Wishing you ALL a VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY & PROSPEROUS 2010, and thanking you ALL for your continued and loyal support.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Crime author PD James has torn into the BBC, accusing it of losing direction, paying large salaries and ageism in an interview with director general Mark Thompson.
Baroness James of Holland Park, who is best known for creating the detective Adam Dalgliesh, repeatedly asked Mr Thompson to justify why so many managers were paid more than £100,000 a year.
The former governor of the BBC was questioning the director general in her role as a guest editor of the Today programme on Radio Four.
She likened the Corporation to a "large unwieldy ship" that was "bringing on more and more cargo and adding more decks, more officers - all comfortably cabined and usually on better salaries than their predecessors had enjoyed - and with customers feeling they paid too much for the journey and weren't sure where they were going".
The Conservative peer said the BBC had changed for the worse since its inception in the 1920s and was "very unwieldy, very bureacratic" and "less clear about what it should be doing".
There was “immense concern", she said, "about the salary structure – if indeed there is a structure – and the extraordinarily large salaries that are paid”. >>> Alastair Jamieson | Thursday, December 31, 2009 (New Year’s Eve)
THE TELEGRAPH: If you did not hear the interview conducted by PD James with BBC director general Mark Thompson on the Today programme today then I suggest you set aside 15 minutes or so to do so.
Reading the BBC news website’s account of this spectacular skewering you could be forgiven for believing that Mr Thompson gave a stout defence of the Corporation’s inflated salaries, oversized bureaucracy, patronising ageism and appalling reality TV shows. In fact, Thompson gave a faltering, stumbling performance, unable to answer in any convincing way the points that Lady James put to him, especially when she asked him to justify the huge salaries being paid to BBC executives. Thompson must have said “you know” more times than a footballer, and sounded even more inarticulate. >>> Philip Johnston | Thursday, December 31, 2009
LE FIGARO: Des documents déclassifiés, rendus public mercredi, montrent une «Dame de Fer» brutale avec ses collaborateurs, amatrice de whisky et un peu pingre.
L'ancien premier ministre britannique Margaret Thatcher fut bien plus tranchante et politiquement incorrecte que les historiens ne le soupçonnaient. Des documents déclassifiés couvrant son arrivée à Downing Street en 1979, ont dépeint, à la surprise de la presse d'outre-Manche, une «Dame de Fer» inflexible faisant preuve «d'un degré de racisme personnel choquant», d'après le Guardian. Les archives rendues publiques mercredi montrent notamment une Margaret Thatcher peu tolérante vis-à-vis des boat-people vietnamiens.
Le premier ministre «pensait que c'était une mauvaise idée d'attribuer à ces immigrés des logements sociaux alors que les citoyens blancs n'en recevaient pas. Cela créerait des émeutes», note un compte-rendu d'une rencontre entre Margaret Thatcher et son ministre des Affaires étrangères. Selon le Telegraph, qui relate l'anecdote, le ministre essaie de convaincre la «Dame de Fer» de laisser 10.000 réfugiés vietnamiens s'établir en Grande-Bretagne d'ici à 1981. «En accueillir moins renverrait une très mauvaise image de l'Angleterre», plaide-t-il. Mais pour la chef de file des Tories, la Grande-Bretagne abrite déjà trop d'immigrés. «A quelques exceptions près, il n'y avait aucune raison humanitaire pour autoriser l'entrée des 1,5 million habitants d'Asie du Sud et d'ailleurs qui sont là. Il faut bien établir une limite».
«Tous les citoyens qui ont envoyé un courrier disant soutenir les boat-people devraient en héberger un chez eux», poursuit-elle. Evoquant la situation en Rhodésie (ancien nom du Zimbabwe) dont Robert Mugabe, opposant au régime ségrégationniste d'alors, est devenu l'homme fort, elle confie en revanche «avoir moins d'objection à accueillir les réfugiés [blancs] de Rhodésie, de Pologne ou de Hongrie qui sont beaucoup plus faciles à assimiler».
Les archives de Downing Street dévoilent aussi les projets les plus étranges de la «Dame de Fer». Margaret Thatcher proposa ainsi à son homologue australien d'acheter en commun une île indonésienne ou philippine pour héberger les boat-people. L'hostilité de Singapour fera capoter le plan. Finalement face à la pression de l'ONU, le premier ministre acceptera d'ouvrir les frontières à 10.000 Vietnamiens sur trois ans, avec une préférence pour ceux parlant anglais. Annotations laconiques au vitriol >>> Constance Jamet (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP | Mercredi 30 Décembre 2009
It’s true that Britain has failed to come to grips with the problem of Islam; and the British government should take the blame for this. However, these senior US policymakers who seem to think that only Britain has the problem are living in cloud-cuckoo-land.
It is also true that Muslims in America are rather better integrated (for the moment at least); but long-term, we ALL have a huge problem with Muslims living here in the West. Truth to tell, we should never have allowed so many Muslims in. Fact is, Prophet Muhammad exhorted his followers NOT to INTEGRATE with the infidel; so American Muslim or British, they are ALL a problem for us here in the West. And this is an undeniable fact also.
So don’t be so smug and naïve over there, Stateside. You’ll have your troubles, too. Just wait; they are a-comin’. – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain has been accused of being a “menace to the outside world” as American anger over the UK’s perceived failure to tackle Islamic extremism intensified.
Senior policymakers in the United States said the attempted suicide bomb attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is thought to have become radicalised in London, was further evidence that one of the biggest threats to US security came from Britain, where the capital has been dubbed “Londonistan” by critics.
There was also criticism of the “ghettoisation” of British Muslims, compared with the “assimilation” of Muslims in America.
Muslim immigrants to the US were much better integrated in society and considered themselves Americans “within a generation” because the US embraced the “melting pot” concept, said Marc Thiessen, former chief speechwriter for President George W Bush and a former Pentagon aide.
“That doesn’t exist in Europe in the same way and particularly in Britain, which is a more socially stratified society than the US,” he said. “They live in Muslim ghettoes and feel alienated from the larger society and not accepted.” >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
LE TEMPS: Des centaines de milliers de manifestants pro-gouvernementaux se sont rassemblés mercredi dans plusieurs villes d’Iran, à l’appel des autorités. Ils ont clamé leur fidélité au régime clérical et accusé les dirigeants d’opposition de semer le chaos dans la République islamique
Des dizaines de manifestations en province ont rassemblé des foules importantes, selon les médias officiels. Les manifestants dénonçaient «les hypocrites séditieux» et réclamaient parfois leur «pendaison», selon des images de la télévision iranienne.
A Téhéran, des centaines de milliers de personnes ont participé à plusieurs cortèges pour dénoncer le «complot» visant a «renverser le régime islamique», selon les termes d’un communiqué officiel. Des drapeaux américains et britanniques ont été brûlés.
Ces rassemblements ont été organisés à l’appel des autorités. Mais les administrations ont également appelé à descendre dans la rue, tout comme des corps officiels comme les Gardiens de la révolution, des écoles théologiques, des associations locales, certains bazars comme celui de Qom, qui a fermé, et certaines entreprises d’Etat.
Les médias étrangers, soumis à des restrictions, ne pouvaient pas couvrir les éventuels rassemblements d’opposition. «Mort à Moussavi» >>> ATS | Mercredi 30 Décembre 2009
NZZ ONLINE: Demonstranten in Teheran fordern Moussavis Tod:Oppositionsführer laut Staatsagentur aus Teheran geflüchtet – oder weggebracht >>> sda/dpa/afp/Reuters | Mittwoch, 30. Dezember 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The United States prevented Dutch authorities from installing full body scanners before the suspected Christmas Day bomb plotter passed through security at Amsterdam's airport, the Dutch government claimed today.
The Dutch claimed that they had been trying to install the machines for flights to the US since 2008 but had been blocked by US officials who wanted passengers to all destinations screened.
In light of the failed attack all passengers travelling from Holland to the US will now have to go through full body scanners the Dutch Interior Minister announced following discussions with the Americans.
Guusje ter Horst said the millimetre wave scanners that can see beneath passengers' clothes will be in use at Schiphol airport within three weeks and remain a permanent fixture for all flights to the US. >>> Joanna Sugden | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The leader of Iran's opposition was to have fled Tehran, state media reported tonight.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, defeated in hotly disputed elections in June, was said to have left the Iranian capital on a day marked by pro-government rallies at which crowds chanted "Death to Mousavi". Another of the leaders, Mahdi Karroubi, was also said to have fled.
The news comes three days after Mr Mousavi's nephew, Ali, was killed during a protest against the regime in which at least eight lost their lives.
He was said to have been shot in the chest. Opposition figures have claimed he was deliberately targeted and had received a number of death threats. >>> Times Online | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: Iran's opposition leader flees as tens of thousands of government supporters swarm Tehran chanting 'death to Mousavi': Iran's police chief threatened to show 'no mercy' in crushing any new protests by the country's opposition supporters today.
Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam warned protesters to stay off the streets or face harsh consequences. >>> Mail Foreign Service | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: >>> Mail Foreign Service | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: Abroad, our reputation lies in shreds. At home, an exhausted government is drifting, rudderless, from one crisis to the next.
Unemployment is rising sharply. The public finances are in chaos. The unions are threatening havoc and inflation is set to soar...
No, this isn't the tail-end of 2009 - though the parallels are painfully obvious.
This is the Britain of early 1979, in the dying months of the last Labour administration, as brought vividly back to life by papers released today under the 30-year rule.
Then, as now, our country's problems were stacking up so fast that national ruin seemed inevitable.
But as the papers so graphically remind us, waiting in the wings in the spring of 1979 was a politician with a radical blueprint for revival and the indomitable courage to turn it into action.
Even 30 years on, Margaret Thatcher remains a hugely controversial figure.
For many on the bien-pensant Left, she is still the butt of sneers, reviled as the petit-bourgeois grocer's daughter who ruthlessly destroyed jobs in the old nationalised industries.
For growing numbers of others, however - and the Mail has been among them from the start - she is recognised as the woman who rescued Britain from the edge of the precipice and did more for ordinary workers than anyone since the war.
Whichever side you may be on, it's impossible not to admire the sheer vigour and straight-talking honesty, brought to light in the 30-year-rule papers, with which she stood up for Britain and set about her task of reconstruction.
Foreign presidents, Tory grandees and obstructive civil servants can hardly have known what hit them when this whirlwind blew into Downing Street on May 3, 1979. >>> Daily Mail Comment | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
“People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture. If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it. We are not in politics to ignore people’s worries. We are in politics to deal with them.” – Margaret Thatcher (World in Action)
THE TELEGRAPH: Margaret Thatcher thought it was "quite wrong" for immigrants to get council houses ahead of "white citizens", previously unpublished government papers show.
Files released to the National Archives show that soon after becoming prime minister, Lady Thatcher privately complained that too many Asian immigrants were being allowed into Britain.
The documents, which are published today under the “30 year rule”, shed further light on Lady Thatcher’s attitudes on race and immigration, political issues that have remained controversial ever since.
They show that in July 1979, Lady Thatcher met Lord Carrington, her foreign secretary, and William Whitelaw, then home secretary, to discuss the plight of hundreds of thousands of "boat people" fleeing persecution in communist Vietnam.
The prime minister, who had publicly said that she sympathised with fears that Britain was being “swamped” by immigrant cultures, reacted sharply to the ministers’ suggestions that thousands of the Vietnamese refugees should be welcomed.
Lord Carrington, who had visited refugee camps in Hong Kong where some of the boat people were being held, gave a "vivid account" of the conditions there, the minutes show.
He suggested that Britain take 10,000 of them over two years. Failure to take a significant number would lead to a "damaging reaction" at home and abroad, he said, and anything less than 10,000 would be "difficult to sustain" on the world stage.
But Lady Thatcher said that there were already too many people coming into Britain, according to the minutes. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Files from 1979 too sensitive for release remain secret: Government files from 1979 regarded as too sensitive to release under the “30 year rule” were kept secret. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Lady Thatcher attacked French president over Europe funding: The French president received a “handbagging” from Lady Thatcher over Britain's funding of Europe within weeks of her entering Downing Street. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
DIE PRESSE: Die iranische Führung verschärft den Ton gegenüber Opposition. Ein Vertreter von Irans geistlichem Oberhaupt Ayatollah Khamenei fordert die Todesstrafe für Oppositionsführer.
Die iranische Führung verschärft den Ton gegen die seit Tagen demonstrierende Opposition und droht ihren Führern mit dem Tod. Ein Vertreter des obersten Führers Ayatollah Ali Khamenei forderte am Dienstag die Todesstrafe für die Spitze der Reformbewegung, weil sie Feinde Gottes seien. >>> Ag | Dienstag, 29. Dezember 2009
The Iranian Revolution of thirty years ago is now grinding to a halt. Islam has proven to be a brutal force to reckon with; yet the people will tolerate it no longer. Its time is up. The régime is coming to the end of its lifetime. It's drawing its last breath.
The mullahs and Basij (بسيج) can extend the life of the régime a little longer by the use of brute force; but in reality, they have come to the end of the life of the régime. The people can tolerate such brutality no longer. Common sense must prevail.
When the religio-political system falls, as it surely must, then the good people of Iran, the people who have culture and history, will be able to resume a more normal life – a life free of Islamic restrictions. The sooner this happens, the better. We can only look forward to that inevitable day. – © Mark
MAIL ONLINE: The playboy son of Colonel Gaddafi was at the centre of a police inquiry last night over claims he attacked his wife in a top London hotel on Christmas Day.
Moutassim Gaddafi - known as Hannibal - was staying with his wife, the model Aline Skaf, 29, and their children in a luxury suite at Claridge's when the fight broke out.
Police were called to the family's £4,000-a-night suite at 1.30am after hotel staff heard a woman's screams for help.
But when officers arrived they found the Libyan despot's 33-year-old son locked in the room with his wife - with his bodyguards blocking their way.
Three of the security staff were arrested at the scene for obstructing police officers.
Mr Gaddafi, however, was able to slip away after calling the Libyan ambassador, who informed officers that he had diplomatic immunity.
The Porsche-loving playboy and notorious hell-raiser was then whisked away in an embassy car. >>> Rebecca Camber, Tamara Cohen and Neil Sears | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
A whiff of common sense here. People are beginning to wake up from their slumbers. Surely, the tide must be beginning to turn. It must turn if the West is to be won.
This viewpoint from The Telegraph is refreshing indeed; yet it doesn’t go far enough. Radical Islamism is a symptom of a fanatic belief in Islam. In many ways, it is the true belief of a Muslim, one who, in their eyes, submits to the will of Allah, but who in anyone else’s eyes can only be thought of submitting to the ideology of a death cult: Islam.
If we are to win this war being waged against the West, otherwise known as the Jihad – an intermittent war which has been waged against the “infidel West” since Islam’s inception – then we have to come to the realization that Islam is not a religion per se, but a religio-political system which recognizes NO SEPARATION OF POLITICS AND RELIGION. The separation of politics and religion is the sine qua non of democracy. No democracy can exist without it. Islam is the true enemy of democracy and freedom. No true democracy will ever exist where Islam is the dominant ideology. This is so not only because Islam recognizes no separation of mosque and state, but also because Islam recognizes no diversity. None whatsoever! Islam recognizes one religion – Islam, and one way of life – the Islamic way of life. In an age of multiculturalism and diversity, it is incredible that we should tolerate such an intolerant ideology in our midst, for truly, if Islam gets the upper hand here in the West – and it is looking increasingly likely in the long- or medium-term, then there will be no diversity. There will be only Islam. Apostates will be killed, as will homosexuals. It will then be a case of convert, die, or pay the jizyah, the special tax levied on the infidel in return for some measure of protection. Remember this: Multiculturalism and diversity are anathema to Islam!
Westerners have faffed around, played around with our language for far, far too long. We have come up with all kinds of weird and wonderful expressions, euphemisms all, and all thought-up and devised so as not to appear Islamophobic, so as not to point the finger at a religion and thereby appear religiously bigotted, and to keep the peace at any price. The euphemisms are well-known to all by now: Islamism, radical Islamism (as though there could ever be a non-radical Islamism!), radical Jihadism (again, as though there could ever be a benign, non-radical Jihadism), and so on and so forth. There are but three words that we need in our vocabulary: Islam, Muslim, and the Jihad. An Islamist is a devout follower of the faith of Islam. A believer that dots the ‘i’s’ and crosses the ‘t’s’. Contrary to popular Western myth, he is not one who has perverted his faith; rather, he is the real thing. Just as much the real thing as Coke is to cola.
The Muslims considered by the West as being peaceful and law-abiding are actually people who do not follow central aspects of their faith such as the Jihad, the killing of apostates, honour killings, and other repugnant tenets of that faith.
That The Telegraph has now had the courage to liken ‘Islamism’ to Nazism is to be lauded. It should be noted, however, that this fact has been pointed out on this website since the website was started. Naturally, it was also pointed out in my book. Having taken this bold step forward, The Telegraph now needs to take the next step and call a spade a spade.– © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Telegraph View: Jihadist Islamism is comparable to Nazism in many respects. The British public realises this; so do the intelligence services.
Friday's attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner by a British-educated Islamist was foiled by the bravery of its passengers and crew. We cannot assume that we will be lucky next time. And the indications are that there will be a next time. According to police sources, 25 British-born Muslims are currently in Yemen being trained in the art of bombing planes. But most of these terrorists did not acquire their crazed beliefs in the Islamic world: they were indoctrinated in Britain. Indeed, thousands of young British Muslims support the use of violence to further the Islamist cause – and this despite millions of pounds poured by the Government into projects designed to prevent Islamic extremism.
Is it time for a fundamental rethink of Britain's attitude towards domestic Islamism? Consider this analogy. Suppose that, in several London universities, Right‑wing student societies were allowed to invite neo-Nazi speakers to address teenagers. Meanwhile, churches in poor white neighbourhoods handed over their pulpits to Jew-hating admirers of Adolf Hitler, called for the execution of homosexuals, preached the intellectual inferiority of women, and blessed the murder of civilians. What would the Government do? It would bring the full might of the criminal law against activists indoctrinating young Britons with an inhuman Nazi ideology – and the authorities that let them. Any public servants complicit in this evil would be hounded from their jobs. >>> | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Obama tries to find new words to fight terrorism: Barack Obama has launched a new offensive against jihadi terrorism – which is to say, a new rhetorical offensive. Having discovered that the earlier Obama doctrine of “reaching out” to the Islamic fundamentalist enemies of western democracy has made no difference whatever to their determination to blow innocent people out of the sky (or, in the case of Iran, to build a nuclear bomb), he is opening another verbal front. >>> Janet Daley | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
BBC: Two Argentine men have become the first same-sex couple to marry legally in Latin America.
Alejandro Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, tied the knot in a civil ceremony in the southern city of Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego province.
Gay marriage is illegal in Argentina. However, the Tierra del Fuego governor issued a special decree allowing the couple to wed there.
Roman Catholic leaders in the country expressed alarm at the move.
A judge in the capital, Buenos Aires, prevented the couple from marrying there earlier this month. Church anger >>> | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Argentinians celebrate first same-sex marriage, while couple in Malawi are arrested and charged
It was a tale of two weddings continents apart, but there was to be only one happy ending.
In Argentina, Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre made history as the first same-sex couple to marry in Latin America. Thousands of miles away, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza became the first gay men to tie the knot in Malawi.
The different reactions to the two ceremonies, however, suggested that while gay rights in Latin America are advancing, in Africa they are going into reverse.
Although Di Bello and Freyre had to rely on subterfuge, a progressive provincial governor and a 1,500-mile trip to the continent's southern tip, their union was greeted as a breakthrough. Chimbalanga and Monjeza, however, were swiftly arrested and charged with gross public indecency. Campaigners warned that the move indicated a conservative backlash against homosexuality across Africa. >>> David Smith in Johannesburg and Rory Carroll in Caracas | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
BBC: Two gay men arrested in Malawi after getting engaged have pleaded not guilty to charges of gross public indecency.
Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza appeared at a court in Malawi's biggest city Blantyre, where they will ask for bail on Monday.
The pair held a traditional engagement ceremony over the weekend - believed to be the first gay couple in Malawi to start the process of getting married. >>> | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
iAFRICA: A gay couple was jailed for "gross indecency" in Malawi after the country's first same-sex public wedding ceremony over the weekend, as several African states were clamping down on homosexuality.
A police spokesman told AFP that Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, the first Malawian gays to publicly wed in a symbolic ceremony on Saturday "will appear in court soon to answer charges of gross indecency."
Homosexuality is banned in the conservative southern African country where the public discussion of sex is still taboo.
Malawi's penal code outlaws homosexuality and sodomy, which is punishable by a maximum of 14 years in jail.
Countries such as Uganda, Senegal and Burundi have intensified their efforts to repress homosexuality in a continent where 38 out of 53 countries have criminalised consensual gay sex.
Hundreds of people attended Saturday's ceremony held at a guesthouse in Blantyre and spiced with traditional and hip-hop music. The couple wore traditional robes. >>> | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
ZEIT ONLINE: Das iranische Regime versucht, die Lage im Land unter Kontrolle zu bringen. Für Ahmadineschad sind die Proteste ein Schauspiel des Westens, das er "zum Kotzen" findet.
Nach den gewalttätigen Protesten vom Wochenende geht die Regierung nun mit äußerster Härte gegen die Oppositionsanhänger vor. Das Regime um Präsident Mahmud Ahmadineschad und dem geistlichen Oberhaupt Ajatollah Ali Chamenei versucht mit aller Macht, Herr der Lage zu bleiben.
Der Chef der freiwilligen Basidsch-Einheit der Revolutionsgarden, Mohammed Resa Naghdi, nannte die Oppositionsführer "Ungläubige" und deren Anhänger "Wüstlinge". "Die Basidschis würden nicht zögern, das Land von diesen Hetzern und ausländischen Söldnern zu säubern", sagte der General und drohte mit neuen Maßnahmen. >>> Zeit Online, dpa, Reuters | Dienstag, 29. Dezember 2009
ZEIT ONLINE: Sicherheitskräfte versuchen, die seit der gefälschten Wahl im Juni anhaltenden Proteste gewaltsam zu stoppen. Doch längst haben sie das ganze Land erfasst. Von M. Gehlen
Was für ein Jahr für Iran. Im Februar hatte die Führung noch mit großen Umzügen, triumphierenden Predigten und provozierenden Reden den 30. Jahrestag der Islamischen Republik gefeiert. Als Krönung schoss man damals den ersten eigenen Satelliten ins All, während sich Präsident Mahmud Ahmadineschad stolz inmitten der unterirdischen Uranzentrifugen in Natanz fotografieren ließ. Iran präsentierte sich als kommende Atommacht und unbestrittene Hegemonialmacht des Mittleren Ostens – politisch, technisch und militärisch vorne. So war das selbstbewusste Signal an die arabischen Nachbarn. Und so lautete die Botschaft an die westliche Welt. Zehn Monate danach taumelt die Islamische Republik ihrem Ende entgegen. ... >>> Zeit Online, Tagesspiegel | Dienstag, 29. Dezember 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Iran’s panicking regime is once again seeking to suppress the Green Movement by decapitating it.
Just as it did after June’s hotly-disputed presidential election, it is arresting high-profile reformists, academics and journalists who support the opposition.
It hesitates to detain Mir Hossein Mousavi lest millions of his supporters take to the streets, but it has locked up his brother-in-law and is widely suspected of killing his nephew. It cannot arrest Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel laureate, as she is abroad, but it has imprisoned her sister.
The tactic will prove as futile now as it did in June. Decapitation will not work because the opposition is a bottom-up movement run not by Mr Mousavi or Mehdi Karroubi, its nominal leaders, but by its grassroots members. It is a massive campaign of civil disobedience. >>> Martin Fletcher: Commentary | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THE INDEPENDENT: I don't expect my pharmacist to impose his or her private scruples
I adore the old-fashioned pharmacy. The place that sells everything from Mason Pearson hair brushes to rose water and proper scents. In summer, I spend hours buying plasters and dressings for feet cruelly betrayed by new sandals. In winter, I lurk around the homeopathic flu remedies. A great pharmacist is an asset to any local neighbourhood.
Part psychologist, part confessor, they give advice about diet, exercise and stress; help patients manage conditions from diabetes and asthma to high blood pressure, and discreetly answer questions about side effects to different drugs. We all know of times when a quick-witted pharmacist has spotted a clinical error made by a frazzled GP. Or raised concerns when a customer returns for a repeat prescription just a little too often. They are highly trained experts (all qualifying pharmacy courses are at Masters degree level and last four years). But I don't expect my pharmacist to impose his or her private moral scruples on me, the customer.
You can now buy the morning-after pill from a pharmacy without a prescription. But at the moment, pharmacists are able to decline services with which they disagree on moral or religious grounds. A significant number, mainly Christians and Muslims, refuse women the morning-after pill because they believe it is a form of abortion. I can't be the only one who has witnessed a distressed young woman brusquely told by a pharmacist that they can't help with emergency contraception. Or sent away, like a naughty child, to another pharmacy, one which (by implication) has laxer morals. >>> Liz Hoggard | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: ISRAËL | Les deux Grands rabbins d'Israël se sont élevés contre les avortements en Israël. Selon eux, les interruptions de grossesse "retardent la rédemption messianique". >>> AFP | Mardi 29 Décembre 2009
MAIL ONLINE: So here we go again. Another international Islamic terrorist plot - and yet another British connection.
The attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an American plane was averted only by luck and courage.
The incident obviously raises alarming questions about gross lapses in security. In particular, how did Abdulmutallab obtain a U.S. visa when he had been on an American watch-list of people with known terrorist connections?
But the deeper and more urgent issue for Britain concerns the key role this country has once again played in a Muslim's trajectory to radicalisation and terror. Abdulmutallab, who claims to have been working for Al Qaeda, was an engineering student at prestigious University College London for three years until 2008.
He was actually refused an entry visa to Britain earlier this year, but only because the institution at which he said he wanted to study turned out to be non-existent.
How, people might well ask, could such a radical have been educated in Britain without the authorities jumping on him?
Did MI5 know anything about him - especially since he was on a U.S. terrorism watch-list for two years?
As yet, we still don't know much about this man's history.
It appears he became a religiously extreme Muslim at a school in Togo, but was further radicalised while studying in London before apparently going to Yemen and linking to Al Qaeda.
Who can be surprised? After all, this is ' Londonistan' - the contemptuous term coined by the French security service back in the Nineties as they watched Britain become the central hub of Islamic terrorism in Europe.
Radicals flocked to the UK, attracted by Britain's toxic combination of criminally lax immigration controls, generous health, education and welfare benefits and the ability to perpetuate their views through the British veneration of the principle of free speech. >>> Melanie Phillips | Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The film director Roman Polanski said he was overwhelmed by messages of support as he battles extradition to the US to face a decades-old sex case involving a 13-year-old girl.
"In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation," wrote Polanski in a letter released online.
The 76-year-old Oscar winner made his first public statement since his arrest in September in a letter to the French philospher Bernard-Henri Levy, who has been been one of his strongest supporters.
The director of Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist is living under house arrest at his chalet in the Swiss Alpine resort of Gstaad after being released on bail on Dec 4.
Swiss authorities have said a decision on his extradition to the US is expected in January.
"I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages of support and sympathy I have received in Winterthur prison, and that I continue to receive here, in my chalet in Gstaad, where I am spending the holidays with my wife and my children," Polanski wrote. >>> | Monday, December 28, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Economists have warned that the pound is on the brink of sinking below parity with the euro due to the Government’s unconvincing plans to tackle Britain’s £178 billion budget deficit.
Douglas McWilliams, the chief executive of the Centre for Economics and Business Research (cebr), said that the British economy was walking “five yards away from the edge of the cliff” and could be toppled by an “unexpected gust”.
The pound is trading at 1.10 against the euro after hitting a low of 1.02 a year ago. However, currency markets are reflecting the expectation of a win for the Conservatives in next year’s election, raising hopes of tougher action to tackle the deficit. Any signs of Labour closing the gap ahead of the election would result in the pound plunging, according to the cebr.
“If I had to bet, I would bet on the side of parity being broken,” said Mr McWilliams, adding that there was significant downside risk for the euro as a result of the divergent economic performances of countries such as Germany and Greece. >>> Nic Fildes | Monday, December 28, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Iranian security forces have shot and killed a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi during the fiercest clashes with anti-government protesters in months.
At least eight people are thought to have died in clashes across the country, according to opposition web sites and witnesses.
Amateur video footage from the centre of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one of the casualties, chanting, "I'll kill, I'll kill the one who killed my brother".
In several locations in the capital, demonstrators fought back furiously against security forces, hurling stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform websites.
Demonstrations also took place in at least three other cities. >>> | Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. – The Gospel According to John, 1, 14
Et la Parole a été faite chair, et elle a habité parmi nous, pleine de grâce et de verité; et nous avons contemplé sa gloire, une gloire du Fils unique venu du Père. – Evangile selon Jean, 1, 14
Und das Wort ward Fleisch und wohnte unter uns, und wir schauten seine Herrlichkeit, eine Herrlichkeit, wie sie der eingige [Sohn] von seinem Vater hat, voll Gnade und Wahrheit. – Das Evangelium nach Johannes, 1, 14
E la Parola è stata fatta carne ed ha abitato per un tempo fra noi, plena di grazia e di verità; e noi abbiam contemplata la sua gloria, gloria come quella dell’Unigenito venuto da presso al Padre. – Evangelo secondo Giovanni, 1, 14
Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobus, et vidimus gloriam eius, gloriam quasi Unigeniti a Padre, plenum gratiae et veritatis. – Evangelium secundum Ioannem, 1, 14
THE TELEGRAPH: Queen's Speech: 2009 a 'difficult year for many': The nation owes a "profound" debt of gratitude to the Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan, the Queen said in her Christmas message as she spoke of her sadness at the heavy death toll. >>> Anita Singh | Friday, December 25, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: 2009? Some years are best forgotten, says Queen in Christmas address >>> Tom Coghlan | Friday, December 25, 2009
CNN: Each Christmas, Christians tell stories about the poor baby Jesus born in a lowly manger because there was no room in the inn.
But the Rev. C. Thomas Anderson, senior pastor of the Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona, preaches a version of the Christmas story that says baby Jesus wasn't so poor after all.
Anderson says Jesus couldn't have been poor because he received lucrative gifts -- gold, frankincense and myrrh -- at birth. Jesus had to be wealthy because the Roman soldiers who crucified him gambled for his expensive undergarments. Even Jesus' parents, Mary and Joseph, lived and traveled in style, he says.
"Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem because the finest transportation of their day was a donkey," says Anderson. "Poor people ate their donkey. Only the wealthy used it as transportation."
Many Christians see Jesus as the poor, itinerant preacher who had "no place to lay his head." But as Christians gather around the globe this year to celebrate the birth of Jesus, another group of Christians are insisting that Jesus' beginnings weren't so humble.
They say that Jesus was never poor -- and neither should his followers be. Their claim is embedded in the doctrine known as the prosperity gospel, which holds that God rewards the faithful with financial prosperity and spiritual gifts. >>> John Blake, CNN | Friday, December 25, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: I had hoped to have a sort of Christmas truce this week, but the controversy just keeps on raging, drowning out the choirs and bells.
And one of the problems is Christmas itself. How much longer will it exist in the form we know today?
I fear it won’t be much longer. Many of its traditions are visibly dying. Teachers complain that children don’t know the carols any more, because their parents don’t know them either.
At a couple of packed services during Advent (a season many haven’t heard of), I’ve noticed that large numbers of adults stand with their lips not moving during the singing of these simple, easily mastered songs.
Perhaps they’re humming, or struck dumb with awe, but it looks to me as if they are just completely unfamiliar with words or music and don’t know what to do.
For the moment, they still think they should come to church, but for how much longer?
A few days ago I heard a story from the former East Germany, where Christianity was coldly tolerated but officially discouraged, and as far as possible denied to children.
This created a mixture of hostility and indifference that has not been overcome in the 20 years since the regime collapsed. The link between people and Christianity, many centuries old, has now been broken.
A small boy was walking with his grandparent past a church in a small town in Brandenburg. ‘What’s that strange building? What’s it for?’ he asked.
But East Germany wasn’t half as subtle as the politically correct revolutionaries who run this country. Our lot are far cleverer.
They hope to destroy the Christian religion through a thousand regulations. But first they have to rob it of its ancient standing by treating it as equal (if not slightly inferior) to Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. >>> Peter Hitchens | Saturday, December 26, 2009 (Boxing Day)
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: The new effort to outlaw the full-length veil - niqabs and burqas - in public trumps earlier efforts to ban it only in some official buildings. The move comes at a time when French Muslims say they are being targeted as outsiders or not fully French.
Paris: The French ruling party of President Nicolas Sarkozy now affirms it will present a bill to ban full-length Islamic veils in all public places in France. It won't wait for the results of a parliamentary inquiry into the all-covering niqab and burqa to be published. The move adds fuel to an increasingly hot debate on French identity that has minorities here upset.
A nationwide identity debate, engineered by the ruling UMP party last month, has evolved into an embarrassingly unruly discussion about Muslims and northern Africans in France. And it comes on the heels of a surprise vote in neighboring Switzerland last month to outlaw the construction of new minarets at Muslim worship sites.
The UMP effort to outlaw the full-length veil in public trumps earlier efforts to ban it only in some official buildings, and comes at a time when French Muslims say they are being targeted as outsiders or not fully French.
Yet UMP party leader Jean-François Cope yesterday said veils that cover a woman’s entire face are a “violation of individual liberty” and a “negation” of one’s identity and that of others in a public milieu.
Under the proposed law, women would not be able to move in public with their faces fully covered. The legal rendering is that burqas and all-covering niqabs are a public order issue, and not a religious practice issue - as is the French ban on headscarves in schools, which has been carried out to uphold French secularism, known as laïcité.
Offenders wearing veils would receive a fine – though lawmakers now say there will be a period of mediation following the initial charge. Vote expected in early Jan >>> Robert Marquand, Staff writer | Wednesday, December 23, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Our future leaders must be taught selflessness in place of greed, and service in place of arrogance
By any reckoning, Britons have had an uncomfortable and anxious year. Even as the implications of the financial crisis sank in and the belt-tightening began, news broke of the ride for which we had been taken by our political masters, via their expenses forms. The war in Afghanistan claimed the lives of more than 100 British soldiers. The Copenhagen summit raised awareness of environmental problems, but left it unclear what would or should be done about them. And attacks on the traditional family continued, with claims by ministers and "experts" that no one form of the family was to be preferred to any other.
It has been tough for everyone, but Christians in particular have found themselves under pressure. Nurses have been told not to pray with their patients; registrars ordered to conduct civil partnership ceremonies in spite of conscientious objections; evangelists forbidden to spread the word in "Muslim" areas; and permission for Good Friday processions refused on the grounds that they are a "minority" interest and do not warrant police time.
Given the sea of troubles with which we are faced – at home and elsewhere – what can we look forward to as we face 2010? First, we need to accept that the financial and political crises are not primarily about the failure of procedures and regulation. The angst about the war in Afghanistan, similarly, is not just about the sad loss of life. The broader problem is that there has been the loss of a common narrative, a story which underpins our national life. In the past, this was provided by the Judaeo-Christian tradition, derived from the Bible. This narrative has been at the root of those values which we regard as particularly British, whether to do with the dignity of the human person, with fundamental freedoms of belief, speech and assembly, or with equality – which is not about "sameness", but a recognition of the image of God in others.
This tradition has also provided us with the virtues for which we have looked in vain in our economic and political leaders. The best of British business and politics has been characterised by a sense – largely derived from the Bible's teachings – of responsibility, of trust, justice, fairness and truth-telling. In recent years, these virtues have been jettisoned, so that we can be more "competitive" in a cut-throat world, or engage in a more adversarial form of politics. We, and the generations to follow, will have to live with the consequences of this dissolution of a moral and spiritual framework for our common life.
But while the task of reconstruction must begin immediately, it cannot be just about tinkering with the expenses system at Westminster, or the regulation of the City. It has to be about moral and spiritual education in our schools and universities. Future leaders must be taught that the public have the right to expect selflessness rather than greed, service rather than arrogance, and even sacrifice for the greater good of the organisation, or the nation. >>> Dr Michael Nazir-Ali | Saturday, December 26, 2009 (Boxing Day)
The Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali is president of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue, and was until this year Bishop of Rochester
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
YOU TUBE: Watch Reuters video: Mexico City legalises gay marriage >>> | Tuesday, December 22, 2009
PINK NEWS: The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has said that although homosexuality is still a sin, gay people must not be discriminated against.
Kirill met with Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, a pan-European human rights body.
According to Russian news agency RIA Novosti, he told Jagland: "We respect the person's free choice, including in sex relations."
Although he reiterated that the majority of religions saw homosexuality as a sin and gay marriage could not be allowed, he added: "Those who commit a sin must not be punished… And we have repeatedly spoken out against discriminating people for their nontraditional sexual orientation." >>> Jessica Geen | Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama's goal of health care reform received a key boost when Senate Democrat leaders said they had secured the key 60th vote needed to pass legislation.
The Senate bill is now expected to be put to a vote before Christmas, despite Republican delaying tactics.
Democrats from the Senate and the House of Representatives will then still have to hammer out major differences between their two versions of health reform before a final bill can be delivered to Mr Obama.
The president has made health reform his domestic policy priority and White House aides welcomed reports that there were now 60 supporters for a compromise deal in the Senate.
Mr Obama devoted his weekend radio and Internet address to the issue he campaigned on in 2008.
"Now - for the first time - there is a clear majority in the Senate that's willing to stand up to the insurance lobby and embrace lasting health insurance reforms that have eluded us for generations," he said.
The breakthrough came when Sen Ben Nelson, a socially conservative Democrat, told his party colleagues that he was willing to accept new wording that restricted federal funding for abortion.
It also emerged that he had secured extra federal funding for health programmes in his home state of Nebraska after days of negotiations.
His support appeared to give Senate leader Harry Reid the 60 votes required in the 100-seat chamber to overcome the threat of a Republican filibuster. >>> Philip Sherwell in New York | Saturday, December 19, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama’s Top Ten Foreign Policy Follies: This has hardly been a stellar year for the projection of American global power. Weakness, rather than strength, has been the hallmark of US foreign policy under Barack Obama, from the Iranian nuclear crisis to dithering over the war in Afghanistan. Instead of strong American leadership, the White House has all too often offered humiliating apologies for America’s past and embarrassing gaffes.
Here is a list of the ten biggest foreign policy follies of Barack Obama’s first year in office. I’ve tried to make the list inclusive of all corners of the world, ranging from Tehran to Tokyo to Khartoum, and frankly could easily have expanded it to a top 20 or even top 30 list. There are plenty to choose from, including some of the most cringe worthy moments in modern American history. >>> Nile Gardiner | Wednesday, December 23, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: 'Global' thinking won't necessarily solve the world's problems, says Janet Daley
There is scope for debate – and innumerable newspaper quizzes – about who was the most influential public figure of the year, or which the most significant event. But there can be little doubt which word won the prize for most important adjective. 2009 was the year in which "global" swept the rest of the political lexicon into obscurity. There were "global crises" and "global challenges", the only possible resolution to which lay in "global solutions" necessitating "global agreements". Gordon Brown actually suggested something called a "global alliance" in response to climate change. (Would this be an alliance against the Axis of Extra-Terrestrials?)
Some of this was sheer hokum: when uttered by Gordon Brown, the word "global", as in "global economic crisis", meant: "It's not my fault". To the extent that the word had intelligible meaning, it also had political ramifications that were scarcely examined by those who bandied it about with such ponderous self-importance. The mere utterance of it was assumed to sweep away any consideration of what was once assumed to be the most basic principle of modern democracy: that elected national governments are responsible to their own people – that the right to govern derives from the consent of the electorate.
The dangerous idea that the democratic accountability of national governments should simply be dispensed with in favour of "global agreements" reached after closed negotiations between world leaders never, so far as I recall, entered into the arena of public discussion. Except in the United States, where it became a very contentious talking point, the US still holding firmly to the 18th-century idea that power should lie with the will of the people. >>> Janet Daley | Saturday, December 19, 2009
NZZ am SONNTAG: An Weihnachten findet im christlichen Bergdorf Malula eine Mitternachtsmesse statt. Die Leute sind stolz, dass ihre Sprache trotz der Übermacht des Arabischen überleben wird.
Erzählt Mushe Barkula von den Vorbereitungen für Weihnachten, wirkt der schüchterne Mann mit dem Schnauz wie ein schelmischer Bub. «Wir machen Köfte und Hummus, kochen Fisch, Weinblätter und bereiten Taboulé, Salat aus frischen Kräutern.»
Mushe war lange Sanitäter in Malula. Der Cousin des Schriftstellers Rafik Schami kennt die Geschichten der Leute und ihre Sprache. Weihnachten heisst hier «Edha Milothe». Das ist nicht etwa Arabisch, die Muttersprache der meisten Christen im Nahen Osten. Das ist Aramäisch. «Meine Muttersprache und die Sprache Jesu», sagt Mushe, während er in seiner Wohnung an der Einfahrt in das 1500 Meter über Meer gelegene Dorf sitzt, die Frau Kaffee kocht und die Kinder herumtollen.
Malula bedeutet Eingang auf Aramäisch. Es ist tatsächlich eine Pforte im Fels, hinter der sich das Dorf in die Schlucht aus beigem Fels zu drücken scheint. Einige Häuser sind in den Berg gebaut oder stehen wie von Kindern aufgetürmte Bauklötzchen übereinander. Früher lebten die Leute in den Höhlen, deren Eingänge wie Löcher im Fels klaffen. Oft drückt ein Wind aus der irakischen Wüste ins Tal, meist ist der Himmel azurblau. Wenn im Sommer in der Ebene von Damaskus die Hitze steigt, braucht man in Malula nicht einmal eine Klimaanlage. Dann wohnen bis zu 5000 Personen hier. Im Winter sind noch 1000 Bewohner da, die meisten Christen, wenige Muslime, die auch Aramäisch sprechen. Manchmal fällt an Weihnachten Schnee, dann ist der Weg nach Damaskus blockiert. >>> Christoph Plate, Malula | Sonntag, 20. Dezember 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Tony Blair has hit back defiantly at his British critics, insisting that he is appreciated overseas much more than at home. He also defended his money-making activities.
“If I did what these people who criticise me here wanted, I’d end up just sitting in a corner, but that is never going to be me,” he said.
Interviewed for today’s News Review, the former prime minister said: “You get to a position where the criticism you get, you just have to live with. It’s the way it is. When you are someone like me, you create a lot of controversy one way or another. You just decide to do what you are going to do and let that speak for itself.”
He blamed his negative image in Britain on the press, saying: “They don’t approach me in an objective way. Their first question is how to belittle what I’m doing, knock it down, write something bad about it. It’s not right. It’s not journalism. They don’t get me and they’ve got a score to settle with me. But they are not going to settle it.”
He added: “It’s not true that nobody likes me! Reading the papers in Britain, you’d end up thinking I’d lost three elections rather than won them. There is a completely different atmosphere around me outside the country. People accept the work that you are doing, as it is. They don’t see anything wrong with being successful financially and also doing good work.”
Since leaving office in 2007, Blair has divided his time between unpaid humanitarian work and lucrative activities advising banks, companies and Arab governments.
There has been criticism of his high fees for public speaking, but Blair responded: “When leaders step down, they all do a certain amount of paid speaking and that is fair enough. If all I wanted to do was make speeches, let me tell you, I could make five times the number.”
He added: “I got out of politics early enough to have a second act in life. Why shouldn’t a politician be able to do that? Others do. Nobody says Bill Gates is bad for moving from business to philanthropy. Why shouldn’t a politician do a business model when they change their life?” >>> John Arlidge | Sunday, December 20, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair: I could make much more money: Tony Blair has likened himself to Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, and suggested he could make five times as many lucrative speeches as he does now >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Sunday, December 20, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: What Tony Blair did next after Downing Street: Is the former prime minister a philanthropist or a hustler? The Sunday Times went to discover the truth about Blair Inc >>> John Arlidge | Sunday, December 20, 2009
THE INDEPENDENT: UN climate talks avoided a total collapse today by skirting bitter opposition from several nations to a deal championed by the US President Barack Obama and five emerging economies including China.
"Finally we sealed a deal," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this decision...is an important beginning."
But a decision at marathon 193-nation talks merely took note of the new accord, a non-binding deal for combating global warming led by the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. >>> David Fogarty and Alister Doyle, Reuters | Saturday, December 19, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
THE OBSERVER: Speculation is growing that other gay sports stars may follow suit
The shock decision by rugby union player Gareth Thomas to announce that he is gay has triggered speculation that other sports stars might come out. Thomas is Wales's most-capped player and a former British and Irish Lions captain. The fact that he has confirmed his sexuality while still playing the game has been praised by gay rights campaigners.
The shock decision by rugby union player Gareth Thomas to announce that he is gay has triggered speculation that other sports stars might come out. Thomas is Wales's most-capped player and a former British and Irish Lions captain. The fact that he has confirmed his sexuality while still playing the game has been praised by gay rights campaigners.
Yesterday the 6ft 3in, 16-stone rugby star said he hoped he could make a difference to others struggling with their sexuality. "I just want to thank everyone for the amazing response I have received, on behalf of me, my family and friends," Thomas said. "I hope that by saying this I can make a big difference to others in my situation."
But he said he did not want to be known as a "gay rugby player" and hoped people would treat his sexuality as "irrelevant" to his career. "What I choose to do when I close the door at home has nothing to do with what I have achieved in rugby," he said. "I'd love for it, in 10 years' time, not to even be an issue in sport, and for people to say: 'So what?'"
Thomas, who came on as a substitute for his team Cardiff Blues as they lost 23-7 to Toulouse in the Heineken Cup quarter-final yesterday, said the secret of his sexuality was like a "ticking bomb" which he had tried to suppress. "I just couldn't ignore it any more," he told the Daily Mail.
"It is very positive Gareth has come out while he is still an active player," said gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. "Many of the sports people who have declared their homosexuality have tended to do so after their careers are over.
"Rugby is a very macho sport and has traditionally had a very robust he-man, heterosexual image so it is really great that he has had the guts to be honest with himself and his fans. Hopefully this will ease the way for other gay and bisexual players to also come out." >>> Jamie Doward | Saturday, December 19, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The controversial wartime pope accused of failing to openly condemn the Holocaust has moved a step closer to sainthood, the Vatican has confirmed.
Pope Pius XII will be declared venerable after the current pontiff Pope Benedict XVI approved a "heroic virtues decree", the first of three stages before canonisation.
To be declared venerable, a church investigation has to conclude that the person in question lived a life of exemplary holiness and heroic virtue. There must be nothing in the dead person’s writings that enables these characteristics to be challenged. >>> Simon Alford | Saturday, December 19, 2009
WELT ONLINE: Das faktische Scheitern der Klimaverhandlungen in Kopenhagen ist eine schwere Niederlage für US-Präsident Barack Obama auf internationaler Ebene. Nicht nur, dass er und Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel vorzeitig abreisten, ohne ein sicheres Ergebnis erzielt zu haben. Er ließ sich zudem von den Chinesen vorführen.
Seiner Ankunft folgte sogleich ein markiger Auftritt. Kaum hatte US-Präsident Barack Obama das Konferenzzentrum betreten, ließ er die Anwesenden wissen: „Die Zeit für Reden ist vorbei.“ Ab jetzt wollte er die Verhandlungsführung übernehmen.
Zusammen mit Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel, den „Chefs“ aus Russland, Brasilien, Japan, der Europäischen Union und anderer wichtiger Länder machte sich Obama an die Arbeit. Doch es lief nicht so, wie der Friedensnobelpreisträger es sich vorgestellt hatte. Nur Bundesumweltminister Norbert Röttgen blieb optimistisch. Trotz der zähen Verhandlungen könne es einen Kompromiss geben, meinte er. „Heute fallen die Würfel.“
Stattdessen bahnte sich ein Fiasko an. Es begann in der Nacht von Freitag auf Samstag. Ein enger Verhandlungskreis von 30 wichtigen und repräsentativ ausgewählten Staaten, darunter Deutschland, diskutierten noch immer die Grundzüge eines Zwölf-Punkte-Papiers. Es trug den Titel „Copenhagen Accord“ und bestand aus einer dreiseitigen Sammlung vager politischer Absichtserklärungen ohne fest definierte Ziele oder rechtliche Bindung. >>> Von D. Wetzel und G. Lachmann | Samstag, 19. Dezember 2009
MAIL ONLINE: A Labour MP has bitterly attacked plans for a Muslim ‘Eton’ for girls.
The college for 1,500 pupils would be both the largest Muslim faith school and the biggest boarding school in the country – larger than 1,330-pupil Eton.
Yesterday Gordon Prentice, MP for Pendle, near the school site in Burnley, warned that it could damage existing schools and colleges in the area and stoke community tensions.
‘The last thing we need is single-sex, single faith schools for girls,’ he told the Times Educational Supplement.
‘It pulls against community cohesion. It makes me weep to think so much time, energy and effort has gone into the community to get people to mix together. [This] goes against all public policy.’
The blueprint emerged after a proposal for a 5,000-place girls’ boarding school in Pendle was dropped amid public opposition.
The Islamic charity behind the Burnley project, the Mohiuddin Trust, insists its aim is to ‘strengthen inter-community relationships’.
It is in the process of setting up Mohiuddin International Girls’ College after purchasing the former Burnley College site for £2million.
The college would cater for girls of 16 and over and teach mainstream qualifications and faith studies.
The trust wants the school to cater initially for 500 students, expanding to 1,500. >>> Laura Clark | Friday, December 18, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: It could be a scene from a Victorian Christmas card. The young people gather in the church, decorating a tree, while in the background the choir rehearses for Christmas Day — the tune of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen playing out. In the theatre next to the church two clowns are playing musical chairs with hundreds of children, while a bishop and an inflatable Father Christmas look on.
The words to the carol are in Iraqi-accented Arabic — Feltestereh qolubikum, ya ayuha al jumoor — “may your hearts take comfort, you who are gathered here”. The church is Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad, and outside is the more familiar Iraqi scene of barbed wire and armed guards. Behind the tinsel and carols lies a fear that Christians in Iraq are a community under threat of extinction. Proportionally more Christians are leaving Iraq than any other group.
Last week 100 Christian leaders and politicians of all religions held an emergency meeting just before fresh violence broke out in the northern city of Mosul, with attacks on churches and Christian schools. On Tuesday a baby was killed and 40 people, including schoolchildren, were injured in three simultaneous bombings. Two days ago a Christian man was shot dead as he travelled to work. >>> Alice Fordham, in Baghdad | Saturday, December 19, 2009
NZZ ONLINE: Eisige Temperaturen und starker Schneefall haben weite Teile Europas fest im Griff. Als Folge der starken Kälte blieben auch Züge im Tunnel unter dem Ärmelkanal stecken. Und in einigen Staaten Amerikas beginnt der Winter mit Scheestürmen.
In der Nacht zum Samstag sind im Eurotunnel unter dem Ärmelkanal vier Züge mit mehr als 2000 Fahrgästen liegen geblieben. Wie ein Sprecher von Eurostar erklärte, hatte der grosse Temperaturunterschied der Luft innerhalb und ausserhalb des Kanaltunnels zu einer technischen Panne geführt. Für die Fahrgäste habe keine Gefahr bestanden, aber es sei «sehr unbequem» gewesen.
Am frühen Morgen wurden die Fahrgäste zweier liegengebliebener Züge mit einem Notzug aus dem Tunnel gebracht. Eine Ersatzlokomotive sollte die beiden anderen Züge in Richtung Folkestone im Südosten Englands schieben.
In den Eurostar-Hochgeschwindigkeitszügen sassen jeweils zwischen 500 und 700 Menschen fest. Alle vier Züge waren auf dem Weg von Paris nach London, als sie in dem Tunnel steckenblieben. Zwei weitere Züge, die sich aus Brüssel und Paris auf dem Weg in Richtung London befanden, wurden rechtzeitig angehalten. >>> sda/dpa | Samstag, 19. Dezember 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The “historic” climate change deal at the Copenhagen climate summit has descended into chaos after some developing nations rejected the plan for fighting global warming championed by US President Barack Obama.
An agreement to limit global warming to a 3.6F (2C) temperature rise, alongside a $100 billion (£62bn) a year in aid from 2020, were condemned as inadequate by some delegates and appeared to be in danger of unravelling.
Developing nations, including Venezuela, said they could not accept a text originally agreed by the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa as the blueprint of a wider United Nations plan to fight climate change.
Tempers flared during an all-night plenary session, held after most of 120 visiting world leaders had left.
Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the Sudanese negotiator, said the draft text asked “Africa to sign a suicide pact”.
One Saudi delegate said it was without doubt “the worst plenary I have ever attended.” >>> David Barrett and Louise Gray, in Copenhagen | Saturday, December 19, 2009
THE INDEPENDENT: Watered-down agreement follows day of bitter wrangling in Copenhagen
World leaders late last night agreed a hugely watered-down version of a new global pact on climate change, after an astonishing day of deadlock, disagreement, misunderstandings, walkouts and insults at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen.
The agreement, patched together after massive and rancorous divisions between the rich nations and the developing countries, especially America and China, was described as a "meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough" by the US President Barack Obama. However, a senior American official openly admitted it was not enough to combat the threat of a warming planet, saying merely: "It is a first step."
Known as the Copenhagen Accord, the new agreement falls massively short of the ambitions many people had centred on the two-week meeting in the Danish capital, in the hope of a major new effort to combat the global warming threat. Although in principle it commits – for the first time – all the countries of the world, including the developing countries, to cut their emissions of the greenhouse gases which are causing climate change, the accord is not legally binding, merely a political statement. >>> Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor, in Copenhagen | Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The slickly organised theft of one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust sent a wave of outrage around the world yesterday.
The sign that hung over the gates of Auschwitz extermination camp, where more than a million people died during the Second World War, was stolen in minutes. Polish police suspect that the culprits were either neo-Nazis or acting on behalf of collectors or a group of individuals.
The slogan wrought in iron, Arbeit Macht Frei (“Work sets you free”), was the cynical welcome to those entering the camp in the 1940s. One million of the 1.1 million people who died at Auschwitz were Jewish.
The theft in the early hours of yesterday was seen as an attempt by right-wing extremists to muddy the narrative of the Holocaust.
“This act constitutes a true declaration of war,” said Avner Shalev, the head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial institute in Jerusalem. “We don’t know the identity of the perpetrators but I assume they are neo-Nazis.”
Poland is treating the recovery of the sign from the site, near Cracow, as a matter of national honour. President Kaczynski said: “I appeal to all countrymen to help the police to track down the sign. A worldwide symbol of the cynicism of Hitler’s executioners and the martyrdom of their victims has been stolen. This act deserves the strongest possible condemnation.” >>> Roger Boyes | Saturday, December 19, 2009
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