Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti denounced suicide attacks as un-Islamic and condemned the killing of civilians, saying such attacks have nothing to do with the Muslim religion.
Terrorism is criminal and spills the blood of innocents, said Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s senior most cleric. It attacks security, spreads terror among the people and creates problems for society. Such acts are forbidden by Islamic law, he said in a statement. It is necessary to fight against the attempts by some to attach terrorism to Islam and Muslims with the goal of distorting the religion and to assail its leadership role in the world, he added.

Iran’s failure to comply with the wishes of the United Nations over its nuclear program is forcing the international community to pursue fresh sanctions against it, the German government said.
The persistent defiance of United Nations resolutions and Tehran’s continuation of a dangerous nuclear policy are forcing the international community to pursue further comprehensive sanctions in New York against the regime in Tehran, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was still extending her hand towards Iran and remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution, Wilhelm told a regular news conference. UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran may be working to develop a nuclear-armed missile, throwing independent weight behind Western suspicions of an active Iranian weapons program. France urged the world powers to act with determination against Iran’s atomic activities, after a report by the UN nuclear watchdog expressed concern Tehran may be working on a nuclear warhead. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran deems nuclear weapons to be prohibited under Islam and isn’t seeking to build them, after the International Atomic Energy Agency announced the country may have been working on a warhead.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan News: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said Indian Army Chief’s statement about limited nuclear was is irresponsible, adding that disputes between Pakistan and India can only be resolved through meaningful dialogue.
Talking to media at Islamabad airport before departing for four day visit to Germany and UK, PM Gilani urged international community to realize that the amount of sacrifices Pakistan rendered in war against terrorism is more than any other country. During his visit Prime Minister will exchange views on important regional issues with top brass of Germany and Britain. In first phase, Prime Minister will arrive in Berlin to meet German President Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel. On the occasion, enhancement in cooperation between both the countries in economic, investment, trade and defence sectors will come under discussion. Gilani will also attend a conference on investment as keynote speaker in Frankfurt. Prime Minister Gilani will meet his British counterpart Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband during his visit to Britain.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama called German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday to offer warm congratulations on her sweeping reelection victory, the White House said.

Obama and Merkel “agreed that with the election of a strong German government, our cooperation will further strengthen and deepen,” according a statement released by the White House press office.

“The United States and Germany are close allies, and partner together around the world to promote freedom, security and prosperity,” the statement read.

Obama “looks forward to continued close cooperation with Chancellor Merkel to address our common challenges in the years ahead,” it added.

Preliminary results showed the 55-year-old Merkel’s conservative Christian Union bloc (CDU/CSU) as the clear winners with about 33.5 percent of the vote.

BERLIN: Fresh from an election victory, Angela Merkel got set for a new term as German chancellor on Monday, facing a stack of challenges topped by an ailing economy and an unpopular Afghanistan mission.

“I think we’ve really earned the right to celebrate tonight,” a beaming Merkel, Germany’s first female leader and the only chancellor from the former communist east, told jubilant supporters in Berlin late on Sunday.

“But I want to say to everyone in this country that I want to be the chancellor of all Germans, so that things improve for our country … We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Europe’s biggest economy has been hit harder than most by the global recession, slamming demand for its all-important exports and sending the country into its steepest recession since World War II.

Unemployment, identified by Merkel as her “top priority” to tackle, stands at 8.3 percent but is forecast to shoot higher in the coming months, while fighting the slump has blown a massive hole in Germany’s public finances.

This time around, Forbes magazine’s most powerful woman on Earth will be in a different coalition, something she believes will help her implement the reforms that she says are vital for lifting the economy out of its malaise.

For the past four years, her conservative CDU/CSU bloc has been stuck in a loveless grand coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). But now Merkel is set to govern with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

“Our main objective has been achieved, namely a change of government, which for me is what really counts this evening,” Merkel, 55, said on public television on Sunday.

Although the wildly popular Merkel savoured her victory, the daily Tagesspiegel said her around 33-percent score, the right’s worst since 1949, marked a “black eye” for the chancellor.

FDP leader Guido Westerwelle, whose party’s strong 14.5-percent showing put Merkel over the top, aims to the country’s first openly gay foreign minister.

The SPD crashed to about 23 percent, its worst result since World War II and will be condemned to the opposition benches after 11 years in government — four with Merkel and seven in a coalition with the Greens under ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The FDP, meanwhile, returns to government after 11 years watching proceedings from the sidelines, hoping to get the CDU to cut taxes and to reverse Schroeder’s decision to abandon nuclear power by 2020.

Even assuming the new partners see eye-to-eye on all issues — anything but a foregone conclusion — Merkel’s new centre-right cabinet will have its work cut out, however, even without Germany’s economic woes.

The head of European economics Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Holger Schmieding, said the dawn of a new-look cabinet was “not a revolution”.

“There will be no dramatic changes but there will be some tax reforms over the next four years, and there will probably be some move towards deregulation modestly in the labour market and probably some changes in the health-care system,” he told AFP.

The Financial Times Deutschland agreed: “Anyone who expected or feared the chancellor will make a radical change of course with her new government is mistaken.”

Germany is saddled with health care, education and social security systems all in dire need of reform, its population is ageing rapidly and Merkel faces an uphill task to meet the country’s goals on emissions cuts.

Poverty rates and unemployment in the former communist East Germany, where Merkel grew up, are much higher than in the west, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Abroad, Germany’s mission in Afghanistan is highly unpopular and could become a major domestic headache for Merkel in the coming years if an insurgency in the north where its 4,200 troops are based continues to escalate.

The presence of German soldiers in Afghanistan has also been followed by a string of threats by extremists, including from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and German-born Muslims.

Kiki Kennedy, Sen. Kennedy funeral and burial today, The events to honor the passing of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy continue today with the funeral mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a stop at the U.S. Capitol, and burial at Arlington National Cemetery. On Thursday and Friday, 50,000 people came to the JFK Library to pay their respects to Senator Kennedy.

Schedule

Funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Boston

10 a.m. Music begins. Mozart Clarinet Quintet, Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Malcolm Lowe, violin; Alexander Velinzon, violin; Cathy Basrak, viola; Mihail Jojatu, cello; William R. Hudgins, clarinet)

10:05 a.m. Extended Kennedy family arrives

10:10 a.m. Distinguished visitors are seated

10:15 a.m. The President, Vice President and former Presidents seated

10:20 a.m. Mrs. Vicki Kennedy and Immediate Family arrive

Motorcade route: Down Melina Cass Boulevard, Left onto Columbus Avenue, Right onto Tremont Street

Honorary pall bearers greet family outside church:Melody Barnes, Honorable Justice Stephen Breyer, David Burke, Ranny Cooper, Greg Craig, Senator John C. Culver, Stephanie Cutter, Congressman William Delahunt, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Ken Feinberg, Lee Fentress, Wyche Fowler, Tim Hanan, Claude Hooton, Dr. Larry Horowitz, Senator John F. Kerry, Paul G. Kirk Jr., Kathy Kruse, Nick Littlefield, Congressman Edward Markey, Eric Mogilnicki, Michael Myers, Carey Parker, Honorable Edmund Reggie, Senator Donald W. Riegle, Dr. Larry Ronan, Senator James Sasser, Robert Shrum, Barbara Souliotis

10:30 a.m. Funeral Procession Begins

Entrance Hymn: “Holy God We Praise Thy Name”

Celebrants: His Eminence Sean P. Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston; Fr. J. Donald Monan, Chancellor, Boston College; Fr. Gerry Creedon, Pastor, Saint Charles Borromeo Church, Arlington, Virginia; Fr. Percival D’ Silva, Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Kensington, Maryland;Rev. Mark R. Hession, Our Lady of Victory, Centerville,Masssachusetts;Rev. Donald MacMillian, Chaplain, Boston College; Very Rev. Raymond Collins, C.SS.R. Pastor, Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Pall bearers: Kara Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy Jr., Patrick J. Kennedy, G. Curran Raclin Jr., Caroline R. Raclin, Caroline Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Christopher Lawford, Ed Michael Reggie, Bobby Shriver, Stephen E. Smith, Jr.

Immediate family: Mrs. Victoria Kennedy, Ted Kennedy Jr., Kiki Kennedy, Teddy Kennedy II, Kiley Kennedy, Kara Kennedy, Max Kennedy, Grace Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, Caroline Raclin, Curran Raclin, Edmund and Doris Reggie, Mrs. Jean Kennedy Smith, William Kennedy Smith, Mrs. Ethel Kennedy

First Reading: Curran Raclin, the Senator’s stepson

Old Testament

The Book of Wisdom 3:1-9

Responsorial Psalm: Kara Kennedy

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72

Second Reading: Caroline Raclin, the Senator’s stepdaughter

New Testament, Letter of Paul to the Romans 8:31b-35, 37-39

Gospel: Father Hession

Matthew 25:31-32A, 34-40

The Prayers of the Faithful:Kiki Kennedy, Kiley Kennedy, Grace Allen, Max Allen, Jack Schlossberg, Robin Lawford, Kym Smith, Anthony Shriver, Rory Kennedy, Teddy M. Kennedy II

Liturgy of the Eucharist

Offertory: The Senator’s grandchildren

At Offertory: J.S. BACH Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 6, Yo-Yo Ma, cello

At Communion: Franck “Panis Angelicus,” Placido Domingo, tenor; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; James David Christie, organ; Brahms, “Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee;”Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, James David Christie, organ; Shubert, “Ave Maria;” Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano, James David Christie, organ

Remembrances: Ted Kennedy Jr., Patrick J. Kennedy

Eulogy: President Barack Obama

Final Commendation: His Eminence Sean P. Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston

Recessional: “America the Beautiful”

1 p.m. Departure from church to Hanscom Air Force Base

1:30 p.m. Departure from Hanscom Air Force Base to Andrews Air Force Base

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Approx. 3 p.m. Arrival of Senator Kennedy at Andrews Air Force Base

4 p.m. Senator Kennedy departs Andrews Air Force Base

Motorcade route is open to the publicFr: om Andrews Air Force base, Senator Kennedy’s motorcade will proceed to the east plaza of the US Capitol building. The motorcade will enter through the Independence Ave entrance and proceed past the Senate Chamber steps. The motorcade will then proceed to Arlington National Cemetery via Constitution Ave.
4:30 p.m. Senator Kennedy arrives at the U.S. Capitol

The Senator’s motorcade will stop at the Senate steps for a brief prayer so that Senate staff and members of the broader Senate community with whom the Senator worked can bid a final farewell.

5:30 p.m. A private burial service for Senator Kennedy will be held at Arlington
National Cemetery. Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C. will perform the burial service.

Michigan community colleges are challenging four-year universities for the right to offer bachelor’s degrees, and if they succeed, would join more than a dozen states across the country that already allow such degrees.

The move is being opposed by Michigan’s 15 public universities, which says it’s a clear case of the colleges overstepping their missions. The bill expected to get a hearing this fall would let community colleges offer some four-year degrees.

“They see it as an invasion of their turf,” said Michael Hansen, president of the 28-member Michigan Community College Association. “We’re not about taking fish out of their net. We’re about growing the net.”

President Barack Obama put community colleges front-and-center in his July 14 higher education policy speech at Macomb Community College in Warren, not far from America’s struggling auto capital. Macomb County is Michigan’s most populous county without a state university.

Obama announced a $12 billion proposal to increase community college graduates by 5 million by 2020. Community colleges now graduate about 1 million students a year. The president said the nation’s economic future depends on building a skilled work force.

“We will not fill those jobs – or keep those jobs on our shores – without the training offered by community colleges,” Obama said.

So far, community colleges have won the right to offer four-year degrees in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia, the Community College Baccalaureate Association says. Legislative efforts to extend the practice could come soon in Arizona and California, said Beth Hagan, executive director of the Fort Myers, Fla.-based group.

Tucson’s Pima Community College would like to offer bachelor’s degrees in business, construction and education, said Chancellor Roy Flores.

“This issue should be looked at dispassionately and objectively, with the needs of the community in mind,” Flores said. “It shouldn’t be based on institutional interests.”

Michigan State Rep. John Walsh, a former community college administrator, says community colleges do a better job training tomorrow’s workers if they’re allowed to offer bachelor’s degrees in some technical and vocational fields.

He has introduced a bill permitting the two-year schools to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing, culinary arts and cement technology.

Walsh limited his proposal to three technical fields in which he said there is a strong demand, learning from last year’s failure of a Senate bill granting community colleges broad authorities to offer four-year degrees, So far, the bill has eight Democratic and eight Republican sponsors.

“Community colleges offer an affordable and accessible option” at a time when the harsh economy has put a university education out of reach for many, said Walsh, a freshman Republican from Livonia and an ex-Schoolcraft College administrator.

Livonia-based Schoolcraft says it would like to add a bachelor’s degree in its established culinary arts program, and Alpena Community College wants to add a four-year option to its concrete technology program. Eight to 10 schools want to offer four-year nursing degrees, Walsh said.

Michigan’s community colleges have about 452,000 mostly part-time students. Its public universities have about 298,000 full-time students.

Four-year campuses want the community colleges to stick to their core mission. Michael Boulus, executive director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, said community colleges should stick with what they do best: offering post-high school remedial education, preparing students to enter four-year colleges and granting technical certificates and two-year degrees.

“We have our distinct missions,” said Boulus. “The two-year and the four-year institutions are very different.”

Michigan community colleges and universities already collaborate through “university centers” at which students can pursue two- or four-year degrees or seamlessly move from one to the other, Boulus said.

Community college advocates say university administrators fear lower-price competition. Full-time tuition is $937 a semester at Oakland Community College, compared with the $4,028 an in-state freshman paid during the winter term at nearby Oakland University.

Community colleges curb costs by giving faculty heavier course loads than at research universities. They also employ large numbers of lower-paid part-time faculty and a larger proportion of teachers without doctoral degees.

Further dividing a shrinking state higher education budget also worries university leaders. Financially stressed Michigan has cut aid to its public universities in recent years.

“The main concern is that we already are not supporting the existing four-year institutions to the degree they need,” said Marc Sheehan, spokesman for Ferris State University in Big Rapids.