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Fri09162011

Last update07:07:25 AM GMT

Bosnian mufti accuses Serbia of provoking crisis in Sandzak

Bosnian mufti accuses Serbia of provoking crisis in Sandzak

Islamic Community in Bosnia-Herzegovina Chief Mufti Mustafa Cerić has accused Serbia of "increasingly discriminating" Bosniaks in Sandžak.

He expressed concern that Serbia was provoking a new crisis hotspot in Sandžak.

"As Bosniak Muslims' spiritual chief I want to draw attention of the international institutions and organizations, especially European ones, that Bosniaks' religious and national rights are being violated in Sandžak and I express justified concern that organs of the state of Serbia are provoking a new crisis hotspot in Europe," the Bosnia-Herzegovina chief mufti said in an announcement.

He said that while Bosniaks in Bosnia-Herzegovina were still looking for the remains of the victims of genocide in mass graves Serbia was intensifying pressure, discriminating and violating thei...

Egyptians have their new hero called Erdogan

Egyptians have their new hero called Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a rock star welcome in Cairo where activists, women and the media gushed over the region's new "hero" over his pro-Palestinian stand and his virulent criticism of Israel.

Erdogan, who on Tuesday kicked off a three-nation Arab Spring tour in Egypt, threw his weight behind Palestinian statehood during a keynote speech at the Arab League, bolstering his image as a regional leader.

His visit comes as activists who overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February are increasingly angry at their own leadership for backtracking on promises of reform.

Addressing Arab foreign ministers, Erdogan said the recognition of a Palestinian state is an "obligation" and reiterated that strained ties with Israel will not improve unless the Jewish state apologises...

Greece Has 98% Chance of Default on Euro-Region Sovereign Woes

Greece Has 98% Chance of Default on Euro-Region Sovereign Woes

Greece has a 98 percent chance of defaulting on its debt in the next five years as Prime Minister George Papandreou fails to reassure investors his country can survive the euro-region crisis.

“Everyone’s pricing in a pretty near-term default and I think it’ll be a hard event,” said Peter Tchir, founder of hedge fund TF Market Advisors in New York. “Clearly this austerity plan is not working.”

It costs a record $5.8 million upfront and $100,000 annually to insure $10 million of Greece’s debt for five years using credit-default swaps, up from $5.5 million in advance on Sept. 9, according to CMA. Greek bonds plunged, sending the 10- year yield to 25 percent for the first time.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she won’t let Greece go into “uncontrolled insolvency” as politicians try to limit ...

Serbian President warning before September 16 Kosovo border crossing take-over

Serbian President warning before September 16 Kosovo border crossing take-over

Boris Tadić said today that it will demand from the international officials to prevent threats and attempts to deploy Kosovo's customs officials at the administrative line.

"It is particularly worrying for us that those who are ready for such unilateral acts are ready to do so with the use of force," the Serbian president said during a news conference in Belgrade on Tuesday.

He added that "Priština and those who support it" were responsible for the developments in Kosovo.

"Deploying Kosovo customs at administrative crossings does not contribute to peace," he continued.

"I am sending out the message in time that we will not accept such a solution under any kind of pressure," said Tadić.

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Palestine in the UN -- as seen from the Balkans

Palestine in the UN -- as seen from the Balkans

It seems that Tuesday, Sept. 20, will be a histori...

Erdogan's Turkey emerging as new Mideast power

Erdogan's Turkey emerging as new Mideast power

As the only Muslim member of NATO and the first co...

Western Balkans to Get $6.9 Billion as Regions Seeks EU Path

Western Balkans to Get $6.9 Billion as Regions Seeks EU Path

The European Union will spend 5 billion euros ($6....

Athens mosque gets green light

Athens mosque gets green light

Finally, one good news from Greece! Parliament's a...

Turkey raising naval presence amid tension with Israel

Turkey raising naval presence amid tension with Israel

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday Turk...

Court convicts Serb general for Balkan atrocities

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal sentenced the for...

Tahiri: The deal on custum seal is Serbian recognition of independent Kosovo

Tahiri: The deal on custum seal is Serbian recognition of independent Kosovo

Head of the Kosovo team for the dialogue with Serb...

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World

World

American FBI teaches agents Brevik's points: ’Muslims Are Violent, Radical’

American FBI teaches agents Brevik's points: ’Muslims Are Violent, Radical’

The Brevik anti-Muslim manifesto is outrageous but understandable since it is comi...

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  • Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a rock star welcome in Cairo where activists, women and the media gushed over the region's new "hero" over his pro-Palestinian stand and his virulent criticism of Israel.

    Erdogan, who on Tuesday kicked off a three-nation Arab Spring tour in Egypt, threw his weight behind Palestinian statehood during a keynote speech at the Arab League, bolstering his image as a regional leader.

    His visit comes as activists who overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February are increasingly angry at their own leadership for backtracking on promises of reform.

    Addressing Arab foreign ministers, Erdogan said the recognition of a Palestinian state is an "obligation" and reiterated that strained ties with Israel will not improve unless the Jewish state apologises over the death of nine Turks killed in a raid on an aid flotilla last year.

    "Before the end of this year we will see Palestine at the United Nations in a very different situation," he said. "It is time for the flag of Palestine to be hoisted at the United Nations."">Egyptians have their new hero called Erdogan

  • It seems that Tuesday, Sept. 20, will be a historic day in the United Nations' dealings with the Middle East. Immediately after declaring its statehood in 1948, Israel was admitted to the UN.

    Those who were forced to leave the Holy Land that they had been sharing with Jews for centuries, now, after 63 years, are seeking to have their own statehood recognized by the same world organization. Everything that has been happening in the meantime is well known. The circumstances have changed since 1948, but that which we often refer to as the world order has not changed significantly: The US, which recognized Israel immediately back then, will veto Palestine's UN membership now.

    Before reviewing the attitude of the Balkan region towards Palestine's bid for UN recognition of its state, I have good reason to recall briefly what is generally expected by the highest Palestinian authorities. Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas was in Sarajevo during the last days of August, on a lobbying mission while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing the same elsewhere. I was invited to meet Mahmoud Abbas, known by Palestinians only as Abu Mazen, as I am an old supporter of the Palestinian cause. Some of his aides called me saying "Come see Abu Mazen, Abu Leyla!" -- the nickname Palestinians gave me as I was attending some important events in the first phase of their "revolutionary struggle," back in "Black September" in Jordan in 1970.

    ">Palestine in the UN -- as seen from the Balkans
  • The Unwritten Codes Muslims Live by After 9/11

Kosovo Insists on a Tangible EU Future

Kosovo Insists on a Tangible EU Future

"Now is the time to turn the EU perspective into an EU reality." The statement w...

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Serbian President warning before September 16 Kosovo border crossing take-over

Serbian President warning before September 16 Kosovo border crossing take-over

Boris Tadić said today that it will demand from the international officials to p...

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  • A young Turk helps save a Greek community newspaper

  • The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal sentenced the former chief of the Yugoslav army to 27 years imprisonment Tuesday for providing crucial military aid to Bosnian Serb forces responsible for the Srebrenica massacre and for a deadly four-year campaign of shelling and sniping in Sarajevo.

    The case against Gen. Momcilo Perisic was the first time the U.N. court convicted a civilian or military officer from Yugoslavia of war crimes in Bosnia, and underscored the Yugoslav army's far-reaching support for Serb rebels in both Bosnia and Croatia who committed the worst atrocities of the Balkan conflicts in the early 1990s.

    The link between the disintegrating Yugoslav federation and Serb forces in the breakaway republics has been a matter of dispute and was the keystone of the trial in The Hague of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. But that trial ended without a conclusion when Milosevic died in his cell in 2006 of a heart attack.

    ">

  • Head of the Kosovo team for the dialogue with Serbia, Edita Tahiri explained that, by accepting the stamps of Kosovo customs, "Serbia recognized Kosovo's independence."

    "The agreement on the recognition of customs stamps has huge importance, both from the political, economic and the aspect of regional cooperation. The agreement represents a reciprocal recognition between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia in this area," Tahiri told Albanian language daily Epoka e Re.

    Tahiri said that the EU and the U.S. "are the guardians of the agreement".

    Serbian opposition: It is a step towards the recognition

    Vice President of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Slobodan Samardzic agrees as he reportedly said that the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on the custom seals represents a new step towards the recognition of independence of Kosovo

    ">Tahiri: The deal on custum seal is Serbian recognition of independent Kosovo

Economy

Finance

The Trouble With French Banks

The Trouble With French Banks

'We can no longer borrow dollars. U.S. money-market funds are not lending to us ...

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  • The European Union will spend 5 billion euros ($6.9 billion) to help the Western Balkans as it seeks to integrate the region into the world's largest trading bloc, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said.

    Van Rompuy called on Serbia to continue talks with Kosovo as the nation works to gain EU candidate status year's end. Serbia, the largest of the former Yugoslav republics and the slowest to embrace the EU until the arrest of the last war- crimes suspects, refuses to recognize its former province.

    "I want to see all of the Western Balkans become part of the world's largest trading bloc," Van Rompuy said at an EU - Serbia forum in Belgrade today. "Negotiations to join the EU remain a strictly performance-based process and Serbia, which has done a lot on its EU path, needs to continue its dialogue with Kosovo to accelerate the process."">Western Balkans to Get $6.9 Billion as Regions Seeks EU Path

  • The Grave Economic Consequences Of Money For Nothing
  • Why the Banksters Hate Islam

Business

Greece Has 98% Chance of Default on Euro-Region Sovereign Woes

Greece Has 98% Chance of Default on Euro-Region Sovereign Woes

Greece has a 98 percent chance of defaulting on its debt in the next five years ...

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Resource

Turkey's PM wants Egypt to be included in Nabucco project

Turkey's PM wants Egypt to be included in Nabucco project

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that his government increas...

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  • Back to the Balkans again

  • «Here you can go a week without spending a single euro over here," says a man who moved back to Crete two years ago to live in the village of his birth. "You get fresh food from your farm and if you need something extra, like olive oil for example, you can get it from a fellow farmer. You only need money to pay for your gas and bills," he says.

    He is not alone. For the first time in years, Amari Valley in the island's Rethymno district has turned green again as fields have been cleared and put back to use as farms.

    ">Pensioners turn back to living off the land
  • The End of Prosperity: Can Islamic Finance Help?

Special Interest

Islam

Why Should I Study (My Religion)?

Why Should I Study (My Religion)?

Many years ago in Uzbekistan, a baby boy was born blind. His Mother, the strong ...

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  • Taking a Deeper Look into the Dynamics of Mantra Creation: Islamofascism

    Let's begin at the very inception of the 'arc of crisis' which Zbigniew Brzezinski laid the groundwork for during his reign of terror upon the USSR as the National Security Advisor to the 38th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. See ( ) for other details of the epoch and its connections to the present 'War on Terror'. It suffices to quote here the following brilliantly clairvoyant statement attributed to Israeli Intelligence founder from the same epoch in 1979, a full two decades prior to 9/11:

    ">Hijacking the word 'Islam' for Mantra Creation

  • It is reported that Prophet Muhamed, peace and blessing be upon him, have informed us:

    "Ordering good is a charitable act, forbidding evil is a charitable act"

    An important deed that is available to everyone, with or without wealth, is the ordering of good and the forbidding of evil. With the right intention, the reward for this may even be bigger than the giving of one's wealth. It is this characteristic of ordering the good and forbidding the evil that has set this nation apart from all other peoples.

    ">Ordering Good and Forbidding Evil

  • A Pakistani, a Turk, and a Bosnian pray in a wooded mountain (the very translation of the Turkic word "Balkan") next to a log cabin mosque. It sounded like the introduction to a joke, upon which point all of us agreed, and then we returned to our quiet reflection. We were on one of the few mountains the Bosnians held during the siege of Sarajevo, and in the dead of winter, their soldiers had built this mosque. From its fat, wooden minaret, a petite green flag with a white crescent and star hung limply.

    That is not one of Bosnia's (recent) flags, at least not if you're looking back within the last hundred years. At independence in 1992, the country chose a white flag with a blue and gold shield, containing six fleur de lis, what was supposed to be a neutral symbol of a pre-Islamic Bosnia, around which Christians, Jews, and Muslims could rally. But it didn't stick, as proved by Bosnia's post-war flag. It is, like many compromises, a case of everyone having lost.

    Bosnia's ended up with an overwhelming fluorescent blue and yellow banner, which best evokes an abstract corporate marketing exercise, or perhaps a high-end luxury pattern that might only succeed in the Gulf. That may explain why this flag unsuccessfully competes with flags from other times and places. Considering how tenuous modern Bosnia is, it's no wonder every side has to supplement its identity with other flags.">A Tiny Little Mecca for the West

Christianity

Just flushed granny down the toilet

Just flushed granny down the toilet

A lot can be said of a society and how it treats and values its living from how ...

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Judaism

Defamation Hashmatsa (Documentary)

Defamation Hashmatsa (Documentary)

Is anyone who expresses anti-Zionist opinions necessarily also anti-Semitic? Is ...

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  • Hundreds of haredi Orthodox supporters protested the arrest and questioning of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, the son of Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef.

    Yosef was arrested on his way home from morning prayers Sunday on suspicion of incitement to racism and violence over his endorsement of the controversial book "Torat Hamelech," or "The King's Torah," which reportedly discusses situations in which it is permissible for Jews to kill non-Jews.

    ">Arrest sparks haredi Orthodox protests
  • European Rabbis Protest Dutch Ban on Religious Animal Slaughter

  • Muslims in the West have long been under attack for the ban in Saudi Arabia for women to drive in public. However, these western bigots are at loss to face the fact that Jewish women are neither allowed to drive or walk on the same side of the street as men – right in New Square, an Orthodox Jewish enclave north of Time Square.

    "The whole community was built for one purpose, to live within the very strict confines traditions, attitudes and customs. And part of that is you're part and parcel of a very strict communal structure," say Ezra Friedlander, PR consultant to numerous Orthodox Jewish communities.

    ">Jewish women cannot drive in New York

Life and Style

Mother and Children

Where Have All the Girls Gone?

Where Have All the Girls Gone?

The world is becoming unbalanced. In pockets across the globe, women are giving ...

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Wife and Husband

Beware the sociopath

Beware the sociopath

I married a con man—a man who I now consider to be a sociopath. I didn't know an...

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Fashion and Beauty

Global halal cosmetics market booming

Global halal cosmetics market booming

Entrepreneurs producing "halal" cosmetics say the global market is booming as mo...

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Health

What Ails You

One in 25 bosses 'is a psychopath' but hides it with charm and business-speak

One in 25 bosses 'is a psychopath' but hides it with charm and business-speak

Business leaders are four times more likely to be psychopaths than the general p...

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  • We've all read the signs of a heart attack listed on posters in the hospital waiting room. But what if there were other, earlier signs that could alert you ahead of time that your heart was in trouble?

    It turns out there are. Researchers have done a lot of work in recent years looking at the signs and symptoms patients experienced in the months or even years leading up to a heart attack. "The heart, together with the arteries that feed it, is one big muscle, and when it starts to fail the symptoms can show up in many parts of the body," says cardiologist Jonathan Goldstein of St. Michael's Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey. Here are five surprising clues that your heart needs checking out. Any of these signs -- and particularly two or more together -- is reason to call your doctor for a workup, says Goldstein.

    ">Surprising Signs of an Unhealthy Heart
  • Invasion of the body snatchers!
  • European food contamination kills 16, sickens 1150

Diet and Fitness

Break ‘fast’ a little slowly : Wonders of fasting

Break ‘fast’ a little slowly : Wonders of fasting

Fasting could be best described as voluntary abstinence form taking food for cer...

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You and Your Family

Woman's Fertility After 40?

Woman's Fertility After 40?

Infertility is one of those common yet deeply personal issues that many women st...

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Technology

Personal Tech

Search engines ‘rewire our memory’

Search engines ‘rewire our memory’

A study from Columbia University suggests that the ability to find almost any in...

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Security

Hackers attack site of Catholic youth celebrations

Hackers attack site of Catholic youth celebrations

Hackers temporarily blocked the official World Youth Day site Thursday just as P...

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  • Google has admitted complying with requests from US intelligence agencies for data stored in its European data centers, most likely in violation of European Union data protection laws.

    Gordon Frazer, Microsoft UK's managing director, made news headlines some weeks ago when he admitted that Microsoft can be compelled to share data with the US government regardless of where it is hosted in the world.

    ">Google Admits Handing over European User Data to US Intelligence Agencies

  • The Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, attacked the Iranian nuclear program with a highly sophisticated computer virus called Stuxnet. The first digital weapon of geopolitical importance, it could change the way wars are fought -- and it will not be the last attack of its kind.

    The complex on a hill near an interchange on the highway from Tel Aviv to Haifa is known in Israel simply as "The Hill." The site, as big as several soccer fields, is sealed off from the outside world with high walls and barbed wire -- a modern fortress that symbolizes Israel's fight for survival in the Middle East. As the headquarters of Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, this fortress is strictly off-limits to politicians and journalists alike. Ordinarily, it is the Mossad that makes house calls, and not the other way around.

    ">Mossad's Miracle Weapon: Stuxnet Virus Opens New Era of Cyber War

  • One of Germany's police unions is calling for the controversial "naked scanners" at airports to be abandoned after a trial at Hamburg showed an unacceptably high rate of false alarms

    The head of the Gewerkschaft der Polizei (GdP) police union, Bernhard Witthaut, told the daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Monday that the two full body scanners had proved a failure.

    ">'Naked' body scanners a failure, police union says

How To

Upgrade Your Life: 5 ways to make an easy-to-remember, ultra-secure password

Upgrade Your Life: 5 ways to make an easy-to-remember, ultra-secure password

Nobody wants to get hacked. But when it comes to choosing a password, there are ...

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