Comments From Understand The Times

At a recent forum exploring educational options for the future of Northern Ireland, several influential public figures - including Baroness May Blood - made it clear that the best way forward is for schools to be religion-free zones. This solution seems tantalising in two ways - in its simplicity and in its ability to unite those from a varied range of political, religious and non-religious positions.

Yet around the world there are many others who see that now, more than ever, is a time to engage our young people with issues of faith, belief and values in an educational environment. Among them is former prime minister Tony Blair, who is now patron and founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

This worldwide inter-faith organisation runs a schools programme called Face to Faith. The programme facilitates inter-faith dialogue through video-conferencing and online collaboration with the aim of providing young people with the knowledge and skills needed for meaningful inter- and intra-faith dialogue across a range of cultures.

For this reason, last year I contacted the Blair foundation to ask if, using my influence as an educator, I could help to create an opportunity for schools to learn more about the Face to Faith project. The end result was that, last month, teachers from eight schools participated in a one-day training event on the project at Stranmillis University College in Belfast.

During the session, the teachers had the rare opportunity to chat with Tony Blair during a video conference. He told the teachers: "Young people have an enormous appetite to learn about others who are different from them" and he emphasised the positive value of enabling pupils to discuss faith issues and beliefs. Jo Malone, Face to Faith international co-ordinator at the foundation, introduced teachers to the basics of video-conferencing as well as the learning materials and cooperative learning techniques at the heart of the programme.

There were also international contributions from experienced inter-faith facilitators in India and Lebanon who stressed the benefits of Face to Faith, not only for encouraging dialogue and empathy between young people, but helping them to connect with their own faith traditions. It was particularly positive that the launch of Face to Faith in Northern Ireland involved schools from across the range of management-types (Controlled, Maintained and Integrated) and it is hoped that the programme spawns local as well as international collaboration.

I left with the strong impression that a culture of sharing is emerging as an integral aspect of our education system. In both cases I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Israel poses the greatest threat in the Middle East and regional states should take the necessary steps to contain it, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said late Monday as he met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the Fars news agency reported.

"Effort should be made to take all measures to contain this fake regime," Ahmadinejad said in the meeting. He warned that "any move in line with the Zionist regime's goals and objectives means committing suicide."

Ahmadinejad called on neighboring countries to remain vigilant against foreign plotters and to prevent external meddling, according to the report.

On Tuesday, Davutoglu met with other Iranian officials as part of his visit saying that regional dynamics will direct and implement a "very dynamic transformation process" in the Middle East, Today's Zaman reported.

"For this reason, there is a need for very close consultations with friendly and neighbor countries that might have an influence on regional developments," Davutoglu told the press in Tehran.

Iran is preparing to install centrifuges for higher-grade uranium enrichment in an underground bunker, diplomatic sources say, a development that is likely to add to Western worries about Tehran's atomic aims.

Preparatory work is under way at the Fordow facility, tucked deep inside a mountain to protect it against any attacks, and machines used to refine uranium could soon be moved to the site near the clerical city of Qom, the sources said.

The Islamic Republic said in June it would shift production of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity to Fordow from its main Natanz plant this year and triple output capacity, in a defiant response to charges that it is trying to make atomic bombs.

Tehran only disclosed the existence of Fordow two years ago after Western intelligence detected it and said it was evidence of covert nuclear activities. The facility has yet to start operating. "They are preparing (for the centrifuges to be installed) in Fordow," one diplomatic source said.

Refined uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power reactors and also, if enriched to much higher levels, provide material for atomic arms.

But its decision in early 2010 to raise the level of enrichment from the 3.5 percent purity needed for normal power plant fuel to 20 percent worried countries that saw it as a significant step towards the 90 percent needed for bombs.

A severe drought that spans across several east-African countries including Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, has left at least 12 million Africans in a "fight for survival," according to a recent report from MSNBC. Representing the worst drought the region has experienced since the early 1950s, humanitarian efforts there are in full swing, as hundreds of thousands of refugees continue to migrate from the worst-hit areas to those that might offer some relief.

The report indicates that Dadaab, a small town located in northeast Kenya that was built as a refugee camp, currently holds about 380,000 refugees, with an additional 10,000 more flocking there each week. Originally built for 90,000 people, Dadaab, which is the largest refugee camp in the world, has exceeded its capacity by more than 400 percent with no end in sight.

Continual conflict and wars, escalating inflation, and rapidly-rising food costs, have forced many Africans in the region to migrate wherever necessary to find relief, even if it means relocating to other less-stricken, but still stricken areas. And according to Jane Cocking, humanitarian director of Oxfam International, an international relief organization, there are at least 12 million Africans in the area who are fighting just to survive.