Noticias

The first European Islamophobia Summit opens on Friday in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. Lasting until June 26, it will bring together European and US political, academic and civil-society leaders with the goal of finding solutions to the challenge of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crimes in Europe.

Farid Hafez of Salzburg University, who is the academic advisor to the summit, told BIRN that Islamophobia had reached a worrying dimension in Europe.

 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech in front of the European Union parliament on Thursday regarding the current state of Palestine and its people within the occupied territory and around the world. 

Abbas slammed the international community’s complacency with Israel’s illegal occupation, saying: “their [Palestinians’] history, heritage, identity and geopolitical entity were historically massacred in the twentieth century, and that the massacre is still ongoing through the twenty first century under the eyes and ears of the international community.” 

 Political attention in Malaysia has turned to an imminent Cabinet reshuffle, with three incoming federal ministers and two deputy ministers following the recent elections.

Two ministerial posts in the Prime Minister's Department are vacant - one in charge of the government's performance unit called Pemandu, and the other in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).

Prime Minister Najib Razak is also set to name a new plantation industries and commodities minister.

Albania is expected to open a NATO excellence centre this year that will conduct studies into foreign terrorist fighters.

The project got the green light from the alliance's military committee in May and Albanian Defence Ministry officials are now discussing modalities with alliance counterparts.

Colonel Bardhyl Kollcaku, director of the Defence Intelligence and Security agency, AISM, told BIRN that Albania pitched the initiative after spotting a vacuum in NATO over this phenomenon.

When China’s top diplomat visited Kyrgyzstan last month, he heard some bold proposals.
 
Why, Foreign Minister Wang Yi was asked by Kyrgyz economic officials during his visit to Bishkek on May 22, did Beijing not consider relocating 40 or so manufacturing operations from China to Kyrgyzstan?
 

The Home Ministry said  regional administrations may file a lawsuit through the Supreme Court against the central government if they rejected the revocation of their problematic bylaws,  an official said on Tuesday.

"[Anyone] including regents, mayors, or even residents can file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court," The ministry's regional autonomy director general, Soni Sumarsono, said as quoted by kompas.com.

He said the ministry's decision to revoke bylaws aimed to improve efficiency and shorten bureaucracy to ease the process of attaining permits.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz yesterday strongly dispelled the impression that the country had been isolated, claiming Pakistan was changing its foreign policy in view of the changes taking place in the region.

The national dialogue session will convene in Ain el-Tineh on Tuesday where the participating political factions are set to give a final position on a suggestion put forward by Speaker Nabih Berri in May regarding the electoral laws, al-Akhbar daily reported.

“Tuesday's session is one of the most important meetings in the current rounds of talks, taking into consideration the issues that will be discussed and the Speaker's position with regard to the positions of the interlocutors,” said the daily.