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enlarge In this week's edition of The Interview, Owen Bennett Jones talks to the controversial Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Her outspoken views on Islam and multiculturalism have made her many enemies and last year she had to go into hiding following the murder of the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh with whom she had made 'Submission' - a film about the subjugation of Muslim women. Her views have posed a challenge to the multicultural Netherlands. Her origins - as a Muslim Somali asylum seeker who fled an arranged marriage - have given her a unique platform from which to state...

Four pranksters arrested as Cruise soaked Four men were arrested tonight after Hollywood star Tom Cruise was drenched with water at the London premiere of his new film. They were working on a new Channel 4 comedy programme and may now be charged with assaulting the A-list actor. He reacted angrily to the prank, repeatedly calling the man who soaked him a “jerk”. Cruise was on a walkabout talking to some of the 5,000 fans who had packed into Leicester Square for the star-studded premiere of War of the Worlds and he was accompanied by his new fiancé, actress Katie...

Anti-war politician George Galloway has accused Oona King, the Labour MP he defeated at the General Election, of "sour grapes" and said it was he, not she, who suffered from intimidation during the campaign. Mr Galloway, who won Bethnal Green and Bow for Respect in one of the biggest upsets of the night, disputed a claim by Ms King that the campaign had been dirty. He told BBC News 24: "Well, she would say that, wouldn't she? "She was the loser of the election and it's sour grapes. "In fact, in so far as there was intimidation in Bethnal...

An upstate Army Reserve recruit has upset his military superiors and the local Islamic community with a Web contest called "Create a Pig With the Koran." The contest involves using pages from the Muslim holy book to create papier-maché pigs. Jon Alvarez's site also gives links showing how to get a free copy of the Koran and how to make papier-maché.

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police are investigating a plan to recruit ex-soldiers to break Schapelle Corby out of jail in Bali. A South Australian man is offering to pay crack ex-soldiers for weapons, false passports and expertise to bust Corby out of Indonesia and spirit her away to a secret location. The man, Mark Streater, says he has the resources to fund the operation and has already secured recruits. Mr Streater said the operation was "100 per cent do-able" and insisted it was genuine break-out plan. "I have no doubt someone will get her out of the country," he said. An...

AUSTRALIAN tourists appear to be ignoring calls for a boycott of Bali in protest at the 20-year jail sentence handed out to Schapelle Corby for smuggling marijuana. Garuda Indonesia today announced an extra flight from Sydney and Brisbane to Denpasar, bringing the weekly total to five and increasing weekly seats by 146 to 1318. A total of 20,960 Australians visited Bali in April, with nearly 80,000 during the first four months of the year. Figures for May – the month in which Corby was sentenced, followed by Bali boycott calls from her supporters – are expected to continue to rise...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the conclusion of the two-part story of a Canadian man's escape from the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The story so far: Hamilton, Ont.-born Ron DiFrancesco, 41, was working on the 84th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower when it was struck at 9:03 a.m. by al-Qaida terrorists who had turned a commercial airliner into a suicide bomb. He began down stairwell A with some co-workers from Euro Brokers, then after encountering heavy smoke, he ascended to the 91st floor in search of a safe place from which...

TORONTO - Almost four years later, Ron DiFrancesco still carries the South Tower with him -- tiny fragments of glass and stucco that occasionally migrate to the surface of his skin. Mr. DiFrancesco was the last man out of the South Tower before it collapsed at 9:59 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. He was, according to the official 9/11 Commission Report, one of only four people to make it out alive that day from above the central impact zone on the 81st floor. The stories of some of those other survivors are well-known. But the 41-year-old Mr. DiFrancesco, a soft-spoken...

AD DIWANIYAH, Iraq – The young Iraqi shepherd spoke little English but found a way to get the Texas soldiers' attention. "Boom!" he said, pointing to a culvert in his field. The shepherd approached on a recent morning as the Texas Army National Guard convoy stopped to scour a section of highway for the deadly homemade bombs used widely by Iraq's insurgency. Since they landed in Iraq in January, the 56th Brigade Combat Team has had the dangerous job of searching for roadside bombs along one of the U.S. military's major supply routes. The crude bombs have killed and maimed...

A Bali court has sentenced Australian Schapelle Corby to 20 years in prison for trying to smuggle 4.1kgs of marijuana into Indonesia. Judges also fined Corby 100 million rupiah ($A13,000). Her lawyers immediately said they would appeal. The Australian government has offered assistance to Corby's defence team to launch a legal challenge, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence and also said they would appeal. Earlier, Corby, 27, broke down in tears as the panel of three judges in the Denpasar District Court said the charges against her of smuggling marijuana had been "convincingly" proven. Soon...

NEW YORK -- Ashlee Simpson is amped about her upcoming tour -- but doesn't want to talk about her embarrassing ''Saturday Night Live'' or Orange Bowl appearances. Simpson turned up Monday at the Cosmopolitan Fun Fearless Male Awards in New York. ''It's really stripped down,'' she said about her first solo tour, which comes to the Rosemont Theatre on March 6. ''There's no pyro[technics] or anything like that. The stage has a mud kind of feel, you know, black and white. The thing about my tour is it's going to be me and my bad getting out there and having...

Kuwait City: The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has announced that it will demolish mosques built without official permission after it takes stock of all official mosques in the country. The move comes as the authorities becomes concerned that the mosques, built without permission, may be havens for the indoctrination of youth in extremist ideology. "Kuwait has over 1,100 mosques spread out in a systematic fashion in all parts of the country, enabling everybody to go to a mosque of his choice for prayer. This negates the need for individuals to build mosques without permission from the authorities," a...

Yishak Hasbi stands on a small bridge that divides the beach sand of Banda Aceh from a flatland of carnage that stretches inland as far as his eyes can see. Gone is the familiar patchwork of homes, rice paddies, and fishing shanties. (Photograph) A man prays at a mosque that, like others in the city, withstood the powerful waves. ANDY NELSON - STAFF Reporters on the Job The Monitor gives the story behind the story. Rebuilding after the tsunami Part 1 -02/01/05 A city rebuilds with elephants and prayer Slideshow Click here for a list of aid agencies accepting contributions...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A small corporate jet slid off the runway at the Teterboro, New Jersey, airport, crossed a highway and crashed into a low building, local media reported on Wednesday. Eleven people were reported injured and two missing. CNN and local radio said the plane appeared to have veered off the runway, crashed through a fence and crossed the highway early in the morning before hitting a clothing warehouse. No employees were present. Video from the scene showed at least one damaged car. CNN reported that 12 people were on board the private plane. ABC News said 11...

When backing tracks are the norm in genres ranging from pop to hip-hop, why hate Ashlee Simpson? IF SHE HASN'T done so already, Britney Spears might want to consider sending Ashlee Simpson a sympathy card. In October, just as the public was taking its hatred of Mrs. Federline to a new extreme – for committing the cardinal sins of, uh, "marrying down" and eating Cheetos – Simpson appeared on Saturday Night Live and, one backing-track mishap and impromptu jig later, gave Spears an indefinite hiatus from her reigning status as music's most reviled star. By the time Jessica's little sis...

On the morning of Nov. 2 in a busy street in east Amsterdam, a 26-year-old Dutch Moroccan named Mohammed Bouyeri pulled out a gun and shot controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was riding a bike to his office. Van Gogh hit the ground and stumbled across the street to a nearby building. He didn't make it. As the Moroccan strode toward him, van Gogh shouted, "We can still talk about it! Don't do it! Don't do it." But the Moroccan didn't stop. He shot him again, slit van Gogh's throat and stuck a letter to his chest with a...

Thursday, January 27, 2005 Moroccan youth at school At the schools in Holland there are many problems with Moroccan youth. Most do not finish their school education and there are many stories about violence against teachers. The teachers do not receive any support from their management or the police. Thing is, Dutch schools, are not allowed to remove aggressive students. They can only try to get him on an other school, but other schools are also not waiting for an aggressive student. Last year, one student, even shot a teacher through his head, fellow student went on the streets to...

LONDON — The singer formerly known as Cat Stevens will headline a fund-raising concert in Indonesia for victims of the Asian tsunami. Yusuf Islam will have top billing at Monday's concert in Jakarta that will raise money for victims from Indonesia's Aceh province, according to his Web site. Islam has composed a new song, Indian Ocean, and recently recorded it with musicians including A.R. Rahman, Magne Furuholmen and Neil Primrose. The song will be released in February to raise money for children orphaned by the Dec. 26 disaster. "Like everyone else, I was so shaken by the enormity of...

DAVOS: Hollywood siren Sharon Stone, more used to the film studio than the business stage, stole the limelight yesterday with an impromptu fundraiser at the World Economic Forum that secured $1 million in aid to Africa. Seizing her chance during a heavyweight debate on how to tackle poverty in Africa, Stone stood up in the middle of the crowded hall to offer an immediate personal pledge of $10,000 - then challenged others to follow suit. "Could you please stand up, President Mkapa needs help today," she called, referring to Tanzanian leader Benjamin Mkapa who was also on stage, and whose...

AMSTERDAM: A Dutch-Moroccan man accused of murdering a Dutch film-maker critical of Islam believed he was doing God's will and wanted to die a "martyr" at the hands of police, prosecutors told a pre-trial hearing yesterday. Mohammed Bouyeri, 26, with suspected links to a group of Islamists, is charged with the November 2 shooting and stabbing in Amsterdam of Theo van Gogh, whose film accusing Islam of condoning violence against women outraged many Muslims. The suspect, who was injured in a gun battle with police before he was arrested in eastern Amsterdam, was not at the hearing at a high-security...