A fourth argument holds that women wear the burqa only because they are coerced.  This is a rather implausible argument to make across the board, and it is typically made by people who have no idea what the circumstances of this or that individual woman are.   We should reply that of course all forms of violence and physical coercion in the home are illegal already, and laws against domestic violence and abuse should be enforced much more zealously than they are.

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Israel's prime minister is flying to Washington DC for talks with the US president as the two leaders look to downplay reported tensions between the allies over Israeli plans to build housing settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

Barack Obama will host Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, with discussions expected to focus the deadly raid on an aid flotilla, the blockade of Gaza, talks with the Palestinians, Israeli settlements and Iran.

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is refusing to back the deal made between the Federal Government and the resources sector over its redesigned resources tax.

Mr Abbott is not rescinding his calls for a new tax on the mining industry to be dumped and has declared that the next election will be a referendum on it.

The Government has backed down on several key areas in a bid to end the damaging stoush with the resources sector, dumping its Resource Super Profits Tax for the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT).
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Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey says the new regime will be the most complicated in the world.

The Federal Government has agreed major concessions with the mining industry in a redesign of its controversial super profits tax.

The changes, announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard this morning, include reducing the headline rate of the tax from 40 per cent to 30 per cent.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is to receive a prestigious US medal and $100,000 (£67,000) prize for his work in conflict resolution.

The National Constitution Centre is awarding him its Liberty Medal for "steadfast" efforts to broker peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East.

Previous winners include Nelson Mandela and former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush senior.

Mr Blair said he was driven by values of "freedom, liberty and justice".

Mr Clinton, the centre's chairman, will present the medal in Philadelphia on 13 September.

'Dedication and creativity'

picture by Gus (c 1960s). Diego Suarez now known as Antsiranana

Germany's new radar satellite, TanDEM-X, has returned its first images.

The spacecraft was launched from Kazakhstan on Monday on a mission to make the most precise 3D map of the Earth's surface.

The pictures demonstrate the platform is in excellent health and ready to team up with the TerraSAR-X satellite launched in 2007.

United States president Barack Obama has sent his congratulations to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and praised former leader Kevin Rudd as a "great friend".

Federal Cabinet will meet this morning for the first time with Ms Gillard in the top job.

She was elected unopposed to the Labor leadership after Mr Rudd agreed to stand aside when it was clear he did not have the support of his party after a tumultuous Wednesday evening in Canberra.

from the Moscow Times

Over the past 18 months, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev have reinvigorated a U.S.-Russian relationship that had become moribund if not downright dangerous in the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency. The signing of the New START treaty in April, increasing cooperation in Afghanistan, and a United Nations Security Council agreement over new sanctions on Iran all testify to the growing rapprochement between Moscow and Washington. Even Russian television commentators of the U.S.-Slovenia World Cup match on Friday agreed that the U.S. team had been robbed of victory by a terrible call by the referee.