Mitt Romney Soars to Top of South Carolina Poll
THE BOSTON GLOBE: Mitt Romney has rocketed to an 18-point lead in South Carolina, according to a CNN poll released today.

South Carolina, the first southern state to hold a primary, could prove to be a crossroads for the Republican nomination process. Social conservatives and Tea Party activists hope to erect a roadblock against Romney, seeking to prevent the momentum he gained from his historic eight-vote victory in Iowa and his expected win in New Hampshire next Tuesday from transforming into an election juggernaut.

Voters head to the polls Saturday, Jan. 21.

South Carolina is more socially conservative than New Hampshire and could pose a problem for Romney. His more conservative rivals - including former senator Rick Santorum, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Texas Representative Ron Paul, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have been campaigning there. Perry has skipped New Hampshire to muster his forces in South Carolina. » | Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent | Friday, January 06, 2012

Santorum Compares Marriage Equality to Polygamy

ADVOCATE.COM: Santorum Vs. Students on His Slippery-Slope Logic » | Friday, January 06, 2012

Related »

ADVOCATE.COM: Santorum Says He's Barely Mentioned Gay Rights » | Michelle Garcia | Thursday, January 05, 2012

Persischer Golf: Die Ausgegrenzten
ZEIT ONLINE: Warum provoziert der Iran den Westen? Das Regime in Teheran hat Angst, aus gutem Grund: Es geht ums Überleben

Das Regime des Irans mag Unsicherheit streuen über seine wahren Absichten. Die Straße von Hormus, die Halsschlagader der Weltwirtschaft,für Öltanker sperren? Auf die Drohung folgte eine ganze Reihe von widersprüchlichen Stellungnahmen aus Teheran. Bluff oder nicht, eine Botschaft der gefährlichen Manöver am Golf ist klar: Noch mehr Sanktionen, noch mehr Gängelung durch den Westen wird sich die Islamische Republik nicht bieten lassen. Hinter der militärischen Protzerei steckt ein Land, das in die Enge getrieben ist. Jetzt, so sehen es seine Führer, ist der Zeitpunkt gekommen, Amerika und Europa das zurückzuzahlen, was sie dem Iran so viele Jahre über angetan haben.

Das Regime in Teheran hat Angst, aus gutem Grund. Seit der ehemalige US-Präsident George W. Bush den Iran in einer berüchtigten Rede vor dem Kongress im Januar 2002 zusammen mit Nordkorea und dem Irak Saddam Husseins auf die »Achse des Bösen« setzte, hat sich der Druck auf das Regime stetig erhöht. Die Sanktionen der UN zeigen Wirkung. Es geht mittlerweile um die Existenz der Islamischen Republik Iran. » | Von Ulrich Ladurner | Freitag 06. Januar 2012

Orthodox Christians in Turkey Dive into the Bosphorus
Jan. 6 - Greek Orthodox Christians brave the cold waters of the Bosphorus to compete for a wooden crucifix in a traditional Epiphany ceremony. Rough Cut.

US Expands Definition of Rape to Include Men
THE GUARDIAN: Obama administration broadens definition to include more forms of assault in first major update since 1927

The Obama administration on Friday broadened the definition of the crime of rape to include more forms of sexual assaults such as rape of men and oral or anal sex, the first major revision to the definition in more than 80 years.

The new definition will include any gender of the victim and attacker and also assaults in which a victim cannot give consent because the individual has been incapacitated by drugs or alcohol, is under the age of consent, or is mentally or physically incapable of consent, the justice department said.

"This long-awaited change to the definition of rape is a victory for women and men across the country whose suffering has gone unaccounted for over 80 years," vice president Joe Biden said in a statement. » | Reuters | Friday, January 06, 2012

France Proclaims 600th Anniversary of Joan of Arc
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France will mark the reputed 600th anniversary of Joan of Arc with a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy to her birthplace.

President Sarkozy will travel to Domremy, the village said to have been her birthplace, where he will unveil a plaque in the home where she is thought to have been born.

Mr Sarkozy will also visit Vaucouleurs, also in the Vosges mountains of eastern France, where Joan of Arc began her campaign to push the English out of France and put Charles VII on the throne.

Mr Sarkozy and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are battling over the mantle of the French patron saint Joan of Arc, a surprise player in the upcoming presidential election.

The two leaders are to stage rival celebrations of the 600th anniversary of the birth of the 15th-century Catholic martyr who has been appropriated by the far-right partly for her booting out of medieval English "immigrants".

The teenage peasant led the French army against the English after experiencing religious visions and was later burned at the stake, but her broad appeal to French of all political colours has ensured her immortality.

France is officially a secular state, but the story of Joan's struggle against the English and Burgundians on behalf of the French crown has often served as an inspiration in patriotic causes.

She is regularly wheeled out as a symbol of French unity, alongside such Gallic icons as general Charles de Gaulle or Vercingetorix, who defied the Romans like a real-life Asterix. » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Friday, January 06, 2012

LE FIGARO: Sarkozy honore Jeanne d'Arc : Nicolas Sarkozy a célébré aujourd'hui la mémoire de Jeanne d'Arc érigée en symbole de la "résistance" de la France dans l'épreuve et de son "unité nationale" en dénonçant, à quelque cent jours de la présidentielle, "ceux qui voudraient s'en servir pour diviser". En s'invitant sur le terrain des exploits de la "pucelle d'Orléans", le chef de l'État se savait dans le collimateur de ses futurs rivaux électoraux, prêts à rouvrir son procès en détournement politique de l'Histoire, ouvert avec Jean Jaurès ou Guy Môquet. Surtout à la veille de l'hommage que le Front national doit rendre demain à celle qui a "bouté les Anglais hors de France". » | AFP | vendredi 06 janvier 2012

Adolf Hitler 'Nearly Drowned as a Child'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Adolf Hitler nearly drowned when he was four years-old but was saved by a local priest, historians have claimed.

Newspaper clippings have emerged detailing how a child – who experts believe was Adolf Hitler – was rescued from the River Passau, Germany, in January 1894.

The infant is not named in the article, which was uncovered in a German archive, but it matches a story recounted by priest Max Tremmel in 1980. He said his predecessor Johann Kuehberger told him he had rescued Hitler when the Nazi leader was a child. Residents of Passau, where Hitler grew up, also claimed the priest's story was true.

The account of the incident remained uncorroborated until recently when the article emerged. » | Amy Willis | Friday, January 06, 2012

WOCHENBLATT: Was wäre, wenn Hitler 1894 in Passau ertrunken wäre? : Als vierjähriger Junge wohnte Hitler in der Kapuzinerstraße in der Innstadt. Im gleichen Haus wohnte der spätere Passauer Domkapellmeister Johann Kühberger, der viele Jahre später seinem Nachfolger Max Tremmel berichtet haben soll, dass er als Junge den kleinen Adolf vor dem Ertrinken im Inn gerettet habe. » | Mittwoch 04. Januar 2012

Rome Turning into 'Wild West' of Violent Crime
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The murder of an immigrant bar owner and his nine-month old baby girl during a botched robbery has shocked Rome, prompting warnings that the city of La Dolce Vita is turning into a "Wild West" of violent crime.

Zeng Zhou, 31, a Chinese immigrant, and his baby daughter, Joy, were killed by the same bullet when two thieves demanded the takings from the bar he ran in the capital's grimy Tor Pignattara district on Wednesday night.

The bullet passed through the baby's head and then struck her father in the heart, killing both of them instantly.

His 27-year-old wife, Zeng Lia, was stabbed in the attack and is being treated in hospital.
She told police that one of the gunmen had yelled "I'll kill you like a dog" at her husband when he refused to hand over thousands of euros in cash.

The double murder was the 36th killing in the city in the past 12 months – up from 25 in 2010.

The killings were "an offence to the Eternal City" and risked turning the Italian capital into "an immense favela where shoot-outs happen as they did in the Wild West," said La Stampa, one of the country's most respected daily newspapers. "In one year, Rome seems to have spun out of control."

The violence has spread from the graffiti-clad sink estates on the outskirts of the city to the tourist-friendly piazzas and cobbled streets of the centre. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Friday, January 06, 2012

Rick Santorum Enters Bill O'Reilly's ‘No Spin Zone’

British Skiers Stranded in Zermatt
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Hundreds of British holidaymakers have been left stranded in Zermatt after an avalanche prevented travel in or out of the Swiss ski resort.

Snow has covered the road and rail routes in and out of the village, and continued heavy snow and high winds has meant helicopters have been unable to take off or land.

The resort has been cut-off since about 1.30pm on Thursday after more than a metre of snow fell in less than 24 hours. The surrounding mountains have also been closed to skiers.

A spokesperson for Zermatt Tourism said rail staff had been unable to dig out the train tracks, the main route into the resort, and the situation would be assessed again at 11.15am today. » | Oliver Smith and Caroline Shearing | Friday, January 06, 2012

NZZ ONLINE: Wetterbericht für die Schweiz: Nachts teils klar, am Samstag wieder Niederschlag – Allgemeine Lage: Die Schweiz liegt zwischen einem kräftigen Hoch mit Zentrum über dem nahen Atlantik und einer Tiefdruckzone über Skandinavien. Zwischen diesen Druckzentren herrscht weiterhin eine starke bis stürmische, direkt auf die Alpen gerichtete Nord- bis Nordwestströmung. Darin eingelagert erreicht am Samstag ein nächstes, okkludierendes Frontensystem die Schweiz. » | Freitag 06. Januar 2012

Wulff will Telefon-Anruf nicht freigeben
REUTERS DEUTSCHLAND: Berlin - Bundespräsident Christian Wulff hat sich in seiner Kredit- und Medienaffäre in neue Bedrängnis gebracht.

Das Staatsoberhaupt lehnte am Donnerstag die Veröffentlichung seines Telefon-Anrufs bei der "Bild"-Chefredaktion ab. Dies hatte die Zeitung erbeten, um ihre Darstellung zu belegen, dass das Staatsoberhaupt eine Berichterstattung über seinen 500.000-Euro-Kredit verhindern wollte. Wulff hatte hingegen am Mittwochabend in einem Fernseh-Interview erklärt, er habe nur um einen Tag Aufschub für die Veröffentlichung gebeten. Die SPD warf Wulff prompt vor, er tue nichts, um die Vorwürfe gegen ihn zu entkräften. "Ob er gelogen hat oder nicht, kann nur eine Veröffentlichung der Mailbox beweisen", erklärte der Parlamentarische Geschäftsführer der SPD, Thomas Oppermann.

Die Mehrheit der Deutschen überzeugte Wulff laut ARD-DeutschlandTrend durch das Interview nicht. Die meisten Befragten wollen ihm aber eine zweite Chance geben und als Staatsoberhaupt behalten. Eine Blitzumfrage am Donnerstag ergab, dass 61 Prozent Wulffs Auftreten nicht überzeugend fanden und nur 30 Prozent überzeugend. Dennoch sind 60 Prozent der Meinung, dass Wulff eine zweite Chance verdient habe. 36 Prozent teilen diese Ansicht nicht. Das schlägt sich auch in der Frage nach einem Rücktritt nieder: 56 Prozent wollen, dass Wulff im Amt bleibt - neun Punkte mehr als am Mittwoch vor dem Interview. Dagegen sind 41 Prozent der Befragten der Meinung, dass Wulff zurücktreten sollte. Am Mittwoch waren es noch 50 Prozent. » | Reuters | Freitag 06. Januar 2012

REUTERS DEUTSCHLAND: Wulff sieht sich neuen Vorwürfen ausgesetzt: Berlin - Während Bundespräsident Christian Wulff mit dem Empfang der Sternsinger am Freitag Routine demonstriert hat, schwelt die Debatte über seine Zukunft weiter. » | Reuters | Freitag 06. Januar 2012

FOCUS ONLINE: Bettina Wulff lässt sich von Luxus-Labels einkleiden: Die Kanzlerin sagt Nein, wenn ihr Modehersteller Kleider für öffentliche Anlässe anbieten. Offener reagiert Präsidenten-Gattin Bettina Wulff nach FOCUS-Informationen auf solche Angebote. » | flf | Freitag 06. Januar 2012

Turkish Ex-army Chief in Jail over Anti-government Plot

REUTERS: Former Turkish armed forces chief General Ilker Basbug spent his first night behind bars on Friday, charged with trying to overthrow the government in an unprecedented development likely to exacerbate tensions with the military.

Basbug, who retired in 2010, is the highest-ranking officer to be caught up in the so-called Ergenekon case, a long-running crackdown on EU candidate Turkey's once all-powerful military and secularist establishment.

The former general was taken from an Istanbul courthouse in the early hours of Friday for a health check before being transported in a police convoy to Silivri prison, some 80 km (50 miles) west of the city, where hundreds of defendants in the Ergenekon case are being tried in a specially-built courtroom.

"The Republic of Turkey's 26th general chief of staff has been remanded in custody for forming and directing a terrorist group. I leave it to the great Turkish nation to judge," Basbug said as he was lead from the courtroom.

The decision to send Basbug to jail came hours after prominent Turkish journalists on trial over alleged ties to the ultra-nationalist Ergenekon network said the charges against them were "a massacre of justice."

Ergenekon is accused by prosecutors of being behind multiple conspiracies against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party government, and several hundred suspects, including retired senior military officers, academics, lawyers and journalists, have been detained in cases related to the network. » | Daren Butler and Can Sezer | ISTANBUL | Friday, January 06, 2012

Rick Santorum Endorses Muslim Profiling
CBS NEWS: In a discussion over balancing national security and privacy, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Tuesday he would endorse profiling, specifically of Muslims and young men, in order to enhance security at airports.

"We should be trying to find the bomber, not the bomb," the former Pennsylvania senator said at the CNN debate, explaining his support for profiling. He cited the use of profiling in Israel as an example of how it would work.

Asked to explain by debate moderator CNN's Wolf Blitzer who would be profiled, Santorum said, "The folks who are most likely to be committing these crimes."

"Obviously, Muslims would be someone you'd look at," he said, adding that "the radical Muslims are the people that are committing these crimes, by and large, as well as younger males. » | Stephanie Condon | Tuesday, November 22, 2012

Santorum Wants to Impose 'Judeo-Christian Sharia'
CNN OPINION: There are two Rick Santorums: The first one I might not agree with, but the second one truly scares me.

"Santorum One" pushes for less government regulation for corporations and shrinking the federal government. You may or may not agree with these positions, but they are both mainstream conservative fare.

Then there's "Santorum Two." This Santorum wants to impose conservative Christian law upon America. Am I being hyperbolic or overly dramatic with this statement? I wish I were, but I'm not.

Plainly put, Rick Santorum wants to convert our current legal system into one that requires our laws to be in agreement with religious law, not unlike what the Taliban want to do in Afghanistan.

Santorum is not hiding this. The only reason you may not be aware of it is because up until his recent surge in the polls, the media were ignoring him. However, "Santorum Two" was out there telling anyone who would listen.

He told a crowd at a November campaign stop in Iowa in no uncertain terms, "our civil laws have to comport with a higher law: God's law." » | Dean Obeidallah, Special to CNN | Thursday, January 05, 2012

Rick Santorum Compares Same-sex Marriage to Polygamy, in Spirited Exchange at N.H. College
THE WASHINGTON POST: DURHAM, N.H. - Rick Santorum took on a restive audience Thursday night over the issue of same-sex marriage, which the former Pennsylvania senator vociferously opposes.

Asked by a college student why he opposed the right of same-sex couples to wed, he responded that there was no compelling reason to allow it and suggested that it was akin to legalizing polygamy.

“So, everybody has the right to be happy?” he said. “So, if you’re not happy unless you’re married to five other people, is that OK?”

Santorum’s logic provoked an outcry from the audience, which was made up primarily of local college students but also a number of local conservative voters who were there to support the surging presidential candidate.

It was the first such confrontation over Santorum’s well-documented opposition to gay rights and gay marriage since his surprisingly strong finish in the Iowa caucuses, but it probably won’t be the last. New Hampshire has allowed same-sex marriage since 2010, and voters who were unaware of Santorum’s stance on the issues are likely to hear a great deal about them now that he is emerging as the Christian conservative standard-bearer in the race.

The grilling began almost immediately after Santorum concluded his opening remarks at an event sponsored by the New England College. Student after student challenged him on his stance, especially in light of his earlier remarks about the founding principle that all men were created equal. » | Sandhya Somashekhar | Thursday, January 05, 2012

Michael Bublé: Hollywood (Official Video)

Barack Obama Sets Out Plans for Leaner Military in Historic Strategy Shift

THE GUARDIAN: President says armed forces will move away from large-scale ground warfare and focus more on China in wake of budget cuts

President Obama has unveiled plans for America's military future, outlining a historic shift towards a smaller and leaner force that will focus on China and move away from large-scale ground warfare that has dominated the post-9/11 era.

Obama became the first president to announce a strategy change directly from inside the Pentagon – a theatrical gesture designed to underline the significance of the shift. Mindful of the dangers of displaying any weakness over national security in an election year, Obama said he was determined to maintain US military supremacy around the world, but he admitted that the review involved a move to "smaller conventional ground forces" and the removal of "outdated cold war-era systems".

The immediate incentive for the change in tack, set out in a Pentagon strategy paper, is the fiscal crisis and the Congress-led drive for spending cuts. Currently, the Pentagon is under orders to slash $487bn from the resources it had expected to receive over the next 10 years, and those cuts could rise to close to $1tn if Congress fails to reach agreement on alternative reductions by January next year. » | Ed Pilkington in New York | Thursday, January 05, 2012

Un timbre dédié à la pose de la première de La Grande Mosquée de Paris
lePARISIEN.fr: Erigée entre 1922 et 1926, la Grande Mosquée de Paris, située dans le 5e arrondissement, célèbre cette année les 90 ans de l'amorce de sa construction. Pour marquer cet anniversaire, La Poste émet un timbre à 0,60€. Il sera disponible dès le 11 février prochain.

Inaugurée en 1926 pour rendre hommage aux milliers de musulmans morts pour la France, la Grande Mosquée de Paris a commencé à être construite dès 1922. » | Relaxnews | Tuesday, January 03, 2012

The Iron Lady, Review
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Meryl Streep's performance in The Iron Lady is astonishing, writes Robbie Collin.


“One of the great problems of our age is that we’re governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas,” says Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. “Now, thoughts and ideas – that’s what interests me.” It’s a pivotal line in director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan’s absorbing, exhilarating biopic of the United Kingdom’s only female prime minister, but the film itself doesn’t agree. The Iron Lady does not pick over thoughts and ideas for an hour and 45 minutes: Lloyd and Morgan are fascinated by who their subject was and is, and rather less by what she stood, and continues to stand for. Personality politics might have been anathema to Margaret Thatcher MP, but this film is propelled by the sheer power of her presence. Read on and comment » | Robbie Collin | Thursday, January 05, 2012

Egypt’s Salafi Surge

FOREIGN POLICY: These guys make the Muslim Brotherhood look like latte liberals.

MANSOURA, Egypt — It's the morning of the third and final round of Egypt's parliamentary elections and Ammar Fayed, an activist for the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, is nervous as hell.

The 28-year-old marketing manager, who sits on the executive board of the youth branch of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in the governorate of Dakahlia, sports a tiny FJP pin on the lapel of his gray blazer and a thumb stained blue from voting. He explains the situation: Thirty-six seats are up for grabs in this province in the fertile Nile Delta. The conservative region is in the Brotherhood's heartland -- it should have been a cakewalk.

There's just one problem, Fayed admits: "We made a fundamental miscalculation."

The Brotherhood has found itself outflanked on the right by the Salafi al-Nour Party, which has challenged the movement's religious credentials and gained a surprising degree of traction in the process. The Salafis appear poised to claim between 25 and 30 percent of the vote, though the Brotherhood could still win an outright majority and will certainly become the largest party in the new parliament.

Who could have predicted that the Salafis -- adherents to a fundamentalist version of Islam that until Egypt's revolution eschewed politics as un-Islamic -- would morph into an electoral powerhouse? Even the Brotherhood, whose vote-counting abilities would impress the likes of Karl Rove, never saw it coming, and the Salafis' success threatens to upend the movement's carefully laid plans for dominating Egypt's post-revolutionary political scene. » | Sarah A. Topol | Wednesday, January 04, 2012