IHT: Obama's fans in Europe are in for a big surprise - by John Vinocur

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Obama's fans in Europe are in for a big surprise - by John Vinocur

If Barack Obama is elected president of the United States next week, he'll bring into office with him the advantage of not being pre-cast as a villain in Europe. As pluses go, it may be an impermanent one. The realities of American interests, American responsibilities and the American presidency mean that all the soft power instincts and readiness for multilateral mosh-pit politicking attributed to Obama by Europeans can quickly look imaginary. Obama is not Michael Moore transmogrified. He will fulfill no one's dreams of a capitulating, apologetic United States. On Iran, there is little indication that European public opinion is listening closely either when Obama says, "We'll never take the military option off the table." Or on Georgia and Ukraine, when Obama insists that they must be given plans for NATO membership "immediately." Or on Afghanistan when he complains that some NATO countries, like Germany, are present there but not sharing the missions with the most murderous risks.

David Sturtevant Ruder, a former chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, America's market regulator, who has endorsed Obama, sees American capitalism eventually coming out of this "horrible situation" with a better version that's "a little tamer" and "a little more regulated." He added: "But the US is built on an appetite for risk. We don't want to be France."Almost surely, a newly elected President Obama would be too slick to tell the truth that way.

CBS: U.K.: Europe Could Send Troops To Congo, Official Says E.U. Forces May Be Used If Fragile Cease-Fire Between Rebel Fighters, Army Fails

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U.K.: Europe Could Send Troops To Congo, Official Says - E.U. Forces May Be Used If Fragile Cease-Fire Between Rebel Fighters, Army Fails

The European Union could send troops to Congo if a fragile cease-fire between rebel fighters and the army fails, the U.K. minister for African affairs said Saturday as rebels forced tens of thousands of people from makeshift refugee camps in the insurgent-held zone. The French and British foreign ministers arrived in Congo for talks with Congolese and Rwandan officials as pressure mounted for a regional summit to secure an end to the country's worst violence in years.

Outside the regional capital, Goma, rebels were pushing people to leave camps and return home, witnesses and a U.N. official said. They did not say why this was happening and the rebels issued no immediate comment.

National Journal Magazine - Political Insiders Poll US Presidential Elections - by James A. Barnes and Peter Bell

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Political Insiders Poll US Presidential Elections - by James A. Barnes and Peter Bell

This report contains the latest US polling information and predictions by National Journal Insiders.

Sofria Echo.com: US Elections : Could Barack Obama really be a president for Europe? - by Clive Leviev-Sawyer

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US Elections : Could Barack Obama really be a president for Europe? - by Clive Leviev-Sawyer

With five days to go to the elections, polls including those by RealClearPolitics give Barack Obama a comfortable chance of becoming the next president of the United States. It is well-known that were Europe able to vote, polls would be barely worth a glance because an Obama landslide would be a certainty. But for all the current flush of romance, a president Obama’s long-term relationship with Europe may not live up to expectations.Probably the most inspiring exposition of Europe’s expectations was expressed in a scintillating speech at Harvard in September 2008 by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. He told his audience that he had in his pocket a letter to the next president of the US, whoever that may be. The letter, which runs to about five pages, spells out a vision of hope for a new-era relationship between the EU and the US.Barroso underlines that the EU is a global player and a natural ally of the US. He explains their joint weight in the world economy, in trade and world finance, international organizations, the management of world security and in development aid. “But in these times of uncertainty, the EU needs the US and – yes – the US needs the EU more than ever.”

There is one consolation, though. Unlike Palin, McCain or that Action Man doll of contemporary Republican politics, Joe the Plumber, no one in Europe is ever likely to call president Obama a European Socialist.

Telegraph: France - Nicolas Sarkozy 'Le King of Bling Bling' YouTube video smash hit in France - by Umee Khan

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France - Nicolas Sarkozy 'Le King of Bling Bling' YouTube video smash hit in France - by Umee Khan

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, is caricatured as "Le King of Bling Bling" in an animated YouTube clip which has become a hit in France. In the latest clip, the French leader can be seen surrounded by scantily-clad women, singing "I am the King of Bling-Bling" in the five minute video. At the start of the film, Miss Bruni's voice can be heard before Sarkozy is seen driving through town in a sports car. He is then seen wearing a lot of gold jewellery or "bling", smoking a cigar and clutching several mobile phones - before 'rapping' with glamorous women in a nightclub.

SFGate: Europeans watch American elections as if they have a stake - because they do - by Steve Kettman

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Europeans watch American elections as if they have a stake - because they do - by Steve Kettman

Through much of this year, the big story out of Europe was that people all over the continent were paying an unprecedented amount of attention to the long, intense and forever shifting U.S. presidential campaign.This rapt interest had in part to do with a palpable yearning to turn the page on the Bush years, and in part with excitement over what was widely seen as the likelihood of a boundary-busting candidate taking the White House, whether Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama. Yet there were voices in the United States who tried to paint this European interest in our presidential succession as somehow prurient, or based only on the celebrity factor, as if European interests were not very much at stake. When Obama brought his campaign here in late July and addressed me and 200,000 others gathered in Berlin's Tiergarten, he made a point of introducing himself as "a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world." He thus made clear that he saw the destiny and future of Europe and the United States as closely intertwined.

Many in Europe assume that in the aftermath of the economic crisis, the era of unquestioned U.S. economic leadership in the world will have passed. They see the turmoil now roiling the markets as an indication of the untrustworthiness of a U.S. model based so openly on encouraging what we call the profit motive and what others might simply refer to as greed.

EUobserver: Turkey - EU Commission hails Turkey's role in regionalstability - by Elitsa Vucheva

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Turkey - EU Commission hails Turkey's role in regionalstability - by Elitsa Vucheva

Turkey's role as promoter of regional stability has improved in the last year, Brussels says in a draft report on Turkey and the western Balkans' progress towards the EU, while stressing that Ankara still has a lot to do in a number of areas before being judged fit to join the EU club."Turkey has played a constructive role in its neighbourhood and the wider Middle East through active diplomacy," reads the draft of the annual report seen by EUobserver. "Following the crisis in Georgia, [Turkey] proposed a Caucasus Stability and Co-operation Platform to promote dialogue between the countries of that region. [Turkish] President Gul paid a visit to Yerevan, the first visit ever of a Turkish president since the independence of Armenia. Turkey undertook efforts as a mediator between Israel and Syria and conducted a dialogue with Iran on the nuclear issue," the draft report goes on.

The Independent: Britain - Court rules Islamic Sharia law discriminatory - by Robert Verkaik

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Britain - Court rules Islamic Sharia law discriminatory - by Robert Verkaik

Britain's highest court has criticised Islamic law for discriminating against women after a case in which a mother was forced to flee the Middle East for Britain to protect her son from his abusive father. In a 5-0 ruling, the law lords said that there was no place in sharia for the equal treatment of the sexes. It would be a "flagrant breach" of the European Convention on Human Rights for the Government to remove a woman to Lebanon, where she would lose custody of her son because of sharia-inspired family law.

Sharia was the product of a much-observed religious and cultural tradition, "but by our standards the system is arbitrary because the law permits of no exceptions to its application... It is discriminatory too because it denies women custody of their children after they have reached the age of custodial transfer simply because they are women." Yesterday's decision reversed rulings by the Court of Appeal, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and the Home Secretary that returning EM to Lebanon with her son would not violate her right to family life.

Garowe Online - Somalia Pirates Flourish in a Lawless Nation - by Jeffrey Gettleman

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Somalia Pirates Flourish in a Lawless Nation - by Jeffrey Gettleman

This may be one of the most dangerous towns in Somalia, a place where you can get kidnapped faster than you can wipe the sweat off your brow. But it is also one of the most prosperous.Money changers walk around with thick wads of hundred-dollar bills. Palatial new houses are rising up next to tin-roofed shanties. Men in jail reminisce, with a twinkle in their eyes, about their days living like kings. This is the story of Somalia’s booming, not-so-underground pirate economy. The country is in chaos, countless children are starving and people are killing one another in the streets of Mogadishu, the capital, for a handful of grain. But one particular line of work — piracy — seems to be benefiting quite openly from all this lawlessness and desperation. This year, Somali officials say, pirate profits are on track to reach a record $50 million, all of it tax free. More than 75 vessels have been attacked this year, far more than any other year in recent memory. About a dozen have been set upon in the past month alone, including a Ukrainian freighter packed with tanks, antiaircraft guns and other heavy weaponry, which was brazenly seized in September. People in Garoowe, a town south of Boosaaso, describe a certain high-rolling pirate swagger. Flush with cash, the pirates drive the biggest cars, run many of the town’s businesses — like hotels — and throw the best parties, residents say. Fatuma Abdul Kadir said she went to a pirate wedding in July that lasted two days, with nonstop dancing and goat meat, and a band flown in from neighboring Djibouti. “It was wonderful,” said Ms. Fatuma, 21. “I’m now dating a pirate.”

Note EU-Digest: "Its is incredible that with all the world's powerful navies, no one has been able to get rid of these pirate punks."

EU-Digest: Europe's Muslim Legacy - by RM

The Cordoba Great Mosque

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Europe's Muslim Legacy

In a fascinating book, God's Crucible: Islam and the making of Modern Day Europe, by David Levering Lewis one will quickly agree with the author that it took two ingredients to make Europeans believe in themselves as the center of civilization. One was the creation of the vast Holy Roman Empire by Charlemagne. The other was the development of the Muslim culture in what is now known as the region of Andalusia, Spain. The Arabs called it al-Andalus with the Great Mosque as the most striking physical example of this Muslim foothold in Europe. What probably was even more impressive, leaving a lasting mark on Europe were the Muslims intellectual and cultural achievements. Hundreds of mosques, thousands of palaces, scores of libraries were build in Córdoba alone. Towards the end of the ninth century, those libraries had acquired hundreds of thousands of manuscripts. Nothing else on the continent of Europe could compare. Just imagine the university of Córdoba was established more than one hundred years before the one in Bologna, Italy, considered today as the first European university.

Al-Andalus was already a truly regional cosmopolitan agglomeration of cities, when the rest of Europe was still a feuding environment of country estates and small towns. Towards the end of the millennium, Córdoba had a population of more than 90,000, many times the size of any town in the territories occupied by Charlemagne. Those Andalusian cities also became a great ethnic melting pot of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Berbers, Germanic, Slavs, and countless other cultures. These eventually spread throughout the continent and transformed a barbaric Europe into a more enlightened and modern European society.

Maybe Europe's far right politicians, including Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, French "Front National" leader Jean-Marie le Pen and Belgian far-right politician Filip Dewinte should take the time to read God's Crucible: Islam and the making of Modern Day Europe, by David Levering Lewis. Who knows, they might realize al-Andalus showed Europe that what must empower man should always be compassion not hate.

Interchurch families: CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM MARRIAGES

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CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM MARRIAGES

Gé Speelman of Utrecht University in the Netherlands spoke on Christian-Muslim marriages during the Graz European Ecumenical Assembly in 1997. By clicking on the above link you can read a shortened version of her paper. The Muslim partner is often confronted with what most people around him think is natural, obvious, self-evident; he/her is the other, the one who has to prove him/her self. Many Muslim partners find they have to defend their faith against attacks which associate Islam with intolerance, backwardness and irrationality. In reaction, many Muslims become very much aware of their cultural and religious heritage. As one Muslim man said: “I would never have known so much about Islam if I had stayed at home and married an Egyptian girl.”

Another factor is that interfaith partners are seen as representatives of their communities. The Turkish Muslim represents the “terrible Turks” who have shaped the history of so many Eastern European countries. The German wife is the “imperialist European” whose community has been responsible for so much repression and bloodshed. Many problems in an interfaith marriage are exactly the same as those experienced by many other couples. But in their case, family and friends are looking out for problems; when they occur, they are defined as arising from differences in culture. A Dutch woman said she did not want to recognize the serious communication problem in her relationship because she was determined to prove to those who said it would never work that her marriage was fantastically successful. The partners had put off talking about their problems until it was too late.

Loved ones want to be more than merely “that Christian”, or “that Muslim”. Of course, they are also “a Christian” and “a Muslim” – much of what we are ties up with our religious traditions. German theologian Ulrich Dietzfelbinger, who described, in a lecture he gave in 1989, his relationship with his Turkish Muslim wife. He describes his tendency to reduce the differences in their beliefs to minor points, the pull to reduce their faith to the lowest common denominator. “After all, we both believe in Almighty God.” In the end, he recognizes that this way of reducing their differences is a way of denying them, leaving both partners with very little faith at all. What he learns is that one should not try to make the other the same as oneself. With new eyes he looks at the doctrine of incarnation. It is strange that God has community with a human being (and therefore with all human beings) in such a way that God is in his/her utmost being qualified by that humanity, while at the same time human beings are not deified and God remains God. Is there not in this strange incarnation something analogous to his marriage, where only love is the guarantor that he respects his partner as being inalienably other, different, and yet at one with himself? Maybe we should just let this question stand.

Sportsnet.ca: Soccer Spain: Embarrassing loss for Real Madrid and scare after Ruben De La Red faints on the field

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Embarrassing loss for Real Madrid and scare after Ruben De La Red faints on the field

Third-division Real Union upset Real Madrid 3-2 in the Copa del Rey on Thursday, continuing the Spanish league champion's poor record in the knockout competition it hasn't won since 1993. Juan Dominguez scored twice and Inaki Goikoetxea netted the winner for Real Union. There was a scare in the 14th minute when Madrid's Spain midfielder Ruben De La Red fell as he walked away from the Real Union penalty area. De La Red was carried off on a stretcher after being treated for two minutes. Madrid medical chief Carlos Diez said De La Red suffered a sudden fainting fit brought on by exertion and was not in danger.
The 23-year-old Spain international was taken to hospital and will spend the night there as a precaution. Diez said De La Red has undergone tests which have produced normal results and he was expected to be released on Friday.

ABC- Radio Australia: Shop till you drop: Australian developer launches Europe's largest shopping complex in West London

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Britain - Shop till you drop: Australian developer launches Europe's largest shopping complex in West London

Australia's Westfield Group has opened the biggest shopping centre in Europe, spending euro 2.08 billion (US $ 2.65b) on the project in West London. It is to be proceeded by an even bigger development by Westfield at the 2012 Olympic Site in East London. The timing is unfortunate given the fact that Britain is on the brink of recession and that consumer spending it set to fall in the next 12 months after a decade of solid growth.It is to be proceeded by an even bigger development by Westfield at the 2012 Olympic Site in East London.

The Register: Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate • by Andrew Orlowski

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Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate • by Andrew Orlowski

Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday - the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922. The Mother of Parliaments was discussing the Mother of All Bills for the last time, in a marathon six hour session. In order to combat a projected two degree centigrade rise in global temperature, the Climate Change Bill pledges the UK to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The bill was receiving a third reading, which means both the last chance for both democratic scrutiny and consent.

CQ Politics: US Economy - Political Economy: Zero Bound - by John Cranford

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Political Economy: Zero Bound - by John Cranford

In the past few months, Bernanke has deployed the central bank’s powers in extraordinary and flexible ways to flood the banking system with cash. At latest count the Fed has created at least a half-dozen new lending programs for institutions that aren’t its traditional borrowers and broadened its lending to ordinary banks. The amount of credit outstanding from the Fed is well in excess of $500 billion. That’s billion, with a “b.” A year ago, it was $500 million, with an “m.”

The next year or two will be trying as the Fed navigates yet another expanse of uncharted water. Bernanke has proved adept so far at finding creative ways to use the Fed’s resources, and it’s safe to expect him to continue doing so. But the days of just moving interest rates up and down to steer the economy are long past.

Global Power Europe: Europeans need a ‘British’ navy, not a ‘German’ army

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Europeans need a ‘British’ navy, not a ‘German’ army

Over the weekend, the new British Defence Secretary, John Hutton, said in an interview in The Sunday Times that the time had come to consider the creation and mobilisation of a European army. He said the idea was simply ‘pragmatic’, and even went so far as to declare that while there were many anti-Europeans who opposed the idea in the United Kingdom, they were either ‘pathetic’ or at a loss with the times.

USA Today: US Economic Meltdown: Economy flashes recession signal; GDP down at 0.3% rate

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US Economic Meltdown: Economy flashes recession signal; GDP down at 0.3% rate

The government says the economy shrank in the third quarter as consumers cut back spending by the biggest amount in 28 years. It was the strongest signal yet the country is facing recession. The broadest barometer of the nation's economic health, gross domestic product, shrank at a 0.3% annual rate in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department said. It marked the worst showing since the economy contracted at a 1.4% pace in third quarter 2001, when the nation was suffering through its last recession.The deterioration reflects a sharp retrenchment by consumers, whose spending accounts for the largest chunk of national economic activity. Consumers ratcheted back their spending at a 3.1% annual rate in the third quarter, the most since second quarter 1980, when the country was in the grip of recession.

Boston Herald.com: Barack Obama lead slipping per newest national polls - by Joe Dwinell

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Barack Obama lead slipping per newest national polls - by Joe Dwinell

It’s scary times for Democrats as the latest polls show Barack Obama’s lead slipping to a frightening three points over John McCain. The Gallup daily poll has Obama up 49-46 percent over McCain, as the race “tightens.” The Rasmussen daily poll also shows a 3-point lead for Obama, the first time McCain has been this close in more than a month.

Todays Zaman: Renewable energy to be encouraged in Turkey

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Alternative Energy - Turkey encourages Renewable energy

A draft of a new law encouraging renewable energy usage in Turkey has been presented to Parliament as part of a move to decrease Turkey's energy dependence. According to the draft, prepared by Soner Aksoy, the head of Parliament's Energy and Industry Commission, the state will guarantee that it will purchase electricity generated from renewable energy plants established within the next eight years. The state will buy electricity from renewable energy plants at higher rates than the average wholesale price arranged by the Energy Market Regulatory Agency (EPDK). "The state will pay 5-18 cents per kilowatt hour for the electricity generated by the renewable energy plants until 2016," Aksoy noted, saying that this was a short-term incentive package and that such applications to encourage entrepreneurs would continue. For the first five years, the state will pay 5 cents per kilowatt hour for hydroelectric energy, 6 cents for wind, 7 for geothermal, 14 for biomass and 18 for solar energy.

As part of the incentives in the draft, state land will be made available for the establishment of renewable energy plants. The General Directorate of Electrical Power Resources Survey and Development Administration (EİE) will convey suitable construction plans to the state, which will allocate land to the project. New public buildings will be constructed in a form that will harness renewable energy as efficiently as possible.

Seattle Times: Oil giants try to polish image before latest fat profit gusher - by Elizabeth Douglass

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Oil giants try to polish image before latest fat profit gusher - by Elizabeth Douglass

The world's best-known oil companies are pouring on the charm as they get ready to parade another round of fat profits before a public that feels suddenly poorer. The spotlight will shine on Exxon today and Chevron on Friday. Royal Dutch Shell already reported a 71 per cent rise in profits to euro 8.5 billion ($10.9 billion/£6.54 billion) and still counting. The world's second largest oil company's steep rise in profits follows a 148 per cent increase reported by its rival, BP, earlier this week due to record oil prices over the summer.

In 1993, the five biggest publicly traded oil companies — Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — spent 39 percent of their operating cash flow on development projects, 14 percent on exploration and only 1 percent on buying back their own stock. In 2007, they spent 34 percent on development, 6 percent on exploration and 34 percent on stock buybacks, according to a study co-written by Jaffe. Bottom line: when oil companies spend their money, it's less about you and me than about their shareholders. In many respects, industry experts note, what's good for Big Oil's bottom line isn't necessarily good for Joe Q. Jetta.