Headlines:

• French Campus Trains Muslim Imams
• Iran Nuclear Talks Most Detailed Ever
• Pakistan to Get More Peanuts for Its Support to America's War against Islam
• China: Debt Debate Turns America into a Laughing Stock

Details:

French Campus Trains Muslim Imams

Preparing a new generation of native French Muslim imams, Turkey has announced its plans to establish the first Muslim campus in Strasbourg to attract hundreds of young French Muslims willing to serve the growing community. "It will become the standard for Islam in France and Europe," Saban Kiper, socialist councillor in the Strasbourg municipality told Liberation, ANSA. Providing France's future Imams with an intensive Arabic curriculum, the project will serve as a theology college with a five-year course of studies and a Muslim secondary school based on the Turkish imam hatip. "The secondary school will be a nursery ground for recruiting future students of theology," Kiper, said. Supervised by Diyanet, the Turkish religious affairs service, the Turkish funded project will coats nearly 15 million Euros to accommodate France's Muslim community of Turkish origins. The new campus will be hosting religious courses for at least six hours on a weekly basis. Though the campus is still under construction, several different structures were purchased in 2010 and are currently undergoing renovation. The new campus is expected to fill a void in France where only two private institutes offer imams' training, including a school created by Paris's Grand Mosque and the other is set up by the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF). Earlier in 2013, France has expelled several imams in recent months on claims of preaching hatred in the country. France is home to a Muslim minority of six million, Europe's largest. French Muslims have been complaining of growing restrictions on their religious freedoms. The French government had held a national debate on the role of Islam in French society. Paris had also outlawed Muslim street prayers, a sight far-right leader Marine Le Pen likened to the Nazi occupation. Muslims have also complained of restrictions on building mosques to perform their daily prayers. [Source: OnIslam.net]

 

Iran Nuclear Talks Most Detailed Ever

World powers and Iran have had "their most detailed talks ever" on Iran's nuclear programme, the EU's top foreign policy official Catherine Ashton says. The two sides have held two days of discussions in Geneva. Further talks will take place on 7 and 8 November. Baroness Ashton and Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif called the talks "substantive and forward-looking". International negotiators were carefully considering an Iranian proposal, a joint statement said. The discussions in Geneva brought together Iranian officials and representatives of the "P5+1" - the permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) plus Germany - also known as the E3+3. "The participants also agreed that E3+3 and Iranian nuclear, scientific and sanctions experts will convene before the next meeting to address differences and to develop practical steps," the statement went on. At a news conference afterwards, Mr Zarif said he hoped the talks would lead to the "beginning of a new phase in our relations" and would help resolve "an unnecessary crisis". He said that he expected international negotiators would need time to "digest and respond to" Iran's proposal. Iran has previously said its proposal at the two-day summit in Geneva has the "capacity to make a breakthrough". In previous rounds, Iran and the world powers largely talked past one another but now they appear to be getting into actual details, the BBC's James Reynolds reports from Geneva. One official at the talks suggested that the reticence to make details of the Iranian proposal public was a positive sign - real discussions don't take place in public, our correspondent adds. Breaking the ice at Iran nuclear talks White House spokesman Jay Carney said Iran had shown a "level of seriousness and substance that we have not seen before". [Source: BBC]

 

Pakistan to Get More Peanuts for Its Support to America's War against Islam

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has said that Pakistan would receive $322 million from United States (US) under the head Coalition Support Funds (CSF) shortly. With regard to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's talks with President Barack Obama on October 23, Dar said the Pakistani leader would advocate trade as the best way to strengthen bilateral relations and call for expansion in trade and investment relations. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will focus on expanding investment and trade cooperation with the United States during his upcoming visit to Washington, Ishaq Dar added. The Finance Minister stated this during media talk held at Washington, which details were issued by finance ministry here. The finance minister attended more than 50 meetings on the occasion of annual IMF-World Bank gatherings, and also had "positive" discussions with US officials on bilateral relations. The finance minister revealed that the American officials assured him during bilateral meetings that an outstanding amount of $322 million in Coalition Support Funds would be reimbursed to Pakistan shortly. The prime minister will also interact with American business leaders, Dar added. Senator Dar said he had a string of useful meetings with American officials including USAID Administrator and senior US Trade officials. He said on budget spending for Pakistan from the US assistance is likely to be increased to 35 to 40 percent from current 20 percent. During meetings with the World Bank and IMF chiefs, Dar said there was a "sea change" in their dealings with Pakistan as the international finance institutions expressed appreciation for Pakistan's recent reforms and steps to put the economy back on track. The World Bank, he said, has committed $700 million to Dasu hydropower project. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation has said it would increase the investment in Pakistan to $1.5 billion. "I found much greater international confidence in Pakistan's economic policies and reforms, and am confident that with more investments, we will be able to fuel the national economy, achieve higher GDP growth and fast-track the economic development," he said. [Source: The Nation]

 

China: Debt Debate Turns America into a Laughing Stock

Chinese state media have been having their fun with America's protracted attempts to stave off a crippling default - even though it will likely come back to haunt them. Cartoons depicting the U.S. as a beggar and on a life-support machine have been cropping up in publications this week as the Republicans and Democrats scrambled to agree an extension to the debt ceiling before tomorrow's deadline. A Chinese minister has also accused the 'gentlemen' on Capitol Hill of showing little concern that their 'monkey business' had been damaging America's reputation around the world. Mei Xinyu, who works in the Commerce Ministry and advises the Chinese government, warned that China will likely buy fewer U.S. Treasury Bonds to limit its exposure to the world's largest economy. It has already invested $1.3 trillion in American debt. [Source: UK Daily Mail]