EUROPEUS

(By Jane Perlez / Source: International Herald Tribune) Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes. Like little else, their appearance has unnerved Britons, testing the limits of tolerance in this stridently secular nation. Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. At the same time, efforts are growing to place legal curbs on the full Muslim veil, known as the niqab. The past year has seen numerous examples: A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that she could not represent a client because, he said, he could not hear her. A teacher wearing a niqab was told by a provincial school to go home. A student who was barred from wearing a niqab took her case to the courts, and lost. In fact, the British education authorities are proposing a ban on the niqab in schools altogether.

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(By Francis Elliot and David Charter / Source: The Times - UK) Badly bruised from the fallout over his decision not to hold an autumn election, Gordon Brown now faces a week dominated by his decision to avoid another poll - a referendum on the proposed EU reform treaty. He flies to Portugal on Thursday for a two-day summit of European leaders that will finalise the text of the treaty that has replaced the defunct EU constitution. With most observers expecting him to pick a last-minute fight to prove his patriotic credentials, it remains to be seen whether this well-worn tactic will be enough to see him face down the clamour for a referendum.

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In a poll commissioned by the BBC to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the 1947 independence of India from Britain and the official founding of Pakistan it emerged that a third of 16-34-year-old British Asians do not feel British, three-quarters felt their culture was being diluted by living in the UK and nearly half believed white people do not treat them as British. However, one key aspect that the survey seemed to ignore is how British Asians define being British.

Let’s start with what we know, which is thanks to the press, rumors or in a few cases the British government, who had to stop rumors for the public’s safety. By the way, the British government has shown irresponsibility to the maximum. If they had found out that there was something suspicious on a Greek airplane, especially radiation, the Foreign Office would have stopped every flight from Greece and forbid tourists to go to Greece, but when it comes to Britain they think that a reassuring talk from Blair’s gang would be enough.

What has already been predicted from the '50s, mainly from mad scientists and science fiction films, is the energy crisis, which is a reality here and now. In another of today's article, Christopher Wilkinson is also wondering "What is the death toll per barrel today?" Everybody can see that there is a limit in oil and the end is not lost in time, but is calculated so well that the American administration is ready to pay the cost with human lives and total environmental destruction like the one planned for Alaska. The Europeans, from their side, stand in the middle, literally in the middle. For a long time they have tried to talk about alternative energy resources, but somehow they don't feel confident with them, mainly because the use of alternative energy resources demands another series of environmentally friendly moves, plus control and reduction of production - something that none of the European governments are ready to accept and do.