Top Items:
Flemming Rose / Washington Post:
Why I Published Those Cartoons — Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad I decided to publish in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words.
RELATED ITEMS:
Ian Fisher / New York Times:
Italian Quits Over Cartoons; 15 Die in Nigeria — TURIN, Italy, Feb. 18 — A day after at least 11 people were killed in Libya amid continuing violence over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, an Italian government minister resigned Saturday for wearing a T-shirt printed with the cartoons.
BBC:
Nigeria cartoon protests kill 16 — Sixteen people have been killed in northern Nigeria during protests by Muslims over the cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. — Most of the deaths occurred in rioting in Maiduguri, capital of north-eastern Borno state. One person died in similar riots in north-central Katsina state.
Telegraph:
Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK — Four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the country, a survey reveals today. — The ICM opinion poll also indicates that a fifth have sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the suicide bombers …
RELATED ITEM:
Alasdair Palmer / Telegraph:
'The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state' — For the past two weeks, Patrick Sookhdeo has been canvassing the opinions of Muslim clerics in Britain on the row over the cartoons featuring images of Mohammed that were first published in Denmark and then reprinted in several other European countries.
Deborah Howell / Washington Post:
Crossing the Line on a Cable Show? — Dana Milbank can be controversial with readers. The Post reporter has his fans — and I can be one of them — but I think his appearance on MSNBC last week was a mistake in judgment. — Milbank wore hunting gear — an orange stocking cap and striped vest …
Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:
Cheering tidbits lighten otherwise grim week — In an otherwise grim week — at least on unimportant peripheral matters like Iranian nukes — three things cheered me up. The first was the decision of Iran's bakers to rename Danish pastries "Roses of the Prophet Muhammed pastries.'' Has a ring to it, don't you think?
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Simon Jenkins / Times of London:
Bush and Blair have brilliantly done Bin Laden's work for him — Is Osama Bin Laden winning after all? Until recently I would have derided such a thought. How could a tinpot fanatic who is either dead or shut in some mountain hideout hold the world to ransom for five years?
Michael Janofsky / New York Times:
Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists — WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — One of the perquisites of being president is the ability to have the author of a book you enjoyed pop into the White House for a chat. — Over the years, a number of writers have visited President Bush …
Robin Toner / New York Times:
Drug Plan's Start May Imperil G.O.P.'s Grip on Older Voters — WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Older voters, a critical component of Republican Congressional victories for more than a decade, could end up being a major vulnerability for the party in this year's midterm elections, according to strategists in both parties.
Philip P. Pan / Washington Post:
The Click That Broke a Government's Grip — BEIJING — The top editors of the China Youth Daily were meeting in a conference room last August when their cell phones started buzzing quietly with text messages. One after another, they discreetly read the notes. Then they traded nervous glances.
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum / Washington Post:
Promise to Shore Up Ethics Loses Speed — GOP Schedule Slips In House; Senate Panels to Act Soon — The rush to revise ethics laws in the wake of the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal has turned into more of a saunter. — A month ago, Republican leaders in Congress called legislation …
Newsweek:
The Shot Heard Round the World — He peppered a man in the face, but didn't tell his boss. Inside Dick Cheney's dark, secretive mind-set-and the forces that made it that way. — Feb. 27, 2006 issue - Dick Cheney has never been your normal politician. He has never seemed as eager to please …
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Trillion-Dollar Gimmick — Extending Bush's Tax Cuts Through Sleight of Hand — Back when the late John Mitchell was attorney general in the Nixon administration, he advised reporters, "Watch what we do, not what we say." — That advice certainly applies to the Bush administration as well.
Claudia Rosett / Weekly Standard:
Cash-for-Kofi — DESPITE FREQUENT DECLARATIONS OF REFORM, it seems that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has learned nothing from the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food scandal, in which Saddam Hussein's billions corrupted the U.N.'s entire Iraq embargo bureaucracy.
