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His Highness the Aga Khan will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Toronto's spring convocation Friday, June 18, at 2:30 p.m. in Convocation Hall, 31 King's College Circle.

Media must register in advance by calling 416-978-2105 or e-mailing jessica.whiteside@utoronto.ca by Monday, June 14. Tickets will not be available to the public for this convocation as the Hall is reserved for the members of the graduating class and their guests.

His Highness the Aga Khan, the 40th hereditary spiritual leader (Imam) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, and founder of the Aga Khan Development Network, today called for a "wide civil society partnership" between the developed world and the developing world.

“True regime change occurs when liberty is guaranteed by a people free to create or support institutions of their own choosing. True regime change occurs when that strength and that freedom are defined by the depth, breadth and quality of education shared across the society in question.”

“Partnerships
between the developed and developing
world can and do work. Moreover, they
demonstrate how essential universities
and their lifeblood – you their graduates
– are to civil society.” Civil society,
meritocracy and pluralism are the bases
for true democracy said the Aga Khan to
the graduating class of University of
Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education [OISE].
The Aga Khan, who gave the keynote
speech at the Governor General's
Leadership Conference last month in
Ottawa, received a degree of Doctor of

The biggest global threat is not failed states but failed democracies, the Aga Khan told a graduating class at the University of Toronto yesterday afternoon.

The 49th hereditary spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims appealed to the class of teacher graduates at Convocation Hall yesterday to instil in their students the virtues of pluralism, meritocracy and civil society - three pillars on which successful democracies are built.

Prince Karim Aga Khan has called for a "wide civil society partnership" between the developed world and the developing world, saying that it was "especially critical where governments are weak or non-performing, as in situations of failed democracies or post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction."

Prince Karim Aga Khan has called for a "wide civil society partnership" between the developed world and the developing world, saying that it was "especially critical where governments are weak or non-performing, as in situations of failed democracies or post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction."

Mawlana Hazar Imam's memorable visit to London in August this year brought together jamats from around the world in a celebration of the ties that bind the community across frontiers and of our Imam-e-Zaman's affection and concern for the jamat worldwide. It was a happy, instructive inspiring visit that highlighted the resilience, institutional strength and commitment to the developing world of a jam well-established in the West.

When the 1970s oil boom fueled a construction frenzy in the Islamic world, Prince Karim Aga Khan watched in dismay. Anonymous modernist buildings started sprouting across the land, and his society, he felt, was suffering from a poverty of abundance. Many of the structures were bereft of style and cultural context. It is therefore not surprising that the Aga Khan, 61, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed and spiritual leader of 15 million Ismaili Muslims, found a new calling.

India has bagged three of the seven Aga Khan Awards for Architecture for 1998.

The winning projects are civil engineer-town planner Himanshu Parikh's slum networking project at Indore, architect Charles Correa's Vidhan Bhavan at Bhopal and Norwegian architects Per Christian Brynildsen and Jan Olav Jensen's lepers' hospital in Chopda taluka in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district.

THE SECURITY guards were so discreet it was impossible to watch anyone else. They stood at the exit to the marquee and whispered into the microphones on the inside of their wrists. Then they slid between the tables and formed a tunnel. The former First Lady walked in front. Then came the 39th President of the United States. As he passed one table, a general manager of the Aga Khan Trust thanked him for coming. "Glad we came," said the former President, giving the former First Lady a little prod in the back, so she didn't break step, "Good time!

Norwegian architecture students Per Christian Brynildsen and Jan Olav Jensen were on a student group tour of India and Nepal in 1983 when they took an unexpected detour. They left their classmates to help missionaries plan and design a lepers hospital near Chopda Taluka in the Indian state of Maharastra. Caught up with their first chance to build, the two stayed out of school for a year to complete the project. They helped the patients quarry the nearby sandstone, collect teak wood for windows and use a concrete aerator, the only power tool used in the entire hospital's construction.

ga Khan: the name shimmers with glamour. Fabulous wealth. Palatial houses. Racehorses. Yachts. Jewels. Royal prerogative. As if that weren't enough, the Aga Khan is also the most important figure in the world of architecture today. In a ceremony at the Alhambra in Spain last Friday, Prince Karim Aga Khan honored seven buildings and urban plans, winners of the 1998 Aga Khan Awards for Architecture.

Aga Khan: the name shimmers with glamour. Fabulous wealth. Palatial houses. Racehorses. Yachts. Jewels. Royal prerogative. As if that weren't enough, the Aga Khan is also the most important figure in the world of architecture today. In a ceremony at the Alhambra in Spain last Friday, Prince Karim Aga Khan honored seven buildings and urban plans, winners of the 1998 Aga Khan Awards for Architecture.

Los Reyes respaldaron ayer en Granada la Fundación del Legado Andalusí, el proyecto cultural ideado en 1995 por la Junta para promover la ruta arquitectónica y cultural de la herencia andalusí. Las dudas sobre cuál debía ser su estructura han impedido hasta ahora su funcionamiento regular. Don Juan Carlos señaló a la civilización arábigoandaluza como "el germen de la Europa" de la que los españoles son "miembros y socios". Los Reyes asistieron por la tarde en el Generalife a la entrega de los prestigiosos premios de arquitectura creados por el agá Jan, amigo de ambos, en 1977.

Seven winners of the 1998 Aga Khan Award for Architecture were announced yesterday.

They range from a private house to a palace and from a leper hospital to a state parliament building. They also include two imaginative schemes for regenerating an old town and an area of slums and a building to house an arts council.

The ceremony took place yesterday at The Alhambra and Generalife Gardens in Granada, Spain, in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain and the Aga Khan and the Begum Aga Khan.

Winners of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture have been presented with their prizes at a ceremony at the Alhambra Palace, in Grenada, Spain.

Pakistani architect Nayyar Ali-Dada: Is there such a thing as Islamic architecture?
The award, established in 1977, aims to encourage architecture which respects the traditions of Muslim societies while responding creatively to the changing needs in the industrialised Islamic world.

The seven winning projects, chosen from 424 entries, were:

* Restoration of Hebron's old town on the West Bank

Shortly after we checked in at Hotel Tajikistan in Dushanbe, it shook. But this tremor was quickly dissolved into a rush of intellectual as well as emotional vibrations as we embarked on a remarkable journey of discovery. And while the sojourn in Tajikistan, which lasted for more than ten days, was designed around the visit there of the Aga Khan, with specific focus on the activities of the Aga Khan Development Network, I could not help looking at everything with reference to what is happening in Pakistan. We know about the great battles of history that have been fought in Central Asia.