Monday, April 01, 2013
MAIL ONLINE: Daredevil young men risk life, limb and licence with hair-raising stunts / Adrenaline junkies perform their 'dangerous driving' near city of Ha'il
Parallel parking is tricky enough for some motorists, but for others there is nothing more exhilarating than jumping behind the wheel and performing these death-defying stunts.
When it comes to such a hair-raising hobby, nothing stalls these adventurous youths in Saudi Arabia as they bring a whole new meaning to the term 'off road'.
The latest craze among young Saudi men is dubbed 'sidewalk skiing'. It involves a driver racing along before manouevring - most likely with the help of a ramp - the vehicle onto its side.
The daredevil group like nothing more than to step it up a gear when it comes to hitting the road near the northern city of Ha'il.
To describe it as 'dangerous driving' would be putting it mildly, with motorists who perform such stunts risking life and limb - not to mention their licence. » | Alex Gore | Sunday, March 31, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
LE POINT: Le bourg chrétien d'Al-Ghassaniyé, qui comptait 10 000 habitants avant la guerre, est devenu une localité fantôme.
C'est un bourg chrétien situé à la limite de la province d'Idleb et de celle côtière de Lattaquié, dans le nord du pays. Al-Ghassaniyé comptait avant la guerre 10 000 habitants, dont une demi-douzaine de familles musulmanes. Il est devenu une localité fantôme où il ne reste plus que 15 personnes. Les festivités de Pâques, dans cette zone complètement dévastée par les violences, avaient un goût amer.
"Nous n'avons pu célébrer ni la Passion, ni la Crucifixion, nous n'osions pas quitter nos maisons", explique Giorgio, 88 ans, un des derniers habitants encore présents dans la localité dévastée par les bombardements. Vêtu d'un pantalon bleu et d'une veste beige, arborant le traditionnel foulard blanc tenu par un lacet noir, il s'est rendu quand même à l'église en ce dimanche pour célébrer Pâques aux côtés de quelques autres habitants, ainsi que quatre religieuses et deux prêtres. "Nous sommes un peuple de paix, pas de guerre. Nous voulons la paix pour le monde entier", affirme-t-il à l'AFP. Ses six enfants ont fui quand leurs maisons ont été détruites par les bombardements. » | Source AFP | dimanche 31 mars 2013
LE POINT: Bassem Youssef a été entendu dimanche après avoir été accusé d'avoir insulté la religion. Il a tourné les juges en dérision, puis a été libéré sous caution.
Le parquet égyptien a entendu dimanche le célèbre animateur de télévision satirique Bassem Youssef, puis l'a libéré contre une caution de 15 000 livres (environ 1 700 euros), a annoncé une source judiciaire. L'humoriste avait fait l'objet de plaintes pour insultes à l'islam et au président issu des Frères musulmans Mohamed Morsi. Bassem Youssef, dont l'émission satirique Al-Bernameg ("L'émission"), inspirée du Daily Show américain de Jon Stewart, tourne en dérision les figures politiques du pays et n'épargne ni le président ni les Frères musulmans, a continué à se moquer des autorités lors de son arrivée au parquet.
Le cardiologue reconverti en humoriste s'est frayé un chemin à travers la foule de partisans venus le soutenir et de journalistes, avec sur la tête un chapeau démesuré, imitation d'un couvre-chef que M. Morsi a porté lors d'une visite au Pakistan mi-mars. Il a également continué à publier des commentaires ironiques sur son compte Twitter durant son interrogatoire. "Les officiers (de police) et les magistrats du parquet veulent se faire prendre en photo avec moi. Peut-être est-ce la raison pour laquelle j'ai été convoqué ?", a-t-il ainsi écrit. (+ vidéo) » | Source AFP | dimanche 31 mars 2013
BIKYA NEWS: Egyptian female students are now faced with threats of “going to Hell” if they continue to wear pants at an Alexandria university, north of Cairo, the New Women Foundation reported, citing a news article published by al-Youm al-Saba’a online website.
Female students were surprised to see threatening literature calling on them to abandon the “manly” look and go back to a more “Islamic way of dress.”
Although the majority of Egyptian women wear the head scarf, ultra-conservatives still complain about women’s attire and try, at every available chance, to limit women’s freedom in the country.
“Know women that it is either the hijab or Hell. Why do you refuse your God’s orders?” read one pamphlet. » | Manar Ammar | Sunday, March 31, 2013
MIDDLE EAST ONLINE: Algerian authorities give all-clear for union of imams to protect country's moderate form of Islam from teachings of hardline Salafists.
Algerian authorities have given the all-clear for a union of imams to protect the country's traditionally moderate form of Islam from the teachings of hardline Salafists whose influence is on the rise in North Africa.
The move comes two months after an Al-Qaeda-linked attack on a desert gas plant, where 37 foreign hostages were killed during a siege and army rescue operation, and amid fears of jihadist groups gaining ground in neighbouring Tunisia.
The union's "mission will be to defend the material and moral rights of the imams and to act as a bulwark against imported religious ideas, Salafist or other," its secretary general Sheikh Djelloul Hadjimi said.
The preacher of El Ouarthilani mosque, in the Telemly district of the capital Algiers, welcomes his followers over tea and dates, some of them seeking a fatwa, or religious edict, others asking for advice or material assistance.
He says he is used to receiving people suffering from psychological afflictions, including young people who have tried to commit suicide.
But since the union was officially announced in mid-March, he has struggled to cope with his daily agenda and the phone hasn't stopped ringing.
Sheikh Hadjimi has said that the bulk of the union's work must be focused on Algiers, "where a large majority of the mosques are hostage to Salafist imams." » | Abdelhafid Daamache | ALGIERS | Sunday, March 31, 2013
THE SUN: COCKY hate cleric Anjem Choudary has laughed at British justice only days after cops said they were powerless to arrest him,
The hate preacher urged his cronies to “be proud” to be called terrorists as he sneered on a trip abroad funded by benefits - when he also urged followers to “rise up”.
It came hours after police here admitted they were powerless to arrest him for saying he wanted David Cameron dead and urging Muslims to rake in handouts to fund holy war.
Choudary, who claims £25,000 a year in welfare, launched his tirade on a secret trip to Finland.
In an angry rant he said followers should “follow the message” and refuse to compromise in their fight to impose Muslim law in the West. » | Matt Wilkinson | Sunday, March 31, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: George Osborne faces a whispering campaign at the highest levels of the Conservative Party over his competence and judgment.
The Chancellor has been personally blamed for the party’s misfortunes and poor opinion poll ratings, with senior figures warning that change is needed ahead of the general election.
There are renewed calls for Mr Osborne to give up his role coordinating the party’s campaigning, as fears mount of disastrous results in May’s English local elections.
Some critics are demanding that he should be replaced as Chancellor by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary. Such a move would be a dramatic shift for the Prime Minister, as Mr Osborne is his closest political ally.
One senior Conservative at the heart of the party, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph: “George is the problem.”
Concerns centre on what is perceived to be his failure to understand the middle classes, their values, and their economic struggle.
Most notably, critics highlighted how the last budget in effect penalised rather than helped stay-at-home mothers and did not introduce recognition for marriage in the tax system.
This came on top of changes to child benefit which also penalise single-earner households.
Senior critics within the party were also unhappy with his flagship measure to boost the housing market, a mortgage guarantee scheme. There have been warnings that it could create a housing bubble, rather than help economic growth. » | Patrick Hennessy | Saturday, March 30, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
THE INDEPENDENT: John Carlin reports from Athens on the return of the far right.
An Afghan who fled his country, fearing a lynching, after converting from Islam to Christianity. A Syrian who bolted across the border after a bomb destroyed his home. A Sudanese man who ran for his life after soldiers murdered his father and raped his sisters.
All three have joined the rivers of refugees that flow, now as ever, from the most wretched corners of the earth, converging today on Athens, the most wretched capital in Western Europe. Pursuing the European dream, they have run aground in the swamp of Greek's economic crisis: undocumented, unwanted, despised, hungry and under constant threat of the sort of violence they imagined they had left behind at home.
The bad guys of this story are not hard to identify. The far-right Golden Dawn party (Chrysi Avgi in Greek) captures votes by using foreign migrants in the same way the Nazis used the Jews: as scapegoats for the frustrations, insecurities and hardships of today's Greek population. They blame Arabs, Asians and Africans (or 'subhumans' as they call them) for their country's dire lot. Accusing them of infecting Greeks with diseases and of turning the centre of Athens into a criminal jungle, young Golden Dawn militants hunt down foreigners in the streets, markets, parks and buses.
The good guys of this story are the NGO workers and Greek volunteers who endeavour to help the refugees. Their altruism is especially impressive: they are also suffering the consequences of the economic crisis, they all know fellow Greeks who are competing with the refugees for food in the bins of Athens. Workers at Médecins Sans Frontières, for example, report Greek people coming to them and asking: "Why don't you help us instead of them? Who invited them, anyway?".
Golden Dawn are the bad guys, but it is not hard to grasp why they are now the third biggest party in the country, well on their way to becoming the second. At a time of awful confusion and uncertainty, they offer simple solutions to complex problems. Linked to neo-Nazi groups in Germany, they have learnt the populist lessons of the Hitler era. They magnify the danger posed by refugees and present themselves as the only true defenders of the people. » | John Carlin | Saturday, March 30, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: It’s easy to see why German taxpayers have had enough, argues Mats Persson. But the Cyprus bailout has ended with their government being painted as the EU’s chief villain - an accolade that should belong to the architects of the euro.
In the running blame-game that is the eurozone crisis, Germany has now emerged as the chief villain. In many parts of Europe, the country has been outright blamed for the Cypriot crisis, which saw Berlin demand that Cypriot depositors be taxed in return for a €10bn bailout.
A commentator in Spanish daily El País went the furthest. “Like Hitler,” he wrote, “German Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared war on the rest of Europe.”
The piece was quickly withdrawn but the damage had been done. In Britain, commentators across the political spectrum have lined up to criticise Germany. The New Statesman recently labelled Merkel “the biggest threat to global order and prosperity” - ahead of notorious dictators such as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
Most comments have been far more level-headed but anti-Germany sentiments have reached levels not seen in a long time. Within Germany itself, however, the decision to tax Cypriot depositors continue to enjoy wide-ranging support, as does the wider austerity-driven approach to the crisis.
What’s more, many Germans would echo the country’s justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who called on the EU to “also display solidarity with us and defend the Germans against unjust accusations”. » | Mats Persson *, director of Open Europe | Saturday, March 30, 2013
Mats Persson is the director of Open Europe, an independent think tank that campaigns for EU reform.
TIME: Eager to be eyewitnesses to history, people camped for days in the dismal cold, shivering in the slanting shadow of the Capitol dome, to claim tickets for the Supreme Court’s historic oral arguments on same-sex marriage. Some hoped that the Justices would extend marriage rights; others prayed that they would not. When at last the doors of the white marble temple swung open on March 26 for the first of two sessions devoted to the subject, the lucky ones found seats in time to hear Justice Anthony Kennedy — author of two important earlier decisions in favor of gay rights and likely a key vote this time as well — turn the tables on the attorney defending the traditionalist view. Charles Cooper was extolling heterosexual marriage as the best arrangement in which to raise children when Kennedy interjected: What about the roughly 40,000 children of gay and lesbian couples living in California? “They want their parents to have full recognition and full status,” Kennedy said. “The voice of those children is important in this case, don’t you think?” Nearly as ominous for the folks against change was the fact that Chief Justice John Roberts plunged into a discussion of simply dismissing the California case. That would let stand a lower-court ruling, and same-sex couples could add America’s most populous state to the growing list of jurisdictions where they can be lawfully hitched.
A court still stinging from controversies over Obamacare, campaign financing and the 2000 presidential election may be leery of removing an issue from voters’ control. Yet no matter what the Justices decide after withdrawing behind their velvet curtain, the courtroom debate — and the period leading up to it — made clear that we have all been eyewitnesses to history. In recent days, weeks and months, the verdict on same-sex marriage has been rendered by rapidly shifting public opinion and by the spectacle of swing-vote politicians scrambling to keep up with it. With stunning speed, a concept dismissed even by most gay-rights leaders just 20 years ago is now embraced by half or more of all Americans, with support among young voters running as high as 4 to 1. Beginning with the Netherlands in 2001, countries from Argentina to Belgium to Canada — along with nine states and the District of Columbia — have extended marriage rights to lesbian and gay couples. » | David von Drehle | Thursday, March 28, 2013
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Pride and Prejudice: An Interactive Timeline of the Fight for Gay Rights » | TIME staff | Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)