Cigarettes with pig blood smuggled into Iran'

An Iranian official says cigarettes smuggled into Iran have been tainted with pig blood and nuclear material as part of a Western conspiracy. Mohammad Rez Madani from the Society for Fighting Smoking, claims Philip Morris International, which sells Marlboro outside the US, exports tainted cigarettes.

link

TEHRAN: Iran has hanged a convicted rapist and three drug traffickers, the hardline Kayhan newspaper reported on Saturday. 
story

Afghanistan: War via the web

This week,via the internet,the world found itself the surprised recipient of thousands of leaked American military documents dealing with the war on terror in Afghanistan.The documents revealed American intelligence and classified findings detailing Pakistan's role in the war,figures of Afghan civilian casualties and the success of the war itself.The posting of these documents by the WikiLeaks website generated fresh controversy around the war,its data and its combatants.The American government voiced concern over the security risks posed by such Web-based information leaks while others questioned the exact dynamics of the war itself...
story

U.N. Removes 5 Taliban From Its Sanctions List

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council removed five members of the Taliban from its sanctions list on Friday, in a nod toward the kind of reconciliation considered crucial for Afghanistan’s future stability. The five were hardly viewed as much of a threat: Three of them have already made peace with the Kabul government, and two of them are dead...
story

Debate Heating Up on Plans for Mosque Near Ground Zero

An influential Jewish organization on Friday announced its opposition to a proposed Islamic center and mosque two blocks north of ground zero in Lower Manhattan, intensifying a fierce national debate about the limits of religious freedom and the meaning of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The decision by the group, the Anti-Defamation League, touched off angry reactions from a range of religious groups, which argued that the country would show its tolerance and values by welcoming the center near the site where radical Muslims killed about 2,750 people.
But the unexpected move by the ADL, a mainstream group that has denounced what it saw as bigoted attacks on plans for the Muslim center, could well be a turning point in the battle over the project.
In New York, where ground zero has slowly blended back into the fabric of the city, government officials appear poised to approve plans for the sprawling complex, which would have as many as 15 stories and would house a prayer space, a performing arts center, a pool and a restaurant.
story

As Some Young Muslims Turn to Radicalism, Concern Grows

FRANKFURT — Before Abi left her parents’ house in northern Germany last year, she asked her father, “Daddy, what can I bring you from my journey?” He looked up from his book and answered, “Some perfumed oil.” “Will do,” she said, hugging him goodbye.
He is still waiting, more than a year later, for her to return.
Abi, now 23, and her husband never made the trip they said they had planned to Saudi Arabia to visit Mecca and Medina. Instead they became part of a growing number of young Muslims from Germany and other European countries who travel to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, eventually ending up in the camps of groups affiliated with Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
One German man, Eric Breininger, was later reported killed in a battle with Pakistani troops.
A Turkish-language Web site announced that in recent days nine foreign fighters were killed as they traveled to carry out operations with the Taliban. Two of them were identified as Germans, from Bonn and Berlin...
story

Israel retaliates with air strikes in Gaza

Israel has carried out air strikes on targets in Gaza after militants in the territory fired a rocket into the Jewish city of Ashkelon, the first such attack in more than a year...
story

Israeli rabbis clamp down on burka

Israeli rabbis are to clamp down on the growing number of devout Jewish women wearing the burka by declaring the garment an item of sexual deviancy.

At the insistence of the husbands of some burka-wearing women, a leading rabbinical authority is to issue an edict declaring burka wearing a sexual fetish that is as promiscuous as wearing too little...
story

Sarkozy's citizenship threat to violent immigrants

President Nicolas Sarkozy has given warning that France will strip French nationality from any immigrant who uses violence against police or public officials...
(click headline)

U.S. Embassy Employees Poisoned By Mail

PARIS - Three employees of the US embassy in Paris were being treated for poisoning on Friday after opening mail, a police source told Reuters.
The source was not immediately able to specify the nature of the poisoning or the seriousness of their condition. A spokesman for the US embassy was not immediately available for comment.
link

3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

Iraqi Insurgents Plant Qaeda Flag in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — In a brazen late-afternoon attack in the heart of this city’s most prominent Sunni neighborhood, gunmen attacked two police checkpoints on Thursday before a series of roadside bombs detonated on police and army patrols responding to the violence.
After the attack — in Adhamiya, a section of Baghdad that was the site of some of the most vicious fighting of the sectarian civil war in 2006 and 2007 — the gunmen raised the black flag of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, according to a high-ranking Iraqi Army officer. According to an official with the Interior Ministry, the death toll included 6 soldiers and police officers and 10 civilians, while 14 others were wounded. 
story

Mogadishu fighting kills at least 17 civilians

MOGADISHU: Clashes in Mogadishu pitting Islamist insurgents against Somali government troops backed by African Union forces have killed at least 17 civilians, medics said. 
"The ambulance servicemen collected 10 civilian bodies and 46 others who were injured in the clashes yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon," Ali Musa, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance services, told AFP. 
story

A Reality Show Where Islam Is the Biggest Star

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Bright studio spotlights illuminated the faces of four nervous young men, arms linked as they anxiously awaited their fate. Cameramen stood poised, ready to capture the climactic moment. Finally, the chief judge broke the suspense.

Two of the contestants had been eliminated. The other two had taken a step closer to their dream. Winners and losers, each clad in crisp, dark suits and formal black hats, took turns hugging each other.
The competition is called “Imam Muda,” or “Young Leader” — a Malaysian venture into religious-themed reality TV.
The basic premise may replicate that of reality shows, but here, inside an auditorium at one of Kuala Lumpur’s largest mosques, are notable variations on the tried-and-true formula.
Before each episode, the contestants have gathered to recite a prayer, while the challenges they are judged on have included washing corpses in preparation for burial and ensuring that animals are slaughtered according to Islamic principles...
story

Leaked Afghan War Reports Heighten European Doubts

BERLIN — The leaked U.S. military documents have prompted Berlin and London to demand expanded inquiries and could increase pressure to withdraw troops from the conflict in Afghanistan...
story

Leaked papers ?

Afghanistan bus blast 'kills 25'

At least 25 people have been killed and 20 wounded in Afghanistan when the bus they were travelling on hit a roadside bomb, officials say...
story

PM Says France "At War" With Al Qaeda

PARIS - France is at war with al Qaeda's North African branch and will intensify military support for governments in the region combating the Islamist fighters, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday.
He was speaking in a radio interview a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that a 78-year-old French hostage kidnapped in Niger and held by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had been killed following a failed French rescue mission.
"We are at war with al Qaeda and that's why we have been supporting Mauritanian forces fighting al Qaeda for months," Fillon told Europe 1 radio, saying that AQIM consisted of about 400 fighters operating in a desert area the size of Europe.
story

Wikileaks files show where Osama bin Laden is

Secret US documents leaked by the whisteblower website Wikileaks show multiple intelligence reports on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden...

story

British soldier becomes 325th killed in Afghanistan

Record number of fake £1 coins

There are now so many fake £1 coins in circulation the Royal Mint could be forced to scrap all of the coins and reissue the entire denomination.
story

David Cameron accuses France and Germany of double standards over Turkey

British PM makes speech in Ankara attacking EU partners for expecting Turkey to guard Europe's borders as a Nato member while closing the door to EU membership

Cameron: EU is anti-Muslim

David Cameron will today demand an end to the anti-Muslim 'prejudice' which he claims is blocking Turkey's membership of the European Union.

The Death of Paper Money

story

EU slaps new sanctions on Iran: diplomat

BRUSSELS: European Union foreign ministers on Monday adopted new sanctions targeting Iran's energy sector over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme, a diplomat said.

The package of "sanctions against Iran has been adopted" at a meeting in Brussels, the diplomat said.
Most of the sanctions will take effect on Tuesday when they are published in the EU's official journal.
The new EU sanctions include a ban on the sale of equipment, technology and services to Iran's energy sector, hitting activities in refining, liquefied natural gas, exploration and production, diplomats said.
There is also a ban on new investments in the energy sector.
The EU is also banning dual-use goods that can be used for conventional weapons. It will also step up vigilance of the activities of Iranian-connected banks operating in the EU and bar them from setting up branches.
link

Bomb kills 6 at Baghdad office of Arabic channel

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber driving a minibus blew himself up in front of the Baghdad office of the popular Al-Arabiya Arabic news station early Monday, killing six people, and burying a lawmaker alive under the rubble of his collapsed home, police and hospital said...
story

Rocket attack in Afghanistan kills 40-45 civilians

KABUL: A rocket attack on a village in southern Afghanistan killed up to 45 civilians, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday.
"A rocket was launched, it hit a civilian house where many people sought refuge (and) 40 to 45 people were killed," Waheed Omar said, referring to a reported attack in the Sangin district of Helmand province on Friday.
Asked if the attack was carried out by NATO forces, Omar said: "We will have to wait for the final report."
link

8 Taliban militants killed in US drone attacks

PESHAWAR: US drones on Sunday targeted Taliban militants in North and South Waziristan tribal regions of northwest Pakistan, killing eight rebels and injuring five more, officials and witnesses said...
story

Lashkar-e-Taiba has become global threat

ISLAMABAD: The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has become "a very dangerous organisation and a significant regional and global threat", Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff (foto), has said.
Talking to reporters at the US embassy here, Mullen stressed on Saturday that there was a strong need to take stern action to stop LeT's activities. He said LeT was expanding into Afghanistan and other countries beyond the region, the Daily Times reported.
Mullen also supported the statement of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton about the presence of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leadership in Pakistan.
"They are hiding in a very secure place and it is very difficult to trace them," he said. He claimed that the tribal belt on Pakistan's western border had become the "global headquarters" for al-Qaida.
Mullen said that the Pakistani government had not taken any action against the Haqqani network. "The Haqqani group is the most lethal network faced by the US-led international forces in Afghanistan," he said.
He said the US and Pakistan were very strong allies in the war against terrorism and the US had a strong desire to extend help and cooperation to Pakistan.
Referring to the planned withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, Mullen said it would not be the end of the mission, rather "it will be the start of a process". "The US military will stay there (Afghanistan) till complete revival of peace," he said.
link

France's Sarkozy Will Punish Al Qaeda Killers

PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Monday to punish al Qaeda's north African wing after confirming the death of a 78-year-old French hostage kidnapped in Niger.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said on Sunday it had killed Michel Germaneau in response to a raid by France and Mauritania against the group last week, according to a recording aired on Al Jazeera.
story

Suicide Bomber Kills 7 in Pakistan

PABBI, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide bomber struck Monday near the home of a Pakistani provincial minister whose only son was recently killed by suspected Islamist militants, officials said. Seven people were killed and 25 wounded.
story

View Is More Bleak Than Official Portrayal

Some 92,000 reports from 2004 through 2009, disclosed by Wikileaks.org, illustrate why, after nine years of war, the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001:

link

Loveparade:

Freudebekundungen einer Muslima über 19 Tote

Overweight people should pay 'fat tax' to cover healthcare costs, German MP says

Treatment in Germany for obesity-related illnesses is esitmated at €19 billion a year

Overweight people should pay higher taxes in order to cover the extra costs they create for German's healthcare system, a conservative MP has said.
"The question must be admitted whether the immense costs that, for example, arise from excessive consumption of food, can be permanently paid out of the consolidated health system," said Marco Wanderwitz, the conservative MP for the state of Saxony.
"I think it's sensible that people who knowingly live unhealthily carry a responsibility for it in a financial respect," said Mr Wanderwitz, who is also head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats's group of young parliamentarians.
He was supported by Juergen Wasem, an economist who said foods like chocolate should carry health warnings.
"As with tobacco, we should tax the purchase of unhealthy consumer goods at a higher rate and pay that tax into the health system," he said.
Germany's health system is funded by a series of mandatory health insurance funds, all of which are reporting serious deficits as the system is overused.
Bild, the German newspaper, estimated that treatment for obesity-related illnesses cost Germany some €19 billion a year.
Recently the German Teachers' Association recommended weighing children in class each day and reporting the seriously overweight to social services, who would have the power to remove them to clinics.
Although opposition politicians blasted the "fat-tax" proposal, researchers at the Jacobs University in Bremen claimed its work proved that the majority of the public would back a tax on people whose unhealthy lifestyles landed them in hospital or under other medical care.
link