North Korea: rare photograph of Kim Jong-il’s heir apparent emerges A Japanese newspaper has published a photo of a man that it claims is the elusive heir-apparent to North Korea’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il. telegraph.co.uk North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (right) inspects the Kim Chaek iron and steel complex with his third son and heir-apparent Kim Jong-un Photo: EPA The Mainichi newspaper printed a photo of a round-faced and well-dressed man accompanying North Korea’s “Dear Leader” on a visit to a steel mill in North Hamgyong Province in March. Kim Jong-un is being groomed to take over from his father, … Continue reading This is North Koreas next leader!

Sexual harassment in Egypt is leading to calls for gender segregation. But is hiding women really the solution? Osama Diab guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 April 2010 08.00 BST Article history Gender segregation is increasingly being viewed as a solution to widespread sexual harassment in Egypt. Signs of segregation have been apparent all over the country. In recent years, the government has designated two carriages in each metro train for women. Also, private women-only beaches, coffee shops and restaurants have been created to cater for women who want to remain beyond the reach of curious virile eyes (and sometimes hands). A study … Continue reading Egypt: we don’t need no segregation

Football fans don’t deserve this police abuse The Burnley v Blackburn derby provided another example of police using violence against fans who posed no threat guardian.co.uk One of the troubling developments in the past few years, is the number of times police have been captured on film lashing out at innocent demonstrators and football fans, neither of whom can rely on ready sympathy from the public, but who nevertheless have rights in a democracy. Three weeks ago, the east Lancashire derby between Burnley and Blackburn Rovers took place in normally tense conditions, in which fans from both sides were isolated … Continue reading Brutal Pigs and Soccer fans!

By kissing Paul Scholes, Gary Neville declared war on homophobia. And Francophobia, too Paul MacInnes guardian.co.uk Of the gestures exchanged between males, there are two common types. First, the handshake, which has over recent years exploded into a veritable rainbow of variations, from the traditional polite handshake through to the terrorist fist bump, taking in all manner of slaps and tickles along the way. The other is the hug, which has gone in the opposite direction, distilling itself into one uniform act; a brief squeeze, followed by two strong slaps across the shoulders. In terms of actual physical contact, that’s about it. A … Continue reading When men’s lips meet

Raj Patel is not Maitreya, but the World Teacher is here – and needed This is no mystical bedtime story but a profound part of the history of the world Benjamin Creme The Guardian Raj Patel writes about how a series of coincidences led to his receiving “a trickle, then a flood, of email” asking whether he was Maitreya, the World Teacher, whose coming I have been predicting for 35 years [We don’t need a messiah (and anyway, it isn’t me), 12 April]. I would like to make clear that we at Share International have absolutely nothing to do with … Continue reading Nick Clegg is not Maitreya!

Saudi reform is on agenda at last Despite opposition from clerics, the head of Saudi Arabia’s religious police is steering the kingdom in the right direction Fahad Faruqui guardian.co.uk, One morning, on my way back to the hotel from the holy mosque in Mecca, I saw three Arab men with protruding bellies and thick black beards chatting at the entrance of my hotel. The streets were nearly empty after sunrise. I greeted these men in Arabic, and they responded in unison with a complacent look. The moment two adolescent girls, dressed head-to-toe in black, walked out of the sliding doors … Continue reading Thanks to King Abdullah – Saudis are awakening to their potential

Nick Clegg – the British Obama? Is Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg an Obama-style hero for our times, a Churchillian leader or a popular rebel in the mould of Che Guevara? Perhaps he’s just another great British underdog Download Clegg as Obama | Winston Churchill | Che Guevara Oliver Burkeman guardian.co.uk Is Nick Clegg the British Barack Obama? Photograph: Steve Caplin For Barack Obama, the crucial moment came one cold night in January 2008, when the one-term senator’s unexpectedly decisive triumph in the Iowa caucuses set him on the path to an epoch-making victory. For Nick Clegg, it happened last … Continue reading Nick Clegg and Barack Obama!

Paradox republic Posted by Nadeem F. Paracha Pakistan has been in the news for quite some time now. A country that (until about the early 1980s) was little known and usually mistaken for being a province of India in Europe and the United States, has rapidly risen to dramatically inform and fire the imagination of the western media. Of course, its rise in this context has more to do with disasters like military regimes, religious fanatics, feared nuclear proliferation scenarios, the dreadful specter of being invaded by fanatical monsters that the state itself created, and the questionable conduct of its … Continue reading Time for Pakistanis to wake up from Mullahism

Terrorists attack police, JI rally in Peshawar By Ali Hazrat Bacha Police officers examine the site of bomb explosion at a market in Peshawar. Two bombs, hours apart, exploded in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday, killing scores of people and underscoring the reach of militants despite successive military offensives close to the Afghan border, police said. –AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad dawn.com PESHAWAR: At least 23 people, including a deputy superintendent of police and leaders and activists of Jamaat-i-Islami, were killed and 42 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a protest demonstration of the party in … Continue reading Mullahs BOMB Mullahs in Pakistan – but blame everyone else!

VIEW: My name is Islam —Mahjabeen Islam It seems to me that the American vision will be forever jaundiced and my regular self will be painted and attired and then sneered and shouted at. And worse yet, my Pakistan has no place for me Mine is a name that causes virtual whiplashes. I can hear them say “Dr Islam? Are you kidding me?!” The sophisticated ones bite their tongues; the bold ones, when I introduce myself, extend their hand and say, “Then I am Dr Christian!” One would have expected tolerance and interfaith harmony to have plummeted post-9/11, with gradual … Continue reading My name is Islam