To the Point

Muslims in Europe

In Spain today, authorities say the explosives discovered on a high-speed rail line are similar to those used to blow up commuter trains last month in Madrid. The suspects are Islamic extremists. In Britain, police foiled a bomb plot and accused men of Pakistani origins. In Spain, France, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, there is increased attention to the growth of Muslim populations. Different countries are reacting in different ways: multiculturalism in Britain; forced assimilation in France. In the Netherlands, after decades of welcoming asylum seekers, newcomers are being expelled. Warren Olney joins members of the Muslim Council of Britain, the Dutch Left Green Party and St. Andrews University's Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence for an examination of how acts of terrorism have created a new sense of urgency for dealing with demographic changes that have long been ignored. Making News: Job Growth The Labor Department today reports that 308,000 jobs were created in March, the biggest increase in new jobs in four years. President Bush celebrated the news in a speech in West Virginia, telling the crowd, -This economy is strong-and it-s getting stronger.- Kathleen Madigan of Business Week magazine assesses the numbers and the nature of this month's labor statistics as well as the prognosis for continued growth. Reporter's Notebook: The Fishy Connection It lived in north-central Pennsylvania 360 million years ago, and it could prop itself out of the water by doing a kind of primitive push-up. That-s how scientists are describing the creature who left what-s now the world-s oldest known fossil arm bone. Ted Daeschler of the Academy of Natural Sciences says the discovery of the fossil broadens paleontologists' understanding of the evolution of Earth's earliest limbed animals.