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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
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ARUTZ SHEVA: The report by the Goldstone Commission sponsored by the United Nations is a danger for all of us; it is a written document stating that it is necessary to give up the fight against systematic terrorism that hits and uses civilians.
From just a quick look at the 575 pages of the report designed to establish what happened in Gaza in the 2008-2009 war, it is clear that the Commission set up by the United Nations during the ninth special session of the Human Rights Council in January 2009 was not at all interested in truth, but only in still another criminalization of Israel. The UN embodied, once again, an example of moralistic Palestinism that exploits the guilty feelings of the contemporary world to delegitimize the West. And it practically aims at the physical and institutional death of the Jewish State.
Every year, the UN devotes two thirds of its resolutions on human rights to condemn Israel; its General Assembly has already echoed with the anti-Semitic speeches of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and now it is proceeding with another version of the same thing by Judge Richard Goldstone, who is actually a Jew with a daughter who lives in Israel. Let us proceed step by step. >>> Fiamma Nirenstein | Wednesday, September 30, 2009
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: For months the French have been embroiled in a public debate centered on their national identity and a possible ban on the burqa. Immigration Minister Éric Besson, a former Socialist, is the man behind the aggressive debate, making him one of France's most controversial politicians.
Temperatures were below freezing and the winter sky was a frosty gray when French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette military cemetery in northern France last Tuesday. He had come to pay his last respects to another Frenchman, a man named Harouna Diop, a soldier and father of six children. Born in Senegal, Diop was only 40 years old when he died in Afghanistan on Jan. 13, when insurgents blew up his armored military vehicle.
"Harouna Diop was a Frenchman. Harouna Diop was a Muslim," Sarkozy said, facing a field of white crosses. "He died for France."
Sarkozy's eulogy was a rescue attempt, a rhetorical maneuver at the height of a heated debate being conducted in France over national identity. It has divided the country for months, has led to racist gaffes and has contributed to an atmosphere of heightened suspicion against French Muslims.
The debate revolves around the values of the republic, the French nation, the burqa and the question of what this country is proud of and what is important to it -- in short, many of the things that unite, or once united, the French.
The man who triggered this debate is standing next to Sarkozy at the military cemetery: Éric Besson, 51, minister for immigration, integration and national identity. The Nouvel Observateur calls him a "shameless servant of his master," while the weekly magazine Marianne concludes that he is "the most hated man in France." As for the president, he calls Besson "my blade."
Besson is a suave politician. He wears lilac-colored shirts with purple ties, has a habit of pressing the fingertips of both of his hands together while speaking and likes to pose for photographs in his office, between gilded stucco and an antique globe. Besson, who calls himself a patriot, has just written a book, "For the Nation," a literary hymn to his native France, which he says he has "loved and idolized" since his adolescent days. The immigration minister was born in Marrakech, Morocco and only came to France he was 17.
Three months ago, the minister announced the beginning of a constructive debate in the "motherland of human rights." He was convinced that ownership of the concept of the nation had been left to right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen and his Front National (FN) for far too long. There was nothing wrong with launching into this debate, which is currently raging in many European countries, partly as a reaction to the growing number of Muslims living in Europe.
The discussion centers on their rights and obligations, and on their acceptance of Western values. A burqa ban is not just being debated in France, but also in Denmark and Italy, and in December the Swiss voted in a referendum against the construction of minarets. 'Fear of Arab Domination' >>> Stefan Simons | Monday, February 01, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Richard Williamson, the Catholic Bishop soon to face trial in Germany on charges of denying the Holocaust, is apparently unrepentant, allegedly telling colleagues recently it was a "huge lie" that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
The notorious English bishop also allegedly told colleagues from his ultraconservative brotherhood that "a completely new world order" had been built on the "fact" that Jews were systematically gassed in concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor.
Jews, he added, had become "ersatz saviours thanks to the concentration camps," according to a report in German news magazine Der Spiegel.
"The fact is that the six million people who were supposedly gassed represent a huge lie," it is claimed he wrote to fellow members of the Society of St. Pius X.
In a separate email, he is said to have written that "1.3 million deported people" were not gassed in the Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec and Sobibor concentration camps as historians claim, but were rather transported to the Soviet Union.
Williamson is due to face court in the southern German city of Regensburg on April 16 over allegedly Holocaust-denying remarks he made to Swedish television in January last year. >>> David Wroe in Berlin | Tuesday, February 02, 2010
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Unbelehrbarer Bischof: Auch ein Jahr nach seiner Holocaust-Leugnung hält der Brite Richard Williamson nach SPIEGEL-Informationen an seinen umstrittenen Thesen fest. Aus Mails der erzkonservativen Piusbruderschaft geht hervor, dass Williamson "die sechs Millionen Vergasten" für "eine Riesenlüge" hält.
Hamburg - Bischof Richard Williamson bestreitet weiter den Holocaust. Während seine erzkonservative Piusbruderschaft direkt mit Papst Benedikt XVI. über Glaubensfragen verhandelt, bleibt der Brite uneinsichtig.
Vor einem Jahr hatte Williamson die katholische Kirche durch seine Ansichten in eine tiefe Krise gestürzt. Aus internen E-Mails der erzkonservativen Piusbruderschaft geht nach SPIEGEL-Informationen hervor, dass Williamson "die sechs Millionen Vergasten" nach wie vor für "eine Riesenlüge" hält. >>> | Samstag, 30. Januar 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Malaysia's opposition leader has appeared in court to face sodomy charges for the second time in a decade and threatened to call the prime minister as a witness.
Anwar Ibrahim, who led his party to record gains in the 2008 election, said the charges were the result of "the machinations of a dirty, corrupt few".
A 25-year-old former male aide, Saiful Bukhari, accused Anwar of sodomy. He faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted – a ruling that would effectively end the 62-year-old's political career. Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia. >>> Barney Henderson in Kuala Lumpur | Tuesday, February 02, 2010
WELT ONLINE: Der niederländische Parlamentsabgeordnete Geert Wilders polarisiert mit seiner Islamkritik weit über die Grenzen des Landes hinaus. Jetzt muss sich der glänzende Provokateur in Amsterdam vor Gericht verantworten. Aber ein moralisches Urteil fällt schwerer, als viele Kritiker zu glauben meinen.
Was ist eigentlich in den Niederlanden los? Noch vor zehn Jahren war das Land eines der tolerantesten in Europa. Es schien modellhaft zu zeigen, wie verschiedene Religionen und Rassen, Werte und Lebensentwürfe friedlich nebeneinander existieren können. Heute kommen aus den Niederlanden die schrillsten Töne in der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Islam, und dort findet man auch einige der radikalsten Verteidiger der liberalen Gesellschaft westlicher Prägung. Der populärste unter ihnen ist der Islamkritiker Geert Wilders, dessen Ein-Mann-Bewegung „Partei für die Freiheit“ bei der Europawahl zur zweitstärksten Kraft des Landes wurde und in jüngeren Umfragen sogar auf dem ersten Platz landete. Seit Kurzem steht der 46-jährige Parlamentsabgeordnete in Amsterdam wegen des Vorwurfs der Volksverhetzung vor Gericht, heute wird der Prozess fortgesetzt.
Der dramatische Wandel der politischen Landschaft in den Niederlanden hat eine innere Logik. Gerade weil der Staat zu lange zu tolerant war gegenüber Einwanderern, die viele Werte ihres Gastlandes ablehnten, weil er nichts unternahm gegen die Gettos und die wachsende Kriminalität muslimischer Jugendbanden oder gegen die laut Geheimdienst auf 50000 angewachsene Zahl von gewaltbereiten Muslimen – deshalb erhielten islamkritische Politiker wie der 2002 ermordete Pim Fortuyn großen Zulauf. Er war der Erste, der die niederländische Konsenspolitik beendet sehen wollte und die Probleme klar benannte. Die grausame Hinrichtung des Filmemachers Theo van Gogh durch einen in den Niederlanden geborenen Sohn marokkanischer Einwanderer stürzte das Land 2004 in eine Identitätskrise, die bis heute andauert. Der kultivierte "Rechtspopulist" >>> Von Rainer Haubrich | Montag, 01. Februar 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Geert Wilders, the radical anti-Muslim Dutch politician, will seek to test free speech in Britain next month when he makes a second attempt to visit the House of Lords to screen a controversial film equating Islam to Nazism.
Mr Wilders has accepted an invitation from Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the leader of UKIP, and Baroness Cox, a crossbench peer, to show his anti-Islam film Fitna in the Palace of Westminster on March 5.
His visit and the film, which claims the that Koran is a terrorist handbook, are expected to spark protests from British Muslims, including other members of the Lords.
British officials said the Government is powerless to ban Mr Wilders, despite continuing public order fears, after he overturned a previous entry ban following a legal challenge last year.
"He's free to travel and the Border Agency will not be alerted," said an official. >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Tuesday, February 02, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster today attempted to defuse a row that threatens to overshadow the Pope's forthcoming visit to Britain by claiming that Benedict XVI was merely giving voice to what many people felt when he attacked this country's record of promoting equal rights for gays.
Surprise at the Pope's remarks was today giving way in Britain to more determined opposition to his views, with the National Secular Society vowing to set up a Protest the Pope campaign to hold demonstrations during Benedict's visit this year.
Aware of the growing controversy, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, in Rome leading the 34 other bishops of England and Wales on an ad limina or five yearly visit to see the Pope, said that Benedict XVI was only saying publicly what many devout people believed.
"I think (the Pope's) words will find an echo in many in our country who are uneasy that perhaps one of the unintended consequences of recent legislation is to drive religious belief and practice into the sphere of the private only," said the Archbishop.
He was speaking out after the Pope said that recent legislation in Britain ran counter to natural law, and imposed unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. >>> Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent | Tuesday, February 02, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: President Obama’s self-confidence borders on complacency. He is ill served by senior staff, especially his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. He does not appear to be learning on the job as he did when campaigning for the White House. His Administration is too deferential to Congress, too reliant on the President’s personal charm, and as a result is regarded by its enemies as weak and ineffectual.
As Mr Obama prepared to release his $3.8 trillion (£2.4 trillion) budget today, this assessment of his first year in office came not from one of his established critics on the Right, but from one of his most respected mentors — his former professor at Harvard Law School, Chris Edley.
“What I fear is that having made history, having won a Nobel prize, having been celebrated around the world, a measure of complacency may have set in,” Professor Edley told The Times. “I don’t mean that the effort is not there, but that the discipline of self-criticism has perhaps faded.”
Professor Edley, who worked in the Clinton and Carter Administrations and is now Dean of the Law School at the University of California, Berkeley, added: “I wouldn’t give [Obama] as high a grade as President as I gave him when he was my student. I know he can do better.” >>> Giles Whittell in Washington | Monday, February 01, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Strained ties between the US and China could deteriorate further if President Obama goes ahead with a meeting with the Dalai Lama, Beijing warned today.
China’s anger at the Tibetan spiritual leader's overseas visits and the warm reception he is afforded by foreign leaders spilled over in tough words from officials in Beijing who led the latest round of talks with his representatives last week.
Zhu Weiqun, executive deputy head of the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, who is in charge of the talks, said that a meeting between Mr Obama and the Dalai Lama would “seriously undermine the political foundation of Sino-US relations”.
An increasingly assertive Beijing even issued a veiled threat that such a meeting would not only fail to serve the interests of diplomacy but could damage the US economic recovery. A view has become widespread that the strength of the economic revival in China, the largest holder of US treasuries, could help to lead the world out of the current downturn.
Mr Zhu said: “If the US leader chooses this time to meet the Dalai Lama, that would damage trust and co-operation between our two countries, and how would that help the United States surmount the current economic crisis?" >>> Jane Macartney in Beijing | Tuesday, February 02, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Analysis: the worsening relationship between America and China: A year ago, American hopes were high for a friendly relationship with China. But the White House seems unwisely to have raised expectations – the Chinese have been consistent in their unwillingness to change positions on key issues. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington and Peter Foster in Beijing | Monday, February 01, 2010
LE TEMPS: Après l’annonce de ventes d’armes à Taipei, Pékin muscle son discours et parle pour la première fois de rétorsion économique
L’annonce faite vendredi par Washington d’une nouvelle vente d’armes à Taïwan pour un montant de 6,4 milliards de dollars provoque un feu de critiques inédit en Chine. Dès samedi, Pékin avait annoncé plusieurs mesures de rétorsion: suspension des relations militaires avec Washington, interruption du dialogue sur les questions de sécurité stratégique, de contrôle des armes et de prolifération nucléaire et – c’est la nouveauté – menace de sanctions contre les sociétés américaines concernées par cette vente. «Arrogance» des Etats-Unis >>> Frédéric Koller | Mardi 02 Février 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Der italienische Ministerpräsident Berlusconi wünscht sich Israel in der EU. Das sagte er zu Beginn seines Besuchs in Nahost. Berlusconi wird am Dienstag vor der Knesset sprechen.
Italiens Ministerpräsident Silvio Berlusconi wünscht sich Israel als Mitglied der Europäischen Union. Dies sei sein grösster Wunsch, solange er in der Politik aktiv sei, sagte der 73-jährige Regierungschef zum Auftakt eines dreitägigen Besuchs in Israel. >>> sda/dpa | Montag, 01. Februar 2010
It is a disgrace that we have in the US today a country which has given equality to blacks, and even to Muslims, many of whom are out to destroy Western civilization, yet gays, most of whom are benign, simply because they are born with a certain preference which they can do nothing about, are discriminated against. And the state sanctions this discrimination! How disgusting! How utterly disgusting! How awful! How totally unacceptable!
As Reagan once famously said to the Soviet leader: "Tear down this wall, Mr Gorbachov!" I say today to the American leader: Tear down this wall of discrimination, Mr Obama! Bring America into the first world! – © Mark
PINK NEWS: US president Barack Obama will treat repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a priority this year, it has been reported.
According to the New York Times, the White House has been holding meetings on the issue for the past year with defence secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Obama mentioned the law in his State of the Union address last week, having promised in his 2008 election campaign he would repeal it.
He reportedly knew his administration could be forced to defend the 1993 law if court cases challenging it reached the Supreme Court.
Last week, Gates' spokesman revealed that he would be presenting to lawmakers plans on how to repeal the law. Repealing military gay ban a priority for Obama in 2010 >>> Jessica Green | Monday, February 01, 2010
BBC: At least 41 people have been killed and 106 injured by a female suicide bomber in north-east Baghdad, an interior ministry spokesman has said.
The woman detonated an explosives vest among a group of pilgrims making the journey to Karbala, 80km from Baghdad. A witness described seeing a fireball.
The Shia pilgrims were marking Arbaeen, the end of 40 days of mourning for the death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
Troops and police are on alert during the pilgrimage.
The bomber had hidden the explosives under her abaya - a long, black over-garment, Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi told the Associated Press news agency.
Witness Raheem Kadhom said pilgrims were "crying for help" as they lay injured on the ground in the Shaab neighbourhood, AP reported.
Others helped by taking them to hospitals in cars rather than waiting for ambulances, Mr Kadhom said.
Security has also been increased around the revered Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala during the annual festival, which culminates on Friday. Female suicide bomber kills dozens in Iraq >>> | Monday, February 01, 2010
Monday, February 01, 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Der amerikanische Präsident Obama hat am Montag seine Budgetpläne für die nächsten Jahre präsentiert. Obwohl namhafte Einsparungen geplant sind, wird das Defizit im laufenden Jahr Rekordhöhen erklimmen.
Der amerikanische Präsident Barack Obama setzt den Rotstift beim Haushalt an und macht dabei auch vor dem Stolz vieler Amerikaner, der Raumfahrt, nicht halt. Doch auch ohne bemannte Missionen zum Mond wird das Defizit 2010 mit 1,56 Billionen eine Rekordhöhe erreichen. 120 Programme und Projekte will Obama insgesamt kürzen oder streichen. Dennoch liegt der Umfang des von ihm vorgeschlagenen Etats mit 3,8 Billionen Dollar um drei Prozent über den geplanten Ausgaben im laufenden Haushaltsjahr. >>> sda/dpa/afp | Montag, 01. Februar 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama forecasts record US deficit of almost £1 trillion: President Barack Obama on Monday forecast a record budget deficit of $1.56 trillion (£975 billion) for 2010 – worse even than the White House's prediction made just a week ago – as red ink threatened to submerge his leadership and reforms such as health care. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, January 01, 2010
BBC: A vote for independence in oil-rich Southern Sudan's referendum next year could be catastrophic, the African Union's top diplomat has warned.
In an interview with French broadcaster RFI, Jean Ping likened Sudan's situation to "sitting on a powder keg".
He suggested the nation could once again face north-south conflict and said other areas like Darfur would try to follow the south to independence.
Southern Sudanese are due to vote in an independence referendum next year.
The vote was agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal which ended a 22-year war between north and south.
The BBC's James Copnall, in Khartoum, says it is rare for such a senior official to be so outspoken. >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: NAIROBI, Kenya—The militant group al Shabaab said it would ally with al Qaeda in a drive to establish an Islamic state in Somalia and fight for Muslims across East Africa, offering a fresh test for U.S.-backed African peacekeepers struggling to defend a weak Somali government.
In a statement Monday, the group said it had agreed, among other things, "to connect the horn of Africa jihad to the one led by al Qaeda and its leader Sheikh Osama Bin Laden." The statement, written in Somali and Arabic, is believed to be the first explicit confirmation of what U.S. and Somali government have long suspected: Militants in one of Africa's least stable places are sharing resources and merging agendas.
It isn't clear whether this new resolution will result in funding or training from al Qaeda, or even if it will lead to an official endorsement from the global terror group. At the very least, the statement signals a tightening embrace with foreign fighters who have been supporting al Shabaab's efforts to topple the Somali government.
The cooperation also could spur Somali militants to assist al Qaeda elsewhere. Al Shabaab has sent fighters to Afghanistan to train with al Qaeda, according to the Somali government. Al Shabaab recently pledged to send fighters across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, where al Qaeda is active. >>> Sarah Childress | Monday, February 01, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Just two years ago al-Qaeda was believed to be on the back foot. Now the jihadist group is attracting ever more recruits across a growing arc of terror.
Bored, depressed and stuck in a dead-end job, Khaled al-Bawardi. spent just a few hours watching jihadi videos to convince himself that he wanted to fight for militant Islam.
It took another six years in Guantanamo Bay, plus a year in religious rehab in Saudi Arabia, to realise there might be better career options.
“When I was young, I thought these people were angels and we had to follow them,” said Mr Bawardi, formerly Inmate 68 at Guantanamo and one of hundreds of Saudi al Qaeda suspects arrested after the US invasion of Afghanistan. “Now, though, I can see between right and wrong.”
Quietly-spoken, and dressed in a traditional Arab robe and keffiya, Mr Bawardi is an alumnus of the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care outside Riyadh, where for the last two years, batches of former Guantanamo inmates have undergone religious “deprogramming” in exchange for their liberty.
With its swimming pool, games rooms and therapy courses such as “10 Steps Toward Positive Thinking”, it resembles a jihadist’s version of London’s Priory clinic. Yet like any rehab programme, it also has its recidivists - and Batch 10, to which Mr Bawardi belonged, is a case in point.
The tenth group of Saudis to be flown back from Guantanamo Bay, no less than five of the original 14 who passed through the programme absconded to neighbouring Yemen to re-embrace terrorism. To the embarrassment of their mentors, and the dismay of Washington, one Batch 10 member, Said al-Shihri, has since re-surfaced as no less than deputy leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the movement’s new Yemen-based branch. The group opened up the latest frontier in the war on terror last month, when it claimed to have groomed the so-called Detroit “Underpants Bomber”, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Such “relapses” show how, more than eight years since 9-11, al-Qaeda has confounded its doomsayers with both its resilience and its ever-spreading presence. >>> Reporting team: Richard Spencer in Riyadh, Adrian Blomfield in Sana'a, Mike Pflanz in Nairobi, Ben Farmer in Kabul, Colin Freeman in London, and Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent | Sunday, January 31, 2010
LE TEMPS: Selon Salam al-Marayati, directeur du Muslim Public Affairs Council, un groupe de réflexion de Los Angeles, les musulmans sont bien intégrés en Amérique. Bilan 8 ans après les attentats du 11 septembre
Un peu plus de huit ans après les attentats du 11 septembre aux Etats-Unis, où en sont les musulmans américains? Peu après l’effondrement des tours jumelles du World Trade Center de New York, la communauté musulmane avait subi de plein fouet la politique sécuritaire renforcée de la Maison-Blanche. De passage à Genève, Salam al-Marayati est directeur du Muslim Public Affairs Council à Los Angeles. A la tête de ce groupe de réflexion dont la mission est d’informer le public sur la communauté musulmane et de contribuer à son intégration dans la société américaine, il dresse un état des lieux. >>> Stéphane Bussard | Lundi 01 Février 2010
LE FIGARO: Après les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 et sous l'impulsion d'une « telenovela », les conversions se sont multipliées dans les périphéries urbaines du pays.
Cinq fois par jour, Rosangela cherche la direction de La Mecque dans son petit appartement de Vila Ferreira, un quartier pauvre de Sao Bernardo do Campo, une ville industrielle située à quelques kilomètres de Sao Paulo. À 45 ans, sa vie est rythmée par l'islam, qu'elle a embrassé au début des années 1990. Voilée, vêtue d'une longue tunique, Rosangela assure l'accueil au Centre de divulgation de l'islam pour l'Amérique latine. «Je donne aussi des cours sur le Coran», précise-t-elle, soucieuse qu'on ne la prenne pas pour une simple hôtesse.
Converser avec Rosangela n'est pas facile : elle s'interrompt toutes les cinq minutes pour répondre au téléphone ou renseigner des visiteurs sur les conférences du cheikh Jihad Hassan Hammadeh, le directeur du Centre. «La demande de corans en portugais est telle que mon stock est épuisé, assure-t-elle . Alors, en attendant d'être réapprovisionnée, je donne des versions espagnoles.»
Premier pays catholique du monde, le Brésil connaît depuis une décennie une croissance importante de l'islam. «Il est impossible de savoir combien le pays compte de musulmans, puisqu'ils sont enregistrés dans la catégorie “autres”, mais on estime qu'il y en a environ un million», indique Paulo da Rocha Pinto, professeur à l'université Fluminense.
Pour lui, le meilleur indicateur de l'expansion de cette religion est la multiplication du nombre de lieux de culte. Malgré l'arrivée dès le début du XXe siècle de vagues de musulmans, syriens, libanais et palestiniens en majorité - on les appelle au Brésil les «Turcos» en référence à la tutelle qu'exerçait à l'époque l'Empire ottoman -, la première mosquée n'a été inaugurée qu'en 1960. La construction de lieux de culte n'a véritablement commencé qu'à partir des années 1980 et s'est accélérée au début des années 2000. Effet de mode >>> Par Lamia Oualalou | Lundi 01 Février 2010
JAMAICA OBSERVER: PRESIDENT of the Islamic Council of Jamaica, Mustafa Muhammad, says he agrees with the Sharia law which prescribes death for people who openly flaunt homosexual behaviour.
Muhammad did not mince words as he lashed out against what he described as an unclean, unnatural lifestyle.
“It is illegal and in the Sharia law the punishment is death. If you follow Christianity it is a crime in the sight of God. He destroyed a whole city because of this thing. It is an ungodly practice and I apologise to no one for this,” Muhammad said.
Under Jamaican law, persons who practice buggery — the sexual penetration of the anus — can be sent to prison for up to 10 years.
Despite claims by local and international gay lobbyists that homosexuals are attacked and killed in Jamaica, police statistics show that most gays who are killed are victims of crimes of passion.
Muhammad made sure to state that he was against the killing of gays in Jamaica.
“This can only be done in a country that is being run by Islam,” he said. >>> Karyl Walker | Monday, February 01, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Across Europe, we are having fewer babies. In many places, such as the deserted town of Hoyerswerda in east Germany, the falling birth rate is already taking its toll
Hoyerswerda, a town two hours beyond Dresden close to the Polish border, has lost half its population in the last 20 years. It is an ageing ghost town. The young and those with qualifications have left – young women especially. And those that remain have given up having babies. Hoyerswerda (known to its citizens as Hoy Woy) seems a town without a purpose, in a corner of Europe without a future.
On the windswept roof of the Lausitz Tower, the town's only landmark, I meet Felix Ringel. A young German anthropologist studying at Cambridge University, he has passed up chances taken by his friends to investigate the rituals of Amazon tribes or Mongolian peasants. As we survey the empty plots of fenced scrub below, he explains that the underbelly of his own country seemed weirder and far less studied than those exotic worlds.
In its heyday in the 60s, Hoyerswerda was a model community in communist East Germany, a brave new world attracting migrants from all over the country. They dug brown coal from huge open-cast mines on the plain around the town. There was good money and two free bottles of brandy a month. But the fall of the Berlin Wall changed all that. It was here in 1989, in the towns and cities of Saxony, that the people of the east started moving west to capitalism and freedom. At the head of the queue were the young, especially young women.
Under communism, East German women worked more, and were often better educated, than the more conservative western hausfrau. But when their jobs disappeared in the early 90s, hundreds of thousands of them, encouraged by their mothers, took their school diplomas and CVs and headed west to cities such as Heidelberg. The boys, however, seeing their fathers out of work, often just gave up. In adulthood, they form a rump of ill-educated, alienated, often unemployable men, most of them unattractive mates – a further factor in the departure of young women.
Reiner Klingholz, director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, calls it a "male emergency" – but this is not just an emergency for men. The former people's republic is staring into a demographic abyss, because its citizens don't want babies any more. >>> Fred Pearce | Monday, February 01, 2010
GUARDIAN DATA BLOG: Nine billion people by 2050? : The world's population is growing at a startling rate. These figures show the number of people in each country on the globe >>>
THE TELEGRAPH: Pope Benedict XVI has criticised Harriet Harman’s “unjust” Equality Bill for trying to prevent religious groups remain true to their beliefs.
The pontiff claimed Labour’s flagship anti-discrimination legislation “actually violates” natural law, and suggested that it contravened “long-standing British traditions” of freedom of speech.
He also urged Roman Catholics in the UK to “speak with a united voice” in a secular and multicultural society, as he confirmed that he will make a historic state visit to the country later this year.
His comments come a week after Christian peers defeated the Government on a key part of the Equality Bill.
Existing exemptions for religious employment were set to be changed, and churches feared under the new rules they would have face prosecution unless they went against their beliefs by employing homosexuals and transsexuals. Catholics said the law could have forced them to admit women to the priesthood.
The controversial clause was dropped after a vote in the House of Lords although it is possible that the European Commission may now intervene to back the Government’s original plan.
In an address delivered on Monday to Catholic bishops from England and Wales who had made the five-yearly ad Limina pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, the pope attacked the implications of the Equality Bill.
He said: “Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.
“I urge you as Pastors to ensure that the Church’s moral teaching be always presented in its entirety and convincingly defended. Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others - on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth. >>> Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Monday, February 01, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Benedict XVI says legislation safeguarding rights of same-sex couples violates 'natural law' of human equality
Pope Benedict XVI has condemned British equality legislation for running contrary to "natural law" as he confirmed his first visit to the UK later this year.
In a letter addressed to the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, the pope praised Britain's "firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all".
However he criticised UK legislation for creating "limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs".
It is thought his comments relate to laws that came in last year preventing adoption agencies from discriminating against gay couples.
The pope, whose visit is expected in September, made the comments after hearing representations from English and Welsh bishops on their concerns about the place of religion in an increasingly secular society. They told him sexual orientation legislation that came into effect on 1 January 2009 had forced the closure of half of the Roman Catholic agencies because the law making it illegal to discriminate against gay applicants went against their beliefs.
In his letter the pope said: "The effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs.
"In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed." >>> Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent | Monday, February 01, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Next Sunday's football final will highlight an extra showdown: between liberals and the religious right
It's already a quintessentially American event, combining razzmatazz, cheerleaders, and multimillionaire sportsmen in a few excessive hours of made-for-TV entertainment. But this year, the Super Bowl will be jollified by a side-plot that perhaps reflects the true state of the nation: an angry dispute between liberals and the religious right.
Women's groups and gay activists are squaring up against opponents from the "family values" lobby over the contents of two very different television adverts that are due to air when the New Orleans Saints take on the Indianapolis Colts in next Sunday's finale of the American football season. One of the commercials carries a hard-hitting anti-abortion message, and was made by a conservative Christian organisation. The other couldn't be more different: it publicises a gay dating website called Mancrunch, and features two men holding hands on a sofa, and then passionately kissing. >>> Guy Adams in Los Angeles | Sunday, January 31, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Goldman Sachs, the world’s richest investment bank, could be about to pay its chief executive a bumper bonus of up to $100 million in defiance of moves by President Obama to take action against such payouts.
Bankers in Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF) told The Times yesterday they understood that Lloyd Blankfein and other top Goldman bankers outside Britain were set to receive some of the bank’s biggest-ever payouts. “This is Lloyd thumbing his nose at Obama,” said a banker at one of Goldman’s rivals.
Goldman Sachs is becoming the focus of an increasingly acrimonious political and financial showdown over the payment of multimillion-pound bonuses.Last week the US President described bonuses paid out by some banks as “the height of irresponsibility” and “shameful”.
“The American people understand that we have a big hole to dig ourselves out of, but they do not like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole, even as they are being asked to fill it up,” he said last week. Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs 'Expecting $100 Million Bonus' >>> Helen Power in Davos | Monday, February 01, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Like my colleague Douglas Murray, who has already written an excellent post on the show trial of the century, I’ve been surprised by the lack of British media interest in Geert Wilders’s martyrdom in Amsterdam. An American minor celebrity only has to fart to receive blanket coverage in the British press, but when a major politician next door faces jail on trumped-up charges – in a case that will have implications for our freedom of speech – there seems to be little interest.
For those who haven’t visited these parts, Wilders is a Dutch politician on trial for “insulting” Islam by comparing the Koran to Mein Kampf, and for saying that Moroccans commit many street robberies in the Netherlands. Yes, put on trial – not fisked or twitter-lynched or condemned by the Equality Gestapo, but actually brought to court. Wilders calls it “surreal”, and it certainly seems strange that in a city where a gentleman can smoke Morocco’s most famous export and view half-naked women in shop windows, he can go to jail for criticising a religion. >>> Ed West | Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Sensational claims that Gordon Brown has physically attacked his staff in a series of outbursts in Downing Street - and once in America - have rocked the Government.
Well-placed sources say the Prime Minister has been accused of hitting a senior adviser, pulling a secretary out of her chair and hurling foul-mouthed abuse at aides while distraught over an alleged snub by President Barack Obama.
The claims, which are fiercely denied by Mr Brown's allies, are linked to a new book about Mr Brown by respected political journalist Andrew Rawnsley.
In researching the book, The End Of The Party, due to be published on March 1, Mr Rawnsley has investigated allegations that Mr Brown flew into a number of wild rages since he succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister. The publishers say his accounts are so detailed that readers will think he has 'bugs in the vases at No10'. Angry Gordon Brown 'hit out at aide and yanked secretary from her chair' >>> Simon Walters, Mail Online Political Editor | Sunday, January 31, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Microsoft founder Bill Gates has launched a scathing attack on Silvio Berlusconi, accusing the Italian Prime Minister of spending more on his thinning hair than he does on foreign aid.
Billionaire Mr Gates hit out at Mr Berlusconi's 'stinginess' and said the controversial politican was the main figure on his 'list of shame'.
And, in a clear reference to Mr Berlusconi's hair transplant, he told German daily Sueddeut[s]che Zeitung that 'rich people spend a lot more on personal problems like baldness than they do to combat malaria'.
Mr Gates' attack came as Italians were scratching their heads over the mystery of Mr Berlusconi's moving hairline. 'He's spending more on his baldness than on combating malaria': Bill Gates' scathing attack on Berlusconi's vanity >>> Nick Pisa | Friday, January 29, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: President Obama is planning to increase spending on America's nuclear weapons stockpile just days after pledging to try to rid the world of them.
In his budget to be announced on Monday, Mr Obama has allocated £4.3billion to maintain the U.S. arsenal - £370million more than George Bush spent on nuclear weapons in his final year.
The Obama administration also plans to spend a further £3.1billion over the next five years on nuclear security.
The announcement comes despite the American President declaring nuclear weapons were the ‘greatest danger’ to U.S. people during in his State of the Union address on Wednesday.
And it flies in the face of Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to him in October for ‘his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples’. 'Nobel Peace Prize-winner Barack Obama ups spending on nuclear weapons to even more than George Bush' >>> Carol Driver | Friday, January 29, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Tobacco firms are set to be forced to sell cigarettes in plain, unbranded packets as the next step in the war on smoking.
Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will signal his support for the move as he launches the government's "tobacco control strategy" tomorrow which aims to halve the number of smokers in Britain by 2020.
In a major speech Mr Burnham will also pave the way for new "interventionist" policies aimed at stopping people smoking in their own homes or cars if they live with children.
However, he will stop short of planning an outright ban on domestic or in-car smoking – claiming this would be a move too far against freedom of choice.
Instead, ministers will consider banning the sale of cigarettes from vending machines, which they say currently provide far too easy access for children as they can be positioned near the entrances of pubs and clubs.
And the current ban on smoking in workplaces and "enclosed public places" such as pubs and workplaces could be extended to cover areas such as walkways and entrances to buildings, currently a favourite haunt of smokers exiled from inside.
Ministers will also announce a new crackdown on the import of cheap illicit cigarettes from abroad. >>> Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor | Saturday, January 30, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Health secretary Andy Burnham keen to extend 2007 law / Plan to protect non-smokers and reduce UK smokers to 10%
Smokers could be forced to light up away from the entrances to public buildings under government moves aimed at ensuring that no more than one in 10 Britons smoke cigarettes.
The health secretary, Andy Burnham, now favours extending the 2007 landmark law which banned smoking in pubs, workplaces and other enclosed places, to prevent non-smokers having to walk through clouds of secondhand smoke.
The move comes as part of a wider attempt by Burnham to set out the case for state intervention to improve public health, insisting it does not amount to a nanny state. He will set out four principles where he says intervention is justified: where it protects the health of children, where a person's choice affects the choices of others, where barriers need to be removed to allow people to behave healthily, and where the environment can be shaped to offer healthier lifestyles.
Tomorrow's announcements will encourage cars and homes to remain smoke-free, but Burnham will stress that the state does not have a right to intervene in a private space, even to protect children. His department plans to "work with the public sector, business and the public to communicate the dangers of smoking in the home and the car".
Leading medical bodies such as the UK Faculty of Public Health back a legal ban on smoking in cars containing children, as does doctors' leader Professor Steve Field, who called it "a form of child abuse". But concern over what could be portrayed as an unwarranted interference in human rights is likely to limit any government action in advertising campaigns.
Burnham will also "carefully consider" the case for forcing all cigarettes to be stripped of their distinctive wrapping and sold instead in plain brown packets, in order to reduce their appeal. There will also be renewed action against black market tobacco, a ban on tobacco vending machines and extra NHS support for those who want to quit. >>> Denis Campbell and Patrick Wintour | Monday, February 01, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Osama bin Laden blamed the United States and other industrialised countries for causing global warming in an extraordinary message issued yesterday.
In a departure from his usual religious rants, the Al Qaeda leader lectured on the dangers of climate change, claiming the only solution was to 'bring the wheels of the American economy' to a halt.
Rather than vows to inflict death and destruction on the U.S. and its allies, the man behind the September 11 atrocity in New York discussed the environmental future of the planet and monetary policy.
'This is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that,' he declared.
He blamed Western industrialised nations for hunger, causing flooding and the destruction of fertile ground across the globe.
And he warned solutions must be 'drastic' rather than 'partial'.
Although bin Laden has briefly referred to climate change and global warming in past messages, this fresh audiotape was his first dedicated to the topic.
The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, has been interpreted as an attempt by the terror leader to broaden the appeal of his message beyond Islamic militants.
'Talk about climate change is not an ideological luxury but a reality,' he said in the tape released to the Al Jazeera television network, adding: 'All of the industrialised countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility.'
Bin Laden referred to the fact that while wealthy nations had agreed to the Kyoto Protocol that binds them to emissions targets, former U.S. President George Bush later rejected such limitations in deference to big business.
He called for a boycott of American products and the end of the U.S. dollar as a world currency. >>> Mail Foreign Service | Friday, January 29, 2010
AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has condemned the US and other industrial economies, holding them responsible for the phenomenon of climate change.
In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera, bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations.
"This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take," bin Laden said.
"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact." >>> | Friday, January 29, 2010
LE FIGARO: Les actes de vandalisme contre les lieux de culte se multiplient et les relations entre musulmans et chrétiens s'enveniment.
Ils tendent leurs paumes vers un Christ auréolé de rose fluo et ils pleurent. De leurs prières, des mots s'échappent : «cocktail Molotov», «stupeur», «liberté religieuse menacée». La brume ne s'est pas encore dissipée sur les faubourgs de Kuala Lumpur, mais, dans l'église de l'Assomption, vandalisée il y a peu, les paroissiens sont venus nombreux pour évoquer la «querelle d'Allah».
La Malaisie est secouée par une vague de violences inédites contre ses églises. En quelques jours, onze lieux de culte ont été la cible d'attaques et de dégradations. Au départ de la polémique qui divise le pays : The Herald. Cet hebdomadaire catholique local revendique le droit d'user, pour désigner Dieu, du terme d'«Allah» dans son édition de langue malaise, destinée aux fidèles de l'île de Bornéo. À l'issue d'une longue bataille juridique, la Haute Cour de Kuala Lumpur a autorisé, le 30 décembre dernier, les non-musulmans à utiliser le nom «Allah» dans leurs écrits. Mais, face à la colère de groupes islamiques et aux pressions du gouvernement, qui a agité la menace de tensions interconfessionnelles, cette même cour a suspendu son autorisation le 6 janvier dans l'attente d'un jugement en appel. >>> Florence Compain, Envoyée spéciale du Figaro à Kuala Lumpur | Vendredi 29 Janvier 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The strategy is finally right, but our resolve could be starting to waver, writes Con Coughlin.
It has taken the best part of a decade, and we have sacrificed an inordinate amount of blood and treasure in our ill-conceived and badly executed attempts to bring some stability to Afghanistan. However, it can now be said with confidence that we have the basis of a strategy for resolving the conflict.
But have we found the formula for resolving the country's ills too late? With no let-up in the death toll, do Britain, America and the other Nato states committed to rebuilding Afghanistan really have the willpower to see the job through? >>> Con Coughlin | Friday, January 29, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: You cannot stop the terrorist threat if you are unable to profile it: Tony Blair understood the scale of the terrorist threat, and the most effective way of preventing attacks is to target the most suspicious, says Charles Moore. >>> Charles Moore | Friday, January 29, 2010
If you were unable to listen to today's show live, you can listen to it here instead: >>> | Friday, January 29, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Margaret Thatcher, who famously railed against Britain being fed a European “diet of Brussels”, made her ascent to power sustained by eggs — more than two dozen of them a week — and not much else.
Documents released fom the former Prime Minister’s archive today include an Economist diary for 1979, into which is tucked a single typewritten sheet reading: “Mayo Clinic Diet.” This told her to eat eggs for breakfast every day, for lunch Monday to Friday, and often for dinner too.
“Weight loss should be around 20lb in two weeks (!),” it added, warning her in capital letters not to stay on this regimen for any longer. She was, however, allowed to drink whisky “on days when no meat is eaten”. Other forms of alcohol are not mentioned, suggesting that this programme was customised for Mrs Thatcher, who had long since indulged in whisky mixed with water.
In places there are annotations in her own hand, showing how she varied a monotonous diet — which also included no fewer than ten grapefruit a week — with beef, salad or cucumber soup.Modern-day nutritionists have reacted in horror to a regimen that they warned could cause “gastrointestinal side-effects”, namely wind, bad breath and constipation.
The Mayo Clinic, a renowned health group based in the US, swiftly condemned the diet as one of a number of quack cures that have circulated in recent years fraudulently using its name.
Dr Donald Hensrud, the clinic’s chief nutritionist, told The Times: “I would have told her to get off this diet immediately. It is a low-carb diet but very restrictive, no wholegrains, hardly any dairy. The more restrictive a diet, the more health problems there are. This is a potentially dangerous fad diet.” Thatcher went to work on an egg — and little else, archive reveals >>> Tom Baldwin | Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: COPENHAGEN: The Government says face-covering Muslim veils do not belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.
The centre-right government said the burqa - an all-covering dress - and the niqab face veil were ''diametrically opposed'' to the country's values.
It called for the full use of rules that allow schools, as well as public and private employers, to demand that students, teachers and workers show their faces.
''The use of the burqa or niqab … deprives women of the right to interact in Danish society on an equal footing with men and women who do not wear [them],'' the Government said. >>> Associated Press | Saturday, January 30, 2010
THE LOCAL (SWEDEN): Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said definitively on Thursday that he is against introducing legislation which would ban women from wearing burqas.
“No, that’s not something I want,” he told the TT news agency.
The clarification comes following a Wednesday night debate with Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin on Sveriges Radio in which both offered their views on prohibiting burqas in Sweden.
A parliamentary commission in France recently used a public buildings and transport bill to proposed a law which would ban the wearing of head-to-toe veils in public.
During the debate, Sahlin clearly rejected the idea of a similar proposal in Sweden, while Reinfeldt expressed himself somewhat more cautiously, which led to questions as to where exactly he stands on the issue.
But on Thursday he attempted to clarify that he would not support a law banning burqas, which he said would be “counterproductive”.
“Legislation shouldn’t lead to certain women being isolated even more from Swedish society,” he said. >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Justice officials seek retrial of former prime minister over Clearstream smear campaign against President Nicolas Sarkozy
French justice authorities will appeal against the judgment clearing the former prime minister Dominique de Villepin of involvement in a plot to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Paris state prosecutor said today.
"I have decided to file an appeal against this decision," Jean-Claude Marin told Europe 1 radio. "Whatever happens, there will be a second trial."
A retrial would offer Sarkozy one last chance to see his loathed rival convicted of allegedly orchestrating the campaign against him.
De Villepin denounced what he called "a political decision" which showed "that Nicolas Sarkozy prefers to persevere in his fury, in his hatred".
De Villepin was cleared yesterday of all charges levied during the "Clearstream affair", leaving Sarkozy disappointed and humiliated. >>> Lizzy Davies in Paris and agencies | Friday, January 29, 2010
DUTCHNEWS.nl: Anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders will travel to London on March 5 to show his short video compilation Fitna at the invitation of two members of the British upper house of parliament, the House of Lords. >>> © DutchNews.nl | Friday, January 29, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: How do you regulate banks effectively, if the Senate is owned by Wall Street?
This week, a disaster hit the United States, and the after-shocks will be shaking and breaking global politics for years. It did not grab the same press attention as the fall of liberal Kennedy-licking Massachusetts to a pick-up truck Republican, or President Obama's first State of the Union address, or the possible break-up of Brangelina and their United Nations of adopted infants. But it took the single biggest problem dragging American politics towards brutality and dysfunction – and made it much, much worse. Yet it also showed the only path that Obama can now take to salvage his Presidency.
For more than a century, the US has slowly put some limits – too few, too feeble – on how much corporations can bribe, bully or intimidate politicians. On Tuesday, they were burned away in one whoosh. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations can suddenly run political adverts during an election campaign – and there is absolutely no limit on how many, or how much they can spend. So if you anger the investment bankers by supporting legislation to break up the too-big-to-fail banks, you will smack into a wall of 24/7 ads exposing your every flaw. If you displease oil companies by supporting legislation to deal with global warming, you will now be hit by a tsunami of advertising saying you are opposed to jobs and the American Way. If you rile the defence contractors by opposing the gargantuan war budget, you will face a smear-campaign calling you Soft on Terror.
Representative Alan Grayson says: "It basically institutionalises and legalises bribery on the largest scale imaginable. Corporations will now be able to reward the politicians that play ball with them – and beat to death the politicians that don't... You won't even hear any more about the Senator from Kansas. It'll be the Senator from General Electric or the Senator from Microsoft." >>> Johann Hari | Friday, January 29, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Sport and stage stars turn out to show solidarity with Wales's 'role model' player
For one of the rugby world's more eloquent stars, the speech was surprisingly brief – but then Gareth Thomas has done a lot of talking in recent weeks. Just before Christmas he did the unthinkable and became the first professional player in Britain to admit he is gay. Last night was his chance to celebrate the announcement.
"Everybody here tonight is celebrating that the world is changing," he said. "We are here to send the message that it's OK to be a sportsman and it is also OK to be gay."
The venue was Movida, a glitzy London club with a bright pink bar and equally garish cocktails – not a very likely hangout for burly rugby players. But this was no post-match celebration, rather an opportunity to tell the world that the sport was longer a place in which gay players had to hide their sexuality. Last night, the former Welsh captain's friends and supporters joined Britain's gay glitterati for Thomas's official "coming out" party – a remarkable display of solidarity that many hope will signal the beginning of the end of homophobia in sport. >>> Jerome Taylor | Friday, January 29, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Eating pork is at least as effective as popping a Viagra pill to spice up your romantic life, according to Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, who claims to have tested the theory.
"Pork consumption improves sexual activity," Mrs Kirchner informed a gathering of business people at a meeting at the presidential palace.
"This is not a small detail," she said at the gathering to announce a reduction in the price of pork.
"Besides, some nicely grilled pork is much more gratifying than taking Viagra." >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
DAILY NEWS (Sri Lanka): French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Tuesday for tolerance with French Muslims and highlighted the need to remain aloof from fratricidal fights due to old state anti-clericalism.
In a speech at the national cemetery Notre Dame de Lorette in Pas-de-Calais, in northern France, Sarkozy also expressed his opposition to the the burqa, the piece of clothing that covers a woman from head to foot.
“We could not bear practices that insult the French converted to the Islam”, pointed out the President in the cemetery, where the graves of Muslim soldiers were outraged three times in 2007.
He stressed that the principle of laicism in France does not mean rejecting religious beliefs and practices, but the opposite, it means tolerance and respect in concordance with civic-mindedness and peace. Sarkozy paid tribute to French Muslims soldiers dead in military missions, among them Marshal Harouna Dio, who died in Afghanistan last January 13. [Source: Daily News] | Thursday, January 28, 2010
Hat tips: Always On Watch and Loganswarning
Es ist wirklich erstaunend und enttäuschend zu hören (im Video), daß der ehemaliger Kanzler Deutschlands, Herr Helmut Schmidt, wirklich davon überzeugt ist, daß Armut und nicht Religion die Ursache des Konflikts in Afghanistan ist. Ich hätte von ihm erwartet, daß er ein näheres Verständnis gehabt hätte. – © Mark
ZEIT ONLINE: Aber einen Abzug aus Afghanistan kann es nur mit den Amerikanern geben. Deutschland darf sich nicht isolieren Weiter lessen und Video anschauen >>> Von Helmut Schmidt | Donnerstag, 28. Januar 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: The whole world, and not just Britain, is broken, with continents such as Africa feeling forgotten and uncared for, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the heart of New York’s financial district yesterday.
Any money men who might have happened in to Trinity Wall Street to shelter from the snow would have found a different sort of chill as Dr Rowan Williams delivered his lesson.
Standing at the lectern of the famously wealthy US Episcopal church, which lies at the head of Wall Street, the leader of the Anglican Communion condemned the “straw man” of self-interest.
His theme was that financiers, wordsmiths — in fact anyone in the Western world connected in any way with economic reality — should look at themselves in the mirror and repent.
Economic life had become independent of intelligent thought and “wildly irrational”, the Archbishop said. He condemned the “uncritical” way in which bankers and traders pursued wealth regardless of the consequences, selling expensive mortgages to the poor and repackaging them into complex products that few understood.
The “invention of more and more recondite metaphysical, unreal forms of wealth generation” existed, he said, simply to “produce noughts on the end of the balance sheet”.
Dr Williams, conscious that he was speaking close to a general election, echoed the social thought of the Roman Catholic Church when he added that society was founded on love, and there would be no sustainable model until this was recognised. >>> Ruth Gledhill and Alexandra Frean | Friday, January 29, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Couple who fled to Tennessee fearing persecution for keeping their children out of school win first case of its kind in US
A US judge has granted political asylum to a German family who said they had fled the country to avoid persecution for home schooling their children.
In the first reported case of its kind, Tennessee immigration judge Lawrence Burman ruled that the family of seven have a legitimate fear of prosecution for their beliefs. Germany requires parents to enrol their children in school in most cases and has levied fines against those who educate their children at home.
Christians Uwe Romeike, a piano teacher, and his wife, Hannelore, moved to Morristown, Tennessee, in 2008 after German authorities fined them thousands of euros for keeping their children out of school and sent police to escort them to classes, Romeike said. They had been holding classes in their home.
Along with thousands of torture victims, political dissidents, members of religious minorities and other persecuted groups who win political asylum every year, the Romeike family will now be free to live and work in the US. The case does not create a legal precedent unless the US government appeals and a higher immigration court hears the case.
"Home schoolers in Germany are a particular social group, which is one of the protected grounds under the asylum law," said Mike Connelly, attorney for the Home School Legal Defence Association, who argued the case. "This judge looked at the evidence, he heard their testimony, and he felt that the way Germany is treating home schoolers is wrong. The rights being violated here are basic human rights." >>> Daniel Nasaw in Washington | Wednesday, January 27, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: 'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger has died at age 91 at his home in New Hampshire.
The author's son, in a statement from the author's literary representative, says Salinger died of natural causes. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Salinger is best known for his coming-of-age novel 'The Catcher in the Rye' about rebellious teenager Holden Caulfield, which came out in 1951 during the time of anxious, Cold War conformity. >>> | Thursday, January 28, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: J.D. Salinger, reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, dies aged 91 >>> Tim Reid in Washington | Thursday, January 28, 2010
LE FIGARO: L'écrivain américain s'était retiré du monde en 1953 et n'avait pas publié depuis 45 ans. Il est mort mercredi à l'âge de 91 ans. Il reste un auteur mythique pour les adolescents du monde entier avec son roman L'Attrape-cœurs.
Cette fois, c'est pour de bon. J. D. Salinger avait déjà disparu en janvier 1953. L'auteur le plus célèbre des États-Unis prenait une retraite anticipée. Le succès de L'Attrape-cœurs (1951) l'avait transformé en légende vivante. Le héros, Holden Caulfield, était devenu l'idole des campus. L'écrivain est harcelé, considéré comme une diva. Cela pèse un peu trop sur ses épaules. « Disons que j'en ai plein le dos de lutter contre cet agrandissement de mon portrait au dos de la couverture du livre.»
Avant de se retirer à Cornish (New Hampshire), Salinger accorde un dernier entretien. La presse sera sa bête noire. Salinger fut très fort, de ce côté-là : aucun journaliste ne réussira à le coincer. Il y aura juste quelques photographies prises à la sauvette, au téléobjectif. On y voit un vieux monsieur furibard, qui brandit le poing contre ses agresseurs. Salinger était fait pour le secret. Son silence joua en sa faveur. Avoir écrit ce qu'il avait écrit et tirer la porte derrière soi, voilà la bonne méthode. Ce type était un objet de culte. Un groupe punk, The Wynona Riders, intitula un de ses albums J. D. Salinger. Don DeLillo s'est inspiré de son personnage dans Mao II . Son ombre flotte sur le rôle de Sean Connery dans le film de Gus Van Sant A la rencontre de Forrester. Mark Chapman, l'assassin de John Lennon, avait dans sa poche un exemplaire de L'Attrape-cœurs quand la police l'a arrêté. >>> Éric Neuhoff | Jeudi 28 Janvier 2010
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