Report Shows Muslims Near Bottom of Social Ladder

An official panel has concluded that Muslims, India’s largest religious minority, are “lagging behind” on most things that matter.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office, which is reviewing the report, summarized the panel’s biting conclusion this way: “The community is relatively poor, more illiterate, has lower access to education, lower representation in public- and private-sector jobs and lower availability of bank credit for self-employment. In urban areas, the community mostly lives in slums characterized by poor municipal infrastructure.”

Muslims make up roughly 13 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, and their numbers are nearly equal to the entire population of Pakistan, which was carved out of British India nearly 60 years ago as the homeland of the subcontinent’s Muslims. Soul-searching about Muslim rights and well-being in this country, which has witnessed periodic outbreaks of religious violence, has been a recurrent leitmotif ever since.

The latest findings have prompted fresh debate. In an editorial in The Indian Express, an English-language daily, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, the president of the Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, suggested that the government’s panel had revealed “the hollowness of our concept of republican citizenship.”

“What is at stake,” Mr. Mehta said, “is not just uplifting this or that group, but the very idea of India itself: whether it has the capacity for transcending the cant, indifference and identity traps that have brought us to this pass.”

Castro misses birthday ceremony

Frail Cuban leader Fidel Castro has stayed away from the opening ceremony of his 80th birthday celebrations in Havana on doctors’ orders. A message apparently written by Mr Castro was read out saying he was not yet strong enough to attend the event.

President Castro underwent emergency intestinal surgery at the end of July and has not been seen in public since.

Turkey

Turkey Faces Opposition for EU Membership

A European Union commissioner Wednesday recommended partially suspending membership talks with Turkey to protest Ankara’s continued refusal to open its ports to EU member Cyprus.

Prime Minister Tony Blair called it a ‘’serious mistake” to send Turkey a negative message on membership now, and Spain’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged leaders to ”work intensively” to keep the doors open to Ankara.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, however, said he would support a partial suspension of talks, saying Ankara has not fulfilled its obligations.

Pope Backs Turkey’s Bid to Join European Union

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Turkey on Tuesday armed with a surprise gesture of good will aimed at blunting Muslim anger toward him: he backed Turkey’s long-stalled desire to join the European Union, reversing a statement he made two years ago.

Iraq

Five girls die in Iraq shootout

Six Iraqis, including five girls ranging in age from infant to teenager, were killed yesterday during a shootout between US soldiers and suspected insurgents in western Iraq, the US military said.

A US patrol in Ramadi, a Sunni insurgent stronghold, fired tank rounds, machine gun and small arms fire at two men who were shooting from the roof of a house at US soldiers clearing a roadside bomb, the military said in a statement.

US forces kill two women in Baquba

The US military said American soldiers engaged in a gun battle in the northern city called in air support that killed eight suspected insurgents. The military said the soldiers searching the building also found the bodies of two women.

Iraqi police said all the dead were civilians from two families. Police said they were a man and his three sons and another couple and their son and daughter.

Iraqi premier wants more control over his military

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki will push for the U.S. military to relinquish control over his nation’s security forces when he meets President Bush today to discuss a strategy to quell raging violence in Iraq, aides and political insiders said Tuesday.

Frustrated by U.S. accusations that he isn’t doing enough, Maliki says his hands are tied as long as he does not have the authority to deploy forces as he sees fit. He wants Bush to accelerate the training of the army and police, fund more recruits and provide them with bigger and better weapons, lawmakers briefed by Maliki said.

Other

China to Install Bishop Without Papal Approval

China’s state-sanctioned Catholic church said Tuesday that it plans to ordain another bishop without approval from the pope, despite renewed diplomatic efforts to end long-standing hostility between China and the Vatican.

The ascension of Wang Renlei, vicar general of Xuzhou diocese in southern China, will mark the third time in seven months that a bishop has been installed by the government’s Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association without Vatican approval.

Nato hails shift on Afghan combat

Nato leaders at a summit have hailed the relaxation of curbs on deployment of some members’ troops in Afghanistan. Nato commanders say they believe they can move an extra 2,500 troops around the country now some smaller members have relaxed their mission conditions.

But France and Germany will not move to the volatile south. They say they are prepared to help in an emergency.

EU outlines new carbon permits

The European Union has established carbon limits for the second phase of the carbon trading scheme, a key step in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The European Trading Scheme (ETS) aims to cut emissions by 8% of 1990 levels.

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