Free Republic

Dr Bari: Government stoking Muslim tension By Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 10/11/2007 The head of the Muslim Council of Britain does not mince his words on integration, report Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson There is fear and loathing in Britain. This week, the head of MI5 claimed there were 2,000 people involved in terrorist activity and children as young as 15 were being "groomed" to be suicide bombers. Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Britain must beware of becoming like Nazi Germany Gordon Brown announced plans to require immigrants to learn English and Downing Street said the...

Race tension resurfaces in South Africa By Sebastien Berger in Potchefstroom Last Updated: 1:26am BST 15/08/2007 A statue of a bearded Boer trekker gazes sternly across Potchefstroom, a South African university town named after the man who brought the settlers to the area in 1838. But to the chagrin of the Afrikaners who are Andries Potgieter's descendants, the ANC-controlled city council yesterday renamed it Tlokwe after the original inhabitants of the region. It is the latest in a series of renamings which have provoked vandalism and death threats in Potchefstroom, exposing the racial tensions that still exist in South Africa...

NKorea Warns SKorea Over Border Dispute By JAE-SOON CHANG Associated Press Writer Published May 21, 2007, 5:26 AM CDT SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's navy on Monday accused South Korea of sending warships into its waters off the divided peninsula's west coast, warning the South would face unspecified "consequences" if the alleged provocations continue. The South's Defense Ministry rejected the North's accusation. "We never violated the Northern Limit Line," said a ministry official, referring to the U.N.-drawn sea border. The official spoke on condition of anonymity citing policy. The North's navy command claimed that the South's "warlike forces infiltrated"...

Friction rises in Nigerian governmentJefferson case contributing to the tension Thursday, October 05, 2006 By Bruce Alpert WASHINGTON -- Imagine that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were accusing each other of improprieties so bad that they called for impeachment proceedings. That bizarre scenario is akin to what is playing out in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, as President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar engage in a monumental political battle that got its impetus, at least in part, from the lengthy U.S. Justice Department probe of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans. There is concern within Nigeria...

/begin my translation N. Korea: Troops In Border Area Given Ammo & Grenades 'Good Friends', "N.K. Stepping Up Semi-Wartime Footing " [2006-09-06 18:10] N. Korea notched up its semi-wartime footing in recent days, issuing grenades and ammunition to troops stationed in the border area (with China), while N. Korean General Staff is drawing up a border shutdown plan, according to Sept. 6 issue of the news letter by Good Friends, a N. Korea relief aid agency . The N. Korean General Staffs issued an order on July 30, titled, "To the entire military regarding keeping up their vigilance, and redoubling their...

Britain hits back at Russia as G8 tension escalates By Graeme Wilson (Filed: 14/07/2006) Tensions between Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, over human rights and energy security surfaced yesterday as the Prime Minister prepared to fly out to this weekend's G8 summit in St Petersburg. Downing Street offered a robust response after Mr Putin criticised Anthony Brenton, Britain's ambassador to Moscow, for interfering in Russia's "internal" affairs by attending an opposition conference. Mr Putin criticised the ambassador for interfering in domestic affairs The Prime Minister's spokesman said that Mr Brenton had made clear he was not attempting...

DAMASCUS, Syria - The abduction of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants close to Syria is highlighting the strained relations between Washington and Damascus. The United States has been pushing Syria — which hosts leaders of the militant group Hamas — to exert pressure for the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas-linked militants on June 25. But the Bush administration has had to send the message through third parties because political contacts between the two countries are almost nonexistent. "We don't have a whole lot of communication with the Syrian government at this moment. We have...

A mining expert says the recovery operation at the Beaconsfield Gold mine in northern Tasmania is now reaching a highly technical phase. The anxious wait is continuing at the mine as rescuers prepare to bore a 12-metre-long tunnel to reach trapped miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb. After six days being trapped one kilometre underground, the two men are now receiving food, water and medication. The body of their colleague, Larry Knight, was brought to the surface last Thursday. Adelaide University Professor in Mining Geology Ian Plimer says at this stage of the rescue operation, extreme delicacy needs to be...

Tuesday April 25, 6:06 PM Koizumi says China, S. Korea will regret not holding summit talks (Kyodo) _ Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday he thinks China and South Korea will come to regret their refusal to hold summit talks with Japan, as a result of his visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine. "There must come a time when they will regret they have said they do not want to hold summit talks due to this issue," Koizumi told reporters, reiterating that he "cannot understand" the positions of Beijing and Seoul. The premier made the remarks when asked on the...

Iran raises tension with £30m gift to Hamas By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 17/04/2006) Iran defied America and Europe yesterday when it pledged to give almost £30 million to the new Hamas-led Palestinian government. The one-off payment from Teheran, which was announced by Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, will go some way to plugging the gap in Palestinian finances caused by the recent loss of western aid. Israel vowed to stop the money getting through - a viable proposition given how heavily Palestinian financial institutions rely on Israel. Mr Mottaki appeared to relish announcing the donation, which will...

You may or may not have pondered why your breakfast cereal tends to clump together or cling to the sides of a bowl of milk. Now there is an easy explanation. Dubbed the Cheerio Effect by scientists, this clumping phenomenon applies to anything that floats, including fizzy soda bubbles and hair particles in water after a morning shave. The effect has been known for some time, but an explanation for non-scientists has been lacking. Dominic Vella, a graduate student now at Cambridge University and L. Mahadevan, a mathematician from Harvard University, decided to change that. In a study that appears...

Will Agreement Shake Cooperation Between Seoul and WashingtonThe second part of the fourth round of the six-party talks, which reconvened on Sept. 13, went through considerable ups and downs prior to the announcement of a joint statement Monday. The South Korean government spent the last week engaging in last-moment negotiations to find an agreement over the light-water reactor issue, which North Korea would not abandon to the end, despite considerable tensions between Seoul and Washington. Some, however, are wondering whether Seoul’s assumption of a mediating role between the United States and North Korea might become a burden on South Korea-U.S....

Agartala, Apr 23 (PTI): Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) has sent reinforcements to Indo-Bangla border along West Tripura district and was indulging in smuggling and other trans-border criminal activities following the brutal killing of a BSF assistant commandant, BSF sources said today. The mobilisation of its forces along the border was confirmed by BDR commanding officer of seven battalion Sayeed Kamrujjaman Khan to the media in Bangladesh, the sources said here. Khan had reportedly told the Bangladeshi media that BDR reinforcements were posted as BSF had deployed additional forces along the border following the killing of assistant commandant Jeewan Kumar and injury...

What Surprise? The Nuclear Core of North Korea's Strategy By Nicholas Eberstadt Tuesday, March 1, 2005; Page A15 North Korea's declaration that it possesses nuclear weapons and intends to hold on to its nuclear arsenal "under any circumstances" was greeted with shock and astonishment in much of the world. In fact, the most astonishing part of this momentous development was the fact that North Korea's bold move has come as a surprise, both in Washington and abroad. The North Korean government did not suddenly claim to join the world's nuclear weapons club on a bizarre and inexplicable whim. The announcement...

Beijing, Mar 4 (Prensa Latina) Chinese President Hu Jintao reasserted here Friday that his country will keep on making efforts to reach the peaceful reunification of China, but without permitting the independence of Taiwan. Hu Jintao, Head of State and Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party (CPCh), talked about the topic before a group of delegates attending to the annual session of the Chinese People"s Political Consulting Conference (ChPPCC) in representation of Taiwan, which started Thursday. "We will keep on making our greatest efforts, with our greatest sincerity, searching for peaceful reunification, but we will never tolerate the independence...

China National Offshore Oil Corporation is considering a nearly $14bn (£7bn, €10.6bn) takeover of Unocal of the US. Sinopec, another Chinese state-controlled oil group, has struck a $70bn deal to buy Iranian crude oil and liquefied natural gas over three decades. China has sent $6bn to Rosneft, the Russian company that bought the main production unit of the embattled Yukos oil group, as advance payment for oil supplies. India has just reached a $40bn agreement to import LNG from Iran and develop Iranian oilfields, and is promoting pipeline projects to bring oil and gas across neighbouring countries to supply its...

TOKYO – In a sign of deepening popular and political animosity between China and Japan, Tokyo took formal possession this week of a tiny archipelago in the Pacific waters south of Japan. In the early morning of Feb. 9, Tokyo informed Beijing's embassy here that the Senkaku Islands would be administered by the Japanese coast guard. The unexpectedly bold action by Tokyo received little attention here. But it is seen as a "serious chess move," says one diplomat, in a region where power relations are being redefined, and where tensions over energy, borders, military buildups, and ethnic rivalries are palpable....

MACAU (Reuters) - Taiwan and China reached a landmark deal on Saturday to allow non-stop charter flights over the Chinese New Year holidays, a move which could ease tensions and improve ties between the bitter political rivals. The one-off deal will allow the first direct flights between the foes since 1949, and could mark a step toward ending a decades-old ban on direct air links. "In a very short time, in a cordial atmosphere, we have come to an agreement," Pu Zhaozhou, executive director of China's Civil Aviation Association, told a joint news conference after talks in the southern Chinese...

JONESBORO, GA. - When a spate of black officials was sworn into office this month in Clayton County, it was supposed to be a sign of progress for the historically white, rural county that was the setting for Gone With The Wind. Sheriff Victor Hill called 27 of his employees into a jail holding area, ordered them to hand over their badges and gun, and told them they were fired. They were then escorted out of the building as snipers were perched on the roof; some employees were driven home in vans typically used to transport criminals. The sheriff called...

In April 2004, followers of Iraqi Shi‘ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a well-coordinated uprising across southern Iraq. While Western media focused on events in Sadr City, Najaf, and Karbala, violence occurred elsewhere as well. A Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) source forwarded the following after-action report regarding violence in the town of Al-Kut, the capital of the Wassit governorate and home to the Ukrainian contingent.The unclassified report, written by a coalition security contractor, highlights dysfunction between regional coalition offices and the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in Baghdad, as well as tension between diplomats and security officers. The summary faulted a British...