Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/6/2011

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Israel is a threat to the region, citing its nuclear weapons, its “occupation” of “Palestine”, and its use of “state terrorism”.

In other news, an eight-year-old girl in Afghanistan was sold to a police officer as a bride. This occurred despite a law introduced two years ago that specifically prohibits such practices.

In economic news, Greek public-sector employees went on strike, shutting down Athens airport and other public services. 20,000 of the strikers marched on parliament, protesting the government’s stringent austerity plan, which is intended to reduce the public debt.

Meanwhile, investors in the United Arab Emirates have pumped 12 billion Ugandan shillings (about $3.6 million) into a bank in Uganda, on the condition that the it institute sharia finance. The bank has agreed to the investors’ conditions, contingent upon the passage of a law by parliament that would allow the practice.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Insubria, JP, KGS, Kitman, Rembrandt, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.