United Kingdom
English Defence League backs Ukip in local elections
The UK Independence Party (Ukip) faced embarrassment last night after it received the unwanted endorsement of the far-Right English Defence League for next month’s local council elections. Currently third in UK polls and is fielding up to 2,000 candidates in the contests, rapidly distanced itself from the “abhorrent and stupid” anti-Islamic organisation. Under Mr Farage’s…
Princess condemns Saudi Arabia paralysis sentence
With the UK urging Saudi Arabia not to go ahead with the paralysing of a Saudi man who was given the unusual punishment by a court for an attack which left another man paralysed, a sentence said to be an implementation of Islamic law. Although Amnesty has compared the sentence to torture. It was in…
The Undivided Past: history beyond our differences, By David Cannadine
David Cannadine, a leading historian makes a spirited case for harmony against the myths of identity politics according to the writer of this book review published in The Independent. the historian Sir David Cannadine seeks an understanding of the past that finds its focus in our age-old conversations and collaborations, rather than in conflict. Emperor…
Frank Gardner’s return to Saudi Arabia
BBC Correspondent Frank Gardner, critically injured in a militant attack there nine years ago, returned to Saudi Arabia on his first trip back since the incident. The murderous insurgency that took so many lives here in the mid-2000s, including that of my cameraman Simon Cumbers, has been largely defeated, its militants killed, arrested or driven…
Sadiq Khan: ‘If you’re the only one fasting at Ramadan, you do stand out’
Sadiq Khan was appointed to the Privy Council and first asked to attend cabinet meetings in June 2009, Labour’s MP for Tooting became the first Asian and first Muslim to do so. He is quoted as saying the following on the lack of diversity in government “You can get obsessed by it and people do….