Monday, June 28, 2010
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Julia Gillard doesn't want to move into the Lodge until she gets a democratic tick of approval. Or so she says. Maybe the real reason she is stalling is to test the waters about public reaction to moving her first bloke in there with her.
Most media commentators are relaxed about a de facto first couple. Why not, they say, everyone's doing it. What's the big deal about living together?
They are right about the fact cohabitation - what some call ''marriage lite'' - is changing the social map. Census figures show the proportion of adults in de facto relationships more than doubled between 1986 and 2006. With other countries showing similar shifts, many social scientists studying this trend conclude marriage lite is not a change for the better.
It's fine for Gillard - a 48-year-old woman - to live with her bloke. Yet as a popular role model for women, her lifestyle choice may influence other women into making big mistakes about their lives.
Cohabitation produces two groups of losers among women and children. Most women want to have children - Gillard is an exception - and some miss out after wasting their primary reproductive years in a succession of live-in relationships which look hopeful but go nowhere, leaving them childless and partnerless as they hit 40. (+video) >>> Bettina Arndt | Tuesday, June 29, 2010
BRISBANE TIMES: Prime Minister Julia Gillard has left her predecessor Kevin Rudd out of her new cabinet but says she would be ''absolutely delighted'' to see him serve as a senior minister if the government is re-elected.
Ms Gillard unveiled her new cabinet in Canberra this afternoon, with few changes announced to the frontbench. She said Mr Rudd would be accommodated as a senior minister if the Labor government won the next election.
''It is best to have as limited a reshuffle as possible to keep the maximum stability in the team,'' she added. Instead, Ms Gillard has handed her own portfolios of education, employment, workplace relations and social inclusion to former Labor leader Simon Crean.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith will take on the added role of Mr Crean's portfolio of trade.
Ms Gillard said Mr Smith had been doing a ‘‘great job’’ as foreign minister.
Ms Gillard said she had spoken to Mr Rudd about his future and he had confirmed he would run for his seat at the next election.
‘‘Consequently what I have said to Kevin Rudd is I would be absolutely delighted to see him serve as a senior cabinet minister in the team if the government is re-elected,’’ she said. Gillard leaves Rudd out of reshuffled cabinet >>> Tim Lester and Phillip Coorey | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Staff from foreign embassies in Britain have escaped prosecution despite allegedly committing a range of offences including human trafficking, sexual assault, threats to kill and drinking and driving.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said that a number of diplomats were responsible for “serious offences” which could carry a prison sentence of one year or more, but had escaped charges because of diplomatic immunity. These included a Saudi Arabian national who allegedly carried out a sexual assault while another from his country was supposedly engaged in human trafficking, as was a diplomat from Sierra Leone. Both the sexual assault and trafficking cases involved domestic staff brought into the UK to work at homes of diplomats, it is believed.
A Pakistani diplomat allegedly made a threat to kill someone, a Nigerian could have faced charges of actual bodily harm and one from Cameroon allegedly neglected a young person - a member of his family. A Gambian diplomat was arrested for shoplifting after leaving a London department store with unpaid for items including pairs of socks, the man is believed to be a “repeat offender”.
Diplomats from Brazil, Germany, Russia, Tanzania, the US, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) were stopped drinking and driving and one allegedly drunk Bahraini diplomat was driving uninsured. >>> Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Belgium will support the enlargement of the European Union to include Croatia, Iceland and Turkey during its forthcoming presidency of the bloc.
Olivier Chastel, the Belgian secretary of state for EU affairs, in a joint news conference with Spanish counterpart Diego Lopez Garrido, raised the possibility of the opening of a new chapter in negotiations with Turkey in the coming months after Spain, which currently holds the EU presidency, backed Ankara's bid despite resistance from France and Germany.
Belgium takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency from Spain on July 1.
The EU began membership talks with Turkey in 2005 but the process has made slow progress. Only 12 of the 35 policy chapters, which all EU candidate countries must successfully negotiate prior to membership, are open.
Eight chapters remain totally blocked due to Ankara's failure to open its borders to EU member Cyprus. >>> | Monday, June 28, 2010
LE FIGARO: Lors de l'inauguration d'une grande mosquée à Argenteuil, le premier ministre a loué l'Islam de France, une religion du «juste milieu», et promis d'être «intraitable» à l'égard du racisme.
A quelques jours du débat parlementaire sur le niqab, qui démarre le 6 juillet, François Fillon s'est livré à un éloge de l'islam de France lundi. Le premier ministre inaugurait la mosquée al Ihsan, à Argenteuil, dans le Val-d'Oise. Et ce sans le ministre de l'Intérieur et des cultes, Brice Hortefeux, dont la présence avait pourtant été annoncée. Interrogé sur cette absence, Matignon a expliqué que le premier ministre lui avait demandé de «préparer le texte sur les collectivités territoriales» qui sera discuté en fin de journée au Sénat.
Pour cette première inauguration d'une mosquée de la part d'un chef du gouvernement français sous la Ve République, François Fillon a assuré que «la réalité de l'islam de France aujourd'hui» était «celle d'un islam de paix et de dialogue», une religion du «juste milieu» où l'on vit sa foi dans le respect «des principes de la République». Devant plusieurs représentants d'une communauté musulmane en partie ébranlée par le débat sur l'identité nationale et celui sur le port du voile intégral, le premier ministre a martelé : «Aujourd'hui les personnes de confession musulmane et leurs lieux de cultes sont encore trop souvent l'objet de discriminations et la cible d'agressions que nous ne pouvons tolérer. Oui, il y a en France des actes anti-musulmans», a-t-il poursuivi, promettant d'être «intraitable» contre ces actes. Continuez à lire et écrire un commentaire >>> Par lefigaro.fr | Lundi 28 Juin 2010
CYBERPRESSE: La Cour suprême américaine a lâché la bride lundi à la possession des armes à feu aux États-Unis, que les pouvoirs locaux auront davantage de difficulté à limiter ou à interdire, au nom du Deuxième amendement de la Constitution.
«Il s'agit d'un grand jour dans l'histoire des États-Unis», a immédiatement réagi après l'annonce de la décision la puissante NRA, un groupe d'influence qui prône une complète libéralisation des armes.
Plus de 200 millions d'armes à feu sont en circulation aux États-Unis (pour 300 millions d'habitants), régies par les pouvoirs locaux, et provoquent 30 000 décès par an, selon les statistiques de la Brady Campaign, qui milite à l'inverse pour un durcissement des limitations.
Dans une décision à cinq voix contre quatre, la plus haute juridiction des États-Unis a estimé lundi que «le Deuxième amendement garantit le droit individuel de chacun de conserver et de porter une arme à feu pour servir des intérêts légaux, notamment l'auto-défense chez soi». >>> Lucile Malandain, Agence France-Presse | Lundi 28 Juin 2010
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Supreme Court extends rights of gun owners: The court's 5-4 decision in the 2nd Amendment case paves the way for challenges to laws restricting gun ownership, but Justice Samuel Alito says it will not 'imperil every law regulating firearms.' >>> David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE CHRISTIAN POST: PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Muslim students attacked a Christian professor at the University of Peshawar this month after he refused their demand to convert to Islam, the instructor told Compass.
Psychology professor Samuel John, a father of four who has been teaching at the university in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province for 12 years, said that as he came out of his house on the university campus at 8:30 a.m. on June 14, about 20 to 25 students rushed and assaulted him.
“I shouted for help, but no one came to help,” he said.
When his wife learned what was happening, she ran to help him, but the students beat her as well. Both John and his wife were rushed to Lady Reading hospital, where they were treated for their injuries, with John listed in critical condition.
“I am still getting threats,” the professor told Compass. “They say, ‘Leave the university or accept Islam – if you don’t convert, we will kill your family.” >>> Compass Direct News | Monday, June 28, 2010
BBC: New Zealand is to ban smoking throughout the country's prisons from 1 July 2011, Corrections Minister Judith Collins has announced.
The announcement has prompted concerns that violence in prisons could increase if prisoners are denied tobacco.
But Ms Collins dismissed the warnings and said high levels of smoking were a risk to staff and prisoners.
About 5,700 prisoners - two-thirds of the current total in New Zealand prisons - are smokers.
The corrections minister said smoking bans had been introduced in prisons in the US, Canada and Australia.
"We don't supply alcohol to prisoners because they are alcoholics, we don't supply them with all sorts of drugs and methamphetamine because they happen to be addicted to methamphetamine," Ms Collins said.
"This is a prison. It's not home. It's actually a prison. So it will be a total ban across all prisons. Not in the cells, not even out in the yard."
Prisoners will also be banned from having matches and lighters which some use to damage property, such as throwing burning balls of toilet paper at guards and setting fires in their cells. >>> | Monday, June 28, 2010
NZ HERALD: Prison guards have been threatened with "the bash" when the ban on inmates smoking takes effect in a year, says the guards' union.
President Beven Hanlon says the ban will put guards and staff such as tutors who remain smokers in danger from prisoners.
"Not just prisoners who get frustrated at smelling fresh smoke on you and just lash out, but because you are introducing an item that is suddenly a high-priority contraband item.
"The prisoners will do anything to get hold of it."
He said staff from around the country had phoned him yesterday to report prisoners saying, "If you guys are going to get rid of smoking, you are going to get the bash. We'll just take it out on you."
Mr Hanlon said he was threatened at Hawkes Bay Prison yesterday by two prisoners who identified him as someone who had talked about the issue on television.
"They were saying, 'We'll punch you in the head'."
Corrections staff will be encouraged to give up smoking, but will be allowed to smoke in designated areas - although not near prisoners. >>> Andrew Young | Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Related: Ending duty-free tobacco unlikely: Key >>> NZPA | Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Watch NZ Herald video here
THE TELEGRAPH: Foreign workers face having to use private health care if they want to work in the UK to ease the social pressure of immigration, the Home Secretary has signalled.
Employers wanting to bring in migrants would have to provide them with private health insurance to avoid placing any "undue burden" on the NHS, under the proposals.
It came as Theresa May said the planned annual cap on migrants will be based on the impact they have on public services and communities as well as economic need.
The Coalition Government has pledged to bring net migration down to the "tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands" and a limit of foreign workers from outside the EU is a key part of that move. >>> Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Johanna Sigurdardottir, Iceland prime minister, married her long-time partner on Sunday as a new law legalising homosexual marriages came into force.
Miss Sigurdardottir, 68, formally married Jonina Leosdottir, a writer, after the couple submitted a demand for their civil union to be transformed into a marriage, the RUV broadcaster said.
Iceland's parliament on June 12 unanimously adopted legislation allowing gay marriage, in a law that came into force on Sunday. >>> | Monday, June 28, 2010
THE JERUSALEM POST: The White House’s June 20 statement on the Gaza blockade shows that the Obama administration has abandoned all strategic concepts in its approach to the matter.
The White House’s June 20 statement on Gaza is immensely revealing of the shortcomings in US policy. It isn’t at all just a matter of policy toward Israel but of a failure to consider the broader US national interest.
Here’s the real issue: Does the US want the long-term existence of a revolutionary Islamist mini-state on the Mediterranean, spreading terrorism and anti-Semitism, eager to go to war with Israel again, working hard to block any Israel-Palestinian peace, expelling Christians, oppressing women and subverting moderate Arab states? It begins: “The president has described the situation in Gaza as unsustainable and has made clear that it demands fundamental change.”
One would expect the words “unsustainable” and “demands fundamental change” to mean the president demands the overthrow of the Hamas regime. In fact, it signifies the exact opposite: He demands that regime’s stabilization.
The statement continues by describing Obama’s plan to give roughly $200 million to Gaza as “a down payment on the US commitment to the people of Gaza, who deserve a chance to take part in building a viable, independent state of Palestine, together with those who live in the West Bank.”
Just think of that paragraph’s implications: a “down payment” on a “US commitment,” that is, not an act of generosity for which the US must get something in return. Rather, the phrasing makes it seem the US owes them the money.
Moreover, such aid retards rather than advances building a Palestinian state by shoring up a Hamas government which is against the Palestinian Authority, against peace with Israel and against a two-state solution. >>> Barry Rubin* | Sunday, June 27, 2010
*The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs and Turkish Studies. He blogs at www.rubinreports.blogspot.com
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Eigentlich will der Schweizer Staat verhindern, dass Kinder mit homosexuellen Eltern aufwachsen. Das Partnerschaftsgesetz verbietet homosexuellen Paaren den Zugang zur Fortpflanzungsmedizin und die Adoption. Aber egal, was sie sollen oder dürfen: immer mehr Lesben und Schwule gründen sogenannte Regenbogenfamilien.
*Das Video wurde zum Teil in Schweizerdeutsch ausgestrahlt worden.
LE TEMPS: Cinq présentatrices de la chaîne qatarie ont démissionné, lassées d’être harcelées sur leur tenue vestimentaire. Un symbole de la dérive islamiste de la direction, que dénonce une partie de la rédaction
Le tournant date du 1er novembre 2009, jour anniversaire de la chaîne. Al-Jazira fête ses 13 ans en innovant, avec une opération new-look. Présentateurs et présentatrices ne sont plus des hommes et des femmes troncs, ils se déplacent face à la caméra. Et ce jour-là, ironise une présentatrice, la direction fait une découverte: lorsqu’on met une femme debout, elle a des jambes.
En treize ans, la chaîne d’information de langue arabe a pris beaucoup de coups: elle en a fait sa force. Il a fallu composer avec les attaques de Washington, ulcéré de voir Oussama ben Laden et les talibans à l’écran. Batailler contre les régimes du Maghreb et l’Egypte, furieux d’entendre la parole des intégristes à l’intérieur de leurs frontières. Se taire en serrant les dents lorsque les médias occidentaux se gaussaient en diabolisant la chaîne. Les charges venaient de l’extérieur, la tour de Babel résistait.
Ce 1er novembre, une nouvelle crise s’enclenche. Cette fois, elle touche au cœur de la famille et aboutira, huit mois plus tard, à la fin du mois de mai 2010, à la démission de cinq présentatrices (une sur trois). Cinq bonnes professionnelles, intelligentes et jolies, au visage connu à travers tout le monde arabe. Venues du Liban, de Syrie et de Tunisie, elles étaient fières d’exercer à Doha, la capitale du Qatar, pour la plus grande chaîne de télévision de langue arabe, celle qui contribuait à changer la société, celle qui a révolutionné le monde des médias du Maroc aux pays du Golfe en passant par le Proche-Orient avec son slogan: «Une opinion et son contraire.»
Quelques jours après le lancement de la formule new-look, les journalistes ont reçu un code vestimentaire. La direction leur fait savoir qu’il est «préférable» de ne pas porter des pantalons moulants. Les jupes doivent descendre au minimum 2 inches (5,1 cm) sous le genou. Le chemisier ne révélera que 2 inches de peau à partir de la base du cou. Avec une jupe, mieux vaut porter une veste longue… Curieusement, pas une ligne ne concerne les hommes. Page 2 >>> Marie-Pierre Subtil envoyée spéciale à Doha (Qatar) | Lundi 28 Juin 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Die Türkei hat ihren Luftraum für israelische Flugzeuge gesperrt. Ministerpräsident Erdogan erklärte, er habe diese Massnahme nach der Militäraktion gegen eine Flotte mit Hilfsgütern für den Gazastreifen getroffen. >>> ddp | Montag, 28. Juni 2010
MIRROR: Ministers are to review the smoking ban amid claims it is crippling Britain's £6billion[-]a-year pub and bingo industry.
Around 130 bingo halls - 20 per cent - have closed in the three years since the ban in 2007. Thirty-nine pubs go bust a week.
The Government has ordered a review of anti-smoking laws this autumn. >>> | Sunday, June 27, 2010
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