'I don't recognise those Muslims', A survey of British Muslims by a right-leaning think-tank has suggested that younger Muslims are more likely to be attracted to political forms of Islam - Sharia law, Islamic schools, wearing the veil - than their parents.
It also suggested that multi-culturalism was an outdated concept and government policy was making matters worse, not better. But not all young Muslims agree with this latest picture of modern Britain.

FAIZA ALI, 25, SOUTH-EAST LONDON

I am a second-generation Muslim. My parents spent the first 20 years of their lives in their country where the emphasis was on culture.

When they came to Britain, they had a lot less money. Their primary goal was to put food on the table.

The second generation has more time to investigate and explore other avenues. They spend more time looking into religion.


The opportunities we have now were not even available at the time.

The Asian culture is much more diluted now so that part of our lives is much less important. Religion has filled that gap.

More Muslims of my age wear hijabs than our parents' generation.

I don't think it was a fair survey. The indicators for fundamentalism are not whether you would wear a hijab. It is whether you are willing to blow yourself up.

Islamophobia is becoming a growing problem. People seem to get scared. When they hear about a Muslim, they think of terrorism and the media are encouraging this image.

I want to highlight we can live in this country under a British government. I don't know who those Muslims are that want to change everything.

We are not those crazy people that want to convert everyone into Islamists. We want to live peacefully in this country.

NASIR AHMED, 30, EAST LONDON

I don't see what all the fuss is about multi-culturalism.

I go out with my friends. I go to pubs but I just don't drink. I eat with them but I don't eat non-Halal food.

When I have to pray, I take breaks. I don't pray five times a day, I go once a week. I'm not that religious.

My parents are more religious than me but I am under no pressure from them saying why do I mix with whites.


I don't see any problems abiding with the British law. If someone didn't like it, I would tell them to go back home.

If you come to a different country, you should abide by the rules.

Most of my friends are quite educated. They are in good jobs and earn good money. They also interact with British people.

I am not sure this is a fair picture of how British Muslims feel. Most of my friends feel the opposite way. I don't see why you need Sharia law. Things are more-or-less perfect.

Reality is completely different from what we read in the papers. An English person with no Muslim friends will think this is the way Muslims feel.

Indian economy 'to overtake UK',India could overtake Britain and have the world's fifth largest economy within a decade as the country's growth accelerates, a new report says.
If trends continue, India's economy may then surpass the US and be second only to China's by mid-century, the report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says.

The report says India's programme of reforms has brought increased competition and efficiency.

But there will be a heavy cost as India demands more and more energy.

Boom time

Everywhere you turn in India's cities are signs of economic boom.


The implications of projections are that India will overtake the G6 economies faster than envisaged ,

Goldman Sachs report
New cars choking the streets, middle-class housing and shopping malls swallowing up farmland, airports chock-a-block with travellers.

But this is probably only the start of a transformation that will reshape the global economy.

Within a decade India can overtake Italy, France and the UK to become the world's fifth largest economy if it keeps up its current pace of expansion, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.

India has shifted into a higher gear, they believe, because a decade of reforms have opened the country to greater competition, and spurred industries to become more efficient.

By 2050 India's economy could be larger even than America's, only China's will be bigger, the bank predicts.

The result will be huge demand from this new giant.

Within 15 years Indians should, on average, be four times richer than today, buying five times as many cars, and the country will burn three times as much crude oil to power its growth, putting yet more strain on the world's resources.

Potential

But India could also be held back.

The country's poor infrastructure is already struggling to keep up with growth, power cuts are common as there isn't enough electricity to meet current demand, ports are overflowing, many roads pot-holed and crumbling.

And a shortage of skilled workers may undermine the future expansion of India's much-vaunted IT industry.

However, other nations are increasingly waking up to the potentially vast market India holds. Last month the largest-ever American trade delegation to India spent two weeks searching out opportunities.

They were followed by a British group 150-strong led by the finance minister, Gordon Brown.

And the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is to visit this week where he is pressing for major contracts providing nuclear power and defence equipment.

Putin issues offer to build reactor, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, on a visit to New Delhi, offered to build four nuclear reactors for energy-starved India.

Russia is already building two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in the southern town of Kudankulam.

In talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Putin also proposed giving India broader access to Russia's hydrocarbon energy riches. The two nations signed deals on energy, scientific and space cooperation.

New Delhi: India is aiming to join the big league of avionic super powers in just about seven years, by developing a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, which will match the top powers in the world.

The only operational fifth-generation fighter in the world as of now is the new American F/A-22 Raptor, the most expensive combat jet in history, priced as it is at 8 million apiece.

According to sources, officials from the Defence Ministry, Indian Air Force and the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) have already prepared a blueprint for the stealth fighter jet, which will have a lethal mix of beyond-visual range combat capabilities, reduced radar tracking signature, super-maneuverability and supersonic cruising ability among others.

The jet will be far advanced in comparison to fourth-generation fighters like MiG-29s, F-15 Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, FA-18 Hornets, Mirage-2000s and the like. The intermediate stage between them and the fifth-generation fighters is represented by Sukhoi-30MKIs, F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, F-16F Desert Falcons, Eurofighter Typhoons and Rafales.

The most potent fighters in India's combat fleet at present are the Sukhoi-30MKI 'air dominance' fighters, being manufactured indigenously by HAL now under transfer of technology from Russia, which can be placed a little over fourth-generation fighters.

The fifth-generation fighter, sources say, will be “50% to 100% superior” to Sukhoi-30MKI in terms of "avionics, radius of turn, accuracy of weapon delivery and other combat capabilities".

India will collaborate with Russia in this multi-billion-dollar programme since it is yet to master the technology behind the manufacture of advanced fighter jets despite the ongoing indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft project.

The decks were cleared for this project on Wednesday with New Delhi making the "final choice" on the matter and Moscow saying the work on signing contracts on the deal could begin soon.

Observing that Russia had started developing the warplane about three years ago, visiting Deputy Premier and Defence Minister Sergei B Ivanov said: "Some time back, India showed interest in joining this project. It took them (India) some time to scrutinise the various options."

"Now, India has informed us that a final choice has been made. We can (now) open up contractual work for Indian accession to the project," Ivanov told reporters at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart A K Antony after signing four documents.

Although interaction has begun now on the joint development and production of fifth generation fighter jet, the actual signing of agreements could take some more time.

Under the deals signed between the two nations on Wednesday, India will procure 40 additional Sukhoi 30 and 80 MI-171V choppers from Russia. The two countries have also signed an agreement on license production for MiG 29 engines. Ivanov also hinted that Russia won't allow China to export Russian fighter engines to Pakistan. The two sides have also signed a protocol of intent to jointly develop the multi-role transport aircraft

India and Russia have long-running military ties even though in which India has been increasingly turning to the United States and other countries for its military supplies in the recent years. Although about 70 per cent of India's military hardware is of Soviet and Russian origin. New Delhi is now increasingly shifting from the existing buyer-seller approach to joint production. The Indian Government is likely to about billion on arms purchases from 2007 to 2012.

Russia had been hard-selling its fifth-generation fighter project to India for some years now since it desperately needs some infusion of funds in its programme touted to be a rival to the American F-35 Lighting-II Joint Strike Fighter project. The two main Russian aviation majors, MIG Corporation and Sukhoi Design Bureau, submitted their plans for joint development of the fifth-generation fighter with HAL in end-November.

"Both presented their concept papers and blueprints about the aircraft configuration, workshare in co-development and cost of development. India might make the choice of its partner public during Putin's visit,".

The Clinton Playbook,When George W. Bush takes the podium in the House tonight, he will peer into an audience of scowling, hostile faces. He will see lawmakers made bitter by the failure of his Iraq gambit, and by his call to risk compounding that failure by adding more U.S. troops to the lethal sectarian stew in Baghdad. He will see members of both the House and the Senate seething over his miscalculations, his six years of contempt for the Congress and his legacy of debt, bloated government and partisan animosity.

Then he'll look at the Democrats, who will be smiling.

In late 1994 and early 1995, President Clinton was in free fall. His aides despaired. They worried he might never recover from the shellacking the Democrats took in the 1994 mid-term elections. His approval ratings were mired in the 30's, and seemed unlikely to rise. When Clinton delivered his State of the Union address in January 1995, his first with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole seated behind him as Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, he looked out at an audience of Democrats who blamed him for losing their majorities and of Republicans who were already convinced he would be a one-term president. Then he proceeded to deliver what may forever be the longest State of the Union address in history -- 81 long minutes of policy prescriptions large and small. It was interminable, a seeming embarrassment. That night I spoke to a top White House adviser to the President. "We're getting killed on this, aren't we?" he asked. "We're dead."

But the public didn't agree with the Beltway assessments of Clinton's 1995 State of the Union address, even the ones from within his own White House. The reaction was favorable. Slowly, Clinton began the process of saving his presidency.

Twelve years later, aides to George W. Bush are studying the ways previous administrations salvaged presidencies that seemed to some to be beyond salvation. One of the lessons of the Clinton recovery, both in 1995 and later, during Monica, in 1999, is that Americans reward presidents who, even in the face of enormous distractions, focus on issues that matter to them.

Which is why, according to leaked previews, Bush won't spend much time tonight talking about surging troops in Iraq or the Global War on Terror. Instead, he'll put forward what for him will be progressive and bold policy proposals on health care, the environment and immigration reform.

Initial reactions to the specifics of Bush's health care proposal have been tepid at best. But there's a chance he will be rewarded by viewers for finally addressing an issue that matters deeply to Americans all across the country struggling to deal with the cost of health insurance. The same may be true on global warming, an issue once dismissed by the Bush White House as the preoccupation of liberal elitists alone. Immigration is riskier, but the potential payoff -- a grand compromise between pragmatists in both parties -- could add a glimmer of shine to Bush's badly tarnished legacy.

And yet, with polls showing his approval rating only falling further since the mid-terms, and with his own party in rebellion over his plans to send more troops into Iraq, Bush's attempts to change the subject tonight may fail even as they mirror the successes of some of his predecessors. His plight is so dire, and his fate so inextricably tied to one issue, that no matter what he proposes tonight, he is unlikely to lighten the public's sour mood, about him or the state of the union he governs.
The Clinton Playbook