- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Alain-h

After Swiss minaret ban, European Muslims Feel They're Being Shut Out

Alain — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:00:26 +0000

The recent Swiss referendum vote to ban the building of minarets seems to confirm the trend of Europeans becoming increasingly strident in their attempts to “protect” their culture against Islam. However, a newly published report by the Open Society Institute (OSI), the think-tank set up by billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros, details the complex relationship between Muslims and Europe and reveals that the suspicion is mutual. Muslims believe they are being shut out of European society.

About 20 million Muslims live in the European Union, mostly in capital cities and large industrial towns; they already make up 25% of the population in Marseilles and Rotterdam, 20% in Malmo, 15% in Brussels and Birmingham and 10% in London, Paris and Copenhagen. The report, published on Dec. 15, surveyed Muslims in 11 cities across the E.U., and found that 55% of respondents believed religious discrimination had risen in the pas

Congolese army killed 62 civilians; UN suspends operation support

Alain — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:28:15 +0000

The United Nations will suspend operational support for certain Democratic Republic of Congo army units it believes have deliberately killed more than 60 civilians this year, the UN peacekeeping chief said in an interview aired on Monday.

The UN has backed Joseph Kabila’s forces in operations against Rwandan rebels despite mounting complaints by human rights groups and others about abuses by soldiers and the high number of civilians caught up in the offensives.

“According to our information, these civilians were clearly targeted in attacks by certain units of the (army),” Alain Le Roy told U.N.-sponsored Radio Okapi of the killings of at least 62 civilians in eastern Congo between May and September where the army units were fighting Rwandan rebels.

“We have decided that (Congo’s peacekeeping mission) MONUC will immediately suspend its logistical and operational support to the army units implicated in these killings,” Le Roy, who has been touring the region, said.

Switzerlands explosive war effort threatens environmental disaster

Alain — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:17:47 +0000

Down at the bottom of Switzerland’s deepest lake is one of the country’s murkiest secrets. For here is disturbing evidence of Switzerland’s little-known Second World War defence effort. It poses a potentially devastating threat to the Alpine nation, 70 years after the conflict.

The placid waters of Lake Thun spread out for 11 miles beneath Faulensee village. Some 700 feet beneath the surface more than 9,000 tons of Swiss army munitions lie dumped on its watery floor. The ordnance includes artillery shells, hand grenades, and explosives that were meant to defend Switzerland against a Nazi invasion that never happened. After the war, the army began a 20-year process of getting rid of its vast munitions stockpile by dumping most of it into four Alpine lakes, all of which are used to supply drinking water to the surrounding population. Lake Thun, in the central Swiss canton of Bern, took the brunt of the disposal programme, which ended in 1964.

Britneys new bra faux pas she's wearing one, but its luminous yellow

Alain — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:10:43 +0000

Pop princess Britney Spears showed her questionable sense of fashion during another day out shopping flanked by dozens of paparazzi and fans.

The troubled 26-year-old singer teamed a too-tight white polo neck with a luminous yellow bra which looked too small for her ample chest.

In what could be seen as a metaphor for the singer’s life - it seems that even when Britney does get some support, it’s of the wrong kind.