Monday, November 21, 2011
The television cook attends Mass every day and has written cookery books with religious themes including A Feast for Lent and A Feast for Advent as well as a book on prayer called Journey into God.
Once named one of the UK’s top ten most influential Catholics, she has now hinted that she might turn her handing [sic] to promoting the religion in some way.
She told a Sunday newspaper: “I can reach people who would like to cook but are finding it difficult. It’s the same with the spiritual. If people want it, I would like to be able to point them in the right direction.”
Smith converted to Catholicism at the age of 22 having been influenced by a friend who later became a priest, but has rarely spoken about her beliefs in public.
She regularly joins worshippers at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Norwich after watching her beloved Norwich City, of which she is the joint majority shareholder with her husband of 40 years, Michael Wynn-Jones, and dedicates an hour a day to silent contemplation. » | Victoria Ward | Monday, November 21, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: 20.11.2011 · Eine ägyptische Studentin fordert die sexuelle Revolution. Mit ihren Nacktbildern im Internet protestiert Alia Magda al Mahdi kurz vor der Wahl gegen die Unterdrückung der Frauen in Ägypten.
Mit roten Lackschuhen, einer roten Schleife im Haar, Nylonstrümpfen und sonst nichts: So präsentiert sich die zwanzig Jahre alte Studentin der Kunst und Medienwissenschaften Alia Magda al Mahdi in ihrem Internetblog, per Twitter und auf Facebook. Das heizt die Stimmung in Ägypten, eine Woche vor der Parlamentswahl, zusätzlich an. Wie nicht anders zu erwarten, reagieren konservative Kräfte auf die Aktion der Studentin mit Drohungen. Liberale distanzieren sich von der Aktion, um nicht in den Ruch zu kommen, Nacktheit zu propagieren. Die Jugendbewegung 6. April, die zum Sturz des Mubarak-Regimes beigetragen hat, teilte mit, dass Alia al Mahdi der Gruppe nicht angehöre, wie es etwa der Sender Al Arabija berichtet hatte. » | Von Michael Hanfeld | Sonntag 20. November 2011
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Hospitalisée vendredi, Danielle Mitterrand a été placée en coma artificiel samedi. Après une intervention médicale pour insuffisance respiratoire en septembre, l'épouse de l'ancien président de la République François Mitterrand, ne s'était semble-t-il pas totalement remise, son entourage confiant qu'elle était fatiguée ces derniers jours. Son fils, Gilbert Mitterrand, l'a rapidement rejointe après son entrée dans un établissement parisien. » | A.G. (avec AFP) - leJDD.fr | vendredi 18 novembre 2011
The man who led the fighters that captured Saif al-Islam has said that the late dictator's son tried to escape arrest by pretending to be a camel herder.
"When we caught him, he said, 'My name is Abdul Salem, a camel keeper,'" said commander Ahmed Amur on Sunday. "It was crazy."
His unit, from Zintan's Abu Bakar al-Sadiq brigade, had been patrolling the vast southern desert of Libya for more than a month when it was given a tip-off late last week that Saif al-Islam was close to the town of Obari.
"We knew it was a VIP target, we did not know who," said Amur, who worked as a professor of marine biology in Tripoli before the war. » | Chris Stephen in Zintan | Sunday, November 20, 2011
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Libya's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi was captured on Sunday in the same southern region as the slain Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's heir was found a day earlier, an official in the National Transitional Council confirmed.
Saif spent Sunday secreted in the militia stronghold of Zintan, as Libya's interim rulers ignored world pressure and insisted that he be tried inside the country rather than at the International Criminal Court.
Reports have surfaced that he was discovered in the deep south of the country heading to Niger, wearing Tuareg robes and turban and pretending to be a camel herder named "Abdul Salem".
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi flitted between fear of being lynched and bravado at the prospect of being executed like his father when his Libyan captors flew him to their mountain stronghold.
And as a mob outside bayed for his blood, he even found time to worry about the dangers of passive smoking. » | Sunday, November 20, 2011
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Footage of protesters being blasted with pepper spray by a police officer while demonstrating on the UC Davis campus, has prompted international outrage and calls for the chancellor's resignation.
The video shows a member of the university police force, displaying a bottle before spraying its contents on the seated protesters in a sweeping motion while walking back and forth. Most of the protesters have their heads down, but several were hit directly in the face.
Some members of a crowd gathered at the scene scream and cry out. The crowd then chants, "Shame on You," as the protesters on the ground are led away. The officers retreat minutes later with helmets on and batons drawn.
Nine students hit by pepper spray were treated at the scene, two were taken to hospitals and later released, university officials said.
The protest was held in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed by police with batons on November 9.
As the video images circulated on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter over the weekend, the university's faculty association called on University's Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to resign, saying in a letter there had been a "gross failure of leadership."
"The Chancellor's role is to enable open and free enquiry, not to suppress it," the faculty association said in its letter.
It called Ms Katehi's authorisation of police force a "gross failure of leadership." Read on and comment » | Josie Ensor | Sunday, November 20, 2011
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Egypt's cabinet was forced to hold crisis talks on Sunday as military police battled with protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square, demanding an end to army rule.
Hundreds of soldiers and police, backed by armored personnel carriers, used tear gas, rubber bullets and batons to evict several thousand protesters, presenting Egypt's ruling generals with their biggest security challenge yet, a week before parliamentary elections.
Demonstrators in Cairo chanted: "The people want to topple the regime" as they rushed at police, who fired rubber bullets and teargas. Protesters clashed with police in two other cities.
Two people were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes on Saturday night reminiscent of some of the worst violence during the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February. » | Sunday, November 20, 2011
The former deputy prime minister, a long-time supporter of the single currency, said the public had "no idea" about the potential impact its collapse would have on the UK.
But he believes Franco-German determination will secure the euro's future and pave the way for Britain to sign up.
Both the Coalition and the Labour Party have ruled out adopting the euro in the foreseeable future.
Last month Prime Minister David Cameron suffered the biggest ever Conservative revolt over Europe as more than 80 Conservative MPs defied his orders and backed a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.
Lord Heseltine, the peer in charge of the Government's £1.4 billion regional growth fund, acknowledged that the Eurozone was in crisis, but said he was confident they would pull through to create a stronger economy.
He told BBC1's Politics Show: "I think we will join the euro. » | Josie Ensor | Sunday, November 20, 2011
BBC: UK will ultimately join euro says Lord Heseltine: Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has said he still expects the UK to eventually join the euro. » | Sunday, November 20, 2011
As the skies over euroland darken, at least the jokes in Brussels are getting better. At a recent gathering to discuss the crisis that threatens to unravel the euro, one former member of the European parliament observed acidly: "They ought to give this year's Charlemagne prize [for services to European unity] to the bond markets. Who has done more for the cause?"
The black humour was a way of stating a bald truth: in the de facto capital of the European Union, the ongoing near-death experience of the European single currency is concentrating minds in unprecedented fashion. As governments across southern Europe buckle under the pressure of paying back their debts at ever-higher rates of interest, and even formerly "respectable" economies such as France and the Netherlands feel the chill wind of market scrutiny, the custodians of Europe's future have belatedly found their voice.
Last week the normally dour and pragmatic German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced that the EU faces "perhaps the toughest hour since the second world war. If the euro fails, then Europe fails, and we want to prevent and we will prevent this. This is what we are working for, because it is such a huge historic project."
As the stakes rise higher than anyone thought they could, the British are increasingly seen as an irritation and even an irrelevance. On Friday David Cameron rushed between overseas meetings with three key players in this monetary psychodrama: Angela Merkel, leader of the only country with the economic heft to sort the mess out; José Manuel Barroso, the Portuguese president of the European commission which is charged with giving Brussels a plan for salvation; and Herman Van Rompuy, the hitherto invisible president of the European council of ministers, the inter-governmental body that will adopt that plan.
Cameron hoped to extract a promise that the City will not be targeted by a future financial transactions tax and a pledge that countries such as Britain that are outside the eurozone will retain their influence in the turbulent times ahead. The prime minister will have discovered that, as the European dream of integration via monetary union teeters on the brink of catastrophe, the concerns of the semi-detached are at the top of no one's agenda. The UK's decision not to directly assist bailout funds for Greece and Portugal went down badly; the subsequent exhortations from Downing Street to sort the euro mess out were greeted with exasperation. » | Julian Coman | Sunday, November 20, 2011
Totalitarian regimes routinely orchestrate massive, faux-spontaneous welcomes for visiting dignitaries, but the beleaguered interim administration in Cairo didn't need to rent a crowd for Erdogan: the Turkish leader is genuinely popular across the Arab world. He was ranked the most admired world leader in a 2010 poll of Arabs by the University of Maryland in conjunction with Zogby International. His stock has soared higher still since the Arab Spring. In countries where young people have risen against old tyrannies, many cite Erdogan as the kind of leader they would like to have instead.
A good politician knows how to milk his moment: the Cairo visit was the first leg of Erdogan's triumphant mid-September sweep through the newly liberated North African states. There were tumultuous welcomes, too, in Tunis and Tripoli. Then it was time for Erdogan to take a bow on the biggest stage. The trip culminated at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, where President Obama, ignoring Erdogan's recent criticism of U.S. policy in the Middle East and his flaming diplomatic row with Israel, lauded him for showing "great leadership" in the region. » | Bobby Ghosh, Istanbul | Monday, November 28, 2011
Even on the run, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the 39-year-old son of ColonelMuammar Gaddafi, continued to insist on his innocence of crimes against humanity for which he has been indicted, contacting the international criminal court late last month through an intermediary.
It was suspected then that Saif was in Libya's vast desert areas close to the border with Niger, perhaps travelling in a convoy. In reality, it appears, Saif was travelling with only a handful of bodyguards when he was caught by National Transitional Council forces near the southern town of Obari. Now it seems likely that he will have to prove his innocence not in The Hague but in Tripoli, the capital he fled, in what is certain to become a show trial. Saif will be answering not only for himself but for his whole family.
The ICC had sought Saif on an international warrant as an "indirect co-perpetrator of murder and persecution as crimes against humanity", accusing him of "assuming essential tasks" to enact a plan, between 15 and 28 February this year, to launch attacks on Libyan civilians.
Saif was flown by pro-government forces to Zintan, where an angry crowd attempted to storm the plane. Dressed in a Tuareg scarf, heavily bearded and with a bandaged hand, he refused, however, to confirm his identity to a Reuters correspondent who saw him and described the prisoner as looking like Saif.
A commander in Zintan and the country's interim justice minister confirmed his capture. The ICC said that it was in discussions to ensure he was treated appropriately.
If Saif makes it safely to trial – not a certainty, given the deaths of his father and his brother Mutassim after their capture in Sirte – that court appearance will be the culmination of a long and extraordinary journey for the man many once believed was the reformer in the Gaddafi clan.
It was a journey that took Saif, a handsome and plausible figure with an excellent command of English, German and French, from the London School of Economics, where he studied, to meetings with high-ranking international figures. » | Peter Beaumont | Saturday, November 19, 2011
The photo, which the 20-year-old former student first posted on her blog, shows her naked apart from a pair of thigh-high stockings and some red patent leather shoes.
It was later posted on Twitter with the hashtag #nudephotorevolutionary. The tweet was viewed over a million times, while Elmahdy's followers jumped from a few hundred to more than 14,000.
Her actions have received global media coverage and provoked outrage in Egypt, a conservative Muslim country where most women wear the veil. Many liberals fear that Elmahdy's actions will hurt their prospects in the parliamentary election next week.
Elmahdy describes herself as an atheist. She has been living for the past five months with her boyfriend, blogger Kareem Amer, who, in 2006 was sentenced to four years in a maximum security prison for criticizing Islam and defaming former president Hosni Mubarak.
Here she talks exclusively to CNN in Cairo about why she posed nude.
CNN: Why did you post a photo of yourself nude photo on Twitter, and why the red high heels and black stockings?
Elmahdy: After my photo was removed from Facebook, a male friend of mine asked me if he may post it on Twitter. I accepted because I am not shy of being a woman in a society where women are nothing but sex objects harassed on a daily basis by men who know nothing about sex or the importance of a woman.
The photo is an expression of my being and I see the human body as the best artistic representation of that. I took the photo myself using a timer on my personal camera. The powerful colors black and red inspire me. » | Mohamed Fadel Fahmy for CNN | Sunday, November 20, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph the London Mayor hit out at Mr Cameron's call for the European Central Bank to deploy a "big bazooka" - effectively printing money - to help bail out the stricken economies in the south of the continent.
Mr Johnson also attacked plans, backed by the British government, for the 17 eurozone countries to share closer fiscal links, making them more unified on tax and spending.
"What I don't think you can do, is just pretend that you can create an economic government of Europe, effectively run by Germany," the Mayor added.
He described the replacement of elected leaders in Greece and Italy with governments led by technocrats as "completely mad" and warned that if the rest of the EU went ahead with a plan to impose a "Tobin" tax on financial transaction, even without British participation, it would be seen as a "hostile act" because it would still hit so many deals in the City of London.
Mr Johnson also outlined his own "orderly" solution to the crisis - which was miles away from anything suggested by any member of the British government. » | Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor | Saturday, November 19, 2011
Looking out from his presidential palace, high on a hilltop above the Turkish capital, President Abdullah Gul can see trouble at the farthest gates of his nation.
In the south, Syria's bloody uprising grows more violent by the day, while to the east Iran continues its dangerous nuclear dance, frustrating and frightening world leaders. In the west, Greece is struggling to keep its entire economy from collapsing.
And yet Mr Gul believes that, despite being in the middle of such drama, this is Turkey's moment.
"We are between Asia and Europe – we are like a bridge," he said. "Some of us are in Asia, some in Europe. We are at the very centre of both sides."
That the nation of 79 million is a strong, integral part of Europe – and should be accepted as a member of the EU - is Mr Gul's mantra. The Turkish president will be in London this week on a three-day state visit, staying at Buckingham Palace as a guest of the Queen - and the affable, British-educated president will certainly not lose the opportunity to emphasise Turkey's potential to contribute to the EU club.
"Turkey is a natural part of Europe," he told The Sunday Telegraph in the elegant, cream marble surroundings of his Ankara palace.
"Being a member of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights; being one of the oldest members of Nato, as well as being part of European culture and art - this is a natural path Turkey is flowing into." » | Harriet Alexander in Ankara | Saturday, November 19, 2011
EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.
Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.
Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.
“The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.
“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.” » | Victoria Ward and Nick Collins | Friday, November 18, 2011
Mariano Rajoy, 56, the man expected to become the next prime minister of Spain, called on financial markets to grant a period of grace to turn around the economy, after a week that saw Spain’s borrowing rate edge closer to the critical 7 per cent.
“Those who win should have a minimum margin, more than half an hour” to enact swift reforms, he said Friday on the last day of campaigning, amid market pressure that treatened to make Spain the next victim of the Euro crisis.
Polls have consistently placed the Popular Party (PP) 15 points ahead of the ruling Socialists, but a mid-week survey conducted by Sigma Dos predicted an even greater lead, with the PP securing 48 per cent of the vote against 28 per cent for the PSOE.
Such a result could help calm the markets, handing Mr Rajoy’s party the absolute majority deemed necessary to push through a new round of austerity measures and job-creation incentives intended to cut the public deficit while creating economic growth.
With more than 34 million Spaniards entitled to vote, the PP looked set to secure between 195 and 202 in the 350-seat congress. » | Fiona Govan, Madrid | Saturday, November 19, 2011
Britain will offer "every assistance" to Libya's government to ensure Muammar Gaddafi's son is brought to justice over his role in the "barbaric" reign of terror, the Prime Minister added.
Al-Islam was seized in southern Libya with two aides, who were trying to smuggle him out to neighbouring Niger, officials confirmed today.
Mr Cameron said: "The Libyan government's announcement of Seif al-Islam's arrest shows we are near the end of the final chapter of the Gaddafi regime.
"It is a great achievement for the Libyan people and must now become a victory for international justice too.
"He could have contributed to a more open and decent future for his country, but instead chose to lead a bloody and barbaric campaign against his own people. The fate of the Gaddafis should act as a warning to brutal dictators everywhere.
"Britain will offer every assistance to the Libyan government and the International Criminal Court to bring him to face full accountability and justice for what he has done. » | AP | Saturday, November 19, 2011
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Les Qataris ont découvert cheikha Moza à la télévision un soir de 2003, aux côtés de son époux, le cheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa Al-Thani. Devenue depuis la meilleure VRP du richissime petit émirat, elle sillonne le monde pour prêcher la bonne parole du "dialogue des cultures" et de "l'alliance des civilisations". Elle défend à longueur de conférences les intérêts de son mari, en donnant des gages de sa propre indépendance. Car au-delà de son discours consensuel, la première dame du Qatar est une personnalité complexe et ambiguë.
Son parcours est celui d'une femme traditionnelle du Golfe issue d'un milieu aisé et mère de sept enfants. Celle que ses biographes font naître au Qatar à la fin des années 1950 sans plus de précision est la fille du plus célèbre opposant à la dynastie au pouvoir, Nasser Al-Misnad, décédé en 2007. Diplômée en sociologie à l'Université du Qatar, elle est mariée à 18 ans dans le cadre d'un arrangement politique. Il a permis au futur émir de se réconcilier avec le clan des Al-Misnad qui avait été exilé au Koweït après s'être illustré dans des grèves historiques dans les années 1950. Une fois son époux parvenu au pouvoir, à la faveur du coup d'Etat de 1995, elle a su asseoir son influence au sein de la famille régnante et s'impliquer au grand jour dans la vie politique de l'Emirat. » | Cahier Géo&Politique du "Monde", daté du dimanche 20 - lundi 21 novembre 2011
Now the 39-year-old, who occupied no formal political office but wielded vast influence, is a prisoner of his country's new rulers - arrested in the southern desert by forces of the National Transitional Council.
He had been on the run and in hiding for almost a month since the last towns held by troops still loyal to his father fell in mid-October.
For years he had been seen as a western-leaning and reformist figure inside the Gaddafi regime, and was courted by western politicians and businessmen who had high hopes for the future.
But once the rebellion in Libya got under way he became increasingly vocal in support of the regime's violent crackdown.
"Libya is at a crossroads. If we do not agree today on reforms, we will not be mourning 84 people, but thousands of deaths, and rivers of blood will run through Libya," he said in February, soon after the uprising began. » | Telegraph reporter |Saturday, November 19, 2011
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WIRTSCHAFTSWOCHE: Gaddafis prominentester Sohn gefasst: Der Sohn des früheren libyschen Machthabers Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, ist offiziellen Angaben zufolge im Süden des Landes gefasst und festgenommen worden. Er galt einst als Reformer und Hoffnung des Westens. » | rtr/dpa | Quelle: Handelsblatt Online | Samstag 19. November 2011
LE MONDE: Saïf Al-Islam Kadhafi a été arrêté dans le sud de la Libye : Saïf Al-Islam Kadhafi, capturé samedi dans le sud de la Libye, sera jugé équitablement en Libye pour des crimes graves passibles de la peine de mort, a déclaré le ministre libyen de la justice Mohammed al Alagy. Seif Al-Islam était le dernier fils encore en cavale de l'ancien dirigeant Mouammar Kadhafi, tué le 20 octobre. » | LEMONDE.FR avec AFP et Reuters | samedi 19 novembre 2011
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