Campuses face more cases of students becoming radicalised by extremist propaganda, a university vice-chancellor has warned.
Professor Mark Cleary, of Bradford University, was speaking as four of his undergraduates were jailed for a total of 11 years last week for glorifying Islamic terrorism. for more click here
The Pope’s private secretary has given warning of the Islamisation of Europe and stressed the need for the continent’s Christian roots not to be ignored, in comments released yesterday.
“Attempts to Islamise the West cannot be denied,” Monsignor Georg Gaenswein was quoted as saying in an advance copy of the weekly Sueddeutsche Magazin to be published today.
“The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness,” the magazine quoted him as saying. for more click here
Likely to damage ‘battle for hearts and minds’
(London, July 26, 2007) – The UK government’s proposals to extend from 28 days to almost two months the time suspects can be detained without charge will violate the right to liberty, Human Rights Watch said today. It is also likely to be deeply counterproductive in the fight against terrorism.
“Locking up suspects without charge for months at a time denies the basic right to liberty,” said Ben Ward, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The British government’s plan to extend pre-charge detention is a recipe for alienating communities vital to defeating terrorism.”
(more…)
After three decades of festering tensions, the United States and Iran are now facing off in a full-fledged cold war.
When the first Cold War began, in 1946, Winston Churchill famously spoke of an Iron Curtain that had divided Europe. As Cold War II begins half a century later, the Bush administration is trying to drape a kind of Green Curtain dividing the Middle East between Iran’s friends and foes. The new showdown may well prove to be the most enduring legacy of the Iraq conflict. The outcome will certainly shape the future of the Middle East — not least because the administration’s strategy seems so unlikely to work. for more click here
Close Canary Islands Emergency Centers and Provide Adequate Care
(Madrid, July 26, 2007) – Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children from Africa held in government facilities in the Canary Islands are at risk of violence and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
In the past year, more than 900 unaccompanied migrant children have arrived in the Canary Islands after dangerous and often traumatic journeys in makeshift boats. In response to this unprecedented number of migrant children arriving on its shores, the Canary Islands regional authorities one year ago opened four emergency centers to house 400-500 migrant children, who are mainly boys from Senegal and Morocco.
(more…)
The move of civil service jobs out of Edinburgh is being challenged under the new Nationalist administration, with 60 new posts being located in the capital by the Justice Minister.
Kenny MacAskill yesterday said the new Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) will be in Edinburgh, where he is an MSP, and that the Scottish Executive is keen to see such scrutiny bodies get together in one centre so that they can cut duplication and costs. for more click here
KUALA LUMPUR–Bitter debate in Malaysia about whether the mainly Muslim country is an Islamic state has exposed religious and racial fault lines ahead of a widely expected early general election.
As Malaysia prepares to celebrate its 50th year of independence with a nationwide party next month, comments by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak asserting the country has never been a secular state have upset many non-Muslims. for more click here
It replaced the old and discredited Human Rights Commission, which has become a bad joke because it was dominated by some of the worst human rights abusers in the world. for more click here
The success of the war on terror has been in the standard counter-terrorism terms… the great failure has been in countering the ideology and in fact it’s contributed to that ideology’s spread. That clearly is a major problem, because that’s where the future problem comes from.”
British journalist, Jason Burke
for more click here
Of all the deals we’ve heard about potentially collapsing because of these jittery markets, surely the pursuit of ABN Amro should be at the top.
The RBS consortium includes Fortis which faces an uphill struggle, to say the least, in completing Europe’s biggest-ever fundraising at €13bn (£8.75bn). If it doesn’t make it, the party’s over for Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland. But life is just as queasy for rival Barclays, which wants to pay for ABN largely with its own shares. for more click here