Jordanians March Against Inflation
AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Thousands vent anger in Amman and other cities against government's inability to rein in prices and poverty.

Thousands of Jordanians have taken to the streets of the capital Amman and other cities to protest against rising commodity prices, unemployment and poverty.

The protesters are calling on the government headed by Samir Rifai, the prime minister, to step down.

Demonstrators, including trade unionists and leftist party members, carried national flags and chanted anti-government slogans in downtown Amman.

They called Rifai a "coward" and demanded his resignation.

"Prices, particularly gasoline and food, are getting out of hand,'' Buthaina Iftial, a 24-year-old civil servant, said.

"We're becoming poorer every day,'' she said, holding a poster with a piece of Arabic flatbread attached.

Police and plainclothes officers formed rings around the demonstrators to contain the protests. There were no reports of arrests or violence. >>> Source: Agencies | Friday, January 14, 2011

Mayor Who Tried to Ban Gay Pride Praises Taliban 'Family Values'
PINK NEWS: The Doncaster mayor who tried to ban funding for gay Pride marches has caused shock by claiming people should look to the Taliban as a good example of family values.

Peter Davies, an English Democrat who was elected in June, claimed that under the Taliban, Afghanistan had an "ordered system of family life".

Referring to recent child abuse scandals in the town, he added: "The one thing that can be said about the Taliban is that they do have an ordered society of some sort and that they don't have hundreds of cases of children under threat of abuse from violent parents as we do in Doncaster."

Although the mayor has been praised by some for his crusade against 'political correctness', his latest pronouncements have drawn rather less support. >>> Jessica Green | Wednesday, September 09, 2009