HT: No Mosque at Ground Zero >>>
Friday, August 27, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Former US president Jimmy Carter has secured the release of an American held in North Korea for nearly seven months after crossing the border from China on foot.
Aijalon Gomes, 31, left Pyongyang on a plane accompanied by Mr Carter, who had flown to the North Korean capital three days earlier on a private visit to negotiate the release.
The former president "courteously requested" a special pardon for Mr Gomes, which leader Kim Jong-il granted, North Korean state media said. Mr Gomes had been sentenced in April to eight years of hard labour and a hefty fine for trespassing and committing a "hostile act."
A committed Christian, Mr Gomes is thought to have travelled to the country on a one-man peace mission.
The[y] pair are due to arrive in Boston today to be reunited with Mr Gomes' mother and other family members.
In Washington, the State Department welcomed the news.
We "are relieved that he will soon be safely reunited with his family," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We appreciate former President Carter's humanitarian effort and welcome North Korea's decision to grant Mr. Gomes special amnesty and allow him to return to the United States."
North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said Carter's visit included cordial talks with Kim Yong Nam, North Korea's number two official, [sic]
Mr Kim relayed Pyongyang's interest in resuming the six-nation disarmament talks and reiterated the regime's commitment to denuclearisation, KCNA said.
However, Mr Carter does not appear to have met Kim Jong Il, who was making a surprise trip to China. A year ago, Kim sat down for talks and a photo with former US president Bill Clinton when he went to Pyongyang on a similar journey to negotiate the release of two American journalists. >>> | Friday, August 27, 2010
THE BOSTON GLOBE: Boston man set free in N. Korea: Carter intervenes to secure his release; former prisoner to return home today >>> Travis Andersen and Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | Friday, August 27, 2010
Verbunden >>>
THE TELEGRAPH: A new restaurant in Germany has advertised for humans to donate body parts for the menu.
The online campaign by Flime in Berlin has called for diners to "donate any part of their body" as well as looking for an "open-minded surgeon".
However, politicians have condemned the restaurant for being a tasteless PR stunt according to Der Spiegel.
So far the location of the restaurant has not been disclosed.
"Members" willing to participate in the cannibal "Wari-culture" of the restaurant are asked to fill out a form.
It includes questions about medical fitness, Body Mass Index, how often one exercises and even if the donor is pregnant.
The restaurant claims to be inspired by the "compassionate cannibalism" of the Brazilian Waricaca tribe. Berlin 'cannibal' restaurant calls for diners to donate body parts for menu >>> Laura Roberts | Friday, August 27, 2010
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A restaurant soon to open in Berlin has disgusted residents of the German capital by hinting that human flesh will be on the menu and asking for people to donate body parts. Local politicians are not amused and believe it is a tasteless PR stunt.
What in the world is Wari cuisine? It is a question that many in Berlin have been asking themselves lately after a number of ads have appeared in local papers promoting a mysterious new restaurant. The future location of the eatery is secret for the time being, but the menu has raised eyebrows. Indeed, the restaurant's website is requesting donations -- of human body parts.
"Donors wanted! Become a member today!" reads an announcement on the website. On the menu page, the restaurant, called Flimé, is careful only to indicate "meat" without giving away what kind -- surely an effort to keep the ruse going. Those who want to become members must submit a form complete with responses about health and exercise habits.
"After the medical check, you can decide which body part you want to donate!" the website says. The form tells prospective members that "Flimé only covers the costs for hospitalization.... The designated use of the donated body part is free to Flimé." The German version of the website is also advertising for a job opening for an "open-minded surgeon." >>> cgh | Thursday, August 26, 2010
WIKI: Wari culture >>>
Waris practiced cannibalism >>>
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – NILE GARDINER: British graphic design firm Dowling Duncan has come up with a series of controversial ideas for the Dollar Redesign Project, an open competition run by New York designer Richard Smith (and not associated with the US government). According to their ambitious PR spiel: “we want to rebrand the US Dollar, rebuild financial confidence and revive our failing economy.”
The new garish multicolour notes conceived by the firm bear a striking stylistic resemblance to the Euro, and remove America’s Founding Fathers altogether. The company has proposed replacing George Washington with Barack Obama on the new dollar bill, and Benjamin Franklin with Franklin D. Roosevelt on the $100 dollar note.
Dowling Duncan, whose corporate clients include some big names such as Apple, Gap, Google, HP and Microsoft, obviously think this is a smart PR move, designed to win it global publicity and enhance its profile in the States where it has an office in San Francisco. But I very much doubt it will play well outside of diminishing left-wing circles on the East and West Coasts. If anything the publicity it gains with its Barack Obama stunt is highly likely to lose it business rather than bring in more revenue, especially in Middle America. Continue reading and comment >>> Nile Gardiner | Friday, August 27, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: David Cameron is offering rich businessmen the chance to dine with him – if they give £50,000 a year to the Conservative Party.
Donors can enjoy exclusive lunches after Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, or meet the Premier at drinks receptions and campaign launches.
They can also mingle with other senior Cabinet members in what critics call a clear case of ‘cash for access’ – with the wealthy buying the chance to put their case directly to the Prime Minister.
It comes just months after Mr Cameron made a major speech attacking the murky world of ‘secret corporate lobbying’.
The donor clubs began when Mr Cameron was Leader of the Opposition, but the Tories admitted yesterday that the Leader’s Group, which allows businessmen to rub shoulders with the Premier, still exists.
According to the party’s website, for an annual payment of £50,000 ‘members are invited to join David Cameron and other senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners, post-PMQ lunches, drinks receptions, election result events and important campaign launches’.
The group’s chairman is merchant banker Howard Leigh. £50k to dine with Dave: Wealthy Tory donors buy access to PM >>> Daniel Martin | Friday, August 27, 2010
This is not the way to conduct oneself as a prime minister. Such behaviour brings the honorable office into disrepute. Cameron is behaving like a second-hand car salesman; further, he has no understanding of the meaning of the word ‘democracy’. Democracy means government for the people, by the people, not for and by the select, rich few. Britain is neither an oligarchy nor an aristocracy. If this is the way Cameron is going to conduct the affairs of state, then we, the electorate, have been truly CONNED by this Conservative, by this sleaze merchant! – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Iranian authorities have banned all advertisements for pets, pet food and other pet products.
The decision by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance comes after the fatwa was issued by powerful cleric Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi.
While keeping dogs as pets has become increasingly fashionable in Iran in recent years, the fatwa cited Islamic tradition, which dictates that dogs are unclean. >>> | Thursday, August 26, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Elderly Cubans will no longer be entitled to state-subsidised cigarettes after President Raul Castro axed the programme in the latest austerity cuts designed to jump-start the country's sputtering economy.
Beginning next month, some 2.5 million Cubans over the age of 54 no longer will get their four packs of cigarettes as part of the country's ration programme, the government announced on Wednesday.
"The Council of Ministers has resolved to eliminate cigarettes from the rationed family basket as of September as part of the measures gradually being adopted to limit state subsidies," an official statement said.
The cigarettes "are not a primary necessity", it added.
Mr Castro last month said that communist-ruled Cuba's ration system eventually will be eliminated as he moves to modernise the island's economy. >>> | Thursday, August 26, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Government to end monthly handouts of heavily subsidised cigarettes to over-54s as part of attempts to revive economy
Cuba's more mature cigarette smokers will soon discover that economics is no respecter of borders, trade embargoes or even vices.
From next month the Cuban government will cease its monthly handouts of four packs of heavily subsidised cigarettes to around 2.5 million Cubans over the age of 54.
The measure has not been prompted by concerns for the health of the island's senior citizens. Cuban authorities describe it as another measure aimed at jump-starting the spluttering economy.
"The council of ministers has resolved to eliminate cigarettes from the rationed family basket as of September as part of the measures gradually being adopted to limit state subsidies," read an official statement. Cigarettes, it went on, "are not a primary necessity". >>> Sam Jones and agencies | Thursday, August 26, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
TELEGRAPH BLOGS – BLOGS – TOBY HARNDEN: Gay marriage is coming to America >>> Toby Harnden | Thursday, August 26, 2010
FOX NEWS: Dick Morris on religious tolerance hypocrisy over Ground Zero mosque
Dick Morris >>>
Center for Security Policy >>>
HT: ATLAS SHRUGS: Imam Rauf’s Sharia Puppets: Madeleine Albright “Is Now Pushing [My] Ideas in Many Places, She Is in Constant Communication with Me, and on the Issue of Hamas, America Should Really Engage with Them >>> Pamela Geller | Thursday, August 26, 2010
FRANCE 24: Feisal Abdul Rauf is widely known as a moderate Islamic cleric, but also as someone who once accused the US of complicity in the 9/11 attacks. Now he's sparked a virulent debate over religious freedom in the US.
PROGRAMME ALERT: Watch the FRANCE 24 debate on the Islamic Centre near Ground Zero tonight at 7:10pm Paris time (GMT+1)
Feisal Abdul Rauf is the soft-spoken yet determined Muslim cleric who is the driving force behind plans to build a controversial Islamic centre two blocks away from the Ground Zero site in Lower Manhattan. Although the Egyptian-born imam is a leader in inter-faith dialogue, he has also sparked a virulent debate over religious freedom in the United States.
The proposed Islamic facility in lower Manhattan known as the “Ground Zero Mosque” is neither a mosque nor located at Ground Zero. Yet those semantic shortcomings have done little to cool what is now a raging debate across the United States about religious freedom and the place of Islam in American society.
The man behind the New York project prefers to describe the new complex in lower Manhattan in far more benign terms. Rauf, who is widely known as a leading moderate cleric, chose the name “Project Park 51” – a reference to the building’s address – as a means to downplay the religious symbolism of the proposed facility. While the new complex will, in fact, have a mosque, Rauf contends that it will not be the main focus. Instead, “Project Park 51” will serve as an Islamic cultural centre with sports, childcare and library facilities among other amenities. Nonetheless, those subtleties have not made their way into the broader debate that is now becoming a critical issue in the upcoming mid-term elections in the United States. >>> Céline Curiol | Vendredi 26 Août 2010
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