April 18, 2009 — The report in the Times of London began: “Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.’’ The references to modern weapons and the use …

The gory practice of fake encounter killings highlights both judicial apathy and police culpability. AHMEDABAD Judicial Magistrate S.P. Tamang’s report on the killing in an “encounter” of 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan has confirmed what many had suspected on the basis of less-than-convincing official accounts – that she and three others were killed in cold blood by the Gujarat Police. The fact …

The hysteria over the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber reveals much about the political and media class on both sides of the Atlantic, especially Britain. From Gordon Brown’s “repulsion” to Barack Obama’s “outrage,” the theater of lies and hypocrisy is dutifully attended by those who call themselves journalists. “But what if Megrahi lives longer than three months?” whined a …

September 17, 2009 “Information Clearing House” – — On the day Prime Minister Gordon Brown made his “major policy speech” on Afghanistan, repeating his surreal claim that if the British army did not fight Pashtun tribesmen over there, they would be over here, the stench of burnt flesh hung over the banks of the Kunduz River. Nato fighter planes had …

Beata Paxford is a lawyer and Ph.d. candidate in Banking Law.  Beata is currently writing her dissertation on Islamic Banking at Warsaw University in Poland. She is an Islamic Banking advocate in Poland and hopes to popularise Islamic banking in the CEE countries. © Islamic Finance Today Recent developments In the light of the recent bankruptcies of some leading banks, …