Iranian nuclear chief steps down

Gholam Reza Aghazadeh was named by ex-President Mohammad Khatami The long-serving head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, has resigned, Iranian media and officials have said. The nuclear chief had submitted a letter of resignation to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nearly three weeks ago, the Isna news agency said. It was not immediately clear what triggered the resignation. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian power, denying Western claims that it wants a nuclear bomb. Mr Aghazadeh also stepped down as the country's vice-president, Isna reported. The agency said it had spoken to Mr Aghazadeh, who gave no explanation for his move but told them that Mr Ahmadinejad had accepted the resignation. A spokesman for Iran's atomic energy department and the official Irna news agency confirmed the news. 'Limited impact' Mr Aghazadeh is a veteran official who served in the 1980s as a deputy to Mir Hossein Mousavi - the defeated candidate in Iran's disputed presidential elections last month. In 1985 he began a 12-year stint as oil minister, staying in the post during the presidency of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He then moved to his job at the head of the atomic agency in 1997 under the reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami. He continued in the post when Mr Ahmadinejad was first elected in 2005. It was not clear whether Mr Aghazadeh's resignation was linked to Iran's 12 June disputed presidential elections, in which Mr Ahmadinejad claimed victory. Mr Aghazadeh has made no public comment on the turmoil that followed the vote. Correspondents say that although Mr Aghazadeh has long supervised Iran's nuclear programme, his resignation may have a limited impact on negotiations with Western powers, which are headed by Iranian nuclear envoy Saeed Jalili. Control over Iran's foreign and nuclear policies ultimately lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The news of Mr Aghazadeh's resignation came a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran that the US would not extend its offer of engagement indefinitely. President Barack Obama has talked of engagement with Iran but has not made clear how that might take place.

Court boycotted by 9/11 suspects

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of masterminding the attacks on the World Trade Center and other US targets Five men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks on America have boycotted a hearing at a US military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others did not appear in the high security courtroom when the hearing started. The judge had ruled that three of the five - including Mr Sheikh Mohammed - would not be able to speak in court. The hearing was meant to focus on medical reports on two of the five. A US prosecutor said those two would be brought to court by "all necessary means". Lawyers are currently discussing whether all five should be allowed to speak. Trial confusion Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - described by US intelligence as "one of history's most infamous terrorists" - earlier admitted being responsible "from A to Z" for 9/11. Believed to be the number three al-Qaeda leader before his capture in Pakistan in March 2003, he told a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo in December 2008 that he wanted to plead guilty to all charges against him. The Obama administration has yet to announce how the five defendants will be tried or where they will be held if the camp at Guantanamo Bay is closed by January 2010, as promised. US President Barack Obama has ordered a halt to military commissions at Guantanamo Bay but preparations continue for military trials and prosecutors say they are ready to begin proceedings against 66 detainees. Mr Obama has conceded that some will be tried in military courts once Congress passes legislation which puts in place a number of legal safeguards.

Islamists 'share French hostages'

Somalia's Islamists are accused of links to al-Qaeda Two French security advisers seized in Somalia this week have been split up and are now being held by two different hard-line groups, reports say. The pair were snatched by gunmen from a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and were being held by the Hizbul-Islam group. But officials say the al-Shabab group wanted them and after a row, Hizbul-Islam handed one of the men over. Al-Shabab has recently carried out several beheadings, amputations and stonings in the areas it controls. They are allied with Hizbul-Islam against the UN-backed interim government and together control much of southern Somalia. Both groups are said to have links to al-Qaeda and have been reinforced by foreign fighters. 'Bear responsibility' The BBC's Somali Service editor Yusuf Garaad Omar says al-Shabab is known for being the more radical of the two groups. He says the hostage held by al-Shabab fighters is likely to face greater problems because they care little for their public image and have carried out killings on camera. Meeting al-Shabab Somali justice, Islamist-style A group of gunmen dressed in military uniform seized the men on Tuesday morning and handed them over to Hizbul-Islam. The move apparently sparked a row with al-Shabab, which managed to persuade the other group to hand over one of the hostages. An unnamed al-Shabab militant told Reuters the two men had been shared "to avoid clashes between Islamists". Somali Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omar urged the rebel groups not to politicise the situation. "So far, it remains a monetary issue, not a political one," he told AFP news agency. Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, meanwhile, warned Hizbul-Islam they would "bear responsibility for any harmful action taken against the hostages". The French advisers were reportedly helping to train the forces of government, which has recently appealed for foreign help to tackle the Islamists. The US last month confirmed that it has sent weapons to the government, which is also being protected by some 4,000 African Union troops in Mogadishu. Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991. Moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was sworn in as president in January after UN-brokered peace talks. He promised to introduce Sharia law but the hardliners accuse him of being a western stooge.

Pakistan and India in terror vow

A total of 166 people died in the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 India and Pakistan will work together to fight terrorism, the countries' prime ministers have announced. Meeting in Egypt, they said the fight against their "main threat" should not be linked to wider peace talks. However, India's Manmohan Singh later said no dialogue would start until those behind last year's attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) were "brought to book". Relations between the two countries deteriorated after the attacks in which militants killed more than 160 people. India has accused Pakistan-based fighters from the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba of carrying out the attacks. Pakistan has admitted they were partly planned on its soil - and vowed to do all it can to bring the suspects to justice. Climb-down 'denied'Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan and Manmohan Singh of India made the pledge after meeting in Egypt. The talks on Thursday - on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement's summit in Egypt - were the third high-level meeting between the two nuclear-armed neighbours since the Mumbai attacks last November which brought an abrupt halt to peace talks. "Both leaders affirmed their resolve to fight terrorism and co-operate with each other to this end," the joint statement of the talks said. "Prime Minister Singh reiterated the need to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice and Prime Minister Gilani assured that Pakistan will do everything in its power in this regard." The two prime ministers agreed to co-operate on the investigation. Both leaders agreed that terrorism is the main threat to both countries Joint statement Full text: India-Pakistan statement Breaking the ice? "Pakistan has provided an updated status dossier on the investigations of the Mumbai attacks," their statement said. The two leaders also agreed to "share real-time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threat". Last week Pakistan said the trial of five men suspected of involvement in the attack on Mumbai's Taj Hotel was likely to start this week. In a move likely to please Islamabad, the prime minister's joint statement said action on terrorism "should not be linked to the composite dialogue process" - which includes talks on the disputed territory of Kashmir. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says many in India will see this as a major climb-down in Delhi's stance. And moments after the joint statement had been issued, Mr Singh appeared to contradict the joint statement. He told a news conference dialogue "cannot begin unless and until terrorist heads which shook Mumbai are properly accounted for, (the) perpetrators of these heinous crimes are brought to book".

A tale of two murdered women

• Neda and Marwa: One becomes an icon, the other is unmentioned

On June 20th 2009, Neda Agha Soltan was shot dead during the post-election protests in Iran. The protests occupied the largest news segments around the world, with analysts and commentators predicting the fall of the Iranian regime and the dawn of freedom breaking in “the axis of evil.”

Neda’s death became an icon of the Iranian opposition and a symbol for millions of people of the injustice of the Iranian regime and the defiance of the protesters. Neda’s death was put in context. It was taken from the personal realm of the death of an individual to the public realm of the just cause of a whole society.

On July 1st Marwa El Sherbini, an Egyptian researcher living in Germany, was stabbed to death 18 times inside a courtroom in the city of Dresden, in front of her 3-year-old son. She had won a verdict against a German man of Russian descent who had verbally assaulted her because of her veil. Her husband, who rushed in to save her when she was attacked in the courtroom, was shot by the police. Marwa’s death was not reported by any Western news media until protests in Egypt erupted after her burial. The reporting that followed focused on the protests; the murder was presented as the act of a “lone wolf,” thus depriving it of its context and its social meaning.The fact that media are biased and choose what to report according to their own agenda is not the issue in this case. What the comparison of the two murders shows, is that European and Western societies have failed to grasp the significance and the importance of the second murder in its social, political, and historical context.

The “lone wolf” who stabbed Marwa 18 times inside the courtroom is the product of the society he lives in. If anything, the murder of Marwa should raise the discussion about the latent (perhaps not so latent anymore) racism against Muslims that has been growing in European societies in the last few decades, and noticeably so since the mid-90s.

It would be difficult to avoid relating the crime to the discussions about the banning of the Niqab, or the previous discussions about the wearing of the veil. These issues and others pertaining to the Muslim immigration in Europe have been occupying large parts of the public debates in several European countries. It would also be difficult not to notice the rapid rise of right wing populist parties to power in several European countries in the last decade, all of which have built their discourse on the fear of Islam and the “immigration problem.”

The absence of reporting, or adequate reporting of the murder, and the alarm bells that did not ring after this murder, reflect the denial in which European societies and public discourse are immersed.

While Europe preaches freedom of expression and the need to accept otherness, and while Europe preaches about the dangers of racism and sectarianism in third world countries, and while Europe warns about hate speech and anti-Semitism, we see race-driven crime, prejudice, and hate speech gaining both legitimacy and power in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Denmark and other democracies in the old continent. Race-driven crimes are constantly presented as exceptions within a tolerant society. However, the recurrence of exceptions puts in question their exceptional nature.

The absence of Marwa’s story from the mainstream media and the failure to start a debate about the immediate dangers of present European anti-Muslim racism shows the depth of the problem and draws us to expect a gloomy future for Muslims in Europe. Muslims like Neda only get to the news if their story serves the dominant narrative that presents Islam as the primary threat to freedom, while Muslims like Marwa who expose the pervasive racism of the West and challenge the existing stereotypes fail to get their story told.

What is significant to note is that in Neda’s case the media accused the Iranian regime as the authority responsible for the context in which the crime was committed rather than looking for the person who actually shot her. The accused is the establishment or the institution rather than the individual shooter. However, in the case of Marwa’s murder the media were persistent in stressing on the individuality of the murderer, calling him a “lone wolf”, implying that he is a social outcast who holds no ties to the society he lives in. The murderer was given a name “Alex W.” and the institution, the society, and the establishment he lives in were taken away from the picture.

While Neda’s death enjoyed wide arrays of interpretations and readings in context, Marwa’s death was deprived of its context and was presented as a personal tragedy, featuring a madman and his victim. Meanwhile Europe keeps shifting to the right at an accelerating pace, and cultural stereotypes, failure to integrate (read: social and political alienation), miscommunication, and a growing financial crisis only nourish this trajectory and support the populist and chauvinistic discourse of various newborn and resurrected right wing parties.

In the 1930s, following the big economical crisis of the 1920s, a young populist right wing party suddenly rose to power in Germany and few predicted what was to follow. There is no realistic proof to say that Europe is a more tolerant society than any other, or to say that people necessarily learn from their history, or even that some societies are exempt from racist behavior. All the evidence points to the end of the European myth of post-war tolerance; and the media have yet to connect the dots before history repeats itself.The fact that media are biased and choose what to report according to their own agenda is not the issue in this case. What the comparison of the two murders shows, is that European and Western societies have failed to grasp the significance and the importance of the second murder in its social, political, and historical context.

The “lone wolf” who stabbed Marwa 18 times inside the courtroom is the product of the society he lives in. If anything, the murder of Marwa should raise the discussion about the latent (perhaps not so latent anymore) racism against Muslims that has been growing in European societies in the last few decades, and noticeably so since the mid-90s.

It would be difficult to avoid relating the crime to the discussions about the banning of the Niqab, or the previous discussions about the wearing of the veil. These issues and others pertaining to the Muslim immigration in Europe have been occupying large parts of the public debates in several European countries. It would also be difficult not to notice the rapid rise of right wing populist parties to power in several European countries in the last decade, all of which have built their discourse on the fear of Islam and the “immigration problem.”

The absence of reporting, or adequate reporting of the murder, and the alarm bells that did not ring after this murder, reflect the denial in which European societies and public discourse are immersed.

While Europe preaches freedom of expression and the need to accept otherness, and while Europe preaches about the dangers of racism and sectarianism in third world countries, and while Europe warns about hate speech and anti-Semitism, we see race-driven crime, prejudice, and hate speech gaining both legitimacy and power in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Denmark and other democracies in the old continent. Race-driven crimes are constantly presented as exceptions within a tolerant society. However, the recurrence of exceptions puts in question their exceptional nature.

The absence of Marwa’s story from the mainstream media and the failure to start a debate about the immediate dangers of present European anti-Muslim racism shows the depth of the problem and draws us to expect a gloomy future for Muslims in Europe. Muslims like Neda only get to the news if their story serves the dominant narrative that presents Islam as the primary threat to freedom, while Muslims like Marwa who expose the pervasive racism of the West and challenge the existing stereotypes fail to get their story told.

What is significant to note is that in Neda’s case the media accused the Iranian regime as the authority responsible for the context in which the crime was committed rather than looking for the person who actually shot her. The accused is the establishment or the institution rather than the individual shooter. However, in the case of Marwa’s murder the media were persistent in stressing on the individuality of the murderer, calling him a “lone wolf”, implying that he is a social outcast who holds no ties to the society he lives in. The murderer was given a name “Alex W.” and the institution, the society, and the establishment he lives in were taken away from the picture.

While Neda’s death enjoyed wide arrays of interpretations and readings in context, Marwa’s death was deprived of its context and was presented as a personal tragedy, featuring a madman and his victim. Meanwhile Europe keeps shifting to the right at an accelerating pace, and cultural stereotypes, failure to integrate (read: social and political alienation), miscommunication, and a growing financial crisis only nourish this trajectory and support the populist and chauvinistic discourse of various newborn and resurrected right wing parties.

In the 1930s, following the big economical crisis of the 1920s, a young populist right wing party suddenly rose to power in Germany and few predicted what was to follow. There is no realistic proof to say that Europe is a more tolerant society than any other, or to say that people necessarily learn from their history, or even that some societies are exempt from racist behavior. All the evidence points to the end of the European myth of post-war tolerance; and the media have yet to connect the dots before history repeats itself.

Australia warns China on spy case

Mr Rudd has come under pressure over the spying case Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned that China has big economic interests at stake in the case of a mining executive accused of spying. He said the matter was being watched closely from abroad. Mr Rudd has been under pressure at home to be more assertive with China, to better protect the detained Australian citizen, Stern Hu. China says it has evidence of spying, bribery and theft of state secrets in a widening probe of the steel industry. "Australia of course has significant economic interests in its relationship with China, but I also want to remind our Chinese friends that China too has significant economic interests at stake in its relationship with Australia and with its other commercial partners around the world," Mr Rudd told a press conference. The Shanghai-based staff of the Anglo-American mining firm Rio Tinto, including Australian Stern Hu, Rio's top iron ore salesman there, are accused of stealing state secrets from Chinese steel mills. China has widened its investigation into the industry's workings by investigating executives at Chinese state-owned steel firms in recent days. Investigation Rio Tinto said markets remained tough Also on Wednesday, Rio Tinto reported second-quarter results, indicating that markets were remaining tough with demand slowing. Production of bauxite, alumina and aluminium were all reduced, but on the upside iron ore production rose for the three month period by 8% from a year earlier. Rio Tinto has not yet finalised price settlements for iron ore sales to certain customers, including steel mills in China. But deals with Japan, Korea and Taiwan have been reached. "Deliveries continue to other customers on a provisional price or spot sales basis," said Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese. Reports suggest the spying case is complicating talks between China and iron ore suppliers around the world. Cutting debt In June, Rio Tinto abandoned a $19.5bn deal with China's state-owned Chinalco in favour of a tie-up with rival giant BHP Billiton, to the anger of some in Beijing. The firm has been seeking to reduce the $38bn of debt it took on to buy the Canadian aluminium group Alcan in 2007. In its second-quarter results, Rio said it had continued to press ahead with steps to cut costs and bring down levels of net debt. After it pulled out of its deal with Chinalco, Rio sought other ways to raise cash. Recently it completed a £15.2bn rights issue and the firm is to offload investments worth £3.7bn.

Dumped bodies were Mexico police

Twelve people tortured, murdered and dumped alongside a mountain road in Mexico's Michoacan state were federal police officers, officials say. The bodies of the 11 men and one woman were found tied and blindfolded near the town of La Huacana on Monday. They had been ambushed by members of a drugs gang, in apparent retaliation for the capture of one of their leaders. President Felipe Calderon has vowed to continue his war against drugs cartels, and not be intimidated by violence. He said a wave of attacks on police was a desperate reaction from the gangs to the capture of some of their top leaders. "The criminals will not be able to intimidate the federal government," Mr Calderon said. "In this battle we will not give up, we will not hesitate, because what is at stake is Mexico's peace and safety." See the Mexican cartels' main areas of influence Michoacan - the president's home state - has been hit by a wave of drug-related killings after a government crackdown on the cartels. The latest killings, the highest one-day loss suffered by federal forces, marks an escalation in the violence, correspondents say. The federal agents are believed to have been targeted as revenge for the arrest last week of the suspected drug boss Arnoldo Rueda Medina - known as La Minsa and described as a senior member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. 'Divine justice' La Familia came to prominence in September 2006 when its members flung five human heads onto a crowded dance floor in Michoacan. LA FAMILIA Previously believed to answer to Gulf Cartel, listed as separate group in March 2009 government report Combines code of violence with idea of protecting people in Michoacan from outsiders Also involved in counterfeiting, extortion, kidnapping, armed robbery, prostitution, protection rackets The attackers left behind a bizarre note that said: "The family does not kill for money. It does not kill women or innocent people. Those who die are those who must die. Everyone should know that this is divine justice." La Minsa's arrest at the end of last week set off a series of attacks, mainly in Michoacan, that left several federal police officers and two soldiers dead. "This marks an important change in the drug war in that they are attacking federal forces directly," Jorge Chabat, a Mexican drug expert told the Associated Press. "It also suggests the capture of this person (La Minsa) has affected the operations of the cartel. It was a major blow and this is a reaction out of weakness, not strength." The state has become one of the key battlegrounds in his war on drugs. In May, the authorities arrested 27 high-ranking officials, including 10 mayors and an aide to the state governor, who were suspected of collaborating with drug-trafficking gangs in Michoacan. Police also detained several suspected members of La Familia. Mr Calderon has sent more than 45,000 troops across Mexico to fight rival drug gangs. More than 11,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since he took office in December 2006.