Robert Bernstein, the founder of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), a notoriously anti-Israel organisation, harshly condemned the HRW today, saying that the group issue reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.
HRW were in the forefront of accusing Israel of war crimes in the three-week Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in Gaza, and have continually condemned Israeli retaliation for the thousands of Hamas rockets and …

Home Office officials admitted today that up to 40,000 suspected illegal immigrants have gone missing in the UK, the Daily Mail reports.
The names of the migrants are being checked against the Police National Computer and other watch lists in a bid to find out what they have been doing, and where they might be.
The 40,000 arrived in the UK legally, but had requests to extend their stay turned down.
The Home Office did not bother to …

Germany’s next ruling coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), and pro-business centre-right liberals, the Free Democrats (FDP), are trying to agree on a coalition deal by the end of this week, but a lot of issues is still on the table – like the scope of the proposed tax cuts and how to finance them.
The negotiators also have to reach an agreement on other issues, such as financial regulation and how …

Mother of a small child, Iratxe Sorzabal Diaz, has been named as the “political” chief of the Basque terrorist organisation ETA.
Former “political” chief of ETA, Aitor Elizarán Aguilar, was arrested yesterday in northwest France.
Sorzabal is the most significant member of ETA’s ideological structure, The Times reports. Her appointment means that women are wresting power from men inside an organisation described by a senior anti-terrorism source as “traditionally macho”.
During the 1990s, Sorzabal was linked to an ETA …

German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn have been fined 1.1million euro (£999,400) for monitoring the e-mails of hundreds of thousands of their employees and searching their hard drives.
Berlin’s data protection agency fined the large company after the data protection scandal that shook the company earlier this year, Deutsche Welle reports.
Deutsche Bahn’s spokesman declined to disclose the amount of the fine, but according to the German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the fine is 1.1million euro.
The company …

UK overseas territory of Gibraltar will get a new Governor next week, current Governor, Sir Robert Fulton will be leaving his post tomorrow.
According to the Gibraltar Chronicle, Sir Robert will depart Gibraltar on board HMS Sutherland at 10:00am on tomorrow. A departure ceremony will be held at The Tower immediately beforehand, during which Sir Robert will bid farewell to the Chief Minister Peter Caruana, the Commander British Forces Adrian Bell and a small number of other …

An Australian elementary school has banned hugging and other displays of affection between preteen boys and girls to set a good example for younger students, the AP reports.
Students at Largs Bay Primary School in the southern city of Adelaide were spoken to about “inappropriate behavior” between boyfriends and girlfriends when the new school term opened last week, Principal Julie Gale said.
She said hugging between friends was not banned “but we do discourage displays of affection …

The United Kingdom is 20th in the Press Freedom Index, published by a media organisation Reporters Without Borders; while the UK has steadily improved its standing, the organisation say that press freedom is generally deteriorating in Europe.
The UK is sharing the 20th place with Luxembourg and the United States. Last year the UK was 23rd and in 2007 24th.
The first place is shared by Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, sixth is Estonia, seventh are …

FIA have fined Formula One team McLaren a ridiculous amount of $50,000 (£30,400) for the pitlane incident at Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend, where McLaren’s driver, Finn Heikki Kovalainen left the pits before the fuel hose was detached from his car, and the fuel sprayed over Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari and caused a fire – that could have had very tragic consequences.
FIA also fined Kovalainen himself with a 25-second penalty that dropped him from ninth to …

Thousands of Anglicans could defect to the Roman Catholic church after the Pope today approved a new global institution to receive them, the Guardian reports.
It will be the first time since the Reformation in the 16th century that entire Protestant communities have reunited with Rome. The first group likely to take advantage of the new rules is the Traditional Anglican Community (TAC), which broke off from the rest of the community in 1991 and claims …

Terrorists murdered at least five people today and injured 29, when two suicide bombers detonated their explosives at the University of Islamabad.
It was the seventh major militant terror attack in a fortnight in Pakistan, The Times reports.
Emergency workers described scenes of bloody chaos after the near simultaneous lunchtime blasts outside a packed women’s cafeteria and at the Islamic law faculty used by male students.
A government official put the death toll at seven, including the bombers.

Cash-strapped Central and Eastern European governments are turning to a time-tested strategy of raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol as the recession takes its toll on the region’s public finances, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Slovakia has formulated a so-called bottle-cap amendment aimed at stemming tax evasion by bar owners who sell bootleg liquor; Hungary is considering a new tax on poker.
Poland is set to lift its excise tax on cigarettes by 2.6% to 228.80 zlotys …

Afghanistan will hold a second round of its presidential election on 7th November, earlier President Hamid Karzai ordered his security chiefs to prepare for the run-off.
The run-off will take place between Karzai and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah.
According to the BBC, Karzai said at a news conference announcing the run-off that he accepted the ECC findings. He added that the decision was legal and constitutional, and a “step forward” for Afghan democracy.
Earlier Karzai ordered his security …

If coming winter is as lacking in rainfall as the last one, then by next summer Israel will have to take drastic steps such as importing water and setting up portable desalination plants, Jerusalem Post reports.
Even if the winter is a rainy one, there will still be a serious crisis, according to the Water Authority’s prognosis for the coming year.
The Water Authority are preparing for this winter on the assumption that it will be as …

Oil prices briefly rose above $80 a barrel today in Asia as better-than-expected US corporate earnings boosted investor confidence, FoxNews reports.
Benchmark crude for November delivery rose as much as 44 cents to $80.05 a barrel, but later fell back and was down 27 cents at $79.34 by late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.08 to settle at $79.61 yesterday.
Crude demand has remained sluggish this year …

Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has threatened to dispatch terrorists to fight India, once an Islamic state is created in Pakistan, The Hindu reports.
“We want an Islamic state. If we get that, then we will go to the borders and help fight the Indians,” Hakimullah said.
Hakimullah claimed responsibility for several attacks across Pakistan over the past week, including a terrorist assault on the Army’s General Headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi over the weekend.
“We …