Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Nowadays, being seen as a friend of the German president can be awkward, exhausting and even dangerous. David Groenewold, 38, a film producer, networker and party animal, was truly a close friend of President Christian Wulff for a number of years. Acquaintances of the Berlin-based businessman say that he sat down a few weeks ago and wrote out a list of incidents that could prove to be uncomfortable for him or Wulff.
There are 12 items on the list. For Groenewold, the most worrisome incident appeared to be the short vacation he spent with Wulff and his wife on the island of Sylt from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, 2007, because he had no receipts as documentation. All he remembered was that he had paid for the Wulffs' suite in the Hotel Stadt Hamburg with his credit card, at €258 ($343) a night. Groenewold called the hotel to ask for a copy of the bill, but the staff was uncooperative at first.
Groenewold drove to Sylt to resolve the matter. The hotel's executive secretary gave him the copies, at which point he jokingly asked, in front of two other employees, whether it might not be possible to tear the page documenting Wulff's visit out of the guest register. Everyone had a good laugh, says Groenewold's acquaintance.
Last week, a different version of Groenewold's intervention on the island of Sylt appeared in the German tabloid Bild. According to the hotel records, the film producer called the hotel on Jan. 16 and requested that it release "no information" about him and the fact that he had paid the Wulff's hotel bill to curious members of the media. A to-do list addressed to staff members includes the following instruction: "So if Bild or Spiegel calls, we don't know anything!" When Bild asked Wulff's attorney who paid for the vacation, he replied: "Mr. Wulff reimbursed Mr. Groenewold for the disbursed costs of his stay on the premises of the Hotel Stadt Hamburg." The payment was allegedly made in cash. » | REPORTED BY MICHAEL FRÖHLINGSDORF, HUBERT GUDE, MARTIN U. MÜLLER AND ALFRED WEINZIERL | Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
"Humanity compels us to retaliate against murderers," the man wrote, "but politics forces us to remain unmoving spectators. Our poorly considered humanity would be more gruesome than our well-considered inhumanity." These words, which sound like a more elegant version of the Western nations' tepid statements of solidarity with the Syrian insurgents, were penned 221 years ago by Jean Baptiste Cloots, a baron who had emigrated from the Lower Rhine region to France to join the revolution.
All the same, Cloots' words are depressingly contemporary. In 1791, it was the residents of Liège who revolted against their regime and looked to France for support, albeit in vain.
Today it is the entire world that looks on helplessly as the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad wages a brutal campaign against its own people, seemingly unable to prevent it from massacring a rebellious population in city after city, attacking residential neighborhoods for days at a time with rockets, shrapnel grenades, snipers and, as it did in Homs, even with knives and hatchets.
The victims' only crime is that they have been protesting peacefully since March of 2011, first for reforms and freedom, and then for the overthrow of a dictatorship in power since 1970, legitimized by nothing more than a coup and its ability to keep the population in a constant state of fear. » | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The author is a SPIEGEL editor who has reported often on the Syrian uprising against Bashar Assad. Revealing the reporters name would make future research impossible and endanger the journalist's contacts.
If this crisis has reached Piraeus, then it's done a good job of hiding itself. Even on this cold February night, the luxury cars are lined up outside the chic, waterfront fish restaurants in this port suburb of Athens. But Leonidas Koutikas knows where to look. Not even 50 meters off the main promenade, around two corners, misery is everywhere. Koutikas finds a family of five living behind a tangled tent that has been attached to the wall of an apartment building.
Koutikas and his colleagues from the aid organization Klimaka are expected. They hand out their care packages here every night. "Each day the list of those in need gets longer," Koutikas says. He speaks from experience. Until recently, the 48-year-old was sleeping on the streets himself.
Athens has always had a problem with homelessness, like any other major city. But the financial and debt crises have led poverty to slowly but surely grow out of control here. In 2011, there were 20 percent more registered homeless people than the year before. Depending on the season, that number can be as high as 25,000. The soup kitchens in Athens are complaining of record demand, with 15 percent more people in need of free meals.
It's no longer just the "regulars" who are brought blankets and hot meals at night, says Effie Stamatogiannopoulou. She sits in the main offices of Klimaka, brooding over budgets and duty rosters. It was a long day, and like most of those in the over-heated room, the 46-year-old is keeping herself awake with coffee and cigarettes. She shows the day's balance sheet: 102 homeless reported to Klimaka today. » | Johannes Korge and Ferry Batzoglou | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Greece got rid of its military dictators in July 1974. But almost four decades later, as the debt-stricken country endures a crisis that some might say is almost as bad as the long dark night of their rule, it is still impossible to protest in the cradle of democracy.
When tens of thousands of Greeks tried to demonstrate peacefully in front of the large sandstone parliament building on Sunday night, they were met almost immediately with volleys of teargas. The toxic fumes were the authorities' answer not only to the popular opposition unleashed by the prospect of yet more austerity but the fear that underpins it. For angst, like uncertainty, is now haunting Greece.
What followed was textbook chaos: a familiar mix of young punks with no relation to ordinary protesters going on the rampage, setting fire to banks, stores and cafes. Scenes of bedlam and mayhem that ensured the event taking place inside the Athens parliament – a ballot on deeply unpopular measures in return for the rescue funds that will keep bankruptcy at bay – was thoroughly drowned out.
Buildings burned into the early hours. By the time Athenians awoke, the historic heart of their ancient city resembled a war zone. Shops along busy boulevards lay looted, their shutters shattered and smashed. Mangled bus stops lay strewn among the detritus. The charred remains of two of the capital's oldest cinemas smouldered, and, with the stench of teargas still hanging in the air, newspapers proclaimed the vote had been passed.
"All this," said Angela Economou, a student taking in a blackened edifice that had once been a bank, "when all we had wanted to do was exercise our democratic right.
"It is not the politicians who are suffering, it's the people. And these are measures that don't only kill your creative flame, they make you despair."
As Europe's great debt drama intensifies, it is clear that in the country where it began nothing is going to plan. Teetering on the edge of economic collapse, Greece is also on the brink of becoming ungovernable; its politicians panic-stricken and discredited; its institutions barely functioning; its people ground down by waves of budget cuts.
Three years into the crisis and the crushing austerity demanded by the EU, ECB and IMF, the country's troika of creditors, is clearly having a devastating effect.
Unemployment, once among the lowest in the EU, is nudging 21%, an all-time high, industry has all but collapsed, and nationwide hundreds of small businesses, once the lifeblood of the Greek economy, are closing by the day. The desperate and poor can no longer be hidden. Begging has proliferated. So, too, have the homeless, mostly men who can no longer afford a roof over their heads who crouch in doorways or lie strewn across pavements, buried under blankets, hands outstretched. » | Helena Smith | Monday, February 13, 2012
Ukraine "has become a totalitarian regime," Klitschko told the Abendzeitung in an interview published on Tuesday, four days before he is to defend his World Boxing Council heavyweight title.
"Many people fear that it could lead to a bloody uprising like in Syria.
"I think that violence is not a solution. But many say: we have nothing to lose," added Klitschko, who heads the Kiev-based political party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR, meaning "punch" or "strike" in Ukrainian). » | AFP | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Prof Jeffrey Rosen, writing in the Stanford Law Review, claims that proposals from Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding “could transform Google, for example, into a censor-in-chief for the European Union, rather than a neutral platform”. He said that rather than perform such a role, the search giant was more likely to simply produce blank pages for certain search results.
The current European proposals seek to harmonise laws across the 27 EU nations and will force sites to delete information shortly after consumers request it be removed. If they do not comply, a fine of up to two per cent of a firm’s global turnover could follow.
Matthew Newman, Reding’s spokesman, told the Telegraph it simply aggregates existing rights to get data deleted from servers in a “timely manner”. But he says it also means individual EU information commissioners could arbitrate when, say, a user posts a controversial picture online of someone else and refuses to take it down when the subject asks.
Reding herself insists: “The right to be forgotten has nothing to do with journalists, nothing to do with the work of bloggers, nothing to do with tweeters – it’s about when you entrust information to a company. Because freedom of expression is very important we have also to take this into account.”
Prof Rosen argues that the fear of fines will have a chilling effect, and that it will be hard to enforce across the internet when information is widely disseminated. Read on and comment » | Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
SAVE HAMZA KASHGARI: Sign the petition! »
The main message of my thoughts is simply that Muslim scholars and clerics must be made to understand that they are not experts in everything … particularly a good many things about other faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism.
Muslim clerics like the Ustazah merely receive their education from traditional Islamic Institutions that do not have the subjects of Philosophy, Civilisation and Religious Studies.
All they know and have learnt are only from a single source of Muslim Studies.
As an academic, I will admit and clearly explain what I do know and what I do not know. If I had to respond to a certain question or comment with respect to knowledge that I do not possess much, then I am most humble in answering and never in an absolute or commandeering tone … much lest in a sarcastic or demeaning manner.
It is most unfortunate that in Malaysia, as well as perhaps in other Muslim countries too, Muslims think that it is their ‘divine’ duty to hate people of other faiths.
This is done to the point that a non-Muslim chief minister is despised despite his excellence in governance but a Muslim minister is supported and protected when allegations of rape, murder or bribery seem apparent. » | Aliran | Monday, February 13, 2012
Saudi Arabia’s highest official clerics have declared Kashgari guilty of apostasy based on his now-deleted tweets and called for him to be put to death.
“Malaysia had no business deporting Kashgari, and Saudi has no business prosecuting him for his tweets expressing his religious opinion, which it is his right to do freely,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “It is near certain he will not get a fair trial in Saudi Arabia, where religious scholars have concluded that he is guilty of apostasy and should be put to death.”
Kashgari fled Saudi Arabia on 6 February to Malaysia, following popular outrage and calls for his punishment after he published a number of tweets expressing his religious views, which he has since deleted. Human Rights Watch has reviewed the alleged tweets and not found any language that could incite violence. The 23-year-old journalist, who wrote for Al-Bilad daily newspaper, has expressed regret for the tweets, saying he had no idea they would elicit such a strong negative reaction. » | Aliran | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
FOREIGN POLICY: Five places that aren't feeling the love this Valentine's Day.
Under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islamic law, Valentine's Day is forbidden because it celebrates the life of a Christian saint and "encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women,"according to Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari, a Saudi religious scholar. All the accoutrements of Valentine's Day merely represent the culture "of a people who are involved in the humiliation and killing of our fellow brothers and sisters," Mariam Anwer, a Saudi schoolteacher, told the Saudi Gazette.
Every year, Saudi Arabia's infamous morality police force, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, raids shops a few days before Feb. 14, instructing owners to remove red roses, red wrapping paper, teddy bears, and gift boxes. On the eve of the holiday, they raid stores and seize symbols of love.
Because of the ban on red roses, a black market has flowered ahead of Valentine's Day. Roses that normally go for five Saudi riyal (about $1.30) fetch up to 30 riyal ($8) each on Feb. 14. Florists reportedly deliver bouquets in the middle of the night or early morning, to avoid suspicion.
Ahmed Al-Omran, a well-known Saudi blogger, told CNN back in February 2008 that the government's ban would give the international media another reason to make fun of the Saudis "but I think that we got used to that by now." » | Alessandra N. Ram | Monday, February 13, 2012
CBS NEWS: BAGHDAD — Iraq's capital is embracing Valentine's Day this year with a huge public display of affection in what its residents say is the nation's most amorous celebration of the holiday ever.
Street corners across Baghdad are blanketed with the synthetic red fur of teddy bears, while silken nighties and lip-shaped satin pillows hang in store fronts.
It's a vivid counterpoint to a place that's still a far cry from warm and fuzzy — with bombings remaining a fact of life since the withdrawal of U.S. forces two months ago.
"Valentine's Day is for everybody — not only for lovers," said Lina, a school administrator who would only identify herself by her first name. She was among the throngs browsing through an array of plush kittens, scented candles, red lamps and heart-shaped purses outside a store this weekend in the Baghdad downtown shopping district of Karradah.
"It's for you and I, for me and my brother, even for someone on the street. It's not just about me and my fiance," Lina said. "Iraqis need happy moments to make them forget what they have been through — we have had enough sadness."
After decades of war and dictator rule, and with improving security, Iraqis say they are able to relax and enjoy Valentine's this year. Others believe the recent burst of text messages, mobile phones and use of the Internet among Iraqi youth has helped foster romance like never before.
But Valentine's Day may come with its own baggage.
Conservative Muslims, from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia, have strongly frowned on the holiday's growing popularity around the world as an encouragement of perceived Western decadence and premarital sex. » | AP | Monday, February 13, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded two men convicted of drug trafficking in the ultraconservative kingdom, the interior ministry announced.
Mohammed Abdulmalik Ajaj, a Syrian, was arrested for smuggling "207,000 banned narcotic pills," the ministry said in a statement published on state news agency SPA.
He was beheaded in the northern province of [Al] Jawf.
Separately, the ministry said a Saudi, Hamad al-Yami, was beheaded in Jizan, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, for trafficking hashish. » | AFP | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Whitney Houston's golden hearse arrives in her home state of New Jersey: Fans gather outside a Newark funeral home to welcome the singer's hearse back to her birth place ahead of a funeral expected later this week. » | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Related »
THE GUARDIAN: Sean Penn backs Argentina over Falkland Islands: Actor meets Argentinian president and says world cannot tolerate 'archaic commitment to colonialist ideology' » | Press Association | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
MAIL ONLINE: ’Britain is colonialist, ludicrous and archaic’: Sean Penn blasts UK for refusing to hand over Falklands to Argentina » | Daniel Bates | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Annual US budget speech outlines plans for Middle East "incentive plan", but proposal must be approved by Congress.
United States President Barack Obama has announced plans to help Arab Spring countries with more than $800m in economic aid.
Most of the financial help for the Arab Spring countries, an estimated $770m, would go to establish a new "Middle East and North Africa Incentive Fund", the president said in his annual budget speech on Monday.
Obama said military aid to Egypt would be kept at the level of recent years, $1.3bn, despite a crisis triggered by an Egyptian probe targeting US democracy activists.
The proposals are part of Obama's budget request for fiscal year 2013, which begins on October 1. » | Agencies | Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
In an historic visit to the Vatican, Baroness Warsi will express her “fear” about the marginalisation of religion throughout Britain and Europe, saying that faith needs “a seat at the table in public life”.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, the Cabinet Office minister says that to create a “more just society” Britons must “feel stronger in their religious identities”.
The minister, who is also chairman of the Conservative Party, says: “My fear today is that a militant secularisation is taking hold of our societies. We see it in any number of things: when signs of religion cannot be displayed or worn in government buildings; and where religion is sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere.
“For me, one of the most worrying aspects about this militant secularisation is that at its core and in its instincts it is deeply intolerant. It demonstrates similar traits to totalitarian regimes – denying people the right to a religious identity because they were frightened of the concept of multiple identities.”
Baroness Warsi leads an unprecedented government delegation to the Vatican where she will be received by Pope Benedict for a private audience on Wednesday.
She will be the first foreign minister to deliver an address to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains Papal diplomats, and the party will stay in the Santa Marta, an official residence in the Vatican for visiting cardinals.
The visit, to mark the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between Britain and the Vatican, follows the Pope’s successful visit to Britain in 2010 when he is said to have been impressed by the Government’s outspoken defence of the importance of religion in public life.
The speech represents one of the most strident defences of the importance of religion by a serving British minister. It comes days after the High Court ruled that local councils could not hold prayers during meetings. There have also been recent cases of public sector workers being banned from displaying Christian symbols at work.
David Cameron welcomed the visit. He said: “Our relationship with the Holy See is an important one and it speaks powerfully of the positive contribution faith can make to all societies. » | Robert Winnett, Political Editor | Monday, February 13, 2012
Brussels' court of first instance said it did not believe the 1946 edition of "Tintin in the Congo" was intended to incite racial hatred, a criteria when deciding if something breaks Belgium's racism laws. The decision was issued late on Friday.
The Adventures of Tintin, a series of comic books created by Belgian artist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Herge, has gained renewed, global popularity in the past year after Hollywood director Stephen Spielberg made an animated film about the intrepid boy journalist and his little white dog Snowy.
Tintin in the Congo was the second book Herge produced, with the plot revolving around Tintin's escapades in the former Belgian colony, including encounters with diamond smugglers, big game hunters and wild animals.
In 2007, Congolese campaigner Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo launched legal proceedings to try to get the book banned, arguing that its portrayal of Africans was racist. Read on and comment » | Monday, February 13, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The trial of a woman burnt at the stake 400 years ago for witchcraft resumed in Germany on Monday in an effort to clear the woman's name.
Katharina Henot suffered her fiery fate in Cologne in 1627 after being found guilty of practicing black magic. Arrested, and tortured to such an extent that the right-handed woman had to scrawl her last letter of defence with her left hand, she was eventually paraded through the city in an open cart before being tied to a stake and burnt.
Now the panel on the city council whose predecessors found her guilty of witchcraft hundreds of years ago will review the evidence. It is suspected that Henot, head of the city's post office, fell foul of a deadly game of political intrigue orchestrated by her rivals and detractors.
The fact that Henot's name has a chance of exoneration is due largely to the efforts of Hartmut Hegeler, an evangelical pastor and religious education teacher, who has championed the woman's cause in Cologne. » | Matthew Day, Warsaw | Monday, February 13, 2012
THE LOCAL – GERMANY: Cologne witchcraft trial reopens after 400 years: A witchcraft trial is re-opening in Cologne on Monday in the hope that one woman will have her name cleared, centuries after being burned at the stake. » | The Local/DPAD/jcw | Monday, February 13, 2012
The extremist preacher will be banned from holding lengthy conversations with anyone beyond his immediate family and will not be allowed to leave his home for 22 hours a day. He is prohibited from using a mobile phone, computer or the internet.
Officials hope that the measures will prove temporary as a Home Office minister prepares to fly to Jordan, where Qatada has been convicted in his absence of terrorism-related offences.
The UK has been blocked from deporting the 51-year-old Islamist cleric, after the European Court of Human Rights ruled he might not receive a fair trial in Jordan.
The courts have described Qatada as a “dangerous risk”. He is specifically not allowed any contact with 27 people, including al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Under the bail conditions, if he meets an acquaintance in a chance encounter, he "must, after any initial greeting, disengage himself from the situation”.
Another condition stops the extremist from leading prayers, giving lectures or preaching, other than to offer advice to his wife and children at his home.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, is under mounting pressure to find a way of deporting Qatada, even if it means defying the European Court. » | Monday, February 13, 2012
DIE PRESSE: Der Iran soll die Zahl seiner U-Boote und seiner schnellen Angriffsboote im Persischen Golf erhöht haben.
Der Iran hat nach Einschätzung der US-Marine Schiffe für Selbstmordangriffe im Persischen Golf ausgerüstet. "Der Iran hat die Zahl seiner U-Boote erhöht, er hat die Zahl seiner schnellen Angriffsboote erhöht", sagte Vize-Admiral Mark Fox, Kommandant der US-Marinestreitkräfte in der Region am Sonntag. "Einige der kleineren Schiffen wurden mit einem großen Sprengkopf ausgerüstet, der als Selbstmordbombe benutzt werden kann." » | Ag. / Red. | Montag, 13. Februar 2012
LONDON EVENING STANDARD: Tony Blair has made a return to British politics by giving private briefings to Labour MPs on the need to be pro- business.
After five years focusing on the Middle East and Africa, the former prime minister is said to be interested in shaping Labour's future thinking. Speaking at one meeting with seven Labour MPs, he said the party must fight from the centre ground and be seen as pro-businesss to be taken seriously. » | Joe Murphy, Political Editor | Monday, February 13, 2012
Tony Blair is like one of those bad pennies – it just keeps turning up! – © Mark
The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the jury of almost a decade of alleged abuse after being trafficked into the UK from Pakistan in 2000, supposedly to work as a domestic help - though aged only 10 at the time.
The orphaned youngster was slapped, beaten, sexually abused and hit with a rolling pin while forced to work for no money during the day, the court heard.
At night the victim was made to sleep on the concrete floor of a cellar, the door bolted, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.
Her alleged abusers were Ilyas Ashar, 83, and his wife, Tallat Ashar, 66, who deny charges of false imprisonment, human trafficking, sexual offences, violence and benefit fraud. » | Monday, February 13, 2012
Obama's 2013 spending proposal is expected to go nowhere in a divided Congress and is widely seen as more of a campaign document that frames his economic pitch to voters and seeks to shift the focus from deficits to economic growth.
It fleshed out a major theme of his re-election campaign - "economic fairness." He wants wealthier Americans to bear more of the burden of slashing a federal deficit that was a trillion plus dollars for a fourth year in a row.
The budget proposal is a "reflection of shared responsibilities," the Democratic president said at a campaign-style event in Annandale, Virginia, referring to his call for a minimum 30 percent tax on millionaires.
In one of his best opportunities before the November 6 election to convince voters that he deserves a second term, Obama called for more than $800 billion for job creation and infrastructure investment, including billions of dollars for roads, railways and schools.
He also set aside money to hire more teachers, police and firefighters and invest in manufacturing, while extending tax breaks to spur hiring.
"At a time when our economy is growing and creating jobs at a faster clip, we've got to do everything in our power to keep this recovery on track," Obama said.
He casts his Republican rivals as the party for the rich while Republicans want to paint Obama as a tax-and-spend liberal.
The budget projects deficits remaining high this year and next before starting to decline, meaning more borrowing that will add well over $7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. » | Alister Bull and Laura Macinnis | WASHINGTON | Monday, February 13, 2012
ARAB NEWS: MAKKAH: Imams of mosques in Makkah were unanimous in their Friday sermons on the necessity of bringing Saudi columnist and writer Hamza Kashgari to justice for making insulting comments about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on Twitter.
Kashgari fled to Malasyia after realizing that the deletion of his slanderous comments and the repentance he had announced in his tweets were not enough to save his neck. He was arrested on arrival at Kuala Lumpur airport on Thursday.
Worshippers, many of them in tears, were in agreement with their imams calling for bringing Kashgari to justice for his blasphemous tweets about the Prophet, local daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported Saturday. The article said the worshippers expressed happiness over the government's move to arrest the blogger and bring him to justice.
The Malaysian police confirmed the arrest of Kashgari as part of an Interpol operation under the request of Saudi Arabia but did not disclose if he would be extradited to his country.
The imams and the worshipers strongly denounced the slanderous comments against the Prophet and said anyone who dared to badmouth the Prophet should be severely punished to deter others from doing the same.
Some of the imams dedicated their entire Friday sermon to attacking the blogger and calling for his trial, while others strongly warned against insulting the Prophet in words or deeds. Some of the imams were not able to hold back their tears while defending the Prophet, recalling verses from the Qur'an warning against attacking Allah or His Prophet.
"The unison between the imams and the worship[p]ers against this heinous act is a crystal-clear indication that attacking the Prophet is a red line no one should cross or come close to," a worship[p]er said. He did not want to be identified.
A number of worship[p]ers said they were determined to file lawsuits against Kashgari in Shariah courts calling for his execution on charges of apostasy. » | Arab News | Sunday, February 12, 2012
Related »
Hamza Kashgari caused an outcry among devout Saudis earlier this month, when he used his Twitter account to post thoughts about the Prophet Muhammad they deemed insulting to Islam.
The comments by the 23-year-old columnist for Jeddah-based newspaper al-Bilad triggered tens of thousands of Twitter responses, many from enraged Saudis calling for his death.
Kashgari quickly apologized and deleted his Twitter account, but fled the country last Tuesday as the outrage grew.
A day later, a committee of senior Saudi clerics appointed by the king declared Kashgari to be an apostate - a crime punishable by death - and called for him to be put on trial. » | Michael Lipin | Washington | Monday, February 13, 2012
HT: Baron Bodissey @ Gates of Vienna »
MAIL ONLINE: Public workers in New Hampshire will be unable to wear fragrances at work if proposed law is passed
Employees in New Hampshire could soon be banned from wearing fragrances or scented products.
State workers who interact with the public as part of their job will have to go to work au naturel if a proposed law is passed this week.
House Bill 1444 has been proposed by Republican Michele Peckham to protect people with asthma or other allergies. » | Graham Smith | Monday, February 13, 2012
The USA has long since ceased being the ‘Land of the Free’. This is just another nail in the coffin of liberty. If this ridiculous law is passed, you can bet your bottom dollar that it won’t be long before the stupid idea will be taken up the other side of the Pond. – © Mark
THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Rep. Ron Paul and his loyal band of supporters were uncharacteristically missing from the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington last week — and high-profile Republican leaders say the party can’t afford for that to happen in November if the GOP is to win the White House.
They pointed to, and applauded, the 76-year-old Texan’s unique ability to attract young, independent and first-time voters, giving his campaign a consistent level of energy and enthusiasm that is sometimes lacking in the other presidential camps.
“It would be a dramatic error for the winning campaign to disavow Ron Paul’s contributions to the process,” said Al Cardenas, chairman of theAmerican Conservative Union, which hosted the CPAC gathering. “I am a firm believer that Ron Paul has found a niche and found a movement that he wants to have a voice. It may not be a majority movement, but it’s a growing movement. So, if we are smart, he’s going to have his fair opportunity at convention, and a platform committee to have his points of views discussed and expressed.
He added, “Any winning campaign of the nomination, if it is not his, should embrace him and his followers if we are going to win in November.”
Mr. Paul’s supporters say he is the most genuine candidate and offers a unique brand of politics that doesn’t fit neatly into the Democratic-Republican duopoly that has ruled Washington for decades. Before it was chic on Capitol Hill, they say, he defended the U.S. Constitution, advocated for individual liberty and pushed for limited government through less spending and less taxation.
He also has challenged the police-the-world mentality that he blames for steering the nation into military conflicts that have cost thousands of lives, billions of dollars and diminished the nation’s reputation on the global stage — a stance that has prompted some to urge him on as an independent. » | Seth McLaughlin | The Washington Times | Sunday, February 12, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Iran has issued major reforms to its penal code that ban death by stoning and forbid the execution of minors.
Local Iranian media reports that the changes were approved by the guardian council, a body tasked with ensuring that the country's judicial laws do not contravene Islamic law.
The legislation now requires only the signature of the president to be enshrined into law.
Prior to the reforms, Iran has the record for executing more juveniles than any other country in the world. A report published human rights group Human Rights Watch earlier this year stated that more than a hundred children are currently on death row. Most are not executed until they turn 18.
Stoning is usually reserved for men and women found guilty of adultery. At least 99 people have been stoned to death in Iran since 1980.
Drewery Dyke, an expert on Iran at Amnesty International, warns that due to quirks of the Iranian legal system, the reforms are not as clear cut as they appear. » | Phoebe Greenwood | Monday, February 13, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Royal Navy sacked so many sailors for failing drugs tests in the past four years they could have filled an entire warship, new figures reveal.
A total of 63 sailors tested positive for illegal substances between October 2007 and July 2011.
That is more than the number who typically serve aboard one of the navy's minesweepers.
Of these, 29 were discharged between October 2010 and September 2011 for a variety of offences, including taking cocaine and ecstasy.
This included two female ratings aged 22 and 23, who both tested positive for cocaine on HMS Ark Royal on March 7 last year. » | Monday, February 13, 2012
BBC: Greece's parliament has passed a controversial package of austerity measures, demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for a 130bn-euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout to avoid default.
The vote was carried by 199 votes in favour, with 74 MPs voting against.
Coalition parties expelled over 40 deputies for failing to back the bill.
The vote came amid violent scenes in capital, Athens, and elsewhere, with protesters outside parliament throwing stones and petrol bombs.
Police fired tear gas and several buildings were set on fire in Athens.
Dozens of police officers and at least 37 protesters were injured, 23 suspected rioters were arrested and a further 25 detained, AP reports.
PM Lucas Papademos urged calm, saying violence had no place in a democracy.
Lawmakers have also approved a related deal to write off 100bn euros of Greek debt held by private banks.
Despite a rebellion by some MPs from parties in the ruling coalition, the result was expected, reports the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens.
Pasok, the largest party, and its coalition ally New Democracy - which have both backed the bill - account for more than 230 deputies out of a total of 300.
Following the vote the parties announced they had each expelled about 20 of the rebel MPs. (+ video) » | Sunday, February 12, 2012
Jacques Martin, the mayor of Nogent-sur-Marne to the east of Paris and member of Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, commissioned the statue to honour the mostly Italian immigrant women who used to work at a feather factory in the town.
But when French daily Le Parisien on Sunday revealed the plan for the statue more than six-and-a-half feet tall, at a cost of over 80,000 euros (£67,000), the opposition and even the first lady's friends were up in arms.
A source close to Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy said she agreed to model for sculptor Elisabeth Cibot as she admires her work, but that "it was never suggested that her name would appear".
Modelling "is her former job, she no longer does it commercially, but she's often asked to do it, and she often agrees, and always without being paid," the source said.
But the swiftly gathering scandal "is using something that has nothing to do with politics to political ends," one of her friends said, requesting anonymity. Read on and comment » | Source: AFP | Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Ayman al-Zawahri, global head of al-Qaeda since the death of Osama bin Laden last May, issued the call to arms in an eight-minute video posted on an Islamic website on Sunday entitled "Onwards, Lions of Syria".
Dressed entirely in white, with an assault rifle displayed by his side, Egyptian born al-Zawahri urged Muslim states including Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian protesters and urged Syrian protesters not to ally themselves with the Western powers, including the US and the United Nations, or the Arab League.
"Our people in Syria, don't rely on the West or the United States or Arab governments and Turkey," Mr Zawahri said."You know better what they are planning against you. Our people in Syria don't depend on the Arab League and its corrupt governments supporting it." » | Phoebe Greenwood | Sunday, February 12, 2012
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Bin Laden told his children: ‘Go to US and live in peace’ » | Julian Thompson, Islamabad | Sunday, February 12, 2012 [£]
MAIL ONLINE: 'Do not follow me down the road to jihad. Go and get a good education in the West': Osama Bin Laden’s extraordinary instructions to his young children – Osama Bin Laden told his children to live peacefully in the West where they would get a good education, his brother-in-law has revealed. ¶ Zakaria al-Sadah, whose sister is the fifth wife of the Al-Qaeda leader, said Bin Laden did not want his children and grandchildren following in the same path of terrorism like him. ¶ 'He told his own children and grandchildren, go to Europe and America and get a good education,' according to an interview with Sadah in The Sunday Times. » | Tara Brady | Sunday, February 12, 2012
In a TV address, Lucas Papademos said Greece was "just a breath away from Ground Zero".
The cabinet has approved the measures but five government ministers resigned.
Unions are holding a 48-hour strike, and thousands of protesters rallied in central Athens against the measures.
Riot police were on standby after clashes on Friday, but the demonstrations were mostly peaceful.
The austerity measures are being demanded by the eurozone and IMF - they must now be passed by the Greek parliament and approved by European finance ministers.
Some MPs from the governing parties are expected to vote against the bill, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens reports.
But analysts say the package should still have enough support in parliament, because Pasok, the largest party, and its coalition ally New Democracy account for more than 230 deputies out of a total of 300. » | Saturday, February 11, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)