In a document that read more as a short constitutional declaration, Al-Azhar defends universal human rights and rejects 'the theocratic state' as un-Islamic and autocratic by nature

In a statement titled “Al-Azhar Document” and read on national television, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayeb, the country’s highest religious authority, outlined his institution’s vision on key political, social and economic issues that have been subject to raging debates across the country for months.

Really.

QUite ingenius as you will not be allowed to enter the court with it on and the police are under strict orders stopping them from removing it.

Norderstedt's Muslim community to build a £2m mosque with wind turbines in its minarets

A small Muslim community in northern Germany is pioneering renewable energy sources by planning to build a mosque with wind turbines in its minarets.

The €2.5m (£2.2m) project would see the mosque in Norderstedt, near Hamburg, become one of the first to turn the minaret, the place from which the muezzin called the faithful to prayer, into a wind-fuelled power source.

Read more @ Guardian.co.uk

Now, who'd have thunk that?

A popular Syrian blogger that had been blogging the Syrian uprising "from the inside" actually turns out to be a 40 year old American studying in Edinburgh.

Syrian lesbian blogger is revealed conclusively to be a married man

Newsnight interview from last week of the woman whose picture was used.

Very sad indeed.

Hopefully it will work even less successfully for him than it has been doing for Gaddafi.

He has had more than enough chances to do the right thing. I wonder if someone will exterminate this vermin... seems unlikely.

It's election time. Probably the most important elections of your life and you're not invited.

Turkey goes to the polls on Sunday 12 June 2010 and if the governing party gets a big enough mandate, they could be unleashed to provide the country with a new constitution that helps the country jump a good distance.

Or the power could get into the heads of the government and they may become authoritarian and/or a part of the problem (that is always a risk).

This will shape the future of Turkey and also have repercussions on the wider region.

Time to keep watching what happens.

Is this the end of the regime in Yemen?

The President who refused to release his grip on power - who has been in his position for 33 years - was injured in a rocket attack on Friday and has now left for Saudi Arabia "for treatment".

Saudi has been backing this president for a very long time, but since the president is now outside the country, his grip on his supporters will naturally loosen.

So is this the end of president Saleh's reign?

The people think so and are rejoicing.

Reports say that Saleh took 35 members of his family and a few other supporters with him.

Fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic has been arrested in Serbia after 16 years on the run.

Gen Mladic, 69, was found in a village in northern Serbia where had been living under an assumed name.

He faces charges over the massacre of at least 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.

BBC News

2012 is turning into a remarkable year.

The court of appeal has quashed the conviction of a former police chief who was found guilty by a jury of framing a man.

Former Scotland Yard commander Ali Dizaei was jailed for four years in February 2010 for abusing his office after a row in a London street with Waad al-Baghdadi, who was the main prosecution witness.

The court of appeal has ordered a retrial.

Read more @ The Guardian