No green shoots only economic misery Despite all the talk in some western capitals about how their economies are showing signs of recovery the exact opposite is transpiring. This week the US Federal Reserve forecast predicts that the US economy will contract by as much as 2% this year, an increase from the 1.3% contraction previously estimated. In addition, recovery in 2010 and 2011 will also be slower than first…

UK Muslims feel most isolated in EuropeOnly one in ten Muslims in Britain see themselves as integrated into the rest of society, a large-scale international survey said last week. And it found that more than a third are dissatisfied with their standard of living. The levels of integration - or 'cohesion' as Labour ministers prefer to call it - compare badly with the way Muslims have mixed into the rest…

Staff Correspondent Police last night arrested seven Hizb ut-Tahrir activists in the city's Badda area and seized leaflets containing 'provocative statements over Pilkhana carnage'. The arrestees are Abdur Rakib, 44, Sahadat Hossain, 23, Fakrul Hasan, 22, Abdullah-al-Mamun, 25, Noman Sikdar, 25, Arifuzzaman, 22, and Mir Salekin, 22. Officer-in-Charge (OC) Kazi Wazed Ali of Badda Police Station told The Daily Star that after a tip-off they raided a three-storey building at…

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - As the only Muslim member of NATO and a candidate to join the EU, Turkey has come to be seen as a bridge between East and West - held up by Washington as a shining example of how Islam is compatible with modern democracy. But as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to come here next week in a trip some herald as a milestone in ties,…