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16 Dec 2008, 1450 hrs IST, PTI SRINAGAR: With pressure mounting on Pakistan to act against the sources of terror responsible for the Mumbai attacks, India on Tuesday said Islamabad should follow up its promise to the global community with action. ( Watch ) "I have already said this in Parliament. Words (by Pakistan) must be followed up with action," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters. "We expect that good sense will prevail and we expect that the assurances that are coming (from Pakistan) will translate into action. Because assurances are coming from established leadership of that country, we...

President Bush says he saw his enemy's "sole" during a bizarre attack by an Iraqi journalist who hurled a pair of shoes at him on a farewell visit to Baghdad. Muntazer al-Zaidi, a TV reporter, took off and flung his shoes at Mr Bush during a press conference in the Green Zone yesterday, shouting in Arabic as he did so: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." The shoes narrowly missed the President's head as he stood behind a podium with Nouri al-Maliki,...

He may be a hero to millions of Iraqis but the “shoe man” has had to spend a second night in detention, during which he nursed a broken arm and ribs as well as cuts to his face, according to his brother. Muntazer al-Zaidi rose to fame on Sunday when he threw his shoes at President George Bush during a Baghdad press conference, missing narrowly, in apparent protest at the actions of US troops over the past few years. His brother, Durgham al-Zaidi, said he was told that Mr al-Zaidi is held by Iraqi forces in the heavily fortified Green...

Sharia courts have operated in Britain for years. But previously they relied on voluntary adherence to rulings and their judgments were not legally enforceable. Enforcement of Sharia court judgments took effect one year after the Archbishop of Canterbury caused a major controversy by declaring that formal recognition of Sharia law “seemed inevitable.” Numerous politicians have expressed concern that the formal backing of Sharia courts marks the beginning of a parallel legal system based on Sharia law, such as exists in Lebanon. Dominic Grieve, shadow home secretary, made clear that he considers the court enforcement of Sharia judgments to be illegal....

The Depression – let’s call it what it is – leaves us, well, depressed. But there is very good news from around the world. Our enemies are collapsing under the strain of dropping oil and gas prices. What we had all hoped conservation and off-shore drilling would achieve, the global economic collapse is accomplishing: the defeat of OPEC, Iran, Chavez, Putin and the weakening of the financial underpinnings of Islamist terrorism. In each of these nations, the hold of the dictator is weakening as, one after the other, they face the consequences of dropping oil prices

A powerful and much needed statement on Al Jazeera about the current "Clash of Civilizations".

PANAJI: On their toes following specific inputs from intelligence agencies about a possible terror strike in Goa, the state police have launched a manhunt for a passenger believed to be a Pakistani student who went 'missing' after he arrived on a British charter flight here three days ago. At present, the only piece of evidence linking the missing passenger Asim Naz is a certificate issued by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education based in Pakistan's Gujranwala region, which was found abandoned near the arrival lounge of the Dabolim airport. Police enquiry has revealed that the certificate was found near...

Christian leaders in the UK continue to bow down to Islam as if they have no concern for their own religion. This time a new multi-faith prayer room in a UK prison is set to open with Islamic foot washing baths installed, but a Christian crucifix with Jesus nailed to it will not be used out fear of offending the Muslim prisoners.

NEW DELHI: Was India very close to carrying out "surgical air strikes" against terror camps in Pakistan and other targets across the border immediately after the 26/11 terror assault in Mumbai? While defence ministry officials refused "to react to speculative reports", sources said "some steps were indeed taken" to "prime" IAF fighter jets for "offensive action" within a day or two of 26/11, but the final government go-ahead did not come. "The moment passed and then the US jumped in with assurances of making Pakistan deliver on Indian demands," said a source. This ties in with a report of the...

Millions of Americans believe that the Sept. 11 attacks were not the work of Muslim fundamentalists. They like to call the strikes "false flag" operations — a conspiracy planned and executed by the Bush administration. Why? Under this unusual theory, the attacks provided Bush and his aides the pretext to launch "international wars" and to enact polices that "led to widespread denials of rights under the pretext of 'homeland security.'" So writes Richard Falk, an emeritus professor of international law at Princeton University — and also a special representative of the U.N. Human Rights Council, charged with investigating Israeli abuses...

An article in yesterday’s New York Times by Public Editor Clark Hoyt, “Separating the Terror and the Terrorists,” is a nauseating example of the paper’s moral relativism applied to the war on terrorism. Hoyt tries to rationalize The Times’ reluctance to apply the “terrorist” label to people who take hostages, blow up bystanders and shoot 5-year-old girls in their beds. Hoyt admits “The Times is sparing in its use of ‘terrorist’” when reporting on Palestinian atrocities. In an effort to be even-handed, the paper has decided to call the murder of Jews inside the 1948 boundaries of Israel “terrorist,” but...

Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:34am EST ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani newspapers gave prominent coverage on Monday to a British media report that a retired general gunned down in Islamabad last month planned to blow the whistle on fellow generals' dealings with the Taliban. Jang, Pakistan's biggest selling Urdu-language newspaper, ran a story on its front page headlined: "Gen. Alavi was against pacts with Taliban, Musharraf had sacked him." The reports in Jang and other Pakistani dailies were based on a story published in Britain's Sunday Times, and written by Carey Schofield. Major-General Amir Faisal Alavi, a brother-in-law of Nobel prize-winning...

Unless effective measures are taken soon, Iran will have a nuclear bomb within a year according to worst-case assessments, or a few years under more optimistic ones. President-elect Barack Obama is publicly committed to a policy of engagement with Iran. The question is no longer whether to engage, but how to do so. Iran has good strategic reasons for seeking a nuclear capability and it is questionable whether any combination of inducements, positive or negative, can elicit a change in its policies. We will only know, however, if a sincere and comprehensive attempt is made. Time is the biggest problem.

Arabs hail shoe attack as Bush's farewell gift by Salam Faraj Salam Faraj 14 mins ago BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq faced mounting calls on Monday to release the journalist who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush, an action branded shameful by the government but hailed in the Arab world as an ideal parting gift to the unpopular US president. Colleagues of Muntazer al-Zaidi, who works for independent Iraqi television station Al-Baghdadia, said he "detested America" and had been plotting such an attack for months against the man who ordered the war on his country. "Throwing the shoes at Bush...

San Francisco is rolling out the red carpet for Emirates Airlines, which starting today will be flying nonstop from SFO to Dubai and back three times a week - and the East-West link sure makes for some interesting politics. The airline, which is run by the government of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, operates by rules far different from those San Francisco espouses. Take Emirates' flight attendants, for instance. A recent Wall Street Journal piece on the airline says that "tough rules are enforced, including some that would be deemed discriminatory in the West, such as weight requirements and a...

The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President Bush during his farewell visit to Baghdad was hailed a hero in the Arab world today as thousands marched to demand his release. Muntazer al-Zaidi tore off his shoes and flung them at Mr Bush as he stood beside Nouri al-Maliki, SNIP "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," he shouted before being overpowered by security guards and bundled out of the room. SNIP Al-Zaidi worked for the independent Iraqi television station al-Baghdadia, which...

India has sent out a tough wish-list to Pakistan through the Western interlocutors – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Senator John Kerry – who flew into New Delhi over the weekend that it will not be averse to taking tough military measures, in case Islamabad failed to handover the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to India. Insiders privy to the discussions Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had with Brown and Obama's envoy Kerry that India is clear that Pakistan will have to hand over the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to India, and that the Pakistan government will have...

From Barbara Starr CNN Pentagon Correspondent WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States believes that India's air force began preliminary preparations for a possible attack against Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of the recent massacre in Mumbai, CNN has learned. One U.S. official said India's air force "went on alert" following the attacks in Mumbai. Three Pentagon officials have individually confirmed to CNN that the United States has information indicating that India began to prepare air force personnel for a possible mission. The officials offered very few details, but one said India's air force "went on alert." This is the first...

The full horror of contemporary Middle East politics and debate is comprehended by few in the West, largely because people aren't informed by their political leaders, intellectuals and media. Occasionally, the truth emerges, as on September 11, 2001, but soon is reburied under mountains of obfuscation. After all, Iran's president called for Israel to be wiped off the map, according to the official Iranian translation, and The New York Times publishes an article analyzing whether this ever happened. I imagine exchanges like this: Middle Easterner (in Arabic): "We'll wipe you out, kill your children and trample your cities into dust!"...

(IsraelNN.com) The president of the World Bank and other international fiscal authorities are warning Israel in a strongly-worded letter not to withhold cash from Gaza. According to the Associated Press news agency, they also advised Jerusalem not to allow Israeli banks to implement a decision to sever ties with their Palestinian Authority counterparts in the Hamas terrorist-run region. The letter, dated December 12 and received Monday by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was signed by Robert B. Zoelick, Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair and International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Withholding cash and ending reciprocal relations between Israeli and Gaza-based...