Saturday, October 17, 2009 LONDON: Around 20 Muslim protesters protested much-criticised far-right Dutch MP as arrived for a meeting in British parliament on Friday.Geert Wilders, who faces prosecution in his homeland for anti-Islam remarks, came to London after winning an appeal earlier in the week against a ban on him entering Britain. Scores of police formed a barrier between a group calling itself "Islam in the UK" and Wilders' car as the protesters waved banners reading 9and shouted "Wilders go to Hell" and "Muslims rise up". Wilders was barred in February because British ministers said his presence would threaten community harmony and public safety. He had planned to speak to the media on a green outside the Palace of Westminster but was forced to hold it inside a nearby parliamentary office on advice of police. He is in London at the invitation of UK Independence Party peer Lord Malcolm Pearson to discuss showing his film "Fitna" in parliament, which insults the Koran, comparing with Nazis. Wilder faces prosecution in Amsterdam for inciting hatred and discrimination. "It is ridiculous that the UK government thought that my presence would in any way lead to violence," he said. "This man is an enemy of Islam and of Muslims and the British government is well aware of this and this just gives rise to so-called extremism," one protester," Abu Muaz, told Reuters. On Tuesday, Britain's Asylum and Immigration Tribunal overturned the ban on him entering the country following a challenge by Wilders. A Home Office spokesman on Friday said, "We are disappointed by the court's decision. The government opposes extremism in all its forms." He said that authorities will monitor Wilders during his stay in the UK, which could affect future decisions on whether to allow him entry.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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