U.S. Copts Association

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul on Friday in the northern Iraqi city and killed his driver and two companions, police said.

“He was kidnapped in the al-Nour district in eastern Mosul when he left a church. Gunmen opened fire on the car, killed the other three and kidnapped the archbishop,” said provincial police spokesman Brigadier-General Khaled Abdul Sattar.

An assistant to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad and spiritual leader of Iraq’s Catholics, said they had heard that three people had been killed and they did not know the fate of the archbishop, Paulos Faraj Rahho.
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By Frances Harrison

BBC religious affairs reporter

Egypt has appointed a woman to conduct Muslim marriages for the first time.

Amal Soliman, 32, has broken centuries of tradition by being chosen as a judicial assistant who officiates at weddings, known as a maazun.

Some commentators are saying she is the first female in the Muslim world authorised to conduct religious marriages.
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Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has said that this week he will finish a film about Islam which has already triggered Muslim outrage.Mr Wilders said he was determined to release the film despite government warnings that this would damage Dutch political and economic interests.

Mr Wilders says the film is about the Koran, without giving details.
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Joined the board of trustees figures, political and economic celebreties

Cairo: «Middle East»
While joined the board of trustees eminent economic, political and media in the country, was the leader of the U.S Copts Association.The new institution working officially in Egypt, was inaugurated as the leader of the Egyptian U.S. Association who holds American citizenship, Michael Meunier, the first political presence in Egypt announcing founding organizations working in Egypt. The hours before a rally held the day before yesterday in Cairo, to commemorate the founding declaration of the new organization under the name of «Hand in Hand for Egypt», joined Egyptian artist just before the Board of Trustees of the organization, while keen American Ambassador in Cairo, Francis Richardone, to attend the ceremony.
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Now there are tasks which are contentious but clear. 

There are now international problems which will have to be dealt with globally. 

The war on Radical Islam has to be won.

A nuclear war of a kind has to be done.

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Egypt on Friday deplored what it called gratuitous attacks on Islam and said it was closely monitoring plans by a Dutch filmmaker to release an anti-Koran film.

“It is regrettable that European lawmakers and politicians use gratuitous methods to gain electoral votes by attacking the sacred values and religions of others,” foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement.

Dutch far-right deputy Geert Wilders has said he will be airing on television in the Netherlands in March a controversial anti-Islam film called “Fitna” (Ordeal), which accuses the Koran of inciting people to murder.

Such politicians, Zaki said in reference to Wilders, “focus their hatred on Islam” and plan to broadcast a film undermining Islamic symbols.
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A man said to be one of the most important recruiters for Islamist extremism in the UK has been convicted at the end of a major trial.Mohammed Hamid, 50, of east London, was found guilty of training men in secret camps in the Lake District and New Forest to prepare them to fight abroad.

Among those to have passed through Hamid’s camps were the four failed suicide bombers of 21 July 2005.
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Writing history

By Sameh Samy - Watani News paper

Forty days have passed since the death of Yunan Labib Rizq, professor of contemporary history and head of Al-Ahram History Studies Centre. Dr Rizq’s weekly page in Al-Ahram, entitled A Diwan of Contemporary Life, presented Egyptian history throughout the past 100 years using as his source the files and reports of the Cairo daily Al-Ahram during that period, was a masterpiece of history art and was eagerly awaited by readers every Thursday. He magnificently blended the arts of journalism and historical commentary to tackle all the detailed memoirs and articles, presenting the reader with a fine, delectable record of history.
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A Hamas delegation has been meeting security officials in Egypt to discuss future arrangements for the control of the Egypt-Gaza border.The Palestinians, led by former Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar, are trying to come to an agreement with Egypt over the contentious frontier.
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Obama wins overwhelming support in mock election by more than 200 American and Muslim delegates in Doha.
DOHA - Delegates at a US-Islamic forum voiced support on Monday for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, although some warned against expecting any radical policy change irrespective of who captures the White House.
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