Thousands of foreign athletes will be allowed into Britain without visas for the Olympics

Lax Olympic border checks 'may let in illegal migrants' as well as thousands of athletes | Mail Online

Thousands of foreign athletes will be allowed into Britain without visas for the Olympics, a Daily Mail investigation has revealed.

The decision, rubberstamped by Immigration Minister Damian Green, could open the door to illegal migrants, MPs warned.

It is expected to spark renewed controversy over lax border controls and national security.

Iceland rejects Chinese bid for resort land

I think it is a normal response from any country which want to protect its national interest...My country should do the same as Iceland does.
- Yahoo! News

A Chinese entrepreneur's bid to create a vast nature retreat in Iceland was turned down by the north Atlantic island nation's government Friday, amid concern the deal would have handed a major chunk of territory to a foreign investor.

Iceland's interior ministry said it had rejected an application by the Zyongkun Group, a company controlled by Huang Nubo, a 55-year-old former Chinese government official, in part because no foreign buyer had ever bought so much land in the country.

Huang, one of China's wealthiest entrepreneurs, had sought to buy 30,639 hectares (120 square miles) of land on the north shore of Iceland in a deal which would have been worth about 1 billion Icelandic kronur ($8.8 million).

He had hoped the site in Iceland's northeast — which would have represented about 0.3 percent of the island's land mass — would attract about 10,000 guests a year and create scores of new jobs.

Iceland's Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, had previously said she would welcome Huang's investment, particularly as the nation recovers from the collapse of its banking industry in 2008.

Since its financial meltdown, Iceland's economy has begun to recover — with the International Monetary Fund predicting economic growth of 2.5 percent in 2012, far better than its struggling European neighbors.

However, the interior ministry confirmed it had ruled it could not lift the country's strict restrictions on the purchase of land by foreigners to allow the deal to go ahead.

"The ministry believes that it's not possible to look past how much land the company wanted to purchase," it said in a statement. "There is no precedent for land on this scale being sold to foreigners."

Referring to Iceland's law on land sales, the ministry said "it was considered necessary to limit foreigner's rights to property in Iceland to protect Iceland's independence" and to ensure that Icelandic people — rather than foreign investors — are able to benefit from the country's resources.

Some critics of the proposed deal had raised concerns that allowing Huang to purchase the land could give China a strategic toehold in the Arctic Circle, where nations are scrambling to claim natural resources and melting ice caps are expected to eventually open up new, faster global shipping lanes.

Huang previously rejected those claims, and insisted that he planned the Icelandic site to be among a chain of nature resorts in China, the United States and Scandinavia.

Halldor Johannsson, Huang's representative in Iceland, said he was surprised by the government's rebuff and claimed Icelandic law did not include limits on the size of a parcel of land an investor could purchase.

China and the United States are squaring off for a historic Indo-Pacific confrontation

Will World War III be between the U.S. and China? | Mail Online

Hugh White of the Australian National University calls it ‘a potentially risky move’. He argues that, in the new world, America should gracefully back down from its claims to exercise Indo-Pacific hegemony, ‘relinquish primacy in the region and share power with China and others’.

But Richard Haas, chairman of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, says: ‘U.S. policy must create a climate in which a rising China is never tempted to use its growing power coercively within or outside the region.’

To put the matter more bluntly, leading Americans fear that once the current big expansion of Chinese armed forces reaches maturity, within a decade or so, Beijing will have no bourgeois scruples about using force to get its way in the world — unless America and its allies are militarily strong enough to deter them.

Meanwhile, in Beijing’s corridors of power there is a fissure between the political and financial leadership, and the generals and admirals.

On the one hand, Chinese economic bosses are appalled by the current turmoil in the West’s financial system, which threatens the buying power of their biggest customers.
Allies: The U.S. made a historic agreement with Australia to station up to 2,500 U.S. Marines in the north of the country

On the other, Chinese military chiefs gloat without embarrassment at the spectacle of weakened Western nations.

As America announces its intention to cut back defence spending, the Chinese armed forces see historic opportunities beckon. Ever since Mao Tse-tung gained control of his country in 1949, China has been striving to escape from what it sees as American containment.

The issue of Taiwan is a permanent open sore: the U.S. is absolutely committed to protecting its independence and freedom. Taiwan broke away from mainland China in 1949, when the rump of the defeated Nationalists under their leader Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island, and established their own government under an American security blanket.

China has never wavered in its view that the island was ‘stolen’ by the capitalists, and is determined to get it back.

Beijing was infuriated by America’s recent £4  billion arms deal with Taiwan which includes the sale of 114 Patriot anti-ballistic missiles, 60 Blackhawk helicopters and two minesweepers.

When I last visited China, I was struck by how strongly ordinary Chinese feel about Taiwan. They argue that the West’s refusal to acknowledge their sovereignty reflects a wider lack of recognition of their country’s new status in the world.

A young Beijinger named David Zhang says: ‘The most important thing for Americans to do is to stop being arrogant and talk with their counterparts in China on a basis of mutual respect.’ That is how many of his contemporaries feel, as citizens of the proud, assertive new China.

But how is the West supposed to do business with an Asian giant that is not merely utterly heedless of its own citizens’ human rights, but also supports some of the vilest regimes in the world, for its own commercial purposes?

Burma’s tyrannical military rulers would have been toppled years ago, but for the backing of the Chinese, who have huge investments there.

A million Chinese in Africa promote their country’s massive commercial offensive, designed to secure an armlock on the continent’s natural resources. To that end, following its declared policy of ‘non-interference’, China backs bloody tyrannies, foremost among them that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
'Non-interference': China backs bloody tyrannies, foremost among them that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe

'Non-interference': China backs bloody tyrannies, foremost among them that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe

China, like Russia, refuses to endorse more stringent sanctions against Iran, in response to its nuclear weapons-building programme, because Beijing wants Iranian oil. Indeed, Chinese foreign policy is bleakly consistent: it dismisses pleas from the world’s democracies that, as a new global force, it should play a part in sustaining world order.

If Chinese leaders — or indeed citizens — were speaking frankly, they would reply to their country’s critics: ‘The West has exploited the world order for centuries to suit itself. Now it is our turn to exploit it to suit ourselves.’

A friend of ours has recently been working closely with Chinese leaders in Hong Kong. I said to his wife that I could not withhold a touch of sympathy for a rising nation which, in the past, was mercilessly bullied by the West.

She responded: ‘Maybe, but when they are on top I don’t think they will be very kind.’ I fear that she is right. It seems hard to overstate the ruthlessness with which China is pursuing its purposes at home and abroad.
China chose to make an example of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu by jailing him for 11 years

China chose to make an example of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu by jailing him for 11 years

The country imprisons Nobel prizewinners such as the political activist and writer Liu Xiaobo, steals intellectual property and technological know-how from every nation with which it does business and strives to deny its people access to information through internet censorship.

The people of Tibet suffer relentless persecution from their Chinese occupiers, while Western leaders who meet the Dalai Lama are snubbed in consequence.

Other Asian nations are appalled by China’s campaign to dominate the Western Pacific. Japan’s fears of Chinese-North Korean behaviour are becoming so acute that the country might even abandon decades of eschewing nuclear weapons, to create a deterrent.

A few months ago, the Chinese party-controlled newspaper Global Times carried a harshly bellicose editorial, warning other nations not to frustrate Beijing’s ambitions in the South China Sea — Vietnam, for example, is building schools and roads to assert its sovereignty on a series of disputed islands also claimed by China.

The Beijing newspaper wrote: ‘If Vietnam continues to provoke China, China will . . . if necessary strike back with naval forces. If Vietnam wants to start a war, China has the confidence to destroy invading Vietnam battleships.’

This sort of violent language was familiar in the era of Mao Tse-tung, but jars painfully on Western susceptibilities in the 21st century. China’s official press has urged the government to boycott American companies that sell arms to Taiwan.

The people of Tibet suffer relentless persecution from their Chinese occupiers

The Global Times, again, demands retaliation against the United States: ‘Let the Chinese people have the last word.’

Beyond mere sabre-rattling, China is conducting increasingly sophisticated cyber-warfare penetration of American corporate, military and government computer systems. For now, their purpose seems exploratory rather than destructive.

But the next time China and the United States find themselves in confrontation, a cyber-conflict seems highly likely. The potential impact of such action is devastating, in an era when computers control almost everything.

It would be extravagant to suggest that the United States and China are about to pick up a shooting war where they left off in November 1950, when Private Carl Simon suffered the shock of his young life on a North Korean hillside.

But we should be in no doubt, that China and the United States are squaring off for a historic Indo-Pacific confrontation.

Even if, for obvious economic reasons, China does not want outright war, few military men of any nationality doubt that the Pacific region is now the most plausible place in the world for a great power clash.

Michael Auslin of the American Enterprise Institute declares resoundingly: ‘America’s economic health and global leadership in the next generation depend on maintaining our role in the world’s most dynamic region.’

But the Chinese fiercely dissent from this view. It is hard to exaggerate the threat which this clash of wills poses for peace in Asia, and for us all, in the coming decades.

Obama forgot to thank God during Internet Thanksgiving Speech

Obama Leaves God out of Thanksgiving Speech, Riles Critics - Yahoo! News

Critics of President Obama felt little holiday cheer after the president did not thank God in his Thanksgiving-themed weekly Internet address. They immediately took to Twitter and the Internet to voice anger and disbelief.

"Holy cow! Is that one screwed up or what?" columnist Sherman Frederick of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote in a Thanksgiving-morning blog post.

"Somebody ought to remind Obama (and his speechwriter) that when Americans sit down around a meal today and give thanks, they give thanks to God."

Over on the website of Fox News Radio, radio host Todd Starnes also took issue.

"His remarks were void of any religious references, although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God," Starnes wrote.

"The president said his family was 'reflecting on how truly lucky we truly are,'" Starnes said. "For many Americans, though, Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on how blessed and thankful they are."

The popular website of London's Daily Mail has taken the issue global, with a story under the headline "What a Turkey! Outrage as Obama Leaves God Out of His Thanksgiving Address."

Obama mentioned God once in a closing "God bless you," to Americans watching the Internet address. However, the President explicitly thanked God earlier in the week in his written Thanksgiving proclamation, which called the holiday "one of our nation's oldest and most cherished traditions," and an occasion that "brings us closer to our loved ones and invites us to reflect on the blessings that enrich our lives."

"As we gather in our communities and in our homes, around the table or near the hearth, we give thanks to each other and to God for the many kindnesses and comforts that grace our lives. Let us pause to recount the simple gifts that sustain us, and resolve to pay them forward in the year to come," Obama wrote.

Ironically, the attacks on Obama came as the Republican White House hopefuls suspended their criticism of the president on Thursday in favor of a unified message of thanks to U.S. service members and their families.

Three of the Republican presidential candidates – Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum – issued Thanksgiving statements that omitted any references to God. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry mentioned God in their statements.

Obama, like his predecessors, records an address each week that focuses on an issue the White House wants to spotlight. The messages are typically posted on the Internet at the start of the weekend, but this week's address – with its Thanksgiving theme – was issued before the holiday.

In this week's address, delivered from the White House, Obama said, "We are especially grateful for the men and women who defend our country overseas," and he said, "We're also grateful for the Americans taking time from their holiday to serve in soup kitchens and shelters."

He acknowledged this Thanksgiving would be "more difficult than most" for many Americans because of the economy, but added, "No matter how tough things are right now, we still give thanks for that most American of blessings, the chance to determine our own destiny."

Apartheid row at Norwegian school

 Bjerke teachers segregate ethnic students in Oslo | Mail Online

A Norwegian school segregated ethnic minority classmates because white children were feeling 'in the minority.'

The move, at Bjerke Upper Secondary School in Oslo, divided students and parents, sparking an protests across the city.

Teachers at the school claim the segregation in one of the three general studies classes was a result of many white Norwegians changing schools after feeling they were in ‘the minority’ in classes

After authorities were alerted by concerned parents the school was forced to send a letter to parents apologising and promptly scrapping the scheme.

But Robert Wright, a Christian Democrat politician and former head of the city's schools board said authorities had been wrong to block the move claiming other Oslo schools follow Bjerke's example to stop a situation of 'white flight.'

Linkin Park - Numb

Snaptu: Honeybees can smell TB

New Zealand biologists believe that honeybees can sense the faint floral odor on the breath of people infected with tuberculosis, and are trying to find a way to train bees to help them diagnose TB: "When we tested them with the tuberculosis odours…

Click here to read the full story

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Ali Abdullah Saleh is to sign in Riyadh today ..Finally you resigns...

Yemen's Saleh to sign exit plan says UN envoy - Yahoo! News

Yemen's veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh is to sign in Riyadh on Wednesday a Gulf plan under which he will finally cede power, the UN envoy to the restive country said.

"The signing ceremony will take place today in Riyadh," Jamal Benomar told AFP by telephone, confirming that the plan, signed by the opposition in April, will now be inked by the veteran leader himself after months of stalling.

Both parties will also sign a UN-crafted roadmap which sets a mechanism for implementing the Gulf plan, under which Saleh will hand power to his deputy in return for immunity from prosecution.

Three-way US-China drills possible: Australia

 - Yahoo! News

Defence Minister Stephen Smith Tuesday said Canberra would seriously consider trilateral military training with the United States and China following the announcement of a US troop buildup in Darwin.

Smith said the move was suggested by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono following talks with Australian leader Julia Gillard at last weekend's East Asia Summit in Bali after Beijing criticised the troop boost.

"We don't see it as something which would necessarily occur in the short-term but it?s a good suggestion, it's an interesting suggestion," Smith said.

"It's a positive suggestion and one which I think in the longer term could fall for serious consideration."

Yudhoyono's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa expressed reservations about the plan to bring some 2,500 Marines to northern Australia by 2016-17, unveiled by US President Barack Obama during a flying visit to Canberra last week.

Natalegawa warned that it could inflame relations and create a "vicious circle of tensions and mistrust" in the region, urging transparency, particularly about the motives behind the move.

Indonesia is building up its own military cooperation with US forces.

The United States and its allies have expressed concern over the intentions behind China's military build-up and called for greater transparency.

Smith said Australia already did training and exercises with China and had completed joint live-firing drills with its navy for the first time last year.

"We're working very hard with China and the PLA (People's Liberation Army) to do precisely that, to do some training to do some exercises and we encourage China and the United States to do that themselves as well," he said.

Such training "reduces the risk of miscalculation or misjudgment", Smith added.

Jeffrey Bleich, US ambassador to Australia, said there were "a lot of variables" but Washington was interested in strengthening military ties.

"For the broad brushstrokes yes, we want to work more with the Chinese military and we're looking for opportunities to cooperate with all countries in the region," Bleich told The Australian newspaper.

"If you have a lot of nations rising quickly and not understanding each other's intentions you're always concerned about the risk of a misunderstanding. You want to be prepared for that."

The US and Chinese navies have held joint search-and-rescue drills.

The two sides would carry out humanitarian rescue-and-disaster relief drills next year, and also joint anti-piracy drills in the Gulf of Aden this year, they announced in July.

But they do not stage joint live-fire drills like those the US has with its ally South Korea.

World Bank: China faces Europe risk, soft landing possible

 - Yahoo! News

China's economy faces growing risks from Europe's sovereign debt crisis and from debt held by local Chinese governments but it could engineer a soft landing by easing monetary policy, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

In a semi-annual East Asia and Pacific economic update, the World Bank nudged up its 2011 growth forecast for China but expects growth to moderate from next year as overseas economies slow and Beijing steers the economy to rely less on investment and manufacturing.

The lender also slashed growth forecasts for developing Asia, excluding China, due to weak export demand from developed countries and as widespread flooding has hit Thailand's manufacturing base.

"On balance, we believe that while there are issues (in China), they are being managed and the magnitude of those issues does not add up to something that would lead necessarily to a major slowdown as some have talked about," Bert Hofman, World Bank chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific, said.

China will grow 9.1 percent this year, the World Bank said, slightly higher than the bank's previous forecast of 9.0 percent growth issued in March. In 2012, growth will slow to 8.4 percent, it said.

China can continue growing at a 9 to 10 percent per annum pace for the foreseeable future, based on the experience of other countries with a per capita gross domestic product of around $5,000, Hofman said, which is slightly more than China's per capita GDP.

China's growth this year is below last year's level as weakening external demand has hurt investment and exports, the bank said. Monetary policy tightening also slowed investment this year, but there is now more room to normalize policy as inflation is waning, the bank said.

China's Vice Premier Wang Qishan said over the weekend that a long-term global recession is certain and China should focus on solving problems in its economy.

Policies to curb gains in land prices could put some local governments that borrowed heavily under pressure, the World Bank said.

Still, deleveraging is unlikely to match the scale of the U.S. property market as Chinese households tend to put more money down in advance and have smaller mortgages, according to the report.

A recent World Bank study with the International Monetary Fund also showed that China's banking system can withstand exchange rate and interest rate shocks, Hofman said.

Excluding China, developing East Asia will expand 4.7 percent this year, much slower than the previous forecast of 5.3 percent growth, as a slowdown in developed countries and tighter monetary policy dented growth, the bank said.

Investors shifting money out of Asian countries could lead to more stock and bond market volatility, but this could help some countries that are trying to contain asset prices, the report said.

Asian countries could also face significant spillover if a disorderly sovereign debt restructuring in Europe hurts the flow of trade and financing, the bank said.

Malaysia in particular could be vulnerable if European banks suddenly curtail lending as it has loans from European banks worth more than 25 percent of its GDP, the report said.

Barring this scenario, portfolio flows could continue to favor Asia for some time to come, according to the bank.

"There is a lot of liquidity out there that will start looking for yields again once financial stability settles in again," Hofman said.

Public finances give many Asian countries room to boost stimulus spending if needed, but governments should focus on long-term investments to improve education, social security and labor productivity, the bank said.

(Additional reporting by Kevin Lim in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Record for UN vote on Iran, N. Korea, Myanmar

- Yahoo! News

Record numbers of countries voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning human rights abuses in Iran, North Korea and Myanmar.

The Iran vote came only three days after the General Assembly condemned an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington -- which the United States accuses Iran of masterminding.

Only Myanmar's government was given encouragement in the vote, even though it complained that it should not have taken place.

The 193-member assembly passed a resolution condemning "torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" by Iranian authorities with 86 votes in favor, six more than last year, 32 against, down 12 from 2010, and 59 abstentions.

The resolution, proposed by Canada, condemned "flogging and amputations" carried out in Iran and deplored a "dramatic increase" in the use of the death penalty, particularly against minors. Many human rights groups say events have deteriorated in Iran over the past year.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader, called the resolution "substantially unfounded and intentionally malicious" in a speech to the General Assembly's human rights committee.

Syria, which faces a special human rights vote on Tuesday over its deadly crackdown on opposition protests, spoke out strongly for its Iranian ally.

The North Korea vote was passed with 112 votes in favor, 16 against and 55 abstentions. On Myanmar the vote was 98 in favor and 25 against with 63 abstentions.

The assembly raised "very serious concern" over the "torture" and "inhuman conditions of detention, public executions, extra-judicial and arbitrary detention" in North Korea.

It also condemned the "existence of a large number of prison camps and the extensive use of forced labor."

The Myanmar resolution welcomed recent talks between democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military-dominated government, the release of some political prisoners and other changes over the past year.

But the General Assembly said there were still "systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

It highlighted "arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." It also raised concerns about the treatment of ethnic minorities such as the Karen people.

Western nations, which have imposed sanctions on Myanmar, have sought to encourage the tentative reforms started by the government. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to hold talks in Myanmar next month.

Myanmar's UN ambassador U Than Swe highlighted the government's efforts towards "building a flourishing, democratic society."

"We do deserve warm, welcome, kind understanding and sincere encouragements of the international community rather than unconstructive approach by adopting such resolutions," he told the assembly.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said the Myanmar resolution reflected "the international community?s hope for progress in the country" while expressing "continuing concern over violations of human rights."

In a statement, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague acknowledged the changes in Myanmar, but said "human rights abuses continue, especially in ethnic areas, and the level of support for this resolution shows once again that the international community has not forgotten the people" of Myanmar.

"The UN General Assembly passed these three resolutions by a record majority today, and I welcome the strong signal that sends," Hague said.

Egypt’s “nude photo revolutionary” just that, revolutionary

Egypt’s “nude photo revolutionary” just that, revolutionary - Bikya Masr : Bikya Masr

CAIRO: Despise Aliya Mahdy or not, she has done what few revolutionaries in Egypt have been able to do: take revolutionary action. Her public display of her naked body in a blog post has seen attacks from the conservative Islamists and the liberals alike. Nudity, especially female nudity, leaves people queasy. Had she been a man, would the reaction have been so virulent against her? Doubtful. The man would likely have been praised for his use of his body as expression. Mahdy, unfortunately, is a woman living in Egypt.

Women are objects in many conservatives’ views. Things that can be owned and used for a man’s pleasure when he desires and when he wants. This is why we have seen the growth of polygamy, the shoving aside of a woman’s ability to choose her life’s goals, and the unending “debate” over the causes of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Whether we agree that one’s body should be a form of protest – which so many of Egypt’s liberals disagree with – is irrelevant. The reality is that Mahdy has been able, with her body, debunk all myths of Egyptian liberalism. Her naked image, which has seen over one million hits, has shown that Egypt is not ready for free expression.

Liberal activists online lamented that the 20-year-old university student has “ruined” her life, is “young and doesn’t know what she has done.” But in an inherently conservative society, Mahdy has created something only the truly revolutionary in today’s world can do: showing the hypocrisy of the so-called freedom fighters for expression.

In the ultra-male dominated society of Egypt, women are too often told what they should put on their bodies. Wear the veil, wear loose clothes, don’t wear this, don’t wear that, and so on. Mahdy has shown that nobody has a right to tell her, or other women for that matter, what is appropriate for a woman. Her body is her own and she can do what she likes with it, and that includes putting nothing over top it and publishing it online. It’s her right.

What Mahdy has shown is that one doesn’t have to follow the traditional cultural norms. In Egypt or elsewhere. The antagonism meted out against the young woman for showing her body publicly is part of the conservative nature that is Egypt, where a woman’s body is the de facto property of society. Her honor the honor of her family, community and country. But Mahdy, knowing it or not, told Egypt and the world that she has had enough. Time for change. Time for a woman to have the right to their property, their body.

Following our publishing of the story earlier this week, I received many angry emails from supposed “free speech advocates” who denounced Bikyamasr.com for writing about the story in a “positive” manner. One email, from a supposed “Egyptian liberal activist” summed up the struggle facing women in this country: “I support women’s rights and freedom of speech, but what this girl has done goes beyond anything that could be possibly defended. It is not honorable for a woman to publicly display her body. That is pornography and our Egyptian sensibilities do not support this.”

There are plenty of progressive views around, but in reality life is difficult for liberal-minded women in Egypt. Women are too often the scapegoats for the ills of society. Take Amr Derrag, the head of the Freedom and Justice Party in Giza – the offshoot political party of the Muslim Brotherhood – who told me recently that the societal problems facing Egypt in the past three decades are “directly related to women not staying home and building the family.”

Not only is this assumption wrong, and scary – the FJP wants to push women back into the home – it shows that the problems facing Egypt socially are being pinpointed and put on women.

There are many examples of women being “protected” from men in the Middle East.

One would think that the rise of ultra-conservatism, namely the Salafi project emanating from Saudi Arabia, would be more tolerant of Islam’s historical support for women’s rights and their mobility in public – think of the era of the prophet and the openness of that society. The prophet was adamant that all people were welcome in Medina and that women were to be treated with the utmost respect. At the time, unlike today, there was no sexual apartheid in the mosque, with men and women praying together in a show of unity. Now, what we are witnessing is the rise of a movement that is as vehemently anti-women as it is anti-progress.

“Whenever the conservatives enter a society they don’t talk politics or economics, they talk of the honour of women”, said Hibaaq Osman, the founder and chair of the women’s organisation El Karama, in a previous interview. She argues, rightly, that what is important to these conservatives – and she is quick to point out this is not a problem limited to Islam – is that women are the key to society. She added that in all societies, women are the building blocks of forward thinking. She believes that once women have shaken off the need for a male guardian and have entered the workforce, then freedoms and laws against sexual violence can be implemented for the betterment and progress of society.

But, she added: “If the woman is being portrayed as the devil in Friday sermons in the mosque, then in public people are looking for confirmation of what they are hearing.”

Men are unable to take responsibility for their own actions. Osman says that evidence shows conservative religious folk the world over, including the Middle East, are the most sex-crazed.

So when Mahdy removed her clothes, she undressed the liberals and their calls for freedom. Obviously, in their mind, she made a mistake. She was wrong. Nudity has no place in Egypt. But for the millions of women, who on a daily basis face sexual harassment, assault and categorical oppression from all sides, she did what no activist has been able to do. She won. She told the world that her body is owned by nobody other than herself. Disagree with the tactic, fine, but one must, if they truly espouse the idea of freedom of expression, support her in her cause.

At the end of the day, one may attempt to cover a woman’s body with clothes, force them into the home, but in today’s Internet world, women like Mahdy can achieve more naked than they ever can clothed and in the streets.

BM

England 'is world's sixth most crowded country

High rate of immigration blame for population surge | Mail Online

High immigration has made England one of the most crowded countries in the world, a report said yesterday.

It found that 6.6million foreign-born people live in England – and only 500,000 elsewhere in the UK.

As a result England has become the sixth most densely populated major nation, according to the analysis from the MigrationWatch think-tank. Only Bangladesh, Taiwan, South Korea, Lebanon and Rwanda have more people per square mile.

If you lived in Iran, wouldn't you want the nuclear bomb?

| Mehdi Hasan | Comment is free | The Guardian

Imagine, for a moment, that you are an Iranian mullah. Sitting crosslegged on your Persian rug in Tehran, sipping a cup of chai, you glance up at the map of the Middle East on the wall. It is a disturbing image: your country, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is surrounded on all sides by virulent enemies and regional rivals, both nuclear and non-nuclear.

On your eastern border, the United States has 100,000 troops serving in Afghanistan. On your western border, the US has been occupying Iraq since 2003 and plans to retain a small force of military contractors and CIA operatives even after its official withdrawal next month. Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation, is to the south-east; Turkey, America's Nato ally, to the north-west; Turkmenistan, which has acted as a refuelling base for US military transport planes since 2002, to the north-east. To the south, across the Persian Gulf, you see a cluster of US client states: Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet; Qatar, host to a forward headquarters of US Central Command; Saudi Arabia, whose king has exhorted America to "attack Iran" and "cut off the head of the snake".

Then, of course, less than a thousand miles to the west, there is Israel, your mortal enemy, in possession of over a hundred nuclear warheads and with a history of pre-emptive aggression against its opponents.

The map makes it clear: Iran is, literally, encircled by the United States and its allies.

If that wasn't worrying enough, your country seems to be under (covert) attack. Several nuclear scientists have been mysteriously assassinated and, late last year, a sophisticated computer virus succeeded in shutting down roughly a fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges. Only last weekend, the "pioneer" of the Islamic Republic's missile programme, Major General Hassan Moghaddam, was killed – with 16 others – in a huge explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base 25 miles outside Tehran. You go online to discover western journalists reporting that the Mossad is believed to have been behind the blast.

And then you pause to remind yourself of the fundamental geopolitical lesson that you and your countrymen learned over the last decade: the US and its allies opted for war with non-nuclear Iraq, but diplomacy with nuclear-armed North Korea.

If you were our mullah in Tehran, wouldn't you want Iran to have the bomb – or at the very minimum, "nuclear latency" (that is, the capability and technology to quickly build a nuclear weapon if threatened with attack)?

Let's be clear: there is still no concrete evidence Iran is building a bomb. The latest report from the IAEA, despite its much discussed reference to "possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme", also admits that its inspectors continue "to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at [Iran's] nuclear facilities". The leaders of the Islamic Republic – from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to bombastic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – maintain their goal is only to develop a civilian nuclear programme, not atomic bombs.

Nonetheless, wouldn't it be rational for Iran – geographically encircled, politically isolated, feeling threatened – to want its own arsenal of nukes, for defensive and deterrent purposes? The US government's Nuclear Posture Review admits such weapons play an "essential role in deterring potential adversaries" and maintaining "strategic stability" with other nuclear powers. In 2006, the UK's Ministry of Defence claimed our own strategic nuclear deterrent was designed to "deter and prevent nuclear blackmail and acts of aggression against our vital interests that cannot be countered by other means".

Apparently, what is sauce for the Anglo-American goose is not sauce for the Iranian gander. Empathy is in short supply. As leading US nuclear policy analyst George Perkovich has observed: "The US government never has publicly and objectively assessed Iranian leaders' motivations for seeking nuclear weapons and what the US and others could do to remove those motivations." Instead, the Islamic Republic is dismissed as irrational and megalomaniacal.

But it isn't just Iran's leaders who are unwilling to back down on the nuclear issue. On Tuesday, around 1,000 Iranian students formed a human chain around the uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". Their protest may have been organised by the authorities but even the leaders and members of the opposition Green Movement tend to support Iran's uranium enrichment programme. According to a 2010 University of Maryland survey, 55% of Iranians back their country's pursuit of nuclear power and, remarkably, 38% support the building of a nuclear bomb.

So what is to be done? Sanctions haven't worked and won't work. Iranians refuse to compromise on what they believe to be their "inalienable" right to nuclear power under the Non-proliferation treaty. Military action, as the US defence secretary Leon Panetta admitted last week, could have "unintended consequences", including a backlash against "US forces in the region". The threat of attack will only harden the resolve for a nuclear deterrent; belligerence breeds belligerence.

The simple fact is there is no alternative to diplomacy, no matter how truculent or paranoid the leaders of Iran might seem to western eyes. If a nuclear-armed Iran is to be avoided, US politicians have to dial down their threatening rhetoric and tackle the very real and rational perception, on the streets of Tehran and Isfahan, of America and Israel as military threats to the Islamic Republic. Iranians are fearful, nervous, defensive – and, as the Middle East map shows, perhaps with good reason. As the old adage goes, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

China's Wen warns "outside forces" off sea dispute

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday that "outside forces" had no excuse to get involved in a complex dispute over the South China Sea, offering a veiled warning to the United States and others not to stick their noses into the sensitive issue.

But Wen also struck a softer line during a summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, offering $10 billion in loans and lines of credit and saying China only wanted to be friends.

China claims a large swathe of the South China Sea, which straddles key shipping lanes and is potentially rich in energy resources.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei are the other claimants to parts of the sea, and along with the United States and Japan, are pressuring Beijing to try and seek some way forward on the knotty issue of sovereignty, which has flared up again this year with often tense maritime stand-offs.

While the White House says U.S. President Barack Obama will bring up the issue at another summit on Saturday, also in Bali, China has said it does not want it discussed, preferring to deal with the problem bilaterally amongst the states directly involved.

"The dispute which exists among relevant countries in this region over the South China Sea is an issue which has built up for several years," Wen told the ASEAN leaders, according to a copy of his remarks carried on the Foreign Ministry's website (http://www.mfa.gov.cn).

"It ought to be resolved through friendly consultations and discussions by countries directly involved. Outside forces should not, under any pretext, get involved," he added.

Japan has also expressed concern over the dispute, and India has become involved via an oil exploration deal with Vietnam in the South China Sea.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters that China had sent positive signals about further discussing the code of conduct for the waters.

"I think this is an important development," the minister added.

In July, China and Southeast Asian countries agreed on a preliminary set of guidelines in the South China Sea, a rare sign of cooperation in a row that has plagued relations in the region for years.

LOANS AND TRADE

Despite the disagreements over the South China Sea, Beijing has been keen to deepen trade and economic ties with Southeast Asia, and has a free trade agreement with the bloc.

"The China-ASEAN relationship is solidly based and has great potential and a promising future," Wen said.

"China will forever be a good neighbor, good friend and good partner of ASEAN. We will work closely with you to implement all the agreements we have reached to bring more benefit to our people and make greater contributions to peace and prosperity in our region."

To this end, Wen said China would offer ASEAN another $10 billion in loans and lines of credit, including $4 billion of soft loans, on top of a similar pledge of $15 billion two years ago.

China will also set up a 3 billion yuan ($473 million) fund to expand practical maritime cooperation by promoting cooperation in environmental protection, navigational safety and combating transnational crimes, Wen added.

He said that China and ASEAN should step up cooperation in the financial field, by increasing the use of local currency swaps and "encourage the quoting of China's yuan and ASEAN currencies in each other's interbank foreign exchange."

"The world is undergoing profound and complex changes. The global economy may experience uncertainty and instability for a long time to come," he said.

"China and ASEAN should be both confident and sober-minded, keep our destiny firmly in our own hands and advance in the direction we have set to pursue our goal."

(Additional reporting Olivia Rondonuwu)

"Six ways of countering the eastward movement of American strategy"

Beijing is wary of Obama's assertive China policy - Yahoo! News

in a separate article entitled "Six ways of countering the eastward movement of American strategy," the Global Times alleged the U.S. was seeking to weaken China by nurturing hostile forces within the country while wrecking Beijing's relations with its neighbors. It suggested Beijing reduce its massive purchases of U.S. government debt — which have helped keep U.S. interest rates low — to get Washington to stop meddling in the South China Sea, where China is asserting claims to islands, reefs and atolls contested by five other governments.

"As long as we stick to our guns, time will be on our side," it said.

Beijing is wary of Obama's assertive China policy

 - Yahoo! News

While Beijing's public response to President Barack Obama's more muscular China policy has been muted, behind the scenes the U.S. president's sudden moves to contest rising Chinese power are setting the capital on edge.

During his ongoing nine-day swing through the Asia-Pacific region, Obama has already unveiled a plan for an expanded U.S. Marines presence in Australia, advocated a new free-trade area that leaves China out, and called on Beijing not to buck the current world order.

The Beijing government is trying to understand the shift, tasking academic experts to review the initiatives and submit options on how to respond.

"The U.S. is overreacting," said Zhu Feng, an international relations expert at Peking University who was asked to study Washington's moves and make recommendations. He said the government may feel bewildered by the Obama initiatives.

Meanwhile, state media are warning of a new U.S. containment strategy.

"The U.S. sees a growing threat to its hegemony from China. Therefore, America's strategic move east is aimed in practical terms at pinning down and containing China and counterbalancing China's development," the official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary.

Obama told the Australian Parliament on Thursday that the U.S. intends "to deter threats to peace" and will remain an Asia-Pacific power. On Friday, Obama will become the first U.S. president to attend a summit of East Asian leaders, a region that China sees as its rightful sphere of influence.

Obama is also pushing for the rapid expansion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a U.S.-backed free trade agreement that so far has drawn mostly smaller countries. Japan and Canada have expressed interest in joining, while Beijing has been left out.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called it natural for the U.S. and Australia to improve relations, just as China wants to do with each, but said such improvements "should take into consideration the interests of other countries."

Despite its evident wariness, the Chinese government appears to be in watching mode. Obama has repeatedly said in public remarks that the U.S. welcomes China's rise and wants it to play a role as a responsible power. Both sides have much at stake and their economies — the world's largest and second largest — are deeply intertwined, doing $456 billion in trade, overwhelmingly in China's favor.

Beijing can ill afford a serious rift with Washington. The normally risk-averse authoritarian leadership is preparing for a politically tricky handover of power to a new generation of leaders next year. And, while the U.S. suffers from high joblessness, anemic growth and other economic woes, China also is challenged by a slowing of its robust growth that could see unemployment and banks' bad loans rise at a time when Chinese have come to expect ever-higher standards of living.

Managing those expectations has become difficult, particularly in regard to the United States. Beijing has played up its handling of Washington, especially after President Hu Jintao held a pomp-filled summit with Obama in Washington in January, and repeatedly invoked the leadership's intention to build a constructive partnership.

Yu Wanli of Peking University's School of International Studies said many Chinese would likely view Obama's new posture as a betrayal of that professed partnership and that could narrow Beijing's options, forcing a tougher response.

"Public opinion may put the Chinese government in an embarrassing situation," said Yu, who specializes in U.S.-China relations.

A reliably nationalistic media that pander to the Chinese sense of patriotism and deep-seated suspicion of the U.S. have already sounded the alarm. The Global Times, a tabloid owned by the Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper, hit hard upon the theme of besiegement. It quoted a People's Liberation Army major general as saying that the expanded U.S. training and deployment base in Australia was one of a series of U.S. installations to "encircle China from the north to the south of the Asia-Pacific region."

In a separate article entitled "Six ways of countering the eastward movement of American strategy," the Global Times alleged the U.S. was seeking to weaken China by nurturing hostile forces within the country while wrecking Beijing's relations with its neighbors. It suggested Beijing reduce its massive purchases of U.S. government debt — which have helped keep U.S. interest rates low — to get Washington to stop meddling in the South China Sea, where China is asserting claims to islands, reefs and atolls contested by five other governments.

"As long as we stick to our guns, time will be on our side," it said.

___

Associated Press writers Charles Hutzler and Alexa Olesen in Beijing contributed to this report.

Thailand on Edge Over Possible Thaksin Pardon

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Thailand is on edge after news leaked this week that the government may pursue a royal pardon for Thaksin Shinawatra, the controversial former prime minister who was ousted in a military coup, convicted of corruption and fled the country rather than serve a two-year prison sentence. "This could cause a major confrontation,'' Panthep Pongpuapan, a spokesman for the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy, told Time on Thursday. Several months of street demonstrations by the PAD preceded the coup that deposed Thaksin in 2006. Opposition politicians lambasted the government over the issue in parliament on Thursday, as social media websites exploded with contentious debates between Thaksin loyalists and critics.

Beginning in 2005, Thailand was plagued by a series of mass protests by groups opposing and supporting Thaksin. Now based in Dubai, Thaksin remains a God-like figure to the rural poor for his populist programs that sought to narrow disparities in income, and is the darling of certain business cliques that did well under his rule. He has also drawn support from some groups who are opposed to Thailand's constitutional monarchy. Thaksin is loathed by the urban middle class, business cliques that were out of favor, elements of the military and royalists who regarded Thaksin as corrupt, authoritarian and disrespectful to the monarchy — an institution many Thais revere. The increasingly violent demonstrations by the PAD (also known as the Yellow Shirts) and the pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (also known as the Red Shirts) turned a country once regarded as an oasis of stability into a turbulent political cauldron, reeling from one crisis to the next. The civil strife came to a head in April and May 2010 when 91 people — mostly red shirts — were killed and parts of Bangkok and other cities burned as the military cleared Thaksin loyalists who had occupied the capital's central business district.(Read to see if Thaksin could get his passport back.)

A truce of sorts was reached in July of this year when elections ushered in a coalition government led by Yingluck Shinawatra, a younger sister of Thaksin who had never before held political office. Thaksin opponents accepted the result with the caveat that the new government not try to change laws to exonerate Thaksin or make other moves resulting in his return.

Yingluck's government has refused all comment on the pardon proposal. Constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej must ultimately approve any decision. The king, who has been hospitalized since September 2009, turns 84 on December 5, and customarily pardons thousands of prisoners on his birthday based on recommendations from the government and his advisers. But Thaksin is not a prisoner, having fled the country. Other conditions that traditionally must be met to receive a royal pardon are that the prisoner has acknowledged wrongdoing and not been convicted of either corruption or drug-related offenses. Thaksin would not appear to qualify under those terms.

The monarch is regarded as being above politics in Thailand, but the political conflicts of recent years have often been portrayed as a battle between Thaksin loyalists and royalists. If the pardon reaches the palace "it will put pressure on the King,'' Panthep said, drawing him into making a political decision. If the king refuses, or if his Privy Council chooses not to forward Thaksin's name for consideration, that could bring out Red Shirt protesters. "If they come out, so will we and other anti-Thaksin groups, and we will end up confronting each other,'' Panthep said. He added that the PAD was meeting to decide what course of action to take, including the possibility of renewed street protests.(See how Thaksin stole Yingluck's spotlight.)

An amnesty for Thaksin was raised Tuesday at the weekly Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet decided to expand the groups eligible for a pardon to include those over 60 years old whose sentence is for less than three years with no requirement of having served any time in prison. Critics have said this new category was designed specifically to include Thaksin, who boasted upon his sister's election in July that he would never serve a day in jail, and would be back home in Thailand by December.

The government did not include any news of the change in pardon rules in its regular press release summarizing Cabinet proceedings, and local newspapers reported that government officials below the rank of minister were asked to leave the meeting before the issue was discussed. Prime Minister Yingluck did notattend the Cabinet meeting, claiming she could not return to Bangkok in time from visiting flood victims upcountry because her helicopter was not equipped with radar and so could not fly at night. The military later said the helicopter is equipped with radar. News of the decision was leaked by a minister who attended the meeting, according to several local newspapers.

Thailand has been battling its worst floods in half a century and Prime Minister Yingluck's government has been strongly criticized for its uncoordinated response to the crisis. Senator Rosana Tositrakul of Bangkok, who defended Yingluck against calls for her resignation, said it was galling that the pardon was raised while the country is in the midst of a crisis. "People haven't gotten any assistance with the flood problems from this government. The one who's reaping the most benefit is the brother of the prime minister,'' she said.

Indonesia warns of 'distrust' over US troop deal - Yahoo! News

Indonesia echoed Chinese concerns about a US military build-up in northern Australia Thursday, with Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa warning it could create tension and mistrust.

The plan to post up to 2,500 Marines in the Northern Territory from mid-2012 was unveiled Wednesday during a lightning visit to Canberra by US President Barack Obama, who said it was a "commitment to the entire Asia Pacific region."

But it drew criticism from China, widely seen as the target of the move, with the foreign ministry questioning whether it was appropriate or "in the interest of countries in this region."

Natalegawa also expressed concern about the plan, which will see expanded access for US military aircraft as well as the troop boost in northern Australia, an area right on Indonesia's doorstep.

"What I would hate to see is if such developments were to provoke a reaction and counter-reaction precisely to create that vicious circle of tensions and mistrust or distrust," Natalegawa said on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"That's why it's very important when a decision of this type is taken there is transparency of what the scenario being envisaged is and there is no misunderstanding as a result."

Obama said the notion that the United States was afraid of or trying to edge out China was "mistaken" but stressed during his remarks on the Australian military boost that the Asian powerhouse would have to "play by the rules."

"I've said repeatedly and I'll say again today that we welcome a rising, peaceful China," he said in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday.

"The main message that I have said not only publicly but privately to the Chinese is that with their rise comes increased responsibilities. It's important for them to play by the rules of the road.

"There's going to be times where they're not and we will send a clear message to them that they need to be on track in terms of accepting the rules and responsibilities that come with being a world power."

The Australian troop boost is seen as a clear statement by Washington that it intends to stand up for its interests in the region.

The US has viewed with concern China's growing assertiveness in the region on territorial disputes, as have many of the Asian powerhouse's neighbours.

Indonesians killed 750 orangutans in year

Survey: - Yahoo! News

Villagers living on the Indonesian side of Borneo killed at least 750 endangered orangutans in a year, some to protect crops from being raided and others for their meat, a new survey shows.

Such practices, never before quantified, are now believed to be a more serious threat to the existence of the red apes than previously thought, Erik Meijaard, the main author of the report that appeared in the journal PLoSOne, said Monday.

Indonesia — home to 90 percent of the orangutans left in the wild — was blanketed with plush rain forests less than 50 years ago, but half those trees have since been cleared in the rush to supply the world with timber, pulp, paper and more recently, palm oil.

As a result, most of the remaining 50,000 to 60,000 apes live in scattered, degraded forests, putting them in frequent, and often deadly, conflict with humans.

"But our surveys also indicate that killing of orangutans is happening deep inside forested areas, where orangutans are hunted just like any other species," Meijaard said. "This may be an uncomfortable truth, but not one that we can any longer ignore."

The Nature Conservancy and 19 other private organizations, including the WWF and the Association of Indonesian Primate Experts and Observers, carried out the survey to get a better understanding of orangutan killings and their underlying causes.

They interviewed 6,983 people in 687 villages in three provinces of Kalimantan — the Indonesian side of Borneo, which is shared also with Malaysia and Brunei — between April 2008 and September 2009.

Figures from the interviews were extrapolated to the target population of men 15 years and older, since only 11 women reported killing orangutans. This indicated that at least 750 apes had been killed during the previous year.

Neil Makinuddin, program manager of The Nature Conservancy, said they were surprised how many respondents reported killing and then eating orangutans — just over half.

Some were consumed after being killed for entering crops or because people were afraid of the animals, the study showed. Others were hunted outright for their meat.

The authors were quick to stress, however, that the people who admitted to killing orangutans said they'd only done so once or twice over the course of their lives.

"Orangutans are not part of people's day-to-day diet," said Meijaard, a senior adviser for the People and Nature Consulting International.

Indonesian Forestry Ministry spokesman Ahmad Fauzi Masyhud said his office has not yet received the report, which he described as "bombastic."

"We have to recheck whether it is true or not," he said. "But frankly I doubt it."

But Meijaard said it's time to face up to the facts.

"We used robust scientific methods to assess the social dimensions of orangutan conservation," he said. "Unless we assume that most of the survey respondents lied, we have to accept the hunting issue as an uncomfortable truth that needs to be addressed if we want to save the orangutan."

He said he's seen far too many orangutan skulls, skins and chopped off hands, and heard too many firsthand accounts of people having killed or eaten orangutans, to believe it isn't happenin