Sunday, April 26, 2015
We Are Young We Are Strong: An Almost Forgotten Tragedy
Saturday, April 25, 2015
From the Buried Bunker, Hitler’s Ghost Still Haunts Berlin’s Psyche, 70 Years On
 |
| A bust of Adolf Hitler lies amid the ruins of the Reich Chancellery in 1945. |
Berlin is the capital of Europe’s economic powerhouse, a vibrant city with a rich cultural life and a palpable sense of growing confidence. But if its future looks brighter than in generations, it also has an awful lot of dark history weighing on its civic conscience.
This Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s death but, like his birthday last Monday, it will understandably go unmarked. For many years the spot where he killed himself was also unmarked. The past can be an unwanted presence in Berlin.
It is, after all, only 25 years since a huge concrete wall separated east from west and communism from capitalism. At first, in an effort to reunify the divided city, the site of the demolished wall was so comprehensively built over that it was hard to know it had been there.
Tourists became so baffled that a cobblestone outline was laid down in the centre of town to show where the wall had stood.
Today there are also a couple of preserved sections of the wall, a Checkpoint Charlie display, a dedicated museum and even kitsch celebrations of the infamous East German car, the Trabant. After a period of determined “moving on”, the German capital has grown more at ease with the past that it was in such a rush to escape.
But less so in the case of the past that originally led to the city’s division – the Nazi era. There are few surviving buildings or monuments to testify to the period in which Berlin was the Nazi capital, when it was to become Welthauptstadt Germania – an Albert Speer-designed world capital of a massively expanded German nation. » | Andrew Anthony | Saturday, April 25, 2015
THE GUARDIAN: The human Hitler: The first German film to feature an actor playing the Führer opened this week. But by depicting him as a complex character, does it diminish the evil that he did? Or is Germany finally coming to terms with its past? The acclaimed Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw offers his verdict » | Ian Kershaw | Friday, September 17, 2004
Sabeen Mehmud, Pakistani Women's Rights Activist, Shot Dead
Read the Guardian article here | Jon Boone in Islamabad | Saturday, April 25, 2015
ISIS Destroys Christian Churches and Crosses in Iraq and Syria
My comment:
If Western political ‘leaders’ are unwilling to put a stop to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, and to put a stop to the destruction of churches and all that is Christian, is it perhaps time for the Pope to call for another crusade? – © Mark
Reaktion auf Völkermord-Äußerung: "Das türkische Volk wird Präsident Gauck nicht verzeihen"
Die Aussagen von Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck zum Völkermord an den Armeniern haben einen Streit mit der Türkei ausgelöst. "Das türkische Volk wird dem deutschen Präsidenten Gauck seine Aussagen nicht vergessen und nicht verzeihen", teilte das Außenministerium in Ankara am späten Freitagabend mit. » | dpa/pad | Freitag, 24. April 2015
Islamic State NHS-style Hospital Video Posted
The video has not been verified but was being circulated by IS-affiliated social media accounts and bears all the hallmarks of previous IS productions.
Using an NHS-style logo, it introduces the "ISHS" - or IS Health Service.
It appears to have been filmed in Raqqa General Hospital in the Syrian IS stronghold of Raqqa.
The first doctor in the video talks about the establishment of a health ministry that regulates medical facilities across IS territory, including the Raqqa hospital, which he says has been refurbished.
A second doctor introduces the intensive care unit, which he says treats victims of military conflict and car accidents. A third speaks about the X-ray department, which includes a women-only unit. » | Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Big Tobacco Takes on Islam in Effort to Promote Smoking
A review of internal tobacco industry documents going back decades has uncovered a campaign to link abstinence from tobacco to extremism, says the international study co-authored in Canada.
The campaign went so far as to hire lawyers to make theological arguments against Islamic leaders opposed to tobacco use.
“The paper shows how the industry has sought to distort and misinterpret the cultural beliefs of these communities, and to reinterpret them to serve the industry’s interests. All to sell a product that kills half of its customers,” Kelley Lee, a professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University and co-author of the study, tells Yahoo Canada News.
Public health campaigns against smoking have been very successful in western countries. But as smoking rates have declined in North America and Europe, cigarette manufacturers have increasingly turned to low- and middle-income countries for growth. » | Dene Moore | Daily Brew | Monday, April 20, 2015
Italiener sollen Flüchtlinge bei sich aufnehmen
In Städten wie Mailand, Turin und Genua hat die Caritas bereits ein Netz von Familien aufgebaut, die Migranten aufnehmen. Vize- Innenminister Domenico Manzione hatte kürzlich betont, dass die Aufnahme von Migranten bei Familien die Integration fördere. Hinzu könnten die von der Krise betroffenen Italiener mit zusätzlichen Einnahmen von bis zu 900 Euro monatlich rechnen. » | AG/red | Freitag, 24. April 2015
Heureux qui, comme les Suisses, vivent riches, en sécurité et en démocratie
La Suisse ne gagnera peut-être jamais le Mondial de foot, mais elle est déjà championne du monde du bonheur. Telle est en tout cas la conclusion d’une étude internationale publiée jeudi à New York, sous l’impulsion des Nations Unies. Des chercheurs de l’Université Columbia ont établi, pour la troisième fois depuis 2012, le classement des pays les plus heureux. Dans quel but? La réponse officielle a le mérite d’être ambitieuse: inciter les gouvernements à fonder leurs politiques sur la satisfaction des citoyens. » | Par Patrick Monay | vendredi 24 avril 2015
Sabre-rattling Putin Signs Anti-UK Military Pact with Argentina over Falklands
 |
| The two leaders exchange documents at a signing ceremony in the Kremlin |
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on a two-day visit to Moscow, thanked Vladimir Putin for his “support” on the issue.
The UK and Argentina have been engaged in a bitter dispute over the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the south-west Atlantic Ocean, focusing on who should exercise control over the land.
She said: “We thank Russia for the support it has historically provided in the Malvinas question, in having the resolutions of the United Nations observed so the United Kingdom resolves to sit in the table to dialogue."
While Mr Putin added: “Russia supports Argentina's striving for direct talks with Britain to achieve prompt resolution to the Malvinas Islands dispute.”
In a direct challenge to the UK and stability in the region, the Russian president also announced the two countries would be increasing “military collaboration”. » | Tom Batchelor | Friday, April 24, 2015
Saudi- 'Jinn Converts to Islam on Twitter'
The man who uses ruqya the reciting of Qur'anic verses to heal people published the supposed conversation he had with the jinn on his Twitter account which has 16000 followers.
Jinns are creatures with free will created from smokeless fire by God alongside humans and angels according to Islamic belief.
According to the post the jinn said: 'I am the jinn Habibi. I announce my conversion to Islam at the hands of the sheikh. I testify that there is only one God and Muhammad is the messenger of God. The sheikh was good and helped me to convert.' » | Wednesday, April 22, 2015
'Armenian Genocide': Why Obama Won't Say the Words
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: WASHINGTON — As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama promised to be the first American president to refer to the Turkish mass killing of Armenians that began in 1915 as “genocide.”
But on this anniversary, the 100th, President Obama has once again avoided the word. In a statement released Thursday night, he referred to it only as “the first mass atrocity of the 20th century."
“Beginning in 1915, the Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire were deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths,” Obama said. “Their culture and heritage in their ancient homeland were erased. Amid horrific violence that saw suffering on all sides, one and a half million Armenians perished.”
The reason for Obama’s reticence: Turkey, and its role as a key ally in NATO and in the conflicts of the Middle East. Armenia, a nation of 3 million people in the Caucasus, pales in geostrategic importance. (+ video) » | Linda Feldmann, Staff writer | Friday, April 24, 2015
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Germany defies Turkey, calls Armenian massacre 'genocide' (+video): Germany abruptly shifted its policy Monday from a steadfast refusal to use the term "genocide" to describe the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces 100 years ago. » | Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters | Monday, April 20, 2015
Angela Merkel Calls for New Rules for Distributing Asylum Seekers in Europe
Europe needs to come up with a new system for distributing asylum seekers, said Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
The EU's current rules, known as the Dublin regulation, no longer work, she said on Friday.
Speaking at a campaign event in Bremerhaven ahead of state elections next month, Mrs Merkel said any system for distributing refugees should take account of the size of countries and the strength of their economies. » | Andrew Marszal, and agencies | Friday, April 24, 2015
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)