Die Obamas auf Kuscheltour: Kissin’ an’ a-huggin’ an’ a-huggin’ an’ a-kissin’ >>>
Friday, September 25, 2009
FOX NEWS: As many as 50,000 American Muslims are expected to gather on Capitol Hill Friday for the religion's first-ever national prayer rally, organizers of the event say.
The rally is intended to be all about prayer, and no political speeches or signs will be allowed, said the event's organizer, Hassen Abdellah, president of the Dar-ul-Islam mosque in Elizabeth, N.J.
But at least one of the prominent speakers who will read from the Koran has drawn criticism in the past for statements he's made about the Sept. 11 terror attacks, as well as for saying that the American media are largely under "Zionist control."
In 2005, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, Sheik Ahmed Dewidar said the "suspicion towards anything Islamic" remained a burden on Muslim Americans and that "the media — most of which is under Zionist control — has helped to spread this perception.
"When [the media] see a bearded Muslim selling fast food on any street in any state, they put the camera lens in front of him and interview him as though he represents Islam. At the same time, they ignore every moderate Islamic voice, every serious, scientific Islamic model, and every expert religious scholar."
During another interview by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Web site, Dewidar hinted at an American government conspiracy in relation to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"Whether or not these events were planned, or pinned on the Muslims, or something else — [it] provided an opportunity for [the American government] to legislate dubious laws that restrict the growth and presence of Islam in the U.S.," Dewidar told ikhwanonline.com.
Dewidar also denounced then-President Bush's policy in the Middle East, claiming it was dictated by Israeli politician Natan Sharansky.
"This Jew has despicable goals, and we see their effects today in America's actions in the region, imposing its opinion and its outlook on democracy, education, and political involvement on our countries," Dewidar told the Web site.
According to a biography on islamoncapitolhill.com, the prayer rally's Web site, Dewidar was born and raised in Rashid, Egypt, and had memorized the Koran by age 12. Now an instructor at Manhattanville College in New York, he also established the Islamic Center in Manhattan, near the United Nations. Efforts to contact Dewidar were unsuccessful. >>> Joshua Rhett Miller | Thursday, September 24, 2009
The Stoning of Soraya M. >>>
THE LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR ONLINE: The title of "The Stoning of Soraya M." gives away the film's ending in a spoiler of sorts. But it also should serve as a warning. The film depicts the ancient form of capital punishment, still used in much of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, in all its gruesome horror and seen in real time for 15 minutes.
Compounding the wrenching depiction of the stoning is the true story of Soraya, an Iranian woman killed in 1990 because she refused to give her husband a divorce. So he conspired against her, using Islamic Sharia law to get her condemned to death. Soraya's story was written by French-based Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, and he's played in the opening scene by Jim Caviezel.
Passing through a remote village, he is confronted by a woman who is defying civic and religious authorities in talking to him. But Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo) wants him to tape her story of the horrors that have just transpired there, ending the day before in the execution of her niece, Soraya.
Told through flashbacks, the story unfolds with power and pain. Soraya (Mozhan Marno), a mother of four, is told by the village imam that her husband, Ali (Navid Negahban), wants a divorce so he can marry a 14-year-old girl who has been presented to him by her father, an imprisoned doctor who is using his daughter and cash to bargain his way out of execution. Soraya refuses, saying the offer of the house and a little land will not be enough to support her family, and she doesn't want to become indebted to the manipulative cleric.
Ali, as evil a movie villain as you're going to see, uses his persuasive power to concoct a rumor about Soraya that leads inexorably to her stoning. The details of the lie are hard to believe. But in the male-dominated theocracy of the village, the truth doesn't matter. >>> L. Kent Wolgamott | Thursday, September 24, 2009
THE HONOLULU ADVERTISER: First festival of its kind in Hawaii draws at least 1,000 to McCoy Pavilion
When the Hawai'i Legislature approved a resolution declaring Sept. 24 "Islam Day," the measure set of[f] a firestorm of debate because the day fell so close to the date of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
But yesterday, politics was set aside as hundreds of people packed the McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park to celebrate Hawai'i's first Islam Day.
By 5 p.m., about 1,000 people had walked through the pavilion's gates and event organizers expected more as people got off work and headed to the park.
"We expected 200 to 300, so we're very pleased with the turnout," said Hakim Ouansafi, president of the Muslim Association of Hawaii, which sponsored the event.
More than a dozen Honolulu police officers and private security personnel patrolled the pavilion grounds, but there were no protests or reports of trouble.
"It's a historic day. It's long overdue," Ouansafi said. "It's a day of celebrating our commonality, a day of people of faith and no faith to get together and talk story."
The Legislature approved the resolution last session to acknowledge the "rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions" of the Islamic world. Yesterday was selected because it marked the end of Ramadan, the month in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and make contributions to charities.
But the resolution sparked debate in Hawai'i and across the country because Islam Day fell in the same month as the Sept. 11 attacks. Critics were concerned about the link between the Islam religion and the extremists responsible for the attacks.
Ouansafi said criticism of Islam Day had subsided since the resolution was passed and opposition soon changed to support.
"A lot of people reacted out of fear and ignorance and they've had a chance to reflect a little bit more and people are coming around," he said.>>> Curtis Lum, Advertiser Staff Writer | Friday, September 25, 2009
THE LOCAL: Communist East Germany's last leader Egon Krenz said this week he still believes socialism will triumph over capitalism in the end, almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"I am still optimistic and cannot believe that capitalism, with all the crises it generates, can be history's very last word," Krenz, still sprightly at the age of 72, told reporters on Thursday.
Krenz took over from long-term communist leader Erich Honecker on October 18, 1989, as the regime vainly sought to regain control of a country engulfed in a peaceful revolution that brought down the hated Berlin Wall just three weeks later.
Eleven months on, communist East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a thing of the past as it merged with West Germany to form a single country.
But inequalities remain between the two halves of the country.
Just ahead of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall, unemployment is twice as high in the east, and eastern German towns are losing their youngest citizens as they seek work elsewhere.
"We've achieved quite a few things in reunified Germany, like building roads, motorways, and renovating town centres," Krenz said. "But at what price? Freedom without work isn't freedom," he added. "Today's walls in Germany are those separating the poor from the rich."
He also had some sharp words for Germany's current Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in the GDR, saying she has been "bad" for the country.
But he took pleasure in pointing out that she once belonged to the communist youth organisation (FDJ) when she was growing up behind the Iron Curtain.
In Sunday's general election, which is expected to give Merkel a second term, he said he would vote for socialist party The Left, a party made of former GDR communists and defectors from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
"I back its programme, so you know how I'll be voting," Krenz said. >>> AFP | Friday, September 25, 2009
THE LOCAL: Guido Westerwelle, who aims to become foreign minister in a new government under Chancellor Angela Merkel, has had to shake off his “joker” image to make it in the often staid world of German politics.
The head of Germany’s biggest opposition party used to make headlines for moving into TV’s Big Brother house for a few hours, painting his party’s election goal on the soles of his shoes, and coming out of the closet.
But the 47-year-old lawyer who was often the life and soul of the party has few laughing now. The FDP’s strength will likely decide whether Merkel can win re-election with her coalition of choice in the September 27 poll.
Westerwelle’s pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), frequent partners of the conservative Christian Democrats over half a century of post-war politics, are keen to play kingmakers again.
After 11 years in the political wilderness, Westerwelle has shaken off his at times foppish image and says he is ready to be the country’s first openly gay top diplomat.
“Of course I made some mistakes when I was young but one grows older and wiser,” he told AFP in an interview earlier this year when asked about his more memorable publicity stunts.
“But the Germans seem to see us positively—otherwise they wouldn’t have given us one of the best results in our history at the last national election.”
Since that 9.8-percent score in 2005, the FDP has seen its support soar at times to within four points of the Social Democrats, Germany’s oldest political outfit and the junior partner in Merkel’s “grand coalition.” >>> AFP | Tuesday, September 22, 2009
ADVOCATE.COM:
An Openly Gay German Foreign Minister? : Take that, Ahmadenijad >>> Julie Bolcer | Friday, September 25, 2009
L’EXPRESS.fr: Le personnage public austère dissimule une autre Angela Merkel. De l'enfance au pouvoir, histoire d'une femme tout en nuances, secrète... et drôle.
Avec toute l'ironie qui est la sienne, Angela Merkel l'appelle "ma datcha". Mais, en réalité, sa maison de campagne n'est qu'un banal quatre-pièces avec vue sur la campagne est-allemande. Cette villégiature située à 80 kilomètres au nord de Berlin, près de Templin, elle l'a acquise avant la chute du mur de Berlin.
Aujourd'hui, c'est là, avec son mari, Joachim Sauer, que "la femme la plus puissante du monde" passe ses week-ends, où il lui arrive de jardiner et de confectionner des gâteaux. Pour être sûre de disposer de tout ce qu'il faut en cuisine, elle remet à son époux la liste des courses à faire à l'avance. Le bonheur.
Chacun son truc, comme on dit. Celui d'Angela Merkel, c'est la normalité. Pour ses vacances, elle a ses habitudes sur l'île d'Ischia, en Italie, dans un petit hôtel qui tient plus de la pension de famille que du cinq-étoiles. L'essentiel, à ses yeux, c'est qu'Ischia soit moins "tendance" que Capri, l'île d'à côté. Guère plus bling-bling, le Tyrol du Sud, en Italie, est une autre de ses destinations préférées.
Une fois l'an, Joachim et elle s'y adonnent à la marche à pied. "Ils ressemblent tellement aux autres touristes allemands que les randonneurs les croisent sans les reconnaître", sourit, à Hambourg, Anna Saas, rédactrice en chef adjointe du magazine people allemand Gala.
Cela tombe bien: Angela Merkel, personnage public, fuit la lumière des projecteurs. Pour comprendre ce "mystère", il faut retourner à Templin, pittoresque cité médiévale entourée de lacs et de forêts, où la chancelière a passé une enfance heureuse.
Née à Hambourg, le 17 juillet 1954, Angela Kasner n'a pas encore 1 an lorsque ses parents partent pour l'Allemagne de l'Est, de l'autre côté du Rideau de fer. Un choix pour le moins à contre-courant. Rien qu'en 1954 180 000 Est-Allemands fuient la dictature de Walter Ulbricht vers l'Ouest. Mais, pour le père d'Angela, un pasteur luthérien, la volonté de remédier au manque d'ecclésiastiques, qui se fait sentir en RDA, est plus forte que tout.
A Templin, le pasteur Horst Kasner dirige non seulement un séminaire pastoral qui forme à la théologie tous les clercs de Berlin et du Brandebourg, mais également un foyer pour handicapés psychomoteurs, attenant à la maison familiale. Ainsi Angela grandit-elle à la fois entourée d'intellectuels et parmi les "fous", comme disent les écoliers du quartier.
Pour le régime communiste, l'Eglise représente le "premier ennemi de l'Etat". C'est peu dire que la fonction de Horst Kasner est mal vue par le pouvoir. Aussi, une camarade d'Angela lui conseille-t-elle de répondre Fahrer (chauffeur) au lieu de Pfarrer (pasteur) lorsqu'on lui demande la profession de son père.
Sa mère, Herlind, qui est institutrice et enseigne l'anglais -la langue des capitalistes!- est interdite d'enseignement. Point positif: à la différence des autres mères de RDA, qui travaillent presque toutes, elle se consacre à ses trois enfants -Angela (l'aînée), Marcus (aujourd'hui entrepreneur en informatique) et Irene (ergothérapeute à Berlin).
"Après l'école, elle passait des heures entières à bavarder avec eux, raconte le politologue Gerd Langguth. Sur les plans émotionnel et intellectuel, ils n'ont manqué de rien." >>> Par Axel Gyldèn | Vendredi 25 Septembre 2009
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: In a SPIEGEL interview, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, 55, discusses his astronomical bonuses, the mistakes and failures of his bank prior to the start of the global financial crisis and his proposals for better regulating financial markets.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Blankfein, two years ago, your $67.9 million bonus was the largest ever paid to a Wall Street banker. You recently said that you could understand the anger that people are expressing over inflated bonuses. How are we to understand this?
Blankfein: I think people legitimately question whether compensation is tied to performance and, looking back, they see that some people were enriched but did not seem to have any alignment with their shareholders. A large part of the compensation paid to our senior people, including mine, is paid in shares, which may be worth less or more depending on our performance well after they were granted. This is what our shareholders want and we are convinced of this alignment of interests.
SPIEGEL: Still, $67.9 million is an astronomical sum. Is there any way to justify this?
Blankfein: Our board of directors sets the pay of our most senior executives, including mine. They tie pay to the firm's performance and I believe we have established a strong track record of correlating growth in revenues to growth in compensation. The real test is whether compensation is reduced when performance changes. For example, in 1994, the firm made a loss and the partners had to pay money back to the firm so that the staff could be paid. And, in 2008, which was a very difficult year as you know, I was paid no bonus, even though the firm was profitable.
SPIEGEL: That all sounds very rational. But don't such payments promote greed as the primary motivator?
Blankfein: I think we all know that greed can drive behavior, but it tends to be short term and ultimately destructive. Our leadership team stands out because most of our people have built their whole career at the firm and stayed through many years and many changes in the market. When our people leave they tend to go on to other positions -- whether in government or other forms of public service -- that no one would do if their were motives were financial. Those characteristics don't make me think of "greed."
SPIEGEL: So only modest, good people work for Goldman Sachs? We hardly believe that.
Blankfein: I have stated my honest view of things.
SPIEGEL: This week in Pittsburgh, the G-20 will discuss stricter regulation of bonus payments. Based on what you have said, you believe that such efforts will do nothing to prevent future crises?
Blankfein: That is not what I said. The incentive aspect played a role in the crisis, but it was not the primary cause -- I think you have to look at the macroeconomic backdrop, the concentrations of risk in certain institutions and the fact that many, including regulators, should in hindsight have had better information and acted sooner to address capital and liquidity shortfalls. >>> | Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Johann Hari: Gin, Servants and Bloodlines for Royalty's Alf Garnett in a Tiara
THE INDEPENDENT: To be fair to her, the Queen Mother did do one thing well. She supported far-right politics
It must be exhausting to be a monarchist, forever finding ways to pretend a family of cold, talentless snobs are better than the rest of us. They have to make gold out of mud. The system of monarchy – selecting a head of state solely because of the womb they passed through, and surrounding them with sycophants from the moment they emerge – produces warped and dim people and demands that we scrape before them. What's a poor monarchist to do? They can only lavish a thick cream of adjectives – "dignity", "charm", "majesty" – over the Windsor family in the hope that some of us are fooled.
This process corrupts even the most intelligent monarchists. A strange case study is the new, authorised, 1,000-plus pages biography of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the "Queen Mother") by William Shawcross. He is a smart man: his study of the secret bombing of Cambodia by Henry Kissinger is extraordinary. Yet as a monarchist he has an impossible task. He has to present a cruel, bigoted snob who fleeced millions from the British taxpayer as a heroine fit to rule over us. His mind turns to mush. Before the real Bowes-Lyon is lost in a frenzy of royalist rimming, we should remember who she really was: more Imelda Marcos than the good fairy Glinda.
By the time she died, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was treating the British Treasury – our tax money – as her personal piggy bank, with her bills running way beyond the millions she was allotted every year. Even the ultra-Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont complained that "she far exceeds her Civil List and the Treasury gets very het up about it". She used the money to pay for 83 full-time staff, including four footmen, two pages, three chauffeurs (what do they do, split her into three parts for transportation?), a private secretary, an orderly, a housekeeper, five housemaids... the list goes on and on. She even insisted that it was a legitimate use of public funds to maintain a full-time "Ascot office", whose job was to do nothing but keep a register of members of the Royal Enclosure and send them entry vouchers. >>> Johann Hari | Friday, September 25, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Spain is sliding into a full-blown economic depression with unemployment approaching levels not seen since the Second Republic of the 1930s and little chance of recovery until well into the next decade, according to a clutch of reports over recent days.
The Madrid research group RR de Acuña & Asociados said the collapse of Spain's building industry will cause the economy to contract for the next three years, with a peak to trough loss of over 11pc of GDP. The grim forecast is starkly at odds with claims by premier Jose Luis Zapatero, who still says Spain's recession will be milder than elsewhere in Europe.
RR de Acuña said the overhang of unsold properties on the market, or still being built, has reached 1,623,000 . This dwarfs annual demand of 218,000, and will take six or seven years to clear. The group said Spain's unemployment will peak at around 25pc, comparable to the worst chapter of the Great Depression.
Spanish workers typically receive 50pc to 60pc of their former pay for eighteen months after losing their job. Then the guillotine falls. Spain's parliament has rushed through a law guaranteeing €420 a month for long-term unemployed, but this will not prevent a social crisis if the slump drags on.
Separately, UBS said unemployment will reach 4.8m and may go as high as 5.4m if the job purge in the service sector gathers pace. There is the growing risk of a "Lost Decade" akin to Japan's malaise after the Nikkei bubble.
Roberto Ruiz, the bank's Spain strategist, said salaries must fall by 10pc in real terms to regain lost competitiveness, replicating the sort of wage squeeze seen in Germany after reunification.
There is no sign yet that either Spanish trade unions or the Zapatero government are ready for such draconian measures. Talks between the unions and Spain's industry federation (CEOE) broke down in acrimony in July.
Mr Ruiz said the construction sector will shrink from 18pc of GDP at the peak of the boom to around 5pc, making it unlikely that there will be any significant recovery before 2012. Even then growth will be "slow, weak, and fragile".
The Spanish government can do little to cushion the downturn. "The room for manouvre in fiscal policy has been exhausted," said Mr Ruiz. >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Thursday, September 24, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Selfridges is selling a new range of tights for men dubbed “mantyhose” in response to soaring demand for the leg wear.
The tights, priced £70 a pair, are made by lingerie brand Unconditional and are a tough 120 denier thickness.
However, those hoping to recreate the Errol Flynn look will be disappointed – they are only available in black, beige and charcoal.
The boom in sales represents a comeback for tights in men’s wardrobes after a two-century hiatus. >>> | Thursday, September 24, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: As Selfridges predicts a surge in men wearing tights, Christopher Howse plans to leave that particular trend to the history books and stick to trousers.
If wearing shorts were not bad enough, now we are told that tights for men are back. “We expect men to be wearing them,” said someone from Selfridges, “not only as a way to give legs an extra boost of warmth on the chilliest nights, but as a true style statement.” A statement that costs £70 a kick.
Well, I know that nothing can be too absurd for fashion to impose, but men in tights are an abomination, a hissing and a by-word. Our legs are not made for them, nor our loins, if loins is the word I’m looking for.
There is some recognition of this in the fashion-dictators’ serving-suggestion for the new tights or “mantyhose”: that they should be covered up by shorts or skirts.
Skirts! Come off it. They’ve tried that one before, and, like manbags, no one with a sense of humour wore them. The only exception I can think of is the late Roderick Gradidge, an architect who was to be seen at the Opera House formally dressed in a black pleated skirt, with his pigtail tied in a dark ribbon.
If Gordon Brown, averse to conventional formal dress, wishes to jazz up his image, then black tights and a pelmet skirt at his next Guildhall speech might be just the thing, as a last desperate throw.
It is not as if men in tights are unprecedented. If, in Mel Brooks’s 1993 film, Robin’s followers sing, “We’re men in tights / We roam around the forest looking for fights,” the satire was not so much against medieval outlaws as the Errol Flynn school of historical drama, from 1938.
Before the advent of nylon, or even elastic, tights was a word for men’s clothes, not women’s. The change is quite recent. “Who’s our friend in the tights?” Steerforth asks Dickens’s David Copperfield. The answer is Mr Micawber.
Mr Micawber’s nether regions were encased in tight-fittting trousering, with, I think, a strap under the instep. Before his day, gentlemen wore breeches and stockings. Indeed the Duke of Wellington was barred from his club, the Athenaeum, for wearing trousers, though it is hard to think he was barred for long. I wonder how the club would respond now to a (male) member turning up in skirt and tights. >>> Christopher Howse | Friday, September 25, 2009
Mantyhose / Pantyhose for Men >>>
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: JUSTICE | L'ancien premier ministre israélien a comparu pour la première fois vendredi devant un tribunal de Jérusalem, un fait sans précédent dans l'histoire de l'Etat d'Israël.
M. Olmert est inculpé de fraude, d'abus de confiance, usage de faux documents, dissimulation de revenus frauduleux et évasion fiscale.
S'adressant à la presse, il a de nouveau clamé son innocence à son entrée dans la salle du tribunal de district de Jérusalem où s'est ouvert son procès.
"Ce n'est pas une journée facile pour moi. Cela fait trois ans que je suis la cible d'une campagne de diffamation quasi inhumaine. Je suis innocent et je suis certain que la Cour me lavera de tout soupçon", a déclaré M. Olmert.
L'ancien Premier ministre du parti centriste Kadima, qui fêtera ses 64 ans la semaine prochaine, a démissionné de ses fonctions le 21 septembre 2008 après que la police eut recommandé son inculpation dans le "dossier Talansky". >>> AFP | Vendredi 25 Septembre 2009
LE TEMPS: C’est sans précédent dans l’histoire d’Israël: Ehud Olmert, ancien chef du gouvernement, a comparu pour la première fois vendredi devant un tribunal de Jérusalem. Il risque la prison.
Ehud Olmert, 63 ans, est inculpé de «corruption aggravée», «fraude et abus de confiance», «faux en écritures» et «dissimulation de revenus frauduleux».
L’ancien chef de gouvernement, qui a toujours clamé son innocence, a démissionné de ses fonctions le 21 septembre 2008 après que la police eut recommandé son inculpation dans le dossier Morris Talansky. Cet homme d’affaires juif américain lui aurait transféré illégalement des fonds alors qu’il dirigeait la mairie de Jérusalem entre 1993 et 2003. >>> AFP | Vendredi 25 Septembre 2009
NZZ ONLINE: Vor der Uno-Generalversammlung hat Bundespräsident Merz die G-20 kritisiert. Der Verein der grossen Industrie- und Schwellenländer habe zu viel Gewicht und zu wenig Legitimität, und er drohe andere Gremien an den Rand zu drängen.
Die Gruppe der 20 wichtigsten Industrienationen (G-20) habe die Rolle übernommen, die wichtigsten globalen Themen zu diskutieren, sagte der schweizerische Bundespräsident Hans-Rudolf Merz am Mittwoch. Diese Entwicklung dürfe nicht auf Kosten anderer Nationen oder internationaler Organisationen wie der Uno geschehen.
«Die Welt braucht die Uno heute mehr denn je», zeigte sich Merz überzeugt. In seiner Rede vor der Generalversammlung in New York rief er dazu auf, die Organisation weiter zu reformieren, damit sie sich neben anderen wichtigen Foren behaupten könne.
«Der G-20 fehlt es an Legitimität, und bei der Entscheidungsfindung für Sanktionen handelt sie nicht transparent», sagte Merz. «Die Mitglieder der G-20 werden nicht den gleichen Prüfungen unterzogen», fügte er an. Die Schweiz fordere deshalb, dass Nichtmitglieder der G-20 gleich behandelt würden und dass viel mehr Rücksprache genommen werde. >>> sda | Freitag, 25. September 2009
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said he could "comprehend" the anger directed at him by Americans who lost relatives in the Lockerbie bombing, trying to strike a conciliatory tone a day after calling the United Nations Security Council a "terror council."
In an hour-long interview, Col. Gadhafi said he hoped to build a new era of relations with U.S. President Barack Obama -- whom he called "my son" during the same U.N. address -- and said he wanted to place his nation's decades-long conflict with Washington in the past.
The Libyan strongman denied his government had purposefully stoked nationalist sentiment surrounding the return home of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet that blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. Mr. al-Megrahi, who has cancer, was released by Scottish authorities last month on humanitarian grounds.
Lockerbie families have particularly criticized the British and Scottish governments for the release of Mr. al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer. Legislators in the U.S. and U.K. have called for inquiries into whether the move was tied to lucrative Libyan oil deals. Libyan and U.K. leaders have denied this.
Col. Gadhafi also said Mr. al-Megrahi's release came through proper legal channels. But he added that British companies have benefited in the past from the absence of U.S. firms inside Libya. Sanctions imposed on Libya after the Lockerbie bombing barred American oil companies from operating in the North African country until 2004.
"You see, Britain, even though it makes it look like it's in alliance with America, and being America's ally, kept its companies in Libya and they were doing business when the American companies left the Libyan market," Col. Gadhafi said.
He said he believed Mr. al-Megrahi's release, and the billions of dollars paid out by his government to the Lockerbie victims' families, could now allow U.S.-Libyan relations to move forward. "As a case, the Lockerbie question: I would say it's come to an end, legally, politically, financially, it is all over," Col. Gadhafi, wearing black boots and an ankle-length cape, said. "I would say, thank Allah that this problem has been solved to the satisfaction of all parties. We all feel the pain for such a tragedy."
Family members of the Lockerbie victims voiced outrage Thursday that Col. Gadhafi was allowed to visit New York this week, in the Libyan leader's first trip to the U.S. following decades of conflict with Washington. >>> Jay Solomon | Friday, September 25, 2009
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BERLIN -- When German voters go to the polls on Sunday, Angela Merkel is almost assured re-election -- not for keeping the campaign promises she made four years ago, but for breaking most of them.
Ms. Merkel came to power in 2005 on a platform of modernizing Europe's biggest economy by deregulating the labor market, simplifying taxes and granting more freedom to entrepreneurs.
However, her conservative Christian Democratic Union was forced into a "grand coalition" with the left-leaning Social Democrats, and she quickly dropped those plans in favor of higher social spending and rising state intervention.
Ms. Merkel's leftward shift has been welcomed by most Germans at a time of great economic uncertainty. But skeptics in her own party and in the business community warn that Germany can't put off painful decisions about its overburdened welfare state, heavy taxes and strict labor rules indefinitely.
"It's not good that the governing parties have distanced themselves from market-oriented reforms," says Jürgen Grossmann, chief executive of energy company RWE AG. "It's a very short-term populism. There's very little courage to do the unpopular." >>> Marcus Walker | Friday, September 35, 2009
THE WASHINGTON TIMES: UNITED NATIONS (AP) | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waved designs of the most infamous Nazi death camp from a U.N. podium on Thursday, exhorting the world to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
And Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told assembled world leaders that he smells hope not sulfur, a small compliment for President Obama, after branding President George W. Bush as "the devil" in his last speech to the world body three years ago.
Just days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again denied the Holocaust, Mr. Netanyahu used his speech before the U.N. General Assembly to warn of another catastrophe.
He held up a copy of the minutes from a notorious meeting at Wannsee Lake, where top Nazis formalized plans for the systematic extermination of Europe's Jewish population.
"Is this protocol a lie?" he asked.
Then he brandished original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp - a representation in chilling detail of gas chambers, crematoria and other facilities where 3 million Jews perished.
"The most urgent challenge facing this body today is to prevent the tyrant of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons," he declared.
Iran denies that it is producing nuclear arms, but Israel, the U.S. and other world powers do not believe it and are hoping to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions through a series of sanctions. Mr. Netanyahu warned that Tehran's nuclear program threatens not only Israel, but the entire world.
"Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime, perhaps they threaten only the Jews. Well, if you think that, you're wrong. You're dead wrong," he said. >>> Associated Press | Friday, September 25, 2009
Transcript: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks at the U.N. General Assembly >>>
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