Off Topic...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821901/posts
“Government mulls issuing Islamic bonds”
Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:27 AM BST
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “LONDON (Reuters) - The government will conduct a feasibility study into issuing Islamic bonds in a bid to bolster London’s standing as a centre for Islamic finance, Treasury minister Ed Balls will say in a speech on Monday.
In a step towards issuing the first sharia-compliant UK government bond, the Treasury and the Debt Management Office will look into the cost and potential benefits of the government issuing Islamic financial instruments in the sterling market, Balls will tell a Financial Services Authority conference.
The results of the study will be published in the Autumn of this year.
“I believe there are great potential advantages for the UK government issuing sharia-compliant government debt,” Balls will say, according to excerpts of his speech seen by Reuters.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070423-124133-6531r.htm
“Agents: No confidence in border chief”
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 23, 2007
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The leaders of the U.S. Border Patrol’s rank-and-file agents have unanimously voted a no-confidence resolution against Chief David V. Aguilar, citing, among other things, his willingness to believe the “perjured allegations” of criminal aliens over his own agents.
The resolution won endorsement from all 100 top leaders of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents all 11,000 of the U.S. Border Patrol’s nonsupervisory field agents, and targeted Chief Aguilar’s lack of support for field agents, several of whom have been prosecuted on civil rights grounds involving arrests of illegal aliens and drug-smuggling suspects.”