Monday, October 31, 2011
The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.
In a series of comments over the past 10 days, Cain and his campaign repeatedly declined to respond directly about whether he ever faced allegations of sexual harassment at the restaurant association. They have also declined to address questions about specific reporting confirming that there were financial settlements in two cases in which women leveled complaints. » | JONATHAN MARTIN & MAGGIE HABERMAN & ANNA PALMER & KENNETH P. VOGEL | Monday, October 31, 2011
Violent clashes between Occupy protesters and police broke out in Denver, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon, over the weekend.
Police arrested 20 people and fired pepper spray and pepper balls as they moved to tear down tents set up by Occupy Denver demonstrators on Saturday. Amid angry scenes, two protesters were held on felony charges after police said an officer was knocked off his motorcycle and other officers were kicked.
Patricia Hughes, 38, a nurse who was at the Denver demonstration described the police behaviour as "brutal and outlandish."
She said that police were putting on their riot gear before the demonstration began and that more than 100 officers charged into the crowd after one officer fell while dismantling a tent.
"It's an extraordinary decision that the police in Denver think rubber bullets are an acceptable response to a peaceful protest," she said. » | Dominic Rushe in New York | Sunday, October 30, 2011
Britain has threatened countries that ban homosexuality with losing aidpayments unless they reform, David Cameron has said.
But he conceded that "deep prejudices" in some countries meant the problem would persist for years.
The prime minister said he had raised the issue with leaders of some of the states involved when he attended the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Australia.
Britain was "putting the pressure on", he said. But it was not a problem that would be solved by the time Commonwealth leaders are next due to meet, in Sri Lanka in 2013.
Cameron warned Sri Lanka to improve its human rights record or face boycotts of the 2013 summit. He declined to discuss whether the UK could stay away but said he shared a "similar view" to that of the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, who has said he will not attend.
Ending bans on homosexuality was one of the recommendations of a highly critical internal report on the future relevance of the Commonwealth, written by experts from across the member nations.
"We are not just talking about it. We are also saying that British aid should have more strings attached," Cameron said on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show in an interview recorded at the summit in Perth.
"This is an issue where we are pushing for movement, we are prepared to put some money behind what we believe. But I'm afraid that you can't expect countries to change overnight. » | Press Association | Sunday, October 30, 2011
I have sometimes been critical of David Cameron in the past for not showing enough courage. This decision, however, is a courageous one; and he should be respected for it. Homosexuals have had to suffer throughout the ages. It is high time that people put their prejudices to the side, it is high time that homosexuals were recognised for the human beings that they are, for the people who should be respected for the nature they were born with and can do nothing about. Countries which punish and harass homosexuals do not deserve our aid. Let them go sing for it elsewhere. – © Mark
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, has launched a full-frontal attack on Conservative Eurosceptics within the coalition, describing their aims as "economic suicide" and ruling out a "headfirst" charge towards a repatriation of powers from Europe.
In a direct challenge to Tories calling for a redrawing of the UK's relationship with Europe, the Liberal Democrat leader dismisses calls for a raid on Brussels' powers as a futile distraction. Writing for the Observer, Clegg mocks those who believe this country would survive outside of Europe based on the so-called "special relationship" with America. "Eurosceptics tend to gaze longingly across the Atlantic, but the Americans are interested in us, in large part, because of our sway with our neighbours," he writes. "We stand tall in Washington because we stand tall in Brussels, Paris and Berlin."
Sources close to Clegg also dismissed claims by David Cameron over the weekend that the Foreign Office was reviewing every aspect of Britain's membership of the European Union in preparation for a potential treaty change coming out of the eurozone crisis.
The official told the Observer: "This would be to misunderstand what the coalition agreement says." Instead Clegg writes that Britain would avoid opening the "Pandora's box" that comes with "tampering with the EU's founding texts", and describes talk of such moves as "dangerous distractions".
The deputy prime minister's forthright intervention makes it clear that Britain's relationship with Europe could yet prove to be the most dangerous faultline within the coalition. It comes after a torrid week in parliament in which the eurozone crisis has led to renewed calls from the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative party for a partial or total withdrawal from the European Union. Last Monday, 81 Conservative MPs defied a three-line whip to vote against the government and for a referendum on EU membership. » | Daniel Boffey | Saturday, October 29, 2011
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Nick Clegg warns David Cameron of 'economic suicide' over EU policy: Nick Clegg has set himself on a collision course with David Cameron over EU policy after warning that it would be "economic suicide" for Britain to "retreat to the margins" of Europe. » | Josie Ensor and Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor | Sunday, October 30, 2011
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Opposition groups and activists on Sunday accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of 'scare mongering' to dissuade Western action against the regime.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Telegraph, President Assad had warned that foreign intervention in his country would cause an "earthquake" that would "burn the whole region".
"He is trying to make the uprising seem threatening to the West and the Middle East," said Walat Afimeh, a member of the Sawa (Together) Youth opposition movement.
"After eight months of uprisings, why do you think this will suddenly descend to civil and then regional war?" said Nasser Ahme, a Kurdish activist member of Sawa Youth speaking from a hiding place in Turkey.
Activists renewed the call for a Nato imposed 'no fly zone', and the equipping of the 'Syrian Free Army' (SFA) – an opposition military group composed of defecting soldiers.
Syria's social patchwork of ethnic diversities makes the country sensitive to civil war acquiesced activists. But intervention will only help prevent civil war. » | Ruth Sherlock in Antakya, Turkey | Sunday, October 30, 2011
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Die Todesursache von Libyens Diktator steht fest: Nach SPIEGEL-Informationen ist Gaddafi gestorben, weil Gehirnteile eingeklemmt wurden. Dadurch kam es zur Lähmung der Atmung. Die Obduktion zeigte einen sonst erstaunlich gut erhaltenen Körper.
Hamburg - Libyens gestürzter Machthaber Muammar al-Gaddafi ist nach SPIEGEL-Informationen an den Folgen einer sogenannten Herniation gestorben, einer Einklemmung von Gehirnteilen mit einer anschließenden Lähmung des Atemzentrums. » | Sonntag 30. Oktober 2011
Conservative MP Mike Freer was holding an advice surgery in the mosque in Margaret Thatcher’s former constituency of Finchely, north London, when the radicals hurled abuse on Friday afternoon.
They screamed at him that as someone who is gay he was “not welcome in a house of Allah”.
Mr Freer, who is not Jewish but who is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, said the protesters were “aggressive” and that he had been forced to call Finchley’s Met Police borough commander to complain.
It is now understood that Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorist unit is investigating the Muslims Against Crusades group, which has also issued a chilling warning to any MP representing Muslims in Britain.
In a statement on its website, they have told every MP to remember what happened to Stephen Timms, the former Labour minister who was stabbed while holding an advice surgery in east London last year.
His Al Qaeda-inspired attacker, Roshonara Choudhry, 22, was sentenced to life imprisonment and a number of other MPs who were on her target list were offered extra police protection.
The Muslims Against Crusades statement reads: “We warn Mike Freer and every other MP in Britain that their presence is no longer welcomed in any Muslim area and that examples such as Stephen Timms should serve as a piercing reminder of this.
“Muslims have had enough of freedom and democracy and are fervently working for the implementation of the Shariah.” » | Ted Jeory | Sunday, October 30, 2011
20 MINUTES ONLINE: Le procès d'Hosni Moubarak pour corruption et meurtre de manifestants a été reporté dimanche au 28 décembre, en attendant une décision sur un éventuel remplacement du juge.
«Le tribunal pénal du Caire, présidé par le juge Ahmed Refaat, a décidé d'ajourner le procès de l'ancien président Hosni Moubarak, de ses fils Alaa et Gamal, de l'homme d'affaires Hussein Salem et de l'ancien ministre de l'Intérieur Habib el-Adli et six de ses collaborateurs au 28 décembre», a affirmé l'agence. » | afp | dimanche 30 octobre 2011
20 MINUTES ONLINE: La Ligue arabe a averti le président syrien Bachar al-Assad qu'une intervention internationale serait inévitable si sa médiation visant à arrêter la violence échouait.
Une réunion est prévue dimanche à Doha entre une délégation ministérielle de la Ligue arabe et des responsables syriens, venus apporter la réponse de Damas à des demandes formulées par cette délégation lors d'une réunion mercredi à Damas avec M. Assad.
Citant des sources arabes bien informées, le quotidien koweïtien «Al-Qabas» affirme que «la délégation arabe a été franche et claire au cours de sa réunion avec la direction syrienne. Elle l'a avertie que si une solution arabe échouait, cela aboutirait à une internationalisation de la crise».
«Cela voulait dire que la Syrie devrait s'attendre à une intervention étrangère et à un embargo économique», ont ajouté ces sources citées par le journal. » | afp | dimanche 30 octobre 2011
When you go to see an Arab ruler, you expect vast, over-the-top palaces, battalions of guards, ring after ring of security checks and massive, deadening protocol. You expect to wait hours in return for a few stilted minutes in a gilded reception room, surrounded by officials, flunkies and state TV cameras. You expect a monologue, not a conversation. Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, was quite different.
The young woman who arranged the meeting picked me up in her own car. We drove for 10 minutes, then turned along what looked like a little-used side road through the bushes. There was no visible security, not even a gate, just a man dressed like a janitor, standing by a hut. We drove straight up to a single-storey building the size of a largeish suburban bungalow. The president was waiting in the hall to meet us.
We sat, just the three of us, on leather sofas in Assad’s small study. The president was wearing jeans. It was Friday, the main protest day in Syria: the first Friday since the death of Colonel Gaddafi had sunk in. But the man at the centre of it all, the man they wanted to destroy, looked pretty relaxed. Read on and comment » | Andrew Gilligan | Sunday, October 30, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Unseasonal Halloween weather has dumped up to 30cm of snow and affected 60 million people from Virginia to Maine
Huge swathes of the north-eastern United States have been hit by a rare October snow storm that struck across the region from Virginia all the way to Maine.
Dubbed "Snowtober" by news organisations covering the unusually early winter storm, the massive weather formation dumped up to 30cm (one foot) of snow in parts of the country that rarely see it this early in the year. Some estimates put the number of people affected by the unseasonal weather at around 60 million.
In a few parts of the country the storm was an almost once-in-a-lifetime event. New York City has seen measurable October snow just three times since 1869, when America was still recovering from the civil war. But 2011 has been an unusual year for New York weather, as the city was also directly hit by Hurricane Irene just a few months ago. Over New York and other areas the storm was also accompanied by thunder and lightning, another fairly rare event known as "thundersnow". » | Paul Harris in New York | Saturday, October 29, 2011
20 MINUTES ONLINE: Des vols suspendus à cause de la neige : Les aéroports de New York et de Philadelphie en Pennsylvanie enregistraient samedi des retards et des suspensions de vols. » | ats | samedi 29 octobre 2011
BILD: Wintereinbruch legt Osten der USA lahm: New York – Am Freitag wärmte noch die Sonne die New Yorker, am Wochenende verschwand die US-Metropole im Schneegestöber. Völlig überraschend ist eine Schneefront über die komplette nördliche Hälfte der US-Ostküste hereingebrochen. Millionen sind ohne Strom – und bleiben es tagelang. » | Sonntag 30. Oktober 2011
Libyan officials are determined to resist attempts to bring Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, before the international criminal court [sic], claiming he should instead face justice at home.
Colonel Ahmed Bani, the military spokesman for Libya's interim rulers, said they were insistent that the international body should not win custody of its most wanted man. "We will not accept that our sovereignty be violated like that," he said. "We will put him on trial here. This is where he must face the consequences of what he has done. We will prove to the world that we are a civilised people with a fair justice system. Libya has its rights and its sovereignty and we will exercise them."
The gruesome scenes of his father's death give Gaddafi, 39, little incentive to surrender to the new rulers, or the rebel forces searching for him in the Sahara.
It is understood that Gaddafi has acknowledged to the ICC and the National Transitional Council that he is aware of his father's brutal demise in his hometown of Sirte. Officials in Tripoli fear that the former heir apparent does not intend to surrender to The Hague, and is playing for time in an attempt to escape into a nearby African state. » | Martin Chulov in Tripoli | Saturday, October 29, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
NZZ ONLINE: Auf dem Bundesplatz in Bern haben Muslime gegen islamfeindliche Tendenzen in der Gesellschaft protestiert. Viele Blicke zog ein grosses, aufblasbares Minarett auf sich, das die Organisatoren gleich neben der Bühne aufgestellt hatten.
Rund 2000 Menschen haben auf dem Bundesplatz in Bern gegen Islamophobie protestiert. Redner aus dem In- und Ausland kritisierten die Diskriminierung von Muslimen im Alltag.
Zum «Tag gegen Islamophobie und Rassismus» hatte der Islamische Zentralrat Schweiz (IZRS) aufgerufen. Als einer der ersten Redner betrat am Nachmittag IZRS-Präsident Nicolas Blancho die Bühne. Hinter ihm waren grosse gelbe Buchstaben aufgestellt, die das Wort Islamophobie bildeten. » | sda | Samstag 29. Oktober 2011
In his first interview with a Western journalist since Syria's seven-month uprising began, President Assad told The Sunday Telegraph that intervention against his regime could cause "another Afghanistan".
Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely," he said. "But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different.
"Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake … Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?
"Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region." » | Andrew Gilligan, in Damascus | Saturday, October 29, 2011
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Die Anwälte von Anders Breivik, der bei einem Massaker auf der norwegischen Insel Utøya 69 Teilnehmer eines Jugendlagers ermordete, plädieren für „mildernde Umstände“. Ihr Mandant sei geständig und habe Kinder verschont.
Die Anwälte des norwegischen Massenmörders Anders Behring Breivik wollen beim bevorstehenden Prozess „mildernde Umstände“ geltend machen und ein geringeres Strafmaß durchsetzen. Der32-jährige Rechtsradikale und Islamhasser hatte am 22. Juli beieinem Massaker auf der Insel Utøya 69 Teilnehmer eines Jugendlagers ermordet. Kurz zuvor starben acht Menschen durch eine von ihm im
Osloer Regierungsviertel platzierte Autobombe. Breivik sei geständig und habe Kinder verschont, argumentieren die Anwälte. » | Quelle: dpa | Freitag 28. Oktober 2011
LE FIGARO: Plus d'un millier de fondamentalistes chrétiens ont manifesté ce samedi à Paris contre la "christianophobie" incarnée selon eux par la pièce de théâtre italienne jouée dans la capitale "Sur le concept du visage du fils de Dieu" qu'ils jugent blasphématoire.
"Nous sommes là pour dénoncer la christianophobie au sens large et nous allons mettre un accent particulier sur le spectacle blasphématoire qui se joue en ce moment", a dit Alain Escada, secrétaire général de l'institut Civitas, proche du mouvement de la Fraternité Saint-Pie X fondée par l'intégriste Mgr Lefebvre.
Derrière une banderole proclamant "La France est chrétienne et doit le rester", le cortège de plus d'un millier de personnes - 5.000 selon Civitas - a défilé dans le centre de la capitale aux cris de "christianophobie, ça suffit!". Parmi les manifestants, des prêtres en soutane et des croyants de tous âges exhibant crucifix et drapeaux du Sacré coeur, chantant et priant. » | AFP | samedi 29 octobre 2011
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