German Defense Minister Jung has insisted that Germany is not fighting a war in Afghanistan, rejecting calls for such an admission after three German soldiers died in the country this week. The parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Reinhold Robbe, on Wednesday called on the German government to recognize it was fighting a war in Afghanistan. “It is still being publicly denied that... 

The Arctic island of Greenland is assuming self-rule, in the latest step towards independence from Denmark. The move follows a referendum on greater autonomy in November. It will see Greenland take a greater share of revenues from its natural resources. The local government is taking control of the police and the courts. Greenlandic – or Kalaallisut – becomes the official language. Denmark... 

After years of welcoming asylum seekers with open arms, Swedes have begun to question the changing nature of their society. Now, as the country moves to the right, Iraqis and Somalis are increasingly facing repatriation. Nina is 27 and Iraqi. She arrived in the Swedish town of Sodertalje, just south of Stockholm, after a three-month journey with her seven-year-old daughter to escape Baghdad. A Christian... 

Brussels, Asharq Al-Awsat- When I met Mahinur Ozdimer in one of the biggest shopping malls in Brussels just one day before the Belgium elections that took place on June 7, I noticed that she was the only female candidate wearing Hijab as the candidates handed out leaflets and met and spoke with voters. I asked Mahinur “Aren’t you worried about the reaction you’ll get from Belgian voters because... 

These "bodies" are made of rubber and are from Hollywood. The recent tragic death of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, allegedly killed by an individual said to be a “Holocaust denier” is now being touted as a reason to institute laws in the United States similar to those laws outlawing so-called “Holocaust denial” in force in 14 countries, mostly... 

The Holodomor (Ukrainian: translation: death by starvation) refers to the famine of 1932-1933 in the Ukrainian SSR during which millions of people were starved to death because of the Soviet policies that forced farmers into collective farms. The Holodomor is considered one of the greatest national calamities to affect the Ukrainian nation in modern history. Millions of inhabitants of Ukraine... 

Police are searching white people under terror laws simply to provide ‘racial balance’ to statistics, it has been revealed. They are targeting people they have no real reason to suspect to avoid being accused of prejudice, said terror law watchdog Lord Carlile. But their tactic of ‘self-evidently unmerited searches’ was a waste of money, a breach of civil liberties and ‘almost... 

Family members of an 85-year-old woman who was killed in a car accident say they are willing to forgive the other driver, but they also want him to be held accountable. Yvonne Atwood was going to her husband’s gravesite when she was killed. Last November, she was driving north on 500 East when an SUV going east on 600 South ran the light and T-boned her car. “The car spun four and a half... 

VIENNA – An Austrian court has convicted a man of glorifying Nazi ideology and sentenced him to two years in prison. The court in the southern city of Klagenfurt found the 85-year-old man, who was not identified, guilty Wednesday of “re-engaging” in Nazi-era beliefs. The prosecution had accused him, among other things, of glorifying Adolf Hitler and Nazi beliefs in two books. The Austria... 

A Jewish group in Ukraine is objecting to a criminal case brought over the “Great Famine” committed in the 1930s. The nation’s security service is pressing the case against a list of former Soviet officials accused of committing the Holodomor, which caused the deaths of millions in Ukraine in 1932-33. Most of the names on the list were Jewish. Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksandr Feldman,... 

Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday that Americans should be mindful of the nation’s changing demographics, which led to the election of Barack Obama as president. He told an Arab-American audience of 1,000 people that the U.S. is no longer just a black-white country, nor a country that is dominated by Christians and a powerful Jewish minority, given the growing numbers of Muslims, Hindus... 

Dear Friend: Just a short sign of life from here: Over the last four years, thousands of letters to me were withheld or stolen outright en route TO ME and to friends on the outside. My lawyers filed charges with the prosecutors, and repeatedly mentioned it to the judges that hundreds of letters were missing including money, shipments of books, registered letters with documents from my Canadian lawyers,... 

How well is Europe coping with the integration of its foreign residents? A two-day EU conference in Berlin will discuss methods to monitor migratory trends within Europe. For decades the nations of the expanded European Union, now comprising 27 countries, have wrangled over the integration of the EU’s 30 million foreign residents. The question: how to deal with those who try to enter what human rights... 

Farmers' wives learn how to defend themselves on a farm-attack prevention course near the Zimbabwean border in South Africa Only 70 miles from a 2010 World Cup football stadium, a farmer’s wife and a boy aged 13 learn to defend themselves with lethal weapons. They say thousands of white landowners have been killed by Zimbabwe-style marauders; their black rulers accuse them of belligerence... 

SPD Frank Walter Steinmeier does not seem to understand that most Germans are not in favor of Turkey joining the EU. It is highly recommended for Germans to not cast any votes for this man in the September Federal Election ! “I have no idea as to what privileged membership is” Steinmeier also touched upon Turkey’s efforts to become a full member of the EU, expressing his strong...