The Londoner

Foreigners living in Germany do not enjoy full civil rights. While foreigners from EU countries can take part in local elections, those from outside the EU cannot vote at all. Calls for a law change are growing. "Jasmine" [name changed -- eds. note] was born in Germany. Like her parents, who hail from Turkey, she holds a Turkish passport. She has successfully completed school exams to continue her studies at university and her educational performance was so good she got a scholarship to study medicine. Despite this and the fact that she has spent her entire 23 years of life in Germany, she does not have her say in how her state or the country is run. "Jasmine" is not an isolated case. While foreigners from European Union members may vote in the local elections, she cannot. She also can't vote for the government which runs the country in which she was born and raised. She is excluded from the German election process, like many others who have lived in Germany f...

By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin With Thanks to FT.com Published: January 28 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 28 2008 09:52 The party of Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, suffered a setback on Sunday after Roland Koch, the Christian Democratic state premier of Hesse, saw his vote plummet following a closely watched regional election. Yet the Social Democratic party, junior partner to Ms Merkel’s CDU in the “grand coalition” and its main rival in Sunday’s elections, had little to cheer about after the Left party, a radical leftwing grouping, captured a higher than expected share of the vote. The Left party’s performance will come as a disappointment to Kurt Beck, SPD chairman, who has steered his party to the left since the summer in an attempt to reverse an exodus of voters to the smaller, more radical grouping. The final vote count gave Andrea Ypsilanti, the SPD’s candidate in Hesse, 36.7 per cent of the votes. The CDU scored 36.8 per cent, off 12 points from the last election. Both...

WASHINGTON - Two generations of Kennedys - the Democratic Party's best known political family - endorsed Barack Obama for president on Monday, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy calling him a "man with extraordinary gifts of leadership and character," a worthy heir to his assassinated brother. "I feel change in the air," Kennedy said in remarks salted with scarcely veiled criticism of Obama's chief rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as her husband, the former president. "I have marveled at his grit and grace," he said of the man a full generation younger than he is. Kennedy's endorsement was ardently sought by all three of the remaining presidential contenders, and he delivered it at a pivotal time in the race. A liberal lion in his fifth decade in the Senate, the Massachusetts senator is in a position to help Obama court Hispanic voters as well as rank-and-file members of labor unions, two key elements of the Democratic Pa...

By Sikander Hayat Climate change has become a major issue of the 21st century and there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that although we are too late to reverse the impact it already has on the environment but with careful planning we can at least make the future impact less severe. A study sanctioned by UN in which scientist from all over the globe took part has testified to this fact. Challenge for the energy suppliers in Europe is to confront the problem head on and seek new and clean ways of producing energy before being pushed too hard by the political pressure. Although there is an emerging consensus about the global warming and its causes but still there are differing opinions on how to tackle this issue. Another factor in today’s energy market is the security of supply and lately it has been a major issue in the European press as increasingly it is the case that countries where oil and gas are most abundantly available in the form of natural reserves are situated in ...

By Sikander Hayat This is the most pressing issue at the moment for the EU and reasons for this are plenty. Where we are at the moment in terms of this policy and where we want to be in near future. What are the negative points for not having this policy What are the advantages for having this policy EU Green paper (Recommendations): The EU needs to complete the internal gas and electricity markets. Action could include the following measures: § The development of a European Grid, including through a European grid code. § A European regulator and a European Centre for Energy Networks should also be considered. § Improved interconnections. § Creating the framework to stimulate new investment. § More effective unbundling. § Boosting competitiveness, including through better coordination between regulators, competition authorities and the Commission. § These must be addressed as a priority; the Commission will reach final conclusion...

Matt Wade, Islamabad January 26, 2008 ISRAR Shah is a political candidate with a powerful story. He lost both legs above the knee when a bomb went off at a meeting of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) last July. The blast killed 20 people, injured 90 and left Dr Shah on life-support for five days. Despite his injuries, Dr Shah, a veterinary doctor in his 50s, is contesting a seat in national parliament for the PPP in next month's elections. He resumed campaigning the day he was released from hospital after two months of treatment following the blast and has been hard at it since. On Wednesday, he was working a crowd at an Islamabad shopping mall. Like politicians everywhere, he shook hands with those passing by and chatted to shop owners while a young party worker handed out his pamphlets. Dr Shah's wheelchair sets him apart from most election candidates around the world. But so does his security detail — Dr Shah and his party colleagues were guarded by a heavily armed comm...

Erica Jong BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Similar Bloggers It Was Eight Years Ago Today (But It Seems Like Eighty) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the year 2000, that great and glorious year that was supposed to "change everything," I wrote an article for ELLE magazine called "Bushwhacked." I can't remember what they retitled it. It was published in the late summer of 2000, two or three months before the presidential election. I think I said -- (can't find the damned thing) -- that I was absolutely disgusted by the campaign then in progress. I had met Al Gore at a fundraiser and thought he was brilliant. And a good speaker. And a decent guy. I couldn't understand the press about him, which seemed to me to assault him for possessing functioning brain cells. I was astounded that journalists seemed to love this dumb frat boy named George W., who glad-handed the press while they made fun of this brillia...

The elections to be held on Feb. 18 are Pakistan's only way forward. But whether they solve much requires a willingness on the part of Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister and leader of the Muslim League, and a Pakistan Peoples Party without Benazir Bhutto, as well as President Pervez Musharraf, to abide by their spirit and accept their result. Whatever Musharraf's past merits - including successful economic policies - he is now a central part of the problem. His opportunism and treatment of judges alienated much of a prospering middle class. Even before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, his maneuvering to stay in power undermined his reputation, so that allegations of intended election fixing are hard to ignore. And although the shock of Bhutto's death may have sobered the other players, mutual suspicions go deep. Neither of the contenders for power from the two main party have unsullied reputations for democracy or clean government. Sharif rose to prominence under Gen...

by James Dunnigan January 26, 2008 Discussion Board on this DLS topic Al Qaeda would have its hands full if it tries to take over Pakistan. Aside from the fact that the vast majority of the population is not fundamentalist, those who are tend to the be the fiercely tribal types who don't want Arabs telling them what to do. While South Asians and Arabs have traded for thousands of years, they have never developed very warm relations. One reason the Taliban lost power so quickly in Afghanistan in 2001 was because the large al Qaeda presence there. The Arabs, who were the largest component of al Qaeda, exhibited open disdain for the Afghans (who, like most South Asians, are Indo-European). Al Qaeda's biggest problem is that most of their support is among the Pushtun tribes, and these only comprise 15 percent of the population. They are also the poorest and least educated minority. A unique feature of Pakistan is that it's 165 million people are all minorities, although the Pun...

Zeyno Baran S. Frederick Starr Svante E. Cornell © Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program – A Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, 1619 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 Uppsala University, Box 514, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden www.silkroadstudies.org Summary and Recommendations Islamic Radicalism has become a serious problem in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Though these areas are bastions of moderate and traditional Islam and among the most secularized areas of the Muslim world, radicalism has made a forceful comeback in the past two decades. Beginning in the late 1980s, alien Islamic proselytizing has gathered speed across the Muslim regions of the former Soviet Union, and has resulted in the spread of radical ideologies, militancy, and even terrorism. Worst hit have been the Russian North Caucasus and some parts of Central Asia , especially the Ferghana valley shared by Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan ...