and set out the “key British values” to which those seeking support must subscribe. It is understood that about 20 groups are already losing their funding.
Mrs May made her comments ahead of the publication this week of the updated version of the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy.
“I think for too long there’s been complacency around universities,” she said. “I don’t think they have been sufficiently willing to recognise what can be happening on their campuses and the radicalisation that can take place. I think there is more that universities can do.”
Mrs May said universities had to “send very clear messages” and “ask themselves some questions about what happens on their campuses”. » | Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Sunday, June 05, 2011
Universities are seats of higher learning. Their purpose is to disseminate learning, erudition, and enlightenment. They are supposed to bring people out of darkness, not let them fall into it. Any university, however grand, however prestigious, is not worthy of its name if it allows its students to become, or remain, benighted. – © Mark
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH – EXTRACT: …Simon Schama, 66, the historian, said that the Muslim adherence to the Koran and utter certainty in its tenets is depressing.
Schama joked that a fatwa would be issued against him for speaking out against Islam. While the Koran is “sane and compassionate and merciful” in parts, strict adherence to it can be at odds with modern society, he argued.
He said: “I suppose like bits of the Old Testament it is really immoderate. Islam, as I understand it, means submission. And there is a kind of adamant, utter certainty about the Koran.
“In the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible which I know well, people are constantly arguing with God.
“The Koran isn’t really quite like that. It has a lyrical softness combined with a fierce sword-sharpened intemperance which you can’t help but register.
“In some sense, the notion that anyone holds up a book based on revelation as an absolute law around which the entirety of civil society be constructed is still depressing.” Bob Geldof: I was detestable ... until love saved me » | Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor | Monday, June 06, 2011
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg have ordered ministers to make a formal statement on whether they believe Christians' rights have been infringed in British courts that have repeatedly dismissed their entitlement to dress and act according to their beliefs.
The court has selected the cases of four applicants it considers to be of such legal significance they should be examined further. Once ministers have responded the court will decide whether to have full hearings.
The cases could lead to a final legal answer on how religious beliefs must be balanced against equality laws designed to prohibit discrimination against minority religions and other groups such as homosexuals. » | David Barrett | Telegraph, London | Monday, June 06, 2011
The first is the approach adopted by President Obama soon after assuming the American presidency. In a much anticipated speech delivered at Al Azhar University in Cairo on June 4, 2009 the American president said that his country’s approach to the Muslim world will be different while he was in charge of the making of foreign policy in Washington. “We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and the Muslim world — tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate,” he told his Cairo audience. “The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a cold war in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought about by modernity and globalisation led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.”
President Obama promised to change these attitudes. “I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and dignity of all human beings.” » | Shahid Javed Burki | Sunday, June 05, 2011
« Jésus : un prophète de l’islam ». C’est le message diffusé dans plusieurs dizaines de panneaux d’affichage de la ville australienne de Sydney depuis quelques jours à l’initiative de MyPeace, une organisation musulmane œuvrant pour la paix et le dialogue interreligieux.
Jésus (alias Issa) est en effet considéré, au même titre que Muhammad, comme un des nombreux prophètes envoyés de Dieu aux yeux des musulmans à la nette différence qu'il est pas vu comme le fils de Dieu, ce Dernier n'ayant ni ascendant ou descendant.
Toutefois, cette initiative originale - qui rappelle la campagne britannique « Inspiré par Muhammad » en juin 2010 - a provoqué un tollé auprès de plusieurs responsables chrétiens du pays, qui l’ont jugé « provocante ». Certains panneaux ont été vandalisé, rapporte lundi 30 mai The Sydney Morning Herald. » | Rédigé par Hanan Ben Rhouma | Mardi 31 Mai 2011
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: He's not the son of God, just the support act: CHRISTIANS in Sydney will have their core beliefs challenged by provocative advertisements due to appear on billboards and buses in the next month. » | Aaron Cook | Saturday, May 28, 2011
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Bishop calls Islamic billboards offensive: A Catholic bishop has slammed controversial Islamic billboards for being "provocative and offensive" and he's calling for them to be removed from prominent locations across Sydney. » | AAP | Monday, May 30, 2011
BBC: Three weeks after the charges of sexual assault in a New York hotel, repercussions from the Strauss-Kahn affair continue to reverberate across France - as a row over new allegations against an unnamed political figure shows.
The opposition Socialist party is still assessing the damage to its presidential prospects following the humiliation of its one-time champion, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, due back in court on Monday.
Commentators agonise over the embarrassment to France's international reputation, or rail against the supposed iniquities of the American justice system.
But by far the biggest impact has been on the debate over the public's right to know.
Outsiders almost unanimously take the view that the Strauss-Kahn affair is proof of a shameful dereliction of duty on the part of French journalism.
Mr Strauss-Kahn's predatory attitude to women was well-known to the Paris media, the argument goes, but went unreported because of a tacit collusion with the political elite.
Here in France, that argument is conceded - but only up to a point.
Most people agree that national newspapers should take a tougher line towards authority - and that the web of interests linking journalists and politicians is harmful to democracy.
But there remains an extremely resilient strand of thought, which resists any move towards an information free-for-all a la Anglo-Saxon [sic].
In the view of the overwhelming majority, the right to privacy is sacrosanct.
And even if the Strauss-Kahn fiasco shows the risks of taking this principle too far, this is preferable to the opposite: a moralising, tabloid culture which (for the French) is the ghastly reality in the UK and the US. » | Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris | Sunday, June 05, 2011
The motorsport's world governing body, the FIA, has unanimously voted to return the Bahrain Grand Prix to the 2011 Formula One race calendar. The race, which is due to be held on October 30, was originally called off in February because of pro-democracy protests. The FIA, says its decision "reflects the spirit of reconciliation in Bahrain". But it has angered human rights bodies and campaigners. Amnesty international says that despite the lifting of emergency laws that have been in place since March, serious human rights violations continue to be committed in the kingdom with security measures still in place to stop large gatherings. So, will the event bring unity to the kingdom, as the organisers claim? Or are they simply putting money before morality?
FIA: Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile »
In der jemenitischen Stadt Tais haben heute Sonntag mehrere bewaffnete Männer den Präsidentenpalast angegriffen. Wie aus Militärkreisen verlautete, töteten sie vier Soldaten bei der versuchten Erstürmung des Geländes. Einer der Angreifer sei ums Leben gekommen.
Die Angreifer sollen einer Gruppe angehören, die sich jüngst zusammengetan hat, um Rache für getötete Regierungsgegner zu nehmen. Präsident Ali Abdullah Saleh hatte die Protestbewegung von seinen Sicherheitskräften gewaltsam niederschlagen lassen. » | wid/sda | Sonntag 05. Juni 2011
Einen Monat nach der Tötung von Terroristenchef Osama bin Laden hat das Terrornetzwerk al-Qaida zu neuen Anschlägen aufgerufen. In einem Video sagte nach US-Medienangaben vom Freitag der in den USA geborene al-Qaida-Sprecher Adam Gadahn auf Englisch, Muslime sollten Terroranschläge gegen westliche und jüdische Ziele verüben. » | APA | Samstag 04. Juni 2011
leJDD.fr: Le président yéménite Ali Abdallah Saleh, atteint par un éclat de shrapnel au thorax lors de l'attaque de son palais vendredi à Sanaa, a été opéré samedi en Arabie saoudite, a-t-on appris de source médicale. Selon la BBC, il aurait un éclat de shrapnel long de 7,6 cm sous la région du coeur et serait brûlé au second degré au thorax et au visage. [Source: leJDD.fr] | Dimanche 05 Juin 2011
leJDD.fr: Les autorités marocaines avaient décidé de ne pas recourir à la force dimanche pour empêcher la manifestation à Rabat. Plusieurs centaines de jeunes du Mouvement du 20 février ont pu défiler sans heurts pour réclamer des réformes politiques et dénoncer le décès d'un jeune islamiste du Mouvement décédé jeudi dernier à Safi, à 350 km de Casablanca. [Source: leJDD.fr] | Dimanche 05 Juin 2011
There has been renewed deadly fighting in Yemen on Sunday, with heavy gunfire in Taiz as well as a rocket attack in the capital Sanaa.
Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, is seeking medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, after being injured in a rocket attack a day earlier.
While pro-democracy protesters have been celebrating the president's departure as a victory against the government, the foreign ministry in Saudi Arabia has told Al Jazeera that Yemen's political future is an internal matter and Yemen has said he will be back in the capital in a few days.
Al Jazeera's Hazem Sika reports.
More shocking evidence of the crackdown on protesters in Syria has appeared in video posted on YouTube.
It is claimed that the film shows Syria's Security Forces fabricating evidence after shooting a group of men on a rooftop.
Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford has the details.
David Cameron will emerge as the victor from a bitter cabinet battle over multiculturalism this week as the government unveils a hardline approach to tackling Islamist extremism.
Home Office sources say that Cameron has quashed Nick Clegg's argument for a more tolerant attitude to Muslim groups by insisting on a strategy centred upon the notion that violent extremism is incubated within the ideology of non-violent extremism.
The shift in approach will be outlined when the government's counter-terrorism strategy is unveiled by the home secretary, Theresa May, on Tuesday. Central to the Prevent strategy is a broader definition of extremism that will be extended beyond groups condoning violence to those considered non-violent but whose views, such as the advocacy of sharia law, fail to "reflect British mainstream values".
A Home Office source said: "There will be a direct challenge to these [non-violent] groups." » | Mark Townsend and Hannah Olivennes | Saturday, June 04, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Manufacturers and retailers have been told that their sector is vulnerable to attacks by ideologically and politically motivated groups that may seek to cause widespread casualties and disruption by poisoning food supplies.
The warning from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure [CPNI], which operates as part of the Security Service, comes as experts warned the deadly E.coli outbreak in Germany has highlighted the vulnerability of the food chain and how quickly bacteria can spread.
The highly virulent strain has claimed 18 lives and left more than 1,800 seriously ill, with the true number of cases expected to be far higher.
A senior German doctor last night called for an investigation into the possibility that the bacteria had been spread deliberately.
Klaus-Dieter Zastrow, chief doctor for hygiene at Berlin’s Vivantes hospital, said: “It’s quite possible that there’s a crazy person out there who thinks 'I’ll kill a few people or give 10,000 people diarrhoea’. It’s a negligent mistake not to investigate in that direction.” » | Richard Gray, Science Correspondent | Saturday, June 04, 2011
Benoît XVI a invité samedi au premier jour de sa visite pastorale à Zagreb les Croates à adhérer avec "joie" à l’Union européenne en aidant l’Europe, menacée de "régression", à valoriser sa "richesse spirituelle" négligée par une culture favorisant l’individualisme.
Benoît XVI fait son premier voyage en Croatie où son prédécesseur Jean Paul II, très populaire, s’était rendu trois fois, soutenant l’indépendance croate pendant la guerre de 1991-95.
"Je pense que la majorité des Croates envisagent avec une grande joie" le moment de la prochaine adhésion à l’UE, a déclaré le pape dans l’avion qui le conduisait vers Zagreb.
"Depuis ses origines, votre nation appartient à l’Europe", a-t-il lancé ensuite sur le tarmac de l’aéroport, en s’adressant au président croate Ivo Josipovic. Il a vanté "treize siècles de liens forts et spéciaux" avec le Saint-Siège.
"Puisse cette chère nation contribuer à ce que l’Union européenne valorise pleinement sa richesse culturelle et spirituelle", a-t-il encore insisté. » | AFP | Samedi 04 Juin 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Yemen's veteran president, Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded by shellfire, as his presidential palace came under attack amid the country's brewing civil war.
Mr Saleh, who has held office for nearly 33 years, was praying in a mosque inside the fortified palace compound when it was struck by at least two shells, killing seven guards.
The president escaped with light injuries, according to western diplomats and government officials, but the prime minister and speaker of parliament were more seriously hurt. Rashad al-Alami, the deputy prime minister and a leading pro-Western voice in the cabinet, was said to [be] in a critical condition.
In a brief speech after the attack Mr Saleh said it had been carried out by an "outlaw gang" of his tribal foes.
Speaking only via audio in a televised speech, he blamed the attack on the powerful Hashed tribe led by Sadeq al-Ahmar who has been battling Saleh loyalists in Sana'a.
"I salute our armed forces and the security forces for standing up firmly to confront this challenge by an outlaw gang that has nothing to do with the so-called youth revolution," he said. » | Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent | Friday, June 03, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: 4 top Yemeni officials in Saudi for treatment » | AP foreign | Saturday, June 04, 2011
Friday, June 03, 2011
A TriBeCa comme sur le reste de l'île de Manhattan, le week-end s'annonce orageux. Depuis plusieurs jours déjà, une lourde chaleur étouffe les avenues encombrées et assourdissantes de New-York, et liquéfie les valeureux touristes en short. A deux « blocks » du tumulte de Broadway et de Canal Street, le quartier de TriBeCa, avec ses squares, ses terrasses de restaurants et ses petits immeubles, est un havre de paix. Loin de l'effervescence de Wall Street et des grattes-ciel époustouflants de Central Park.
Au 153 Franklin Street, quatre parasols rouges et blancs ont été dressés sur la petite terrasse, totalement invisible depuis la rue, calme et pavée. Impossible, cependant, de savoir si Dominique Strauss-Kahn, bracelet électronique à la cheville, et son épouse Anne Sinclair viennent goûter là l'ombre et la brise de la rivière Hudson : les rares photographes qui se sont risqués à escalader l'échafaudage d'un immeuble voisin ont été délogés avant d'immortaliser une scène très hypothétique en cette fin de semaine. Car, en perspective de sa comparution, lundi, devant la Cour suprême de New-York, DSK a mieux à faire que de paresser sur son toit. Ce week-end sera en effet le dernier avant l'ouverture – officielle – des hostilités judiciaires avec le procureur de Manhattan Cyrus Vance Jr. Une lutte sans merci que Strauss-Kahn a bien l'intention d'emporter après avoir plaidé « non coupable » de la tentative de viol dont l'accuse Nafissatou Diallo, femme de chambre à l'hôtel Sofitel de New-York. » | Par envoyée spéciale dee France Soir à New-York, Sandrine Briclot | Vendredi 03 Juin 2011
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL: Tunis - A sister of toppled Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been arrested as authorities go after individuals linked to the former North African leader who are suspected of wrong[-]doing during his 23-year rule.
Najet Ben Ali was arrested late Thursday in the Sousse region, around 150 kilometres south of capital Tunis, the official TAP news agency said. No reason was immediately given for her arrest. » | AKI | Friday, June 03, 2011
The 73-year old monarch was said to be recovering well at a Madrid hospital after undergoing an operation to replace his right knee joint.
The 90 minute procedure to insert an artificial knee was carried out to alleviate pain from old sporting injuries suffered during his younger years as a keen sailor and skier.
There has been frenzied speculation over the state of the monarch's health since he was admitted to hospital in May last year to have a tumour removed from his lung.
After unfavourable headlines when appeared recently at an official function walking with the aid of the cane, the King admonished the usually respectful media for their obsession with his health.
Asked during a press call how he was feeling he snapped: "Terrible, terrible, terrible, can't you see that?"
Then added: "What you like to do is kill me and have me in a coffin every day. This is what you do in the press." » | Fiona Govan, Madrid | Friday, June 03, 2011
Today we have received the millionth visit. This is all thanks to YOU, of course. For me, it has been hard work, but well worth it. This is a good reason to celebrate tonight. A drop of Champaigne sounds like a good idea, don’t you think?
My heartfelt thanks and my very best wishes to you all!
Mark
NEW AMERICAN: As the spectacle of a man being tried for speaking the truth about Islam comes to its end in the Netherlands, the accused continues to assert that the accusations of “hate speech” that have been made against him are baseless — the problem is that Islam is an ideology of hatred.
Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), has been on trial in Amsterdam on the accusation that he was “inciting hatred and discrimination” against Muslims. It appears, however, that not even prosecutors believe Wilders to be guilty of the charges against him. As CNSNews explained in an article on the Wilders case earlier this week:
The Dutch legal establishment has proceeded with the landmark trial even though public prosecutors have requested that it be abandoned, leading to the peculiar spectacle of the officials whose job is to secure a conviction instead urging the Amsterdam district court to acquit the accused man.As reported previously for The New American, the trial of Wilders is a test of the willingness of the West to resist the latest onslaught of an Islamic Jihad, which has been waged for over 1,300 years. As Wilders and other courageous individuals have pointed out, the threat to the civilized world is not limited to al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood; the threat of Islam is based in Islam being a religion of hate. Rev. Elijah Abraham of Living Oasis Ministries spoke with The New American in an interview last year, and among the topics he addressed was his childhood growing up as a Muslim in Iraq: » | James Heisner | Thursday, June 02, 2011
The lengthy trial also saw the judges replaced last fall on the instructions of a review panel, because of an appearance of bias against Wilders. Prosecution and defense alike have argued that Wilders’ statements about Islam constituted protected speech, and that Wilders was not speaking out against Muslims per se, but against what he saw as a growing threat to Dutch society posed by Islamism.
THE JERUSALEM POST: In a country where no laws protect children from marriage, efforts to make wedlock more female-friendly raises conservatives’ ire.
The case of a nine-year-old girl given away in marriage by her father to a 58-year-old man because of argument with his wife shocked many Saudis. Widespread media coverage brought the plight of child brides to the fore in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom where no law currently protects children like "the Unayzah girl," as she was called after her home town, from the misery of early marriage.
That was two years ago. Finally, the Shoura Council, Saudi Arabia's 150-member consultative body, voted this week by a large margin in favor of setting a minimum marriage age for women. The council is only an advisory body, so the matter has been sent to the Justice Ministry for enactment. Government sources told the on-line daily Ilaf that the ministry would set the minimum marriage age at 17.
"The only way to stop this legal rape is to pass a law," Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a Saudi woman activist, told The Media Line. "They can start with age 15, like most Gulf countries, and then they gradually increase it."
The practice of families marrying off their underage girls to elderly, usually wealthy, men has long been criticized by local and international human rights organizations. But the most conservative Saudis, including many in the religious establishment, are loath to disrupt age-old customs that are often assumed to have a basis in Islam as well. » | David E. Miller | The Media Line | Friday, June 03, 2011
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH: Since the beginning of the current Hijri year, 243 drivers in Jeddah have had their driving licenses withdrawn after they were caught drunk-driving or operating vehicles when under the influence of drugs, traffic police announced on Thursday. They were each sentenced to 80 lashes and fined SR500.
The police said the Jeddah summary court, which the violators were sent to, issued the verdicts. They added that under the law, the drivers would also be sentenced to various jail terms.
“The DUI drivers are a real threat to other road users and sober car drivers. They are a main cause of traffic congestion as they are not focused,” said Brig. Muhammad Al-Qahtani, director of traffic in Jeddah. » | Muhammad Humaidan | ARAB NEWS | Friday, June 03, 2011
“The issue has not so far been tabled with the council for discussion,” he said, adding that not every issue in the public domain was discussed by the council.
Explaining the mechanism of tabling issues for discussion at the council, Al-Asheikh said a motion must either come from the government, at least one member of the council or when the council itself expressed a desire to deliberate a certain issue, reported local Arabic daily Al-Jazirah.
Saudi writer and columnist Abdullah Abdul Sattar Al-Alami said he and a group of other people formally asked the council to discuss the issue of women driving.
“We sent our request in a letter sent by express mail on Feb. 8, 2011,” he said in a statement to Arab News Thursday.
Al-Alami said the request was signed by a large number of academics, literary figures, media professionals, businessmen and women, housewives, students, government employees, a former ambassador, a former undersecretary to the UN secretary-general, a deputy CEO of a big company in the Eastern Province and a prominent member of the National Society for Human Rights. » | ARAB NEWS | Friday, June 03, 2011
A report by the Global Commission on drug policy has concluded that the global war on drugs has failed. The commission, which includes a group of politicians and former world leaders, says the current anti-drug policy has been fuelling organised crime, costing taxpayers millions of dollars, and causing thousands of deaths.
How essential is the need for frank dialogue on the issue? Can the calls for legalising or decriminalising drugs help deal with the problem or make it worse?
Inside Story, with presenter Jane Dutton, discusses with Neil McKeganey, professor of Drug Misuse Research, University of Glasgow; Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at Transform; and Guxd De Wit, an addiction therapist.
This episode of Inside Story aired from [sic] Thursday, June 2, 2011.
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