Titles:

• Euro debt crisis could destabilise world economy, says Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
• President Obama Leaves "All Options" Open In Response To Iran
• Kazakhstan tightens law against Islamic prayers
• Report: NATO wins in Afghanistan exaggerated

Details:

Euro debt crisis could destabilise world economy, says Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday warned that Europe's debt crisis could be "a destabilising factor" for the world as a whole in a speech to parliament in which he rejected calls to resign. "The economic crisis will improve only when Europe can show that it can take a decisive step towards political unity, towards coordinating economic policy, defence policy, foreign policy," Berlusconi told centre-right lawmakers. "As long as we remain a large economic body with a small political head, the economic crisis risks continuing with no solution and with the added danger that Europe becomes a destabilising factor for the world economy," he said. "The heart of the European banking system is being attacked by speculation. The markets are volatile... which undermines the stability of the euro," he said. He also cautioned against further political uncertainty in Italy, saying that his government was the best guarantor of stability in tough economic times. Berlusconi said the euro was weakened from its inception by the fact that there is no mechanism for coordinating budget policies or issuing common European bonds.

President Obama Leaves "All Options" Open In Response To Iran

Obama told the press this week that he had "laid out a very specific set of facts." Obama said, "what we know is that an individual of Iranian-American descent was involved in a plot to assassinate the ambassador to the United States from Saudi Arabia. We also know that he had direct links, was paid by and directed by individuals in the Iranian government. Now those facts are there for all to see." Obama also said that as the U.S. formulates a response to Iran, that the U.S. does not "take any options off the table." However, the initial response would be a legal and diplomatic one-starting with a prosecution of those individuals involved in the plot and pressing forward with additional sanctions on elements of Iran's government. The Treasury Department has already moved to restrict the finances of organizations and firms linked to the Iranian government. "What you're gonna see is folks throughout the Middle East region questioning their ability to work effectively with Iran," the president predicted. Reports have surfaced that the president was initially briefed on the threat in June and a months-long investigation resulted in arrests this week.

Kazakhstan tightens law against Islamic prayers

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a tough religion law Thursday including a ban on prayer rooms in state buildings, aimed at stamping out Islamist militancy but criticized by Kazakhstan's top Muslim cleric and the West. Nazarbayev, 71, has ruled Kazakhstan for more than 20 years as a secularist autocrat. Until this year, the 70 percent Muslim country largely avoided the Islamist violence seen in other central Asian ex-Soviet states like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. "The new law ... more clearly defines the rights and duties of religious organizations and outlines the role of the state in strengthening the religious tolerance of our society," Nazarbayev said Thursday during a visit to Shymkent, near the border with Uzbekistan where radical Islam is on the rise. "Peace and harmony in our multiethnic home are Kazakhstan's most valuable patrimony," he said. The comments were reported on his official website. The law, swiftly approved by the compliant legislature, has caused heated debate. Article 7 bans prayer rooms in all state institutions. Kazakhstan's Supreme Mufti, Absattar Derbisali, said this could anger pious Muslims and spur extremism. Among recent measures to fight Islamist militancy, Kazakhstan temporarily blocked access to a number of foreign Internet sites in August after a court ruled they were propagating terrorism and inciting religious hatred.

Report: NATO wins in Afghanistan exaggerated

The US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan may be exaggerating successes of raids designed to kill or capture insurgent leaders, a flagship strategy in the 10-year war, a report warned Thursday. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) hails the raids as one of the most effective tactics against the insurgency, but the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) says data from December 2009 to September 2011 is inconsistent. "The lack of transparency is particularly apparent in the case of the insurgent ?leaders? that were reportedly being killed and captured; there is no way to properly evaluate these claims," said the AAN report on its website. Two days ago, the military said the number of Taliban attacks had declined for the first time and that the Taliban has failed in recent months to seize back territory lost in US-led offensives in the south. Basing its data on 3,771 press releases announcing the deaths of at least 3,873 people and the detentions of another 7,146, AAN said ISAF often interchanges the terms "facilitator" and "leader" without explaining why. It also said statistics in press releases did not tally with more grandiose figures released separately by ISAF to media outlets. Although it was unclear to what extent this was intentional, "it should make policy-makers and analysts evaluating ISAF?s progress think twice about accepting these body-count figures without more serious scrutiny," AAN said. On September 3, an ISAF release said security forces had captured or killed more than 40 Al-Qaeda insurgents in eastern Afghanistan this year. But a tally of previous releases add up to 22 killed and 10 captured, many of which, AAN points out, are simply noted as having had "suspected ties". AAN concedes that the press releases themselves do not represent a complete figure, given that there may have been unreported operations, and more deaths and detentions per incident than counted.

Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia pose threat to US: Panetta

Addressing the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, US Secretary for Defence Leon Panetta said that terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia pose a threat to the United States. At a hearing on the future of national defence and the US military 10 years after 9/11, the focus of the discussion centred largely on defence budget cuts. The hearing was disrupted in the first 15 minutes by anti-war protestors, who raised slogans against the war, and were escorted out by the police. Secretary of Defence Panetta said that their focus was that Afghanistan should not become a safe haven for al Qaeda again. He added that if the United States left Afghanistan in a hurry, and Afghanistan became a base for al Qaeda, the world would question the US. Members of the committee questioned Secretary Panetta as to why the US was spending billions in wars when the US was facing a fiscal deficit and an economic crisis at home. Rep Chellie Pingree questioned why the United States was spending $120 billion a year on the wars.