Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Approves Nicolas Sarkozy's 2017 Presidential Bid

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has thrown her support behind her husband
Nicolas Sarkozy's comeback plan

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy rubber stamps husband Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to run for re-election as president in 2017, stating it would be good for France

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has thrown her support behind her husband Nicolas Sarkozy's comeback plan, saying it would be good for France if he ran for the presidency in 2017.

The 46-year old supermodel-turned-singer who married Mr Sarkozy in 2008 told a US chat show host that while she was not personally keen on him returning to frontline politics, she would support him if that was his wish.

"I want him to be happy and I care about my country," she told Ellen DeGeneres, the talk-show host.

Looking slightly embarrassed, as Mr Sarkozy was in the audience, she added: "As a woman I wish he wasn't going back. But as a French citizen, yes. He never stops me doing anything I like. He just encourages me. So I don't see myself saying 'don't do it'." Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was in New York to promote her fourth album, Little French Songs. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Ukraine On 'Full Combat Alert' as President Warns Threat of Russia Starting a War 'Is Real'

THE INDEPENDENT: Oleksandr Turchynov spoke of a possible invasion from 40,000 Russian troops gathered at the border with Ukraine

Ukraine is on “full combat alert” over a possible invasion by Russian troops gathered at the border as the interim president warned that “the threat of Russia starting a war against mainland Ukraine is real."

Oleksandr Turchynov made the remarks during a ministerial meeting, where he also told regional governors Ukraine’s police and security forces are "helpless" to quell unrest in two eastern regions bordering Russia. » | Heather Saul | Wednesday, August 30, 2014

Pictured: Child with Black ‘Jihadi’ Flag at Rally by Anjem Choudary Supporters in London

LONDON EVENING STANDARD: MPs and counter-extremism campaigners today called for new efforts to combat the radicalisation of young Londoners after a child was pictured carrying a black “jihadi” flag associated with al Qaeda on a London street.

The girl, apparently no older than 12, was seen holding the flag during a rally by supporters of the extremist preacher Anjem Choudary outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Charles Street on Friday.

Several other children, some looking no older than five or six, also joined adult protesters to decry the “crimes” of Saudi Arabia.

The flag, featuring the “shahadah” — a declaration of the belief of the oneness of Allah — has become identified with Islamist and terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and its affiliates in countries including Syria and Somalia.

The images come only weeks after London Mayor Boris Johnson called for children subject to radicalisation to be taken into care and prompted new demands for action to protect the young from extremist parents. » | David Churchill and Martin Bentham | Monday, April 28, 2014

Dutch Right-Winger Geert Wilders Loses Backing of Jews

Geert Wilders

Anti-Islam Leader Tainted by Xenophobic Remarks
THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD: THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS — (JTA) — Standing in front of a giant flag, a tall blond politician asks his excited followers whether their country should have greater or fewer Moroccans.

When they are done chanting “fewer,” the speaker, Geert Wilders of the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom, promises his listeners that he will “take care of it.”

Wilders was speaking at an event here to celebrate his party’s strong showing in March 19 local elections, and he chuckled as supporters cheered his pledge.

A fierce critic of Islam who has compared the Koran to “Mein Kampf” and called the Prophet Muhammad the devil, Wilders had steered clear of slurring specific Muslim communities, instead peddling a unique brand of populist conservatism that eschewed the kind of Nazi-inflected, anti-Jewish rhetoric popular among far-right groups elsewhere in Europe.

But his “fewer Moroccans” comment has generated a furious backlash because it was seen as the first time he had engaged in open racism that targeted an entire group as undesirable by definition. The statement has cost him much of the sympathy he enjoyed in some quarters of the Dutch Jewish community and blurred the lines that had separated him from other European far-right leaders.

“This is different from his past statements,” the pro-Israel journalist Ratna Pele wrote on the website RepubliekAllochtonie.nl. “Before it was about Islam or Moroccan criminals, now it’s about the entire group that he says is unacceptable and needs to get out of the country.” » | Cnaan Lipshiz | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Dutch Leader Geert Wilders Slammed as New 'Hitler' for 'Fewer Moroccans' Remark »

Antibiotics Are Losing Effectiveness in Every Country, Says WHO

THE GUARDIAN: World Health Organisation warns of 'devastating' consequences and says once-beaten diseases could re-emerge

Antibiotics are losing their power to fight infections in every country in the world, according to new data from the World Health Organisation – a situation that could have "devastating" consequences for public health. It raises the possibility that once-beaten diseases will re-emerge as global killers.

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health, says the WHO. It is no longer something to worry about in the future, but is happening now and could affect anybody, anywhere, of whatever age.

"Without urgent, co-ordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill," said Dr Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director general for health security.

"Effective antibiotics have been one of the pillars allowing us to live longer, live healthier, and benefit from modern medicine. Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public-health goods and the implications will be devastating." Read on and comment » | Sarah Boseley, health editor | Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Severe Weather Threatens Eastern US States

BBC: Severe weather is threatening as many as 73 million Americans in the eastern states, after two days of powerful storms killed up to 34 people.

Government forecasters have warned of severe thunderstorms from the Gulf of Mexico up to the Great Lakes.

On Sunday and Monday, tornadoes cut a broad track of death and destruction through the southern US states.

The storms flattened buildings, overturned cars, and left thousands of residents without power.

"Widespread thunderstorms are forecast across the central Gulf Coast region, with several severe [or] supercell storms possible," the National Weather Service wrote in a morning forecast.

More than two million people are said to be at risk of tornadoes and high winds in parts of Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday.

As the storm moves further east, parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are expected to be under threat of severe weather, forecasters say. (+ BBC videos) » | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

'UK Should Get Out of the EU,' Says Former French PM

Michel Rocard, a grandee of the French Socialist Party, has
identified Britain as the source of all the EU's problems

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Britain should leave the EU and the British elite is the only thing holding the people back from doing so, says former French prime minister

Britain should leave Europe because it is killing the European Union dream, a former French Prime Minister has said.

In a blistering attack, Michel Rocard, a grandee of the French Socialist Party who served as premier under Francois Mitterrand, identified Britain as the source of all the EU's problems.

"Britain is a great country that has always refused that to allow Europe to interfere in its affairs. It has blocked any further integration," he told Trombinoscope, a French parliamentary magazine.

"If they go, it becomes possible to respond to the needs of governing in Europe. Even Germany realises this and demands it. I hope for it a lot because they have prevented it from developing, they killed it."

Mr Rocard, 83, said that it was clear that the "British people want to end with Europe" and are only prevented from leaving the EU by Britain's political and financial classes. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Jacques Delors: Britain could leave the European Union »

Top Family Judge Calls for No-fault Divorce for All and Putting Cohabitees On A Par with Married Couples

Sir James Munby, President of the High Court Family Division

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir James Munby, President of the High Court Family Division, calls for radical overhaul of divorce law to recognise decline of traditional nuclear family

Unmarried couples should have similar legal protections as those who are married, Britain’s top family judge has said as he outlined ideas for a radical overhaul of divorce law to cope with a society in which the traditional nuclear family is being replaced.

Sir James Munby, president of the High Court Family Division, the most senior family judge in England and Wales, called for the idea of fault or blame to be completely removed from divorce.

He added that divorce could largely be taken out of the court system altogether, with marriages dissolved by officials instead of judges, in a similar way to the registration of births or deaths.

The family itself had changed beyond recognition in the past few decades, he added, with the nuclear model increasingly replaced by unmarried parents, single parents, step-families and same-sex couples.

Christian campaigners said removing the idea of fault was "downgrading" commitment. » | John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

My comment:

The West is going to Hell in a handbasket. It won't be long now before its total destruction. Rome went the same way too. It's sad, I know; but Western leaders haven't got a clue how to reverse the decline. They keep heaping coals on the fire. It appears that we have a one-way ticket to self-destruction. – © Mark

This comment appears here too.

Gauck weist Erdoğans Vorwürfe zurück

SUEDDEUTSCHE: Zank zwischen Berlin und Ankara: Bundespräsident Gauck hatte den türkischen Premier Erdoğan kritisiert, Erdoğan sprach daraufhin von Gauck als "Pastor". Nun kontert der Bundespräsident: Seine Kritik sei "eher noch zurückhaltend gewesen."

Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck hat Vorwürfe des türkischen Ministerpräsidenten Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wegen seiner Kritik an Demokratiedefiziten in der Türkei zurückgewiesen. "Ich habe mir erlaubt, das zu tun, was ich immer tue. Nämlich die kritischen Themen, die in einer Gesellschaft diskutiert werden, aufzunehmen. Das ist normal unter Freunden", sagte Gauck. "Ich habe nichts erfunden, ich bin eher noch zurückhaltend gewesen." » | Quelle und Bearbeiter: SZ.de/AFP/dpa/fran/mane | Dienstag, 29. April 2014

Erdogan attackiert “Pastor” Gauck »

Murdered Teacher Ann Maguire 'A Mother Figure and Heart of the School'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Ann Maguire, a 61-year-old mother-of-two, had already reached the age when she could have retired, after 40 years teaching at Corpus Christi Catholic College

To her students, Ann Maguire was, quite simply, “the best teacher in the world”.

Having spent 40 years teaching at Corpus Christi Catholic College, the 61-year-old mother-of-two had already reached the age when she could have retired.

But she chose to carry on serving the pupils who had come to depend on her.

For any teacher to be murdered at work would have been shocking enough but students at the Leeds secondary school were unanimous in their disbelief that Mrs Maguire should have been targeted.

Nathan Mulenga, 18, who left the school two years ago, said: “She was such a great teacher, the best in the world. » | Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

10 Good Reasons Not to Vote for Ukip

THE GUARDIAN: Nigel Farage may seem genial but his party is anything but. The polls tell us that many voters are tempted to vote Ukip at the next election, while others dismiss them as a joke – but the prospect of them gaining more power in Europe is no laughing matter

If the polls are right, and they probably are, legions of ordinary British people, decent in so many respects, will back Ukip in the forthcoming European elections.

Some will tick the Farage box because they believe the party to be the future, setting out with clarity our country's political, social and economic future. Others will give their endorsement because they have come to despise the other parties and the establishment. Indeed Farage has been encouraging them to turn away from the political elite and to see Ukip as a new way of doing things.

There will be those, genuinely unhappy, who wish for tougher action on migration and a handbrake turn away from Europe. Both are hot-potato issues and Ukip serves up a mash more easily digestible than that available elsewhere.

And then there is the contingent that thinks some or none of these things but will vote for the party as a form of interactive entertainment. "That Farage, he's a good bloke," they will say. "You can have a laugh with him."

Ukip will do well because it can best survive in the polluted atmosphere that engulfs debate about migration and Europe, but also because it's a perfect vehicle for a protest vote. No one takes it very seriously. And that's the sadness. Because Ukip isn't and has never been much of a laughing matter. Here's why … » | Hugh Muir | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Has Wealth Made Qatar Happy?

Souq Waqif was torn down – and rebuilt in replica

BBC: Oil and gas have made Qatar the richest country in the world - rich enough to be ready, apparently, to spend $200bn (£120bn) on stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. But has virtually limitless wealth brought the country happiness?

It's still cool enough to sit outside in Qatar's capital, Doha. In another few weeks it will be too hot and most people - those who don't have to work outside - will be retreating indoors to the comfort of air-conditioning.

For now, though, families relax in the afternoon sun on the waterfront promenade, the Corniche. The view has changed beyond recognition in the last few years. Glass and steel towers rise like an artificial forest from what was once a shoreline of flat sand.

"We have become urban," says Dr Kaltham Al Ghanim, a sociology professor at Qatar University. "Our social and economic life has changed - families have become separated, consumption culture has taken over."

Qatar's government puts a positive spin on the pace of change.

From desperate poverty less than a century ago, this, after all, has become the richest nation in the world, with an average per-capita income topping $100,000 (£60,000).

What's less well understood is the impact of such rapid change on Qatari society itself. » | Matthew Teller | Doha | Qatar | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Inside Story: Should We Be Worried About the MERS Virus?

Health officials on alert as cases rise in Saudi Arabia and threaten to spread across region.

Ex-Chancellor Parties with Putin

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The conflict in eastern Ukraine threatens to escalate, but that didn't stop former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder from celebrating his 70th birthday with Vladimir Putin on Monday. By doing so, he is making a mockery of Berlin's foreign policy.

There's nothing you can do about your relatives, but you certainly have a choice when it comes to picking your friends. This sage wisdom also applies to Gerhard Schröder, the former German leader and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He himself can decide whom to embrace and with whom to celebrate his 70th birthday -- after all, true friends stick together, even in the toughest of times. Normally, one would call this strength of character.

But when it comes to Schröder and Putin in the context of the Ukraine crisis, things are a little more complicated. … » | A commentary by Roland Nelles | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Erdogan attackiert "Pastor" Gauck

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Der Staatsbesuch von Joachim Gauck in der Türkei ist plötzlich von scharfen Tönen geprägt. Der Deutsche hatte vor Gefahren für die Demokratie gewarnt - jetzt reagiert ein wütender Premier Erdogan.

Ankara - Die Kritik des deutschen Staatsoberhaupts will der türkische Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan nicht auf sich sitzen lassen. Der Regierungschef wirft Joachim Gauck vor, sich mit seiner Warnung über die Demokratiedefizite in die inneren Angelegenheiten der Türkei eingemischt zu haben.

"Ich habe dem deutschen Staatspräsidenten gesagt, dass wir seine Einmischung in die inneren Angelegenheiten unseres Landes niemals dulden werden", sagte Erdogan am Dienstag nach Angaben der Nachrichtenagentur Anadolu. Mit Blick auf die aus seiner Sicht belehrenden Worte des früheren Pfarrers Gauck fügte Erdogan bei einer Fraktionssitzung seiner Partei AKP in Ankara hinzu: "Der deutsche Staatspräsident denkt wohl, er sei immer noch ein Pastor." » | heb/amz/AFP | Dienstag, 29. April 2014

Conservatives Stuck on Stupid! We Should Celebrate That We Are a Multi-cultural Nation, Says Michael Gove

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Britons should celebrate the fact that their country is a “multi-cultural nation”, senior Conservatives have said.

Britons should celebrate the fact that their country is a “multi-cultural nation”, senior Conservatives have said.

The comments have emerged after new research said that the Tories had to do more to attract black and ethnic minority voters if they wanted to win next year’s general election.

The description multi-cultural is often used by rightwing critics to criticise community groups who do not mix with their neighbours.

However, Michael Gove, the Education secretary and a Tory moderniser, issued the call for the Conservatives to reclaim the term at the Asian Business Awards dinner earlier this month.

He told the 500-strong black tie dinner at a hotel in central London earlier this month that Britain was a “stronger country” because of its history of immigration. » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Monday, April 28, 2014

Leeds Teacher Murder: Boy, 15, In Custody after Anne Maguire Stabbed to Death

Anne Maguire

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pupil, who cannot be named for legal reasons, arrested on suspicion of murder after Anne Maguire was repeatedly stabbed in front of other pupils at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds

A high-achieving middle-class schoolboy was in custody on Monday night after a teacher was stabbed to death in the first murder of its kind in a British classroom.

The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested on suspicion of murder after Anne Maguire was repeatedly stabbed in front of other pupils at a secondary school in Leeds.

The pupil is said to have excelled at the Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds but had become increasingly withdrawn following the separation of his parents.

Mrs Maguire, 61, who taught Spanish and Religious Education and was described as the “figurehead” of the school where she had taught for 40 years, was the first teacher to be killed by a schoolboy since Philip Lawrence, a London headmaster, was stabbed at the gates of his secondary in 1995.

It is the first time in Britain a teacher has been murdered in a classroom allegedly by one of their pupils. (+ videos) » | Monday, April 28, 2014

Ukraine: La Russie promet de répliquer aux nouvelles sanctions

Au nom de Vladimir Poutine, le vice-ministre russe des Affaires
étrangères Sergueï Riabkov a déclaré que la Russie disposait
d'une « large » gamme d'options pour répondre aux sanctions.

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Une nouvelle série de sanctions a été annoncée lundi contre la Russie, accusée par les Occidentaux de jeter de l'huile sur le feu dans la crise ukrainienne, et qui a aussitôt promis de répliquer.

Américains et Européens ont dévoilé quasi-simultanément lundi les nouvelles sanctions censées convaincre Moscou de ne pas déstabiliser davantage la situation déjà explosive en Ukraine.

Côté américain, sept responsables russes et 17 sociétés, jugés proches du président russe Vladimir Poutine, vont se voir imposer des sanctions. Washington va également revoir les conditions d'autorisation à l'exportation en Russie de certains équipements high-tech qui pourraient avoir un usage militaire, a indiqué la Maison Blanche dans un communiqué. » | afp/Newsnet | lundi 28 avril 2014

Zürich: Pour le Böögg, l'été sera très chaud

Le Böögg brûle à Zürich

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: En moins de 8 minutes, le Bonhomme hiver du Sechseläuten a explosé, signe que les températures seront élevées cette année. Des conseillers fédéraux ont participé au défilé.

Le «Böögg», le Bonhomme hiver auquel les Zurichois boutent le feu chaque année, a tenu 7 minutes et 23 secondes avant d'exploser.

Il annonce ainsi un très bel été. La manifestation marquant la fin de l'hiver s'est pourtant déroulée sous un temps pluvieux et plutôt frisquet. » | ATS/Newsnet | lundi 28 avril 2014

View from Russia Today: 'Last Thing US Wants in the World Is Democracy. It Wants Control'

The crisis in Ukraine and the steadily dropping temperature in relations between Moscow and Washington made many talk about a new Cold War; and many others are worried it may turn 'hot'. But there's another war going on right now: the information war. US Secretary of State Kerry has already attacked RT, calling it "Putin's propaganda machine." But Washington itself uses dubious evidence and fake facts. What is the information war? What methods is America using? Sophie talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and veteran correspondent Chris Hedges.