Articles

The bitter dispute between Italy and Turkey over Rome’s refusal to extradite Abdullah Öcalan, the founder and leader of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), to Ankara to stand trial on charges of terrorism has dealt a serious blow to Turkey’s relations with the European Union (EU).

South Africa, to its great credit, has taken firm steps to introduce some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking laws to the undisguised alarm of the tobacco companies, which have declared total war on the initiative, assembling some bizarre foot-soldiers, including Slaman Rushdie’s ghost to defeat it.

Racist thugs who abuse and attack Muslims cannot be prosecuted, as Britain’s race laws ‘do not apply’ to Muslims, while anyone, including police dog handlers, meeting out similar treatment to a dog will be prosecuted and may be sentenced to a prison term.

In March 1991, as Yugoslavia was being pulled apart by the insatiable demands of its Serbian and Croat nationalists, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian president Franjo Tudjman - supposedly implaccable foes - met secretly at a hunting-lodge at Karadjordjevo, formerly one of Tito’s favourite retreats.

If the former treaty-prone PLO signed away Palestine to the Israelis, and if the surrounding Arab States have fallen prey to the economic and military mercy of Israel, the question arises, what is left to be lost by the Palestinians?

The dogs of war are once again barking in western capitals. US president Bill Clinton, off the hook for his sexual encounters by a promiscuous American public, feels he must now prove his virility in other ways.

Blasphemy in Europe is fast catching up with pornography as a fame-and-money-spinner, boosting the sale and popularity of worthless books, films and paintings, whose only eye-catching quality is their capacity to offend or shock.

From Nigeria through Pakistan to Indonesia, there is talk of tracing the billions of Muslim money salted away by the corrupt regimes that have taken turns to send their countries to the cleaners.

The socio-economic and political chaos that grips Pakistan today allows little room for serious intellectual debate or discussion. To the political confusion must be added the din made by various religious parties and groups who insist that their version of Islam is the only correct one and that everyone else is destined for Hell-fire.

Fighting in Kosova continued apparently unabated despite last month’s supposed ‘withdrawal’ of Serbian forces after the Holbrooke-Milosevic pact of October 13 and the lifting of the threat of NATO airstrikes against the Serbs.