Given the central role of the Wahhabi tradition in inspiring the Taliban and al Qaeda, it's worth looking behind the scenes at the news that al Qaeda wanted revenge for the killing of Abu Laith al-Libi in Pakistan -- in particular what exactly al Qaeda said about his death.

According to our Dubai correspondent Firouz Sedarat,  al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri presented an eulogy for Libi in a 9:58 minute video, congratulating him for achieving martyrdom. He spoke of his death as a natural course in jihad.  "Every time a martyr falls, another martyr grabs the banner from him, and every time a chief goes down in blood, another chief completes the march after him," he says. These martyrs, Zawahiri declared to America and its "agents",  are the "pioneers of the coming advance".  

In his speech, Zawahiri accused "the enemy" of trying to weaken the resolve of Muslims. He referred to a response he had written to a document for the guidance of jihad by Sayyed Imam al-Sherif , who reportedly fell out with him over the use of violence. This document, he said,  presented an Islam desired by America and the West -- helpless and submissive --  and was an insult to Muslims.

His comment appeared meant to scotch arguments, as seen in this report by Global Terrorism Analysis, that Islamist ideologues are  reviewing the role of violence in Salafism, the fundamentalist views propagated by the 18th century Sunni reformer Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab and inspiration for al Qaeda. The Nefa Foundation has a transcript.

Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey's top religious official, says his country's effort to purge the hadith of sexism and superstition is not an attempt to reform Islam but to change the Turkish way of practising it. This reform project hit the headlines this week when the BBC ran a story on what it called "a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion". It said the revision of the hadith, the collection of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad that are second only to the Koran as an authority for Muslims, was something akin to a Protestant Reformation in Islam.

Reacting to those reports, Bardakoglu, who is chairman of the Department of Religious Affairs, told the daily Sabah: "A team of 80 are scanning all existent hadith. For example, words humiliating women are attributed to the prophets. We are combing through such interpretations. We will publish six volumes. However, what we are doing is not reform on Islam... we are not reforming Islam; we are reforming ourselves, our own way of religiosity." '

His deputy Mehmet Görmez told another daily, Zaman, that the BBC's interpretation of the reform as a "radical modernisation" was wrong, saying: "We are going to take the appropriate legal measures for redress."

What's up? Are we talking about a revolution in Islam here? Well, not quite. The aim is to publish a revised collection of hadith to be used in Turkey as a reference work for fatwas and other work of religious interpretation. The scholars are using modern methods of interpretation of the hadith to assess their validity, an approach that conservative scholars reject. But this is not a reinterpretation of the Koran, the absolute centre of authority. Islamic exegesis gets revolutionary when it is turned towards deconstructing the Koran, which Muslims believe is the literal word of Allah.

This project is not going there. It follows in a tradition of assessing and classifying hadith that dates back to the early days of the faith. So Bardakoglu and Görmez had no problem saying the project was not reforming Islam. The rejected hadith will not disappear; they'll still be on the books in many other Muslim countries. But Turkey's state-approved religious establishment won't use them.

This is an updating of some aspects of Islam, though, and Bardakoglu and Görmez probably played that down so they don't ruffle too many conservative feathers. The project is weeding out some hadith that Turkish Islam scholars say were written down long after the Prophet's death and are little more than handed-down hearsay. These doubtful passages often contradict other sayings of Mohammad or express views that don't jibe with his. The goal is "to convey the universal message of the Prophet Mohammed to the 21st century", the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) said in a statement on Thursday.

The project was well described two years ago in this Washington Post article by Mustafa Akyol, who gave a few examples of passages due to be cut:

• "Women are imperfect in intellect and religion."
• "The best of women are those who are like sheep."
• "If a woman doesn't satisfy her husband's desires, she should choose herself a place in hell."
• "If a husband's body is covered with pus and his wife licks it clean, she still wouldn't have paid her dues."
• "Your prayer will be invalid if a donkey, black dog or a woman passes in front of you."

Felix Körner, a German Jesuit priest at Ankara University, is quoted in many of the reports. He has been studying the "Ankara School" of modern Islamic theology for several years and published a book about it in 2005 called Revisionist Koran Hermeneutics in Contemporary Turkish University Theology. Note the adjective "revisionist" -- not revolutionary or radical.

Ali Eteraz, who has written a lot on reform in Islam, has trashed this effort as "fool's gold" because he sees it mostly as the state meddling in religious affairs: "In my mind, this initiative has more to do with Turkey's AKP party trying to get into the European Union. "Look, we threw out all the bad hadith," it seems to be saying. "Now let us in! ... Ultimately, this entire hadith affair represents an attempt on the part of Turkey to "nationalise" its Islam. Nothing more."

Politics plays a part (Diyanet is a government body, after all) but this is not primarily a ploy to fool Brussels. Ali's right that the Turkish state is meddling in Islam and that the idea of invalidating some hadith is nothing new. His opposition to having a state lead the reform effort is understandable. And yes, some coverage of the reform got pretty excited. Still, this reform reflects a broader trend of reinterpreting texts in Islam and the wider effect of it being endorsed by the religious authorities shouldn't be underestimated. Many Muslim thinkers want a more modern interpretation of Islam -- a lot of them are here in France -- but this is regularly blocked by conservative religious establishments. Change on this front will only come step by step, and even a state authority like Diyanet can make some of it happen.

February's M&A figures predictably stayed on their dismal track, with announced deals down 49 percent to $157 billion from $310 billion during the first two months 2007, according to Dealogic.

But there was one surprise in the numbers -- Moelis & Co, which rainmaker Ken Moelis founded after leaving UBS last year, ranks fifth in U.S. advisory so far this year. That puts the nascent firm above JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch -- and UBS.

Of course it's only two months into the year and Moelis' ranking is due to advising on a single deal, Microsoft and Yahoo. But new names on static league tables are significant. 

It's way too early to tell -- but with the credit crunch hampering bulge bracket banks, could deals this year be won more on advice than balance sheets or underwriting?

Below are the U.S. advisor rankings by volume from Dealogic.

Business could hardly be slower in the junk bond market, but that means the bankruptcy business is set to go into overdrive.

Global high-yield bond sales are off to the slowest start since the 1991 U.S. recession as an anemic U.S. economy, worldwide credit crunch and no appetite for risk put the squeeze on corporations and investors alike.

That's not only a striking change from the go-go days of the leveraged buy-out boom, it is a sign Chapter 11 filings are about to shoot higher. In previous cycles, the years following a crest in junk bond sales have been typically followed by a surge in defaults and, finally, bankruptcies.

The party's already started in 2008. Sixteen publicly traded companies have filed for bankruptcy this year. At the current pace, nearly 100 public companies may file for Chapter 11 protection this year, which would be the most since 2003.

"2008 will be a busy year for insolvency professionals," says Sam Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute. "Whether it's a record year remains to be seen."

Ivan Tykhyi provides us with a look inside a temporary shelter for children in Ukraine. With the stairs acting as symbolic bars and the intense blue tone, the image is a strong portrait of life in the shelter.

View additional images by Ivan and other You Witness contributors here.

Blog Guy, it's time once again to find out what the most popular items were in your blog for this month.

As you know, my car pool bets heavily on this, especially in a month such as this, with no other high-profile competitions to take our action. Come on, give us the results and make me very rich!

Hmmmm. Maybe next year you guys should Google the Super Bowl and the Oscars. Anyway, the overwhelming reader favorite for February was Mercedes Man. Not only did he top the charts, he even beat an item on that other new superhero, Toothache Man.

Here are the results:

1. It's Mercedes Man! Drop your guns!

2. Lady, the elevator door won't close!

3. Movie? I'll SHOW you a movie!

4. Your mouth is oily, I like that in a man!

5. Wear a warm hat...moms don't lie

More stuff from Oddly Enough

Landing at North Korea's Pyongyang International Airport to cover the two-day visit by the New York Philharmonic, we did not know what to expect. Myself, and Reuters TV cameraman Anil Ekmecic, had never been to Korea before, and what must be a fairly unusual experience, we could now say we traveled to Korea via the reclusive North first.

As we touched down, both Anil and I, along with text journalist Jon Herskovitz, the feeling was of intense anticipation of the unknown in a visual sense. The first sight was a welcoming party, consisting of some 10 uniformed North Korean soldiers and more than 60 well-attired officials. All looking tense. Then what happened next must have been a rather unusual sight for North Korea - a media scrum. The traveling press of which we were a part of, consisted of approximately 60 journalists, 20 television cameraman and 10 photographers. But then what we hadn't counted on was the local media, who appeared from nowhere, and were definitely not used to having to worry about getting in other people's viewfinders, let alone being told to "get outta the way, Man".

After the official group photograph of the orchestra had finished, we were introduced to our ‘guides' for the two-day visit, and shuffled into buses. These friendly yet intimidating officials stated that they all were named "Kim" and they would be more than happy to accommodate our every need.

The convoy then started out to our hotel, about a 45 minute ride into town. At first we were expecting to have to sneak a few photographs and footage as we had been told on all previous official tours was the case, but all of us were pleasantly surprised when no orders to lower our cameras were given. So through thick, badly scratched and tinted windows, we recorded what we saw. A bleak and gray landscape covered in snow, dotted with run-down dilapidated buildings, the occasional car (usually an early 80's model Mercedes), horse-drawn carts, and many many weary-looking people. Some were collecting firewood, while others were just aimlessly walking or standing by the road.

Then we entered the city itself. The gray and run-down apartment blocks were a stark contrast from the colorful propaganda posters lining the streets. One poster in particular caught the eye of the travelling press - a fist smashing into the head of an American soldier.
After checking into our comfortable five-star hotel (believe me, it wasn't bad, but no five-star), we were taken to watch a performance by a traditional singing and dancing group that was quite beautiful. But the lavishness and quantity of food laid on at the dinner after was not. I could not bring myself to eat such food in a country where people were so hungry as evidenced by the skinny faces we had seen just a few hours before along the side of the road. The breakfast the next morning was even more extravagant, with an ice sculpture surrounded by food that the lovely traditionally dressed waitresses would surely have never seen before in their lives.

Next, we were herded into buses for a "city tour" that proved quite interesting but not all beneficial at showing real life in Pyongyang. We started at the massive bronze statue of ‘Dear Leader' Kim Jung-il, which we were politely told we could only photograph ‘full length', and made clear with a ‘make sure you do as I will check that you have Mr Gray'. Next was the city library, in which we all became very suspicious after being shown a room of some 40 brand new computers, all being used, and by people who we were told we could interview with ‘no problem at all'. And when Anil tried to film in a certain direction, and was promptly told he could not, he seemed to have made a very good friend for the rest of his time in North Korea.

But when we got to the next location, it provided me with my most distinct memory of the entire trip. We were taken to a subway station and ushered onto an 80-meter-long escalator, and while we were traveling down, coming up the other side were ordinary commuters. Their appearance to me was of complete helplessness, all passing slowly as if in a trance, heads bowed, staring blankly, faces unmoved. The best description is a factory conveyor-belt. The beautiful murals adorning the station seemed to become quite horrifying with their messages that all citizens exist to work for the state.

That night, the concert was without doubt beautiful and gave the elite members of Pyongyang society enjoyment. But to hear such gorgeous music in such a bleak environment did seem somewhat out of place.

The next day, our final tour site was an elite talent school for young children, involving performances of singing, gymnastics and dance. What was on stage was both amazing, and scary, with the level of talent leaving you breathless and wondering how long they must have rehearsed.

But what was even more amazing was the audience. Hundreds of students sitting with their eyes lowered, hands on their laps, no talking, no smiling, no giggling, no moving, until someone in charge started the applause. It was as if they also had been training for their performance. A sad moment happened as Anil was leaving and caught a shy glance from a young girl in the crowd. Just the fact that she was able to offer a slight smile and nod of recognition in an otherwise robotic environment gave him and myself hope that change might just be possible.

Once on the plane, after numerous photos on the tarmac for prosperity with our new ‘friends', a wave of euphoria swept through the plane with the knowledge that being constantly observed and studied was finally over.
My personal impression of this experience - a sense of amazement that you can enter a George Orwell novel and come out the other side, especially when that novel is titled ‘1984'!

(To view an audio slideshow of David's experience in North Korea click here. The audio is from the New York Philharmonic orchestra's performance in Pyongyang where they began their show with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.)

I'm sure Boris Johnson isn't attending Labour's Spring Conference, but his ears must be burning red.

His name was taken in vain by two government ministers in set-piece speeches ahead of the big turn by Ken Livingstone, who rarely misses an opportunity to disparage his rival for the London mayorship and did not disappoint an appreciative audience.

Yes, the Ken and Boris show has arrived in Birmingham but is missing half the act.

Boris will not welcome Communities Secretary Hazel Blears' description of him as a "nasty, right-wing elitist, with odious views and criminal friends like Conrad Black."

And he would certainly disagree that his election on May 1 would be a "disaster for London", as Livingstone put it.

But he will take comfort from so much conference time being devoted to rubbishing his candidacy.

It shows that despite the rhetoric, Labour takes his challenge very seriously.

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell admitted as much when she told delegates to close their eyes and imagine they were waking up to Johnson elected as Mayor of London.

"Don't laugh," she told the party members. "The mayoral race this time is closer than it's been at any point since Labour gave London back its government eight years ago."

Livingstone, a master of the political putdown, said Johnson had repositioned himself as "Ken Lite" who would keep the Congestion Zone but cut it to half its size.

"Government in London is incredibly serious business," said Livingstone. "It's not simply a photo opportunity, nor an appearance on have I Got News For You."

Boris must be loving all the attention.

It was bad enough to be booted off the TV Guide channel after all that blood, sweet and tears on the red carpet. But now Joan Rivers is seeing her likeness on a quivering piece of plastic replaced too.
    
This lucky reporter opened her mail this morning to discover -- oh joy! -- a bobble-head duo of Lisa Rinna and Joey Fatone, who replaced Rivers and her daughter Melissa on the Oscar red carpet last year.
    
Lisa and Joey are about an inch taller than the Rivers in their bobble-headedness, and Lisa Rinna looks, well, a bit perkier. Fatone, with his white sneakers, tux and goatee, looks like something unfortunate out of Vegas. Both look tanner, and have bigger heads than the Rivers.

Given my faith that all things wrong will eventually right themselves, I am still doggedly holding on to my Joan and Melissa bobblehead. Joan may be off the red carpet, but something tells me this bit of plastic may be worth something someday.

The New York Times' dissident shareholder Harbinger Capital Partners officially launched its proxy fight on Friday with a regulatory filing that details the blow-by-blow in the publisher's second showdown with a major investor in three years.
The chronology:

• Dec, 2007: Harbinger begins buying shares of NYT. The buying accelerates considerably by mid-January 2008
• Jan 25, 2008: Harbinger delivers formal notice to the Times of its intention to nominate four Class A directors at the 2008 annual shareholders meeting. The group discloses a 4.9 percent stake in the Times. The publisher acknowledges the approach in a press release.
• Jan 27: Firebrand Partners' Scott Galloway, the public face of the dissident investors group, appeals directly to Times Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr and CEO Janet Robinson in a letter criticizing the company for moving too slowly online. He details, in broad strokes, what the Times should do instead: shed non-core assets and reinvest more heavily in digital businesses.
• Feb 8: The two sides meet. Harbinger representatives and some of the nominees begin a dialog with company representatives. Galloway thanks them in a letter following the meeting and reminds them that the nominees are free to be interviewed by the Times nominating committee.
• Feb 11: Harbinger discloses it boosted its stake to 9.96 percent.
• Feb 12: The Times announces it has nominated two new directors to replace outgoing members. The new nominees are Drugstore.com CEO Dawn Lepore and Robert Denham, a former CEO of Salomon Inc.
• Feb 14: New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller tells newsroom staffers the company plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs by not filling vacancies, offering buyouts and laying people off if necessary.
• Feb. 21: New York Times' preliminary proxy lists 13 nominees that, no surprise, do not include any of Harbinger's nominees. The company advises shareholders to vote for its candidates and gives tips on what to do with proxy cards from Harbinger. A representative for the investor group tells Reuters the Times' move was "disappointing" and that it had "refused" to interview the group's nominees. The Harbinger group also discloses that they are now the company's biggest public shareholder with 15.61 percent. That same day, a Times representative tells Galloway the nominating committee wishes to interview their nominees.
• Feb 22: Some of the group's nominees meet with Times management to discuss its digital strategy.
• Feb 25: Harbinger discloses it has raised its stake to 19.03 percent.
• Feb 26: A source tells Reuters that the Times' nominating committee will meet with Harbinger's nominees as early as next week.
• Feb 27: Times's About.com CEO announces departure.
• Feb 29: The Harbinger group files its proxy.

(Photo: Reuters / Arthur Sulzberger, Jr at the World Economic Forum in 2002)