Headlines:

• UK Prime Minister Backs £200m Islam-Friendly Bond
• Egypt Student Protests Continue
• Syria is Said to Destroy All Chemical Arms Production Sites
• Australian PM Tony Abbott Visits Afghanistan to Declare Australia's War Over

Details:

UK Prime Minister backs £200m Islam-Friendly Bond

David Cameron has made a pitch for new investment in the UK by Muslim countries, saying the UK hopes to offer a £200 million Islam-friendly bond as early as next year. The Prime Minister said he wanted London to be "the greatest centre for Islamic finance in the Western world" as political and business leaders gathered in London. A "world first" set of indices at the London Stock Exchange to help investors identify faith-compliant firms and projects was also announced as well as a £4.5 million boost to a small business growth fund. Several world leaders, including King Abdullah of Jordan and the Sultan of Brunei, appeared on stage with Mr Cameron for the ninth World Islamic Economic Forum. It is the first time the major annual event has been held outside of the Islamic world and the Prime Minister seized the chance to continue a push to secure foreign investment to push domestic economic recovery. The global market in Islamic investments is rapidly expanding, rising by 150% since 2006 and expected to be worth £1.3 trillion next year. Mr Cameron said Britain had already taken steps to ensure Muslims were not discriminated against - such as ending "double tax" on Islamic mortgages and introducing alternative forms of student and start-up loans to comply with a ban on interest payments. It already had more Islam-compliant banks than any other Western country and many law firms and university courses centred on the subject, he said. But he said that his ambition was for the country to compete with finance centres such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur - not just other non-Islamic capitals. "Already London is the biggest centre for Islamic finance outside the Islamic world," he told the gathering of 1,800 political and business leaders from over 115 countries. "But today our ambition is to go further still. Because I don't just want London to be a great capital of Islamic finance in the Western world. I want London to stand alongside Dubai and Kuala Lumpur as one of the great capitals of Islamic finance anywhere in the world." He went on: "When Islamic finance is growing 50% faster than traditional banking and when global Islamic investments are set to grow to £1.3 trillion by 2014 we want to make sure a big proportion of that new investment is made here in Britain." [Source: Express & Star]

Egypt Student Protests Continue

Students at Cairo's al-Azhar University took over an administrative building Wednesday and university officials called on security forces to intervene. The incident came after Egyptian authorities detained a top Muslim Brotherhood political figure. Amateur video showed a crowd of students smashing windows and breaking into a key administrative building at the university Wednesday. Witnesses say police later regained control of the building. A number of students were reportedly taken into custody. Sporadic protests by Islamist students at some universities continue to paralyze parts of Egypt's educational system.It was not clear if the latest protest was related to the arrest Wednesday morning of a top Muslim Brotherhood leader, Essam el-Erian. El-Erian was shown in a photo smiling and dressed in a traditional robe as police placed him under arrest,.Egyptian media quoted el-Erian as saying that he expected to be released soon and that ousted President Mohamed Morsi would also be reinstated.Egyptian judicial officials, however, say that Morsi, El-Erian, and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders will go on trial on Monday. A trial of Brotherhood Guide Mohamed Badie was postponed Tuesday, after three judges recused themselves.El-Erian was the visible face of the Muslim Brotherhood for many foreign audiences, speaking on TV frequently and addressing the foreign press, often in English. In 2011, he described the group's philosophy on religion and society to VOA's Al Pessin."Shariah [law], as a whole, is a way of life. It is up to the people themselves. It is not imposed by law. It is according to their faith," he said. Many Egyptian analysts think Brotherhood supporters will try to create high-profile disruptions in the lead up to the trial of former president Morsi scheduled for next week. Veteran Egyptian editor and publisher Hisham Kassem says he expects the Brotherhood to mount fresh protests." They certainly are going to try and step up all forms of protest that they can," he said. "But, they need to make a louder noise than anything they've done [before] the beginning of this trial." [Source: Voice of America]

Syria Is Said to Destroy All Chemical Arms Production Sites

Syria was reported on Thursday to have met a critical deadline for the destruction of all the chemical weapons production and mixing facilities declared to international inspectors, meeting a timetable set under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States. News reports quoted an unidentified official from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague as saying its inspectors had visited 21 out of the 23 chemical sites Syria declared to them. While the remaining two sites were too hazardous to visit because of the country's continuing civil war, the chemical-making equipment there had already been moved to other sites which the inspectors could visit. Syria agreed to the destruction of its chemical arsenal to avert threatened American and French military strikes following a poison gas attack in a suburb of Damascus on Aug. 21 that killed hundreds of people. The O.P.C.W. headquarters in The Hague did not immediately respond to a request to confirm or deny the reports. Reuters quoted a document from the United Nations-backed body as saying: "The O.P.C.W. is satisfied it has verified, and seen destroyed, all declared critical production/mixing/filling equipment from all 23 sites." The United States and its allies backing Syria's rebels accused forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of responsibility for the Aug. 21 attack. But Mr. Assad blamed the rebels themselves. The timetable foresees Syria destroying its stockpiles of chemical weapons by mid-2014. [Source: New York Times]

Australian PM Tony Abbott Visits Afghanistan to Declare Australia's War Over

Tony Abbott has declared an end to Australia's frontline involvement in Afghanistan during a surprise visit to troops, saying the ADF's presence in Uruzgan province had been worth its "high price". The prime minister spoke at a special ceremony at the ADF-operated Tarin Kowt base in Uruzgan province. He confirmed the Australian mission in the region would wind down by the end of the year. "It has been worth it. This has been a very difficult commitment. People have paid a high price. We have lost 40 of our best. We mourn them, we remember them, we honour them, we want to work with their families. We will never forget them," Abbott said. He added that Australia's involvement was ending, "not with victory, not with defeat, but with, we hope, an Afghanistan that is better for our presence here". He described the withdrawal as "bitter-sweet". It was "sweet because hundreds of soldiers will be home for Christmas; bitter because not all Australian families have had their sons, fathers and partners return. Sweet because our soldiers have given a magnificent account of themselves; bitter because Afghanistan remains a dangerous place despite all that has been done." Australia will continue to provide support to Afghanistan beyond 2014, including training of the Afghan national security forces and development assistance. Australian forces have maintained a permanent presence in Uruzgan since 2005, with more than 20,000 serving in the country since the start of the war. Abbott was accompanied on the trip by the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, marking the first Australian bipartisan political visit to Afghanistan.[Source: The Guardian]