Texas Governor Rick Perry Dropping Presidential Run

REUTERS.COM: (Reuters) - Texas Governor Rick Perry dropped out of the race for the 2012 Republican U.S. presidential nomination on Thursday after a series of gaffes and controversies undercut the campaign of the one-time frontrunner. He endorsed former rival Newt Gingrich.

"I've always believed the mission is greater than the man. As I have contemplated the future of this campaign, I have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign," Perry, 61, told supporters in South Carolina, the conservative southern state where he had hoped to revive his campaign in Saturday's Republican presidential primary.

"Therefore today I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich for president of the United States," Perry added. "I believe Newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country."

Perry entered the race in August and briefly was at the front of the pack of Republican candidates, but a series of gaffes, lackluster debate performances and controversial statements during the campaign undermined his standing in polls.

Speaking of Gingrich, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Perry said: "We've had our differences, which campaigns will inevitably have. And Newt is not perfect. But who among us is?"

"The fact is there is forgiveness for those who seek God. And I believe in the power of redemption, for it is a central tenet of my Christian faith," Perry added. » | Will Dunham | WASHINGTON | Thursday, January 19, 2012

Rick Santorum Declared the Winner in Iowa Caucus Vote Previously Awarded to Mitt Romney

NATIONAL POST: DES MOINES — Former Senator Rick Santorum won the January 3 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses by a razor-thin margin of 34 votes, according to certified results released on Thursday by the Iowa Republican Party.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had been declared the winner on the night of the caucuses, but now falls to second place. Santorum received 29,839 votes, compared with 29,805 for Romney, according to the new figures.

Romney had previously been declared the winner by 8 votes. Santorum now ends up the winner after being almost an afterthought in the race just weeks before the Iowa contest. » | Reuters | Thursday, January 19, 2012

Poor and Prejudiced: Eastern Europe Swings Right

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Hungary is almost broke and has lurched to the right so sharply that the EU has launched legal action in defense of democracy. But the problem is far more widespread: Nationalists and populists are gaining ground across Eastern Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only needed a few years. In that short time he managed to turn his country inside out. Civil liberties and press freedoms were reined in, the democratic separation of powers annulled, and a constitution passed in the spirit of the country's former authoritarian-nationalistic leader Miklós Horthy.

Hungary is politically isolated in the European Union, and on the verge of national insolvency. And now the European Commission has launched legal action against the country. Brussels sees Orbán's constitutional reform as a violation of EU law, and is threatening to deny economic aid to the heavily indebted country. It's a remarkable development for a country once seen as a model for reform to be emulated by other countries in the region.

Orbán himself, formerly a much-admired politician, now seems like a dubious mix of Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chávez. But the diminutive politician from the tiny northwestern Hungarian village of Alcsútdoboz is by no means a special case. Orbán and his Hungary represent a political movement that is sweeping across central and southern Europe.

A dangerous storm is brewing in the shadow of the euro crisis. The devastating consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis were never fully overcome in Eastern Europe, and more countries in the region are falling into financial and economic imbalance, battling sprawling debt, high budget deficits, recessions and unemployment.

But it's not just the fragile economies that are at risk. Many central and southern European societies also lack political and social stability. These regions have two decades of uninterrupted reforms and tough austerity policies behind them. Many people there are exhausted, and democracy fatigue, euroskepticism, and aversion towards the once deified West are on the rise.

"In many respects, it's a process similar to the disillusionment in Eastern Europe with socialism in the 1970s and 1980s," says Hungarian economic scholar and publicist László Lengyel. "The danger of this is that entire social classes or regions like those in eastern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary fall victim to hopelessness and extremism." » | Keno Verseck | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

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Is Newt's Campaign about to Collapse? Gingrich's Ex-wife Promises Explosive Revelations in TV Interview ahead of Primary

MAIL ONLINE: Newt Gingrich's second wife says she could end his presidential campaign with an explosive television interview, it emerged today.

But the network which filmed the revelations is debating when to show the interview amidst fears it could be seen as biassed if it contributes to wrecking Mr Gingrich's election prospects.

Conservative pundit Greta Van Susteren argued that to air the interview so close to the South Carolina primary was an 'ambush' on Mr Gingrich, while the candidate's daughters urged the network to treat their 'personal tragedy' with sensitivity.

Newt and Marianne Gingrich were married from 1981 to 2000, after his divorce from his first wife Jackie and before his marriage to Callista, who has been a fixture on the campaign trail.

His chequered personal life is seen as one of his biggest weaknesses, particularly among conservative and Evangelical voters.

Now Marianne has recorded an interview with ABC News which she says could end Mr Gingrich's career, according to the Drudge Report. » | Hugo Gye | Thursday, January 19, 2012

Sopa Support Drops Off as Blackout Protest Rattles the Internet
THE GUARDIAN: Several Republican lawmakers dropped their support of the controversial bill on Wednesday as Wikipedia, Google and Reddit spearhead a massive online protest

Political support for controversial online anti-piracy legislation began crumbling on Wednesday as leading websites staged an unprecedented one-day protest against the measures.

Wikipedia, the sixth most-visited website on the planet, pulled its English site offline Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), which is currently pasing though the House of Representatives, and the Protect IP Act (Pipa), a similar bill under debate in the Senate.

Other tech giants, including popular news sharing site Reddit, also pulled the plug while Google censored its name.

The protest gained fresh momentum Wednesday when senator Marco Rubio of Florida withdrew his support for Pipa. Rubio is a rising Republican star who is seen as a possible vice president pick this year and a future presidential candidate. » | Dominic Rushe and Ryan Devereaux | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

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Argentina Blasts David Cameron's 'Colonialism' Comments on the Falklands
Argentina lashes out at David Cameron after he accuses Buenos Aires of "colonialism" over the Falklands

Read article here | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Anti-Islamic Groups across Europe to Attend Far-Right Rally
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Far-right anti-Islamic groups from across Europe are planning to rally in Denmark, for what organisers have billed as the birth of a European movement.

More than 10 anti-Islamic groups, led by the English Defence League, are expected to send representatives.

"There will be speeches from every defence league in Europe," said Isak Nygren, the spokesman for the Swedish Defence League. "I hope we can show that there's resistance against Islamisation of Europe, that we can inspire each other."

The EDL has held one European rally before, sending members to Amsterdam in 2010 in support of Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders, who was in court accused of insulting religious and ethnic groups.

Mr Wilders, who has moved to distance himself from the EDL, is not expected to attend the event.

Stephen Lennon, the former football hooligan who formed the EDL three years ago, however said he was inspired by the Amsterdam gathering to link up with other far-Right groups in Europe, setting up the European Freedom Initiative.

He described the planned gathering, in Aarhus on March 31, as the "first proper European event".

"We're hoping this will be the launch of a wider European Defence League," he said. "We don't expect it to be big, but our first event wasn't that big, and they're just going to get bigger and bigger." » | Richard Orange, Malmö | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Iranian Actress Banned from Homeland after Naked Magazine Shoot

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: An Iranian actress has been told she is no longer welcome in her homeland after she posed naked in a French news magazine as a symbolic protest against strictures on women.

The nude photo of Golshifteh Farahani has been published by Madame Le Figaro magazine. The publication has attracted a wave of visitors to her Facebook page from Iran and the Middle East.

The Paris-based actress left Iran last year in protest against restrictive Islamic codes that the Iranian cinema industry has to follow under Ahmadinejad's conservative cultural policies.

Now she said the government has sent a communication telling her not to travel back to her homeland.

"I was told by a Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guide official that Iran does not need any actors or artists. You may offer your artistic services somewhere else", Farahani said. » | Damien McElroy, and Ahmad Vahdat | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Grandma's Tattoos
A family story that reveals the fate of the Armenian women driven out of Ottoman Turkey during the First World War.

Jerusalem SOS
In Jerusalem, Jewish and Arab paramedics cross psychological and geographical divisions between the city's residents.

US Voters Reconsidering Obama Support
As Republicans continue the process of selecting a challenger to Barack Obama in this year's presidential election, many people in the US remain undecided about their vote.

One such couple is Jamal Williams and Nadia Hassan. They say they are no longer satisfied with Obama's leadership and are now reconsidering their vote.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports from Los Angeles.

Websites 'Blackout' over Anti-piracy Bill
In a protest that will affect millions of people across the globe, Wikipedia, along with many other websites, is shutting down for 24 hours.

The websites are protesting against legislation pending in the US Congress intended to crack down on online sales of pirated US movies, music or other goods by forcing internet companies to block access to foreign sites.

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner reports from New York.

US Elections 2012: South Carolina Remains a State Riven by Racial Tension
THE GUARDIAN: On the eve of its GOP primary, South Carolina's deep racial divide has been brought into focus by Republican rhetoric that many feel is intent on dividing the poor by race

It was billed as a unity celebration.

But there was not much evidence of that as Spartanburg's African American residents streamed in to the city's main auditorium as part of a week of "celebrating people of all cultures and ethnicity".

"Only a few white folks will come out to something like this," said Lisa Campbell, an African American student. "It's racism. Racism is still prevalent here. It's not real subtle."

That's why Campbell laughs at the question as to whether she'll be voting in South Carolina's Republican primary election on Saturday. So does another woman at the concert to mark Martin Luther King Day, Kathy Edwards.

"It's all about this with the Republicans," she says pinching her own black skin. "I'm 58 now. It's better than it was but with the Republicans it's all about race even if they don't say it."

South Carolina runs an "open" primary which means that any resident of the state who cares to can vote to choose the Republican presidential candidate.

More than one in four people in South Carolina are African American, as is half the population of Spartanburg in the deeply religious and conservative northwest of the state.

But very few vote in Republican primaries even though a significant black turnout could have a major impact on the outcome. Four years ago, less than 2% of those voting in the Republican primary were from racial minority groups whereas more than half of those who participated in the Democratic primary were black.

Ask why and the explanations spill out. For some it is the residual racism they see evident in issues such as the recent South Carolina law requiring voters to have photo identification, a measure widely seen in the black community as intended to disenfranchise poorer African Americans who don't have driver's licences. The federal government agrees and has blocked implementation of the law. » | Chris McGreal in Spartanburg | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Meet the New Arab Face of Lancôme
AHLAN!: We've got the skinny on model Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, the brand's latest spokesperson in the region

She’s been making waves across catwalks in the fashion capitals of the world, and now model Hanaa Ben Abdesslem is part of a beauty legacy that channels her regional connection. Maison Lancôme has just announced that the Tunisian model is their new Arab brand spokesperson.

Hanaa, who made her modelling debut with Vivienne Westwood in 2010, has since walked for other top names including Jean Paul Gaultier, Giambattista Valli, Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta. Her fash[ion] credentials have only gotten stronger after appearing in French, Italian and German Vogue as well as the covers of Intermission and V. » | Nazia Khan | Tuesday, January 17, 2012

VOGUE.fr: Hanaa Ben Abdesslem pour Lancôme : A tout juste 22 ans, la top d’origine tunisienne Hanaa Ben Abdesslem est la nouvelle égérie Lancôme. Castée par Vogue Paris en mars 2011 pour un sujet beauté, depuis la belle a été de plus en plus remarquée sur les podiums ; De Givenchy à Jean Paul Gaultier en passant par le show Haute Couture Giambattista Valli. En exclusivité, voici le film de son premier shooting pour Lancôme. » | Par Christelle Paillard | sans date


MAIL ONLINE: ‘I Plan to Change Misconceptions’: Tunisian Model Is First Ever Muslim Face of Lancôme » | Maysa Rawi | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Iran Confirms Death Sentence for 'Porn Site' Web Programmer
THE GUARDIAN: Saeed Malekpour faces imminent execution on basis of confessions he retracted in letter, saying they had been beaten out of him

Iran's supreme court has upheld the death sentence for a web programmer who faces imminent execution after being found guilty of developing and promoting porn websites.

Saeed Malekpour was picked up by plainclothes officers in October 2008 and taken to Evin prison in Tehran, where he spent a year in solitary confinement without access to lawyers and without charge.

A year after his arrest, the 35-year-old appeared in a state television programme confessing to a series of crimes in connection with a porn website. On the basis of his TV confessions, he was convicted of designing and moderating adult materials online by a court in Tehran, which handed down [the] death penalty.

Malekpour later retracted his confessions in a letter sent from prison, in which he said they had been made under duress.

According to Malekpour's family, he is a permanent resident of Canada and is a programmer who wrote photo-uploading software that was used by a porn website without his knowledge.

His sister, Maryam Malekpour, said the supreme court had confirmed the death sentence despite many discrepancies in the case. "Saeed's lawyers were told that his death sentence will be issued this week," she said in an interview with the Iranian website Roozonline.

After an international campaign and new expert evidence, the supreme court suspended Malekpour's death sentence in June 2011 and ordered a judicial review.

Speaking to the Guardian, Maryam Nayeb Yazdi, a human rights activist based in Toronto who has followed Malekpour's case closely, said: "Saeed is in imminent danger of execution. He has never been provided with a fair trial at any point during this horrific and twisted ordeal. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Anders Behring Breivik Was a Male Chauvinist, Says Last Girlfriend
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Norwegian mass-killer Anders Behring Breivik was a male chauvinist who did not know how to treat women, his last known girlfriend has said in her first interview.

Natascha, a Belarussian who Breivik met on a dating site in 2005, told Norway's Dagbladet that her image of the "handsome, well-dressed Norwegian" had changed after she arrived to stay at Breivik's Olso flat in 2005.

"I did not notice that he was planning something so cruel, I knew only that he never respected me," she said. » | Richard Orange, Malmö | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

North Korea Officials Stand By Kim Jong-un
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A senior North Korean official dismissed concerns about Kim Jong-un's readiness to lead, saying he spent years working closely with his late father and helping him make key policy decisions on economic and military affairs.

In the first interview with foreign journalists by a high-level North Korean official since Kim Jong-il's Dec. 17 death, Politburo member and Kim family confidante Yang Hyong Sop told The Associated Press that North Koreans were in good hands with their young new leader.

He emphasised an unbroken continuity from father to son that suggests a continuation of Kim Jong-il's key policies.

"We suffered the greatest loss in the history of our nation as a result of the sudden, unexpected and tragic loss of the great leader Kim Jong-il," he said in the interview Monday at Mansudae Assembly Hall, seat of the North Korean legislative body.

"But still, we are not worried a bit," he added, "because we know that we are being led by comrade Kim Jong-un, who is fully prepared to carry on the heritage created by the great Gen. Kim Jong-il." Read on and comment » | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

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David Cameron Accuses Argentina of 'Colonialism' over Falklands Islands
Prime Minister David Cameron accused Argentina on Wednesday of "colonialism" over its claim to the Falkland Islands.

Read article and comment | Barney Henderson, and agencies | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A Call for Gay Marriage Rights in South Carolina: 'We Love Each Other'
THE GUARDIAN: In bid for improved rights, six same sex couples will attempt to get married in South Carolina on the eve of the GOP primary

At 3:45pm EST this Tuesday, a young couple will make their way to Greenville county court in South Carolina to confirm their commitment to each other by getting married.

For this couple, however, the normal pre-marital concerns about lost rings, rowing families and too-revealing speeches will be overshadowed by the certain knowledge that their request for a marriage licence will be denied.

Alyssa Weaver and Michel McIver are one of six same-sex couples attempting to get married in South Carolina, where gay marriage is illegal. The couples will attempt to get marriage licences as part of the Campaign for Southern Equality's bid for improved LGBT rights in America.

"We want to get married for the same reasons as any other couple," Weaver, a nursing student, told the Guardian.

"We love each other, we're in a long-term committed relationship, we want to be with each other for the rest of our lives, and on a practical note we want the same legal protection that every other couple is entitled to by getting married."

Three couples, including Weaver and McIver, will request marriage licenses in Greenville on Tuesday afternoon. Three more will try on Wednesday.

The bid takes place as Republican candidates for president – most of whom are openly opposed to gay marriage – compete for votes in the state ahead of the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

Weaver said the fact she and McIver, who works in mental health, are prevented from marrying "reinforces the fact that legally we're second class citizens".

"It's also a civil rights issue," she said. "We're citizens of the US, we're grown adults, we work and go to school and are productive, yet the government and society as a whole is telling us we're not the same, we're not as good." » | Adam Gabbatt | Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Al Kaida weitet Einfluss im Jemen aus