French critic of Islam in hiding
By Henry Mark,WNS Paris CorrespondentPARIS - France's anti-terrorism authorities have launched an enquiry into death threats against a philosophy teacher who wrote an article criticising Islam. Robert Redeker has been forced into hiding after making controversial marks about the Prophet Muhammad. Writing in France's Le Figaro, Mr Redeker described the religion's founder as "a merciless war leader". Since publishing the article, he has been under police protection and forced to move between safe houses. On Friday, the Paris prosecutor's office said it had opened a preliminary investigation into the threats to see if they were linked to terrorist activity. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin described the threats as "intolerable". "We are in a democracy, everyone has the right to express his views freely - of course while respecting others," he said. Mr Redeker says that his personal details and home address are now available on Islamist websites. His article was entitled "In the face of Islamist intimidation, what is the world to do?" and was written in reaction to Muslim protests following remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope has since apologised several times and said the views quoted were not his own. In the article, published on 19 September, the French teacher describes the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as a religion which "exalts violence and hate". Mr Redeker says that he fears he will not be able to come out of hiding for the immediate future."The Islamists have succeeded in punishing me on French territory as if I were guilty of a speech crime," he said.
Russian officers on spying charge
By Niki Owen,WNS Moscow CorrespondentMOSCOW - Four Russian officers detained in Georgia have been charged with spying, officials in Tbilisi have said. The men were expected to appear in court for a preliminary hearing shortly, a Georgian interior ministry spokesman said.
The charges against the Russian officers had been formally filed by Georgian investigators, Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Khizanishvili announced. He added that a court in Tbilisi would now consider the issue of preliminary detention of the officers. Georgian police are still surrounding a Russian military HQ building in Tbilisi. They say another Russian military officer they want to question is sheltering inside. A Russian contract serviceman who was detained together with the four officers has been released, Georgian and Russian officials said. Russia is recalling its ambassador to Tbilisi after Wednesday's arrests and is beginning a partial evacuation of its personnel from Georgia. Georgia's president described Moscow's reaction to the arrests as "hysteria". In a separate development, Russia's ambassador to the UN has called on the Security Council to censure Tbilisi for "dangerous and unacceptable" actions in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region. Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have deteriorated in recent weeks, since Georgia and the Western military alliance Nato agreed to hold talks on closer relations, correspondents say.
Tsar's mother reburied in Russia
By Gary James,WNS Russia Bureau ChiefST PETERSBURG - The reburial of empress Maria Fyodorovna, the mother of Russia's last tsar, has taken place in St Petersburg in accordance with her wishes. The Danish-born empress was exiled after the communist revolution and died in the country of her birth in 1928. Her son, Nicholas II, abdicated in 1917 and was executed by the Bolsheviks, along with much of his family.Members of several European royal families attended the reburial ceremony at St Isaac's Cathedral. Among them were Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and the UK's Prince Michael of Kent, a distant relative of Maria Fyodorovna. Maria Fyodorovna's coffin was lowered into the imperial crypt in the Peter and Paul Fortress, the resting place of Russian tsars. The final resting place is beside the graves of her husband and son. Guests filed past, sprinkling earth onto the coffin. Flags flew at half-mast around the city and artillery fired a salute. Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II, who led a mourning ceremony ahead of the burial, said: "This will be another sign that Russia is overcoming the enmity and divisions brought by the revolution and civil war." He said, "Having fallen deeply in love with the Russian people, the empress devoted a great deal of effort for the benefit of the Russian fatherland. Her soul ached for Russia." Maria Fyodorovna was born Princess Dagmar in 1847, changing her name and converting to the Russian Orthodox faith when she married as a teenager. Her husband was the heir to Russia's imperial throne, the man who went on to become Tsar Alexander III. The tsarina had six children, including Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II. She returned to Denmark after the Bolshevik Revolution and died there, never having accepted that her son and his family had been killed. Her coffin had been lying in state in Peterhof, outside St Petersburg, since its arrival on a Danish ship on Tuesday.
Blair's speech scores top marks in British press
By Tarry Ben,WNS UK CorrespondentLONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's last speech as Labour leader at the party's annual conference was given a resounding thumbs-up in the British press, with one calling it his best ever.
The Guardian, a left-of-centre daily and a traditional Labour backer, gushed in its editorial page: "Shining the bright beam of his oratory and intellect across Labour's decade in power, Tony Blair yesterday astounded his party with a speech that impressively illuminated New Labour's achievements while leaving its weaknesses and failures in the shadows. In a speech that "placed him in history", Blair had, the paper said: "For a moment ... raised politics above the merely temporal." "He conversed with his party in a way that no other British politician can, both thrilling it and challenging it as he loves to do."
Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph, a right-of-centre paper, highlighted the differences between's Blair's speech and that of Chancellor of the Exchequer and likely successor Gordon Brown the previous day. "Tony Blair's last conference speech as party leader was everything that Gordon Brown's the day before had not been: sharp in its political critique, humanly engaging, witty without being frivolous, and sufficiently original in its insights to be genuinely interesting," the paper's editorial began. It concluded: "Mr Blair ended by reminding his party ... that he had won three elections. The lesson was clear: he was a proven winner and would be a damnably hard act to follow."The Times, another right-of-centre daily, echoed some of the Telegraph's sentiments, noting that Blair "could have delivered an address that was laced with sugar and sentimentality or indulged in a crowd-pleasing populism devoid of difficult issues." "Instead, we witnessed the artistry of a political master whose powers are undiminished." "His exit has set a new and very high standard for his successor."
The Sun tabloid, Britain's best-selling daily, chimed in, claiming that Blair's speech "utterly eclipsed the chancellor's own low-key speech the previous day", calling it "the speech of his life". "While Mr Brown was perfectly competent, the PM was the maestro," the paper's editorial read. It asked whether Labour had "gone stark staring mad?" "It is hard to reach any other conclusion after seeing the party stand and cheer the most successful leader they've ever had -- the man they've forced out of office," referring to a rebellion in the party earlier this month which drove Blair to publicly vowed he would resign within a year.Even the conservative Daily Mail, which described the content of his speech as "utter, Alice in Wonderland make-believe", conceded: "His delivery was simply brilliant, with perfect pitch and faultless timing." "Tony Blair's farewell speech to a rapt Labour conference yesterday was a vintage performance from the greatest actor-politician of our time."
EU to approve Balkan candidates
By Jerome Hart,WNS EU CorrespondentSTRASBOURG - The European Commission was to invite Bulgaria and Romania to join the European Union in January, amid warnings the bloc must tackle institutional reforms before further expansion. The 26th and 27th members of the European club will be allowed to join up on January 1, 2007, but will be subject to the heaviest monitoring of any newcomers, said EU diplomats who have seen the commission's draft reports.
But on the eve of the announcement at a European Parliament session here, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said further enlargement should be frozen until EU member states decide on reforms to streamline decision-making. "It would be inadvisable to have any more member states in the union, apart from Romania and Bulgaria, before sorting out the institutional question," Barroso said. Amid weakening support in some EU states for further enlargement and fears of a flood of new job-seeking migrants from Bulgaria and Romania, the bloc will impose its most stringent supervision yet on the new members. According to the draft report circulating in Brussels, but still subject to last-minute alterations, the Commission finds that Bulgaria and Romania have reached "a high degree of alignment" in their preparations for membership.
Pope to meet Muslim envoys in bid to patch up relations
By Pamela Quest,WNS Rome CorrespondentROME - Pope Benedict XVI was set to meet Muslim envoys as part of an unprecedented diplomatic offensive to show his desire for inter-faith dialogue after the outrage over his recent remarks on Islam. The meeting at Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence, will bring together Muslim ambassadors to the Vatican and Islamic representatives in Italy as well as a French cardinal, Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. Envoys from Iran, Turkey -- where Benedict is scheduled to visit on November 28-30 -- and Morocco, whose Vatican ambassador had been recalled for consultations, have all confirmed their participation at the talks. Cardinal Poupard said that he could not recall a similar initiative in the past 10 years, and declared that the get-together was "a signal that the Holy Father's call for a dialogue between cultures and religion has been widely welcomed."A furore erupted in the Muslim world when the pope made a speech on September 12 at the University of Regensburg in Germany, in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor who criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman". The lecture sparked days of sometimes violent protests in Muslim countries, prompting the pontiff to say that he was "deeply sorry" for any offence and attributing Muslim anger to an "unfortunate misunderstanding".
Greek police recover stolen 700-year-old Christian icon
By Matthew Samuel,WNS Greece CorrespondentATHENS - Greek police on Saturday retrieved one of the most sacred symbols of Greece, a 700-year-old icon of the Virgin Mary that was stolen from a remote monastery in a stunning robbery more than a month ago. The Christian icon, depicting a baby Jesus in the embrace of the Virgin Mary, was found in a village in the southern Peloponnese where the thief, a 28-year-old Romanian national, had hidden it, according to officials. "The icon was dug out from the innards of a chapel," said Anastasios Dimoschakis, Greece's national police chief. "It had been placed in a wooden box, installed into one of the walls, and then covered with rocky plaster." The Romanian's name was not released. The robber confessed to his crime after resisting arrest during a raid at his home, in the village of Faraklo, south of Athens, late Friday, said Dimoschakis.Hundreds of votive offerings left by worshippers on the sacred icon, which has been credited with miraculous powers, were found in the suspect's possession, police said. Video footage and photographs of the 500-year-old convent of Elona, where the icon was stolen in August, were also found during the raid. To steal the icon, thieves had to scale the cliff-side monastery, about 300 kilometers south of Athens, with professional climbing equipment. They crawled across the sanctuary's roof, broke a church window and stole the 14th-century icon, which measures 40 by 50 centimeters.
Saturday's arrest caps a five-week-long manhunt that involved a telephone surveillance operation after the Romanian placed a call to a senior prelate last week, demanding 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million) in ransom, police said. It was not clear whether the thief had staged the burglary at the behest of a private collector. "We just know that he was in contact with a private collector in Athens," Dimoschakis said.
Monorail disaster shakes Germany
By Andrew Keith,WNS Germany Bureau ChiefBERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is shocked at the scale of the country's monorail accident, in which 23 people were killed. The magnetic train was on a test run when it hit a maintenance wagon, near the northern town of Lathen, at a speed of nearly 200km/h (120mph) on Friday. The accident happened at about 1000 local time (0800 GMT), on a 31.8km (20-mile) test track from Lathen to Doerpen, which is used for tourist trips and to demonstrate the technology. An inquiry will examine why they were on the track at the same time. Prosecutors said the crash appeared to be the result of human error, possibly due to a radio communication failure. Damaged carriages were left balancing on track 5m (16ft) above the ground following the collision. Rail officials said the service vehicle was used every day to clean the track but it should not have been in operation while the train was running. The track operators said no sign of any technical fault had been found in initial checks.
Reports suggest that most of those on the train were employees working on the system and staff from a local utility company, while the maintenance vehicle had two crew members. "Words don't really help on a day like this," Ms Merkel told reporters after a visit to the crash site on Friday. "By being here I just want to show that our feelings are here in the region, especially with the relatives of the victims and the rescue workers. "This is perhaps a small gesture to show that many, many people in Germany are in mourning and are suffering this evening."
Pope to meet Muslim ambassadors
By Pamela Quest,WNS Rome CorrespondentROME - The Pope has invited envoys of Muslim nations for talks on Monday to try to smooth relations following a speech that offended the Islamic world. The talks at Pope Benedict XVI's summer residence will aim to explain that the pontiff's recent speech in Germany has been misunderstood, the Vatican said. The pontiff has said three times that he regrets the offence caused, expressing "deep respect" for Islam. Muslim leaders have been demanding an unequivocal apology from the Pope. The pontiff invited Muslim ambassadors and leaders of Italy's Muslim community to his residence of Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, the Vatican said. On Wednesday, the Pope told pilgrims at the Vatican that his remarks in Bavaria last week had been "misunderstood". He said his use of medieval quotes from 14th Century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologos, which criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman", did not reflect his personal opinion. The Pope said his real intention had been to "explain that religion and violence do not go together but religion and reason do".
By Henry Mark,
