Saturday, January 07, 2012
Home for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is currently a converted living room with a dirty beige carpet in a compound close to Zintan, a modest mountain town 100 miles south-east of Libya's capital, Tripoli. Uniformed guards are his only company and he is denied visitors, television, radio and the internet.
He shakes hands with his few visitors with his left hand, because the thumb and forefinger of his right have been severed. He insists this was the result of being targeted in a Nato air strike, but some Libyans think it was the work of a rebel sympathiser, as punishment for Saif's habit of wagging his finger at rebels on his television broadcasts. Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch, granted a rare interview with Saif, reported that he looked well and gets fed three times a day. What Saif does not get is access to a lawyer, or any sight of the charges that Libya's new rulers say he faces.
Which is why, less than three months after his father's death, Saif is fast becoming an unlikely rallying point for international human rights advocates. It is a twist of fate no one would have anticipated, but Libya's rulers face increasing criticism over their failure to fulfil promises to set up a proper justice system. Saif, always the most influential son of the late Muammar Gaddafi, has been languishing in his makeshift prison cell since being arrested by militias in November.
The failure of the authorities to tell him what he is charged with or give him access to a lawyer has prompted a torrent of criticism from rights groups. » | Chris Stephen | Saturday, January 07, 2012
Le film The Iron Lady met en scène la Margaret Thatcher d'aujourd'hui: frêle, amnésique et hantée par les souvenirs de sa carrière politique. Plus «Dame de rouille» que de fer, ont ironisé des journalistes qui l'ont connue. Le portrait cru et sans ambages de la dame de 86 ans, qui s'enfonce dans la démence sénile depuis cinq ans, frise le sacrilège aux yeux de ses proches et même du premier ministre David Cameron.
«Elle n'a jamais été la femme à moitié hystérique et hyperémotive interprétée par Meryl Streep», s'est emporté Norman Tebbit, son ancien ministre. Une critique partagée par d'autres amis de Margaret Thatcher, dont le règne à Downing Street, de 1979 à 1990, a été marqué par les grèves des mineurs, la guerre froide et les attentats terroristes de l'IRA.
La famille de l'ancienne première ministre a levé le nez sur l'invitation à la première londonienne mercredi dernier. La sortie du film de son vivant froisse les susceptibilités. » | Mali Ilse Paquin, collaboration special, La Presse | samedi 07 janvier 2012
Liens en relation avec l’article ici et ici
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: When Rick Santorum began his improbable presidential run last June, half of Republican voters had never heard of him. Even after a dozen debates, he was just as unknown.
One group has long been well acquainted with him, however. And it is not the social conservatives behind his stunning tie for first place in this week’s Iowa caucuses.
Gay rights activists have considered Mr. Santorum a menace since his 2003 outburst against a Supreme Court decision striking down anti-sodomy laws. They have ensured that, even after he lost his Senate seat in 2006, Mr. Santorum’s name has lived on in infamy.
Thus was born the noun “santorum” – a word whose definition is so unsavoury the ex-senator has been trying to get Google to remove it from its search engine.
But as Mr. Santorum comes under scrutiny as potentially the only candidate able to stop Mitt Romney, he is discovering there is no erasing one’s past in politics or cyberspace.
The sudden attention could take him down or rehabilitate the meaning of his name.
The Republican base still craves a candidate who can beat the “Massachusetts moderate” – as the fast fading Newt Gingrich calls Mr. Romney. Mr. Santorum may be poised to ride a conservative wave, if not to the nomination, perhaps to a place on the GOP ticket. » | Konrad Yakabuski | MANCHESTER, N. H. | Friday, January 06, 2012
The Coptic Orthodox celebration follows an escalation in violence against the minority, an estimated 10 per cent of Egypt’s 85 million people, over the past year.
Many Christians blamed a series of street clashes, assaults on churches, and other attacks on radical Islamists who have become increasingly bold after Mr. Mubarak’s downfall.
Celebrations of Orthodox Christmas began with a late night Friday Mass at Cairo’s main cathedral, which was attended by prominent figures from across Egypt’s political spectrum. They included leaders of Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group whose associated political party has won nearly half the seats in parliament. » | Sarah El Deeb | The Associated Press | CAIRO | Saturday, January 07, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Royal Navy's most formidable warship is being sent to the Gulf for its first mission as tensions rise in the strategically vital region, it can be disclosed.
Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, which served as the conduit for 17 millions barrels of oil every day last year.
Naval commanders believe the deployment of HMS Daring, a Type 45 destroyer, will send a significant message to the Iranians because of the firepower and world-beating technology carried by the warship.
Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, has publicly warned Iran that any blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be "illegal and unsuccessful".
The Daily Telegraph understands that HMS Daring has been fitted with new technology that will give it the ability to shoot down any missile in Iran's armoury. The £1 billion destroyer, which will leave Portsmouth next Wednesday, also carries the world's most sophisticated naval radar, capable of tracking multiple incoming threats from missiles to fighter jets. » | Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent | Friday, January 06, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Foreign Office has warned of an increased risk of terrorism in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The warning came as Kenya admitted the threat from Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab insurgents from neighbouring Somalia was not "totally neutralised."
Foreign Office officials said they believed there was a heightened threat of "terrorist attacks" in the Kenyan capital and that attacks "may be in the final stages of planning."
"Attacks could be indiscriminate and target Kenyan institutions as well as places where expatriates and foreign travellers gather, such as hotels, shopping centres and beaches. We strongly advise British Nationals to exercise extra vigilance and caution in public places and at public events," the FCO said in a statement. » | Friday, January 07, 2012
A draft treaty circulating in Brussels this weekend states that the 26 EU members states planning to sign a new fiscal treaty should be allowed to set their own policies for Europe’s single market.
The proposed treaty also stipulates that the key bodies of the union should be allowed to police tough new deficit rules – directly contradicting the British Prime Minister’s wishes.
Mr Cameron refused to sign the new treaty at a summit in Brussels in December, where he said it would be wrong for the group of 26 to use the European Council, European Court of Justice and other EU institutions to drive through and oversee closer harmonisation of tax and spending policies by governments.
It is understood changes were made to the draft treaty over the Christmas period in accordance with French wishes for “deeper integration in the internal market”. » | Robert Watts, Deputy Political Editor | Saturday, January 07, 2012
The countess, 46, was given the gifts during a recent official visit to the country.
She was given one set by Bahrain’s king and a second set by the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa.
Her husband, the earl, received a pen and a watch.
Critics said the countess should sell the gems and give the proceeds to political protesters in Bahrain.
Denis MacShane, a former Foreign Office minister, said: “Given the appalling suffering and repression of the Bahraini people, it would be a fitting gesture for the Countess of Wessex to auction these trinkets and distribute the proceeds to the victims of the regime.” » | Andy Bloxham | Friday, January 06, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Countess of Wessex 'should return bloodstained' gems to Bahrain: Labour MP Denis MacShane and activist Peter Tatchell call on Sophie to return jewels after crackdown on democracy protests ¶ Gems accepted by the Countess of Wessex from Bahrain's royal family should be sold to benefit victims of the regime's crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners, according to a former foreign office minister. ¶ The countess received two suites of jewels as presents during a day-long visit to the Arab state in December, while her husband Prince Edward received a pen, a watch and a silk rug. » | Damien Pearse | Saturday, January 07, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Ann Romney's Welsh cakes on the US election campaign trail in Iowa offered a glimpse into her family's Celtic working class roots.
Amid the bleak concrete strip malls of the first stop on this year's US presidential election campaign trail, they were a delicious reminder of the green grass of home.
Welsh cakes, baked by Mitt Romney's wife Ann, were the talk of freezing Iowa last week among the campaign staff, supporters and journalists lucky enough to catch her eye.
As well as taming the hungry travelling circus around the Republican front-runner's campaign, they also offered a glimpse of the working-class British ancestry of the would-be First Lady of America.
She may now be one half of a glamorous multi-millionaire power couple, but Mrs Romney’s roots stretch back to the tiny mining village of Caerau, near Bridgend.
“I am a coal miner’s granddaughter,” Mrs Romney, 62, said at a campaign stop.
“I feel I am just one foot away from where that mine was and how close we all are, all of us, to the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents who tried to make a better life for us.”
That grandfather, David Davies, emigrated to the US in the 1920s after being crushed in a mining accident. He did whatever work he could find to pay for his family to join him.
His wife, daughter and three sons – one of them 15-year-old Edward Roderick “Rod” Davies, future father of Mrs Romney – arrived in 1929, just as Wall Street crashed and the Great Depression struck. » | Raf Sanchez, Washington and Jon Swaine | Friday, January 06, 2012
Mrs Simpson Miller made the pledge just weeks after it was announced that Prince Harry would visit the Caribbean nation later this year to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee.
The constitutional changes are not expected to disrupt his trip but may lead to a potentially embarrassing diplomatic situation where a representative of the monarchy visits Jamaica at the same time the government is working to sever its links to the crown.
Speaking at her inauguration on Thursday, Mrs Simpson Miller offered a fulsome tribute in English to the monarch, saying: "I love the Queen. She is a beautiful lady, and apart from being a beautiful lady, a wise lady and a wonderful lady."
However, she pointedly switched to Jamaican patois as she told the crowd of 10,000: "But I think the time has come." » | Raf Sanchez, Washington | Friday, January 06, 2012
The First Lady reportedly believed that Mr Emmanuel's willingness to cut backroom deals during the battle over health care reform was tainting Barack Obama's image as a new kind of American leader.
The Obamas paints a picture of a presidential inner circle divided between Mrs Obama's idealistic belief in what the administration could achieve and the grittier pragmatism of Mr Emmanuel.
The book, written by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, claims that the chief of staff refused to allow the president's wife into high-level morning meetings, leading a brooding Mrs Obama to berate other senior advisers by email.
She allegedly sent furious notes to Alyssa Mastromonaco, the president's director of scheduling, and to Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago friend who now serves as one President Obama's top advisors.
Ms Jarrett was said to remove the First Lady's name before circulating the emails widely within the West Wing. » | Raf Sanchez, Washington | Saturday, January 07, 2012
Conservative magazine and website The Weekly Standard is under fire for sending a vituperative and deeply paranoid email to its thousands of subscribers, claiming that the "homosexual lobby" wants to indoctrinate American school students with a "perverted vision for a homosexual America".
The email, from the rightwing activist Eugene Delgaudio, rails against proposed legislation designed to protect young gay students from discrimination, saying it would "require schools to teach appalling homosexual acts".
The Standard has moved to distance itself from the email, sent as a sponsored mail-out by its marketing department, but the editor has declined opportunities to disavow the content.
Yet even in the charged atmosphere of cultural discourse in the United States, the language is extraordinary. Delguadio, renames the Student Non-Discrimination Act as the "Homosexual Classrooms Act" and says it would
• Require schools to teach appalling homosexual acts so "homosexual students" don't feel "singled out" during already explicit sex-ed classes;It goes on to say that the bill is "just the start" of a secret plan by gay campaigners. "In fact, it will set them up to ram through their entire perverted vision for a homosexual America." » | Posted by Matt Wells | Friday, January 06, 2012
• Spin impressionable students in a whirlwind of sexual confusion and misinformation, even peer pressure to "experiment" with the homosexual "lifestyle";
• Exempt homosexual students from punishment for propositioning, harassing, or even sexually assaulting their classmates, as part of their specially-protected right to "freedom of self-expression";
• Force private and even religious schools to teach a pro-homosexual curriculum and purge any reference to religion if a student claims it creates a "hostile learning environment" for homosexual students.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is enjoying a bump in the polls in New Hampshire as a result of his success in the Iowa caucuses.
A poll for WMUR, the New Hampshire affiliate of ABC, puts Santorum on 8%, up from only 1% when the last poll was taken in November. More signficantly, Santorum – as he did in Iowa – is enjoying a surge, and the poll figures taken in the two days after Iowa show even higher support for him, at 11%.
But Santorum is still well behind the frontrunner Mitt Romney, who is almost certain to add New Hampshire to his win in Iowa. He would then be heading to South Carolina for its 21 January primary with two victories behind him. » | Ewen MacAskill in Manchester, New Hampshire | Friday, January 06, 2012
Friday, January 06, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Wealthy donors appear to be buying Government policy by securing “preferential” access to ministers and senior politicians, the standards watchdog has warned.
Sir Christopher Kelly said the perceived influence of rich businessmen over politicians is undermining public trust in Westminster. He cited the Coalition’s planning reforms as an example of a policy that raised suspicions after The Daily Telegraph disclosed that property developers were paying thousands of pounds for access to senior Tories.
Such preferential treatment leads to increasing concerns that there is “no smoke without fire”, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
“There is no doubt that significant donors do have preferential access to political decision makers,” he said. “The thought that anyone would give such a large sum of money to a party solely for altruistic reasons is quite a difficult one. The risk is policy being influenced in other, more subtle, ways because some people have access because they have given donations.
“There is a risk of it [influencing of policy by donors] happening and more importantly there is a public perception that it does happen.”
The comments by Sir Christopher amount to one of the most strident warnings yet that Britain’s political system is at risk of being corrupted by wealthy individuals. » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Friday, January 06, 2012
NZZ ONLINE: Das Uno-Hochkommissariat für Menschenrechte in Genf hat sich besorgt über die im vergangenen Jahr deutlich angestiegene Zahl von vollstreckten Todesstrafen in Saudi-Arabien gezeigt.
Das Uno-Hochkommissariat für Menschenrechte sei wegen des signifikanten Anstiegs der Anwendung der Todesstrafe in Saudi-Arabien alarmiert, sagte der Sprecher des Kommissariats, Rupert Colville, am Freitag vor Journalisten in Genf.
Noch beunruhigender als die hohe Zahl von Exekutionen sei aber die Tatsache, dass die jeweiligen Gerichtsprozesse von internationalen Standards weit entfernt seien. «Folter als Mittel, um ein Geständnis zu erzwingen, scheint eine breite Anwendung zu finden», kritisierte Colville. » | sda/afp | Freitag 06. Januar 2012
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