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Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Argentina has become the first Latin American country to legalise same-sex marriage.
The move grants homosexual couples all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage gives heterosexual couples.
President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter and the new law is expected to bring a wave of marriages.
The approval came despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, which drew 60,000 people to march on Congress and urged parents in churches and schools to work against passage.
Nine homosexual couples have already married in Argentina after persuading judges that Argentina's constitutional mandate of equality supports their marriage rights, but some of these marriages were later declared invalid.
The debate stretched on for nearly 16 hours. Argentina legalises gay marriage >>> | Thursday, July 15, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Argentina to legalise same-sex marriage: Despite church-led protests, country to become first in South America to allow gay couples to wed after senate passes bill >>> Reuters in Buenos Aires | Thursday, July 15, 2010
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Der Widerstand der Katholischen Kirche war vergeblich, Demonstranten vor dem Parlament jubelten: Als erstes Land in Lateinamerika hat Argentinien die Einführung der Homo-Ehe beschlossen.
Buenos Aires - Nach einer 14-stündigen Debatte stimmte der Senat endlich zu. Mit einer Mehrheit von 33:27 Stimmen bei drei Enthaltungen beschloss Argentinien ein Gesetz, dass die gleichgeschlechtliche Ehe erlaubt. Das Abgeordnetenhaus hatte schon im Mai zugestimmt. Präsidentin Cristina Kirchner hatte sich für das Gesetz stark gemacht und bereits angekündigt, dass sie kein Veto einlegen werde.
Demonstranten für das Gesetz, die trotz winterlicher Kälte stundenlang vor dem Parlamentsgebäude in Buenos Aires ausgehalten hatten, jubelten. Denn das Gesetz ist ein Novum in Lateinamerika. Bisher hatte nur das lokale Parlament von Mexiko-Stadt im Dezember die Homo-Ehe in der mexikanischen Hauptstadt gebilligt. Buenos Aires gilt als eine der tolerantesten Metropolen Lateinamerikas gegenüber Homosexuellen.
Die Reform erlaubt gleichgeschlechtlichen Paaren die Ehe und räumt ihnen damit dieselben Rechte ein wie heterosexuellen Paaren, etwa bei der Sozialversicherung oder der Elternzeit. Schwule und lesbische Ehepaare dürfen zudem Kinder adoptieren. Um die Reform durchzusetzen, soll das Bürgerliche Gesetzbuch geändert werden und die Bezeichnung "Mann und Frau" durch "die Vertragspartner" ersetzt werden. Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> als/dpa/AFP | Donnerstag, 15. Juli 2010
LE FIGARO: Le vote du Sénat argentin fait de ce pays à très forte majorité catholique, le premier d'Amérique latine à autoriser le mariage homosexuel.
«Un jour historique». C'est ainsi que Miguel Pichetto, chef de groupe du parti au pouvoir le parti justicialiste (péroniste)-, a qualifié le vote du Sénat. Le texte, déjà voté par l'Assemblée le 5 mai dernier, a été adopté par 33 voix contre 27 et trois abstentions, après 14 heures de débat. il ne lui manque plus que la signature de la présidente Cristina Fernández, qui le soutient.
La loi modifie le Code civil argentin. La mention «mari et femme» est désormais remplacée par «les contractants». Les mariés de même sexe pourront également adopter. Ils obtiennent les mêmes droits que les couples hétérosexuels concernant la sécurité sociale, les allocations et les jours de congés liés à la vie familiale.
La partie était loin d'être gagnée. Mardi soir, des milliers de personnes étaient rassemblées en face du Congrès à l'appel de l'Eglise catholique pour manifester contre le projet de loi. «Nous voulons un papa et une maman», «Vive la famille», pouvait-on lire sur certaines banderoles. Un message de l'archevêque de Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergloglio, a été lu pendant le rassemblement : «L'union entre un homme et une femme est la voie naturelle pour la procréation : l'adoption d'une telle loi marquerait un grave revers». Au Sénat, les discussions ont été houleuses, et le vote serré. >>> Par Margaux Bergey | Jeudi 15 Juillet 2010
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THE TELEGRAPH: Sarah Palin has attacked a prominent civil-rights organisation which has officially branded the American tea party movement as racist, a day after Michelle Obama delivered the keynote speech at the organisation
The former US vice-presidential candidate urged President Obama and his wife Michelle, to "repudiate" the allegation and "set the record straight".
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) has passed a motion condemning the tea party movement – which is closely linked to the right wing of the Republican Party – for being racist.
In its motion, the NAACP says the movement has engaged in "explicitly racist behaviour" and calls for people to "stand in opposition to [the tea party's] drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era." However, Mrs Palin has hit back at the allegation.
"The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the colour of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand.," she said. >>> Robert Winnett in Washington | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Related article here
THE TELEGRAPH: The financial adviser to Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune, has been detained for questioning along with three others, amid a scandal that has embroiled the French government.
Patrice de Maistre, financial adviser to the 87-year-old, was being questioned by investigators, according to an official in the prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
The others held include the celebrity photographer Francois-Marie Banier, accused by Mrs Bettencourt's daughter of milking the heiress out of €1 billion in gifts.
Mrs Bettencourt's former tax lawyer, Fabrice Goguel, and the manager of an island in the Seychelles that she owns, Carles Vejarano, were also being held for questioning, the official said. The official was not authorised to be publicly named because of judicial policy. >>> | Thursday, July 15, 2010
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THE TELEGRAPH: BP is facing fresh scrutiny into whether it was involved in the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, after the oil giant admitted lobbying the British government over a prisoner agreement with Libya.
BP said it pressed for a deal over the controversial prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) amid fears any delays to negotiations would damage its “commercial interests” and disrupt its £900 million offshore drilling operations in the region.
But it denied claims that it had been involved in negotiations concerning the release of Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber freed by Scottish authorities last year.
The admission came just hours after Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, pledged to investigate allegations of BP's involvement in his release ahead of its planned new drilling in Libya.
It followed a letter from four US senators who had accused the company of having a hand in the release of Megrahi, who was released last year by the Scottish government on "health grounds" and compassionate grounds.
Mrs Clinton’s intervention came after the American Democratic senators called for an investigation into BP’s interests in Libya, as they tried to connect the oil group with a deal to free the convicted terrorist.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the company admitted it had lobbied the British Government over the controversial prisoner deal but denied any involvement in Megrahi’s release.
“It is matter of public record that in late 2007 BP told the UK Government that we were concerned about the slow progress that was being made in concluding a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya,” the company said in a statement.
“We were aware that this could have a negative impact on UK commercial interests, including the ratification by the Libyan Government of BP's exploration agreement.”
But a spokesman added: “The decision to release Mr al-Megrahi in August 2009 was taken by the Scottish Government. >>> Andrew Hough | Thursday, July 15, 2010
Related video here
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Liliane Bettencourt, the L'Oréal heiress, has said she is "pained and vexed" at her daughter's behaviour amid a legal battle that has set off a financial investigation drawing in the highest levels of French government.
Mrs Bettencourt, France's richest woman, was attacking a renewed bid by her daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, to have a judge declare her incompetent to manage her own affairs.
Her daughter has alleged that her 87-year-old mother is subject to the undue influence of photographer Francois-Marie Banier, to whom she has given gifts worth nearly a billion euros.
"I am at once pained and vexed for I say to myself how, after so many years, someone who has lived close to me has such petty reactions at that," Mrs Bettencourt told France 3 television.
Her daughter first tried to have her declared incompetent in December 2009. The judge refused in the absence of a medical expertise, something to which Bettencourt has so refused to submit. >>> | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Sarkozy's summer of scandal: He came to power as a new kind of politician. Now the French President is beset by old-fashioned troubles. Can he survive? – Between the wooded parkland of the Bois de Boulogne and the first lazy bend of the river Seine, just to the west of Paris, there is an "island" of millionaires. The leafy, silent streets of mansions and mansion flats are divided from the city by the Bois; they are separated from the towering La Défense office district by the river; and they are cut off from the bulk of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the richest town in France, by an eight-lane, urban motorway called the Avenue Charles de Gaulle. >>> John Lichfield | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Supporters of measure also take to streets to stage rallies in Buenos Aires and other cities
Thousands of demonstrators today gathered outside Argentina's congress in the capital, Buenos Aires, to protest against a proposal to legalise same-sex marriage.
Supporters of the measure also took to the streets in loud rallies in the city and across the country.
The House of Deputies has approved same-sex marriage and sent the legislation to the senate for consideration today.
The legislation – which would open the way to adoptions by same-sex couples – has been challenged by the Roman Catholic church and other religious groups.
The main slogan for the anti-legislation protest was: "Children have a right to a mother and a father".
The Argentine president, Cristina Fernández, has promised not to veto the measure if it reaches her desk.
Argentina remains mainly Catholic, but hostility to homosexuals has waned in the past decade – a trend mirrored across Latin America. >>> Associated Press | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE TIMES OF INDIA: BUENOS AIRES: Already known for having one of the most gay-friendly capitals in the world, Argentina is in the throes of a debate this week over granting the broadest marital protections to gay people in Latin America.
In what is expected to be a fierce discussion, Argentina's senate is scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a bill allowing gay people to wed. The proposed law has increased frictions between the Roman Catholic Church and the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, which is pushing the bill. >>> Alexei Barrionuevo, NYT News Service | Thursday, July 15, 2010
BBC: Argentina's Senate begins debate on gay marriage: Argentina's Senate is debating a proposal to legalise gay marriage. >>> | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The US has warned India to honour UN sanctions against Iran after its foreign secretary criticised "unilateral" measures against Tehran over suspicions it is developing a nuclear weapons programme.
Phillip J. Crowley, a spokesman for the US State Department, said it was for India to decide what individual measures it would take, but warned its security would be threatened if Iran became a nuclear power.
Mr Crowley said India had a responsibility to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. "This is about the danger of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, which will affect countries outside of the region, including India. So everyone has a responsibility to do what each country can to convince Iran to change its present course."
India has long-standing ties with Iran and has made a number of substantial investments in its oil and gas sectors. Its Congress-led government has said while it will honour UN sanctions against Iran, it favours dialogue and remains opposed to "unilateral" additional sanctions announced by the US and the European Union. >>> Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Saddam Hussein's former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has been handed over to the Iraqi authorities by the US in move his lawyer claims has put his life in danger.
He was among 55 members of the former regime's inner circle who were transferred along with control of Camp Cropper, the last American-run detention facility.
Iraqi security officials will take control of the camp from today as the US hands over roughly 1,600 Iraqi prisoners.
The move is part of American plans to cut troop numbers to 50,000 by the end of August in anticipation of all forces leaving by the end of next year.
Yesterday, Aziz's lawyer confirmed he had been transferred along with the other detainees on Tuesday night.
"Aziz called me and said he was being held in the Kazemieh prison in Baghdad," said Badie Aref. "He should have been released. What the Americans did violates the Red Cross code because they handed him over to his enemies. His life is in danger now." >>> | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: It used to be the exploding population of rats in New York City that gave everyone the creeps, but today it's a different urban infestation that is gripping the imaginations – not to say sucking the blood – of its residents. The city does sleep occasionally, which is when the bed bugs come out to play – lots and lots of them.
Not so long ago, bed bugs barely registered on the radars of the pest control specialists in Manhattan. Across America, in fact, the squishy critters had all but disappeared thanks to the pesticide DDT. But since that chemical cocktail was banned the bugs have been making a spectacular comeback.
It is raining bed bugs in New York – they can fall kamikaze–style from ceilings on to sleeping victims. This week, part of an emergency room was briefly shut down in Brooklyn after one bug was discovered by nurses. The week before, the preppy clothing chain Abercrombie & Fitch was forced to temporarily shutter two of its Manhattan outlets to combat infestations.
Exploded suddenly then is the myth that bed bugs reside only in seedy hotels and crummier postcodes. No, they are "equal opportunity" bugs, according to New York magazine which reported this week that the infestation had reached The Hamptons. The filmmaker Joel Roodman and his wife, Jill Taft, were "shocked and horrified" to discover their $18,000 (£12,000) holiday rental in East Hampton, was "crawling". Ms Taft (a former model) sought treatment in hospital such was the extent of the bites on her face.
Exterminators report being called more and more frequently to commercial spaces. "We've had them in banks, grocery stores, movie theatres, judges' chambers, schools, dentists' offices – everywhere," said Jeff Eisenberg of PestAway, an exterminating company in the city. And we haven't mentioned hotels. Continue reading and comment >>> David Usborne in New York | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: A Bedbug Epidemic Bites New York >>> Tim Teeman | Monday, May 31, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist, has described the moment he claims to have been abducted at gunpoint by the CIA while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Amiri, 32, said he was seized and spirited from the country after being offered a lift while walking towards a mosque.
He gave his account before flying home to Iran on Wednesday after taking refuge at the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington earlier this week.
The US state department has insisted he was in the US of his own free will but Mr Amiri said he was kidnapped by secret agents in Medina, Islam's second holiest city, in May last year.
"A white van stopped in front of me... They told me in Farsi that they were part of another group of pilgrims and said 'We are going towards a mosque and we will be happy to take you as well'," he said.
"When I opened the door to get in and sit down, the person at the back put a gun to my side and said 'Please be quiet, don't make any noise'.
"As I opened the door, one of the passengers pulled out a gun and told me to be quiet. They gave me an injection and when I came around I was in a big plane. I was blindfolded. It was probably a military plane."
He said he was taken to "American territory" and put under intense psychological pressure to accept $10 million to make a video saying he had defected from Iran.
He was then allowed to settle in Tucson, Arizona, and live relatively freely on condition he did not talk about his abduction. >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Related >>>
FOX NEWS: In a rare divergence from administration policy, President Obama used the term "radical Islam" to describe the African-based terror group that took credit Monday for killing 74 people in Uganda during an interview Tuesday with the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
The interview came just three months after the administration removed such religious terms from its national security playbook and two months after Attorney General Eric Holder hesitated to link "radical Islam" to recent terror attacks and plots in the U.S. during questioning at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
When asked about opinions attributing radical Islam's impact on the development and stability on the African continent, Obama called Islam "a great religion," but added that the radical version views as anti-Islam "any efforts to modernize, any efforts to provide basic human rights, any efforts to democratize."
"And I think that is absolutely wrong," he said. "I think the vast majority of people of the Islamic faith reject that. I think the people of Africa reject it."
Obama also accused terror groups such as Al Qaeda an Al Shabab of being racist. Continue reading and comment >>> FoxNews.com | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
LE FIGARO: Cette réception avait été inventée par Valéry Giscard d'Estaing en 1979.
Rigueur oblige, le 14 Juillet de Nicolas Sarkozy sera d'une sobriété exemplaire. Régalien et discret. Le président de la République commencera le défilé à 10 heures pour le terminer à 12h15 exactement. Avant d'aller se reposer, probablement au cap Nègre, dans la propriété varoise de la famille de son épouse, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, jusqu'au week-end.
Mais le symbole de cette nouvelle sobriété est la suppression de la garden-party de l'Élysée. L'économie réalisée est de 750.000 euros. Cette réception d'été dans le vaste parc de l'Élysée avait été inventée par l'anglophile Valéry Giscard d'Estaing en 1979, qui l'avait baptisée «garden-party». La «garden» résiste à l'alternance Mitterrand. Et finalement, la «rupture» sera assumée par Sarkozy, au nom du train de vie exemplaire de l'État. >>> Par Charles Jaigu | Mercredi 14 Juillet 2010
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Erste Reaktionen auf die Freilassung von Roman Polanski fielen milde aus. Nach dem Auftritt des Sprechers des amerikanischen Aussenministeriums zeigt sich, dass die USA durchaus verärgert sind.
Verbunden >>>
THE GUARDIAN: Iran had accused US and Saudi Arabia of his abduction, but US says he was always free to come and go
An Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared more than a year ago and mysteriously turned up in Washington is on his way back to Iran via a third country, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman has said.
"With the efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran and effective co-operation of Pakistan's embassy in Washington, a few minutes ago Shahram Amiri left American soil and is heading back to Iran via a third country," the semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying. He did not name the country.
Another Iranian official on Tuesday said Tehran could enlist Turkey's help to return Amiri to Iran. Ramin Mehmanparast said the foreign ministry would pursue the case through legal and diplomatic channels regarding the part the US government played in what Iran says was Amiri's abduction.
Iran had accused Saudi Arabia of handing Shahram Amiri to the US after he disappeared during the hajj pilgrimage a year ago. Amiri subsequently appeared in a series of internet videos, some of which said he was in hiding from US agents.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said: "Mr Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and he is free to go. In fact he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday but was unable to make all of the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through a transit country."
Clinton called on Tehran to release three American hikers being held in Iran and to provide more information on the former FBI agent Robert Levinson who disappeared during a business trip to Iran.
Referring to Amiri, Clinton said: "He's free to go, he was free to come, these decisions are his alone to make." >>> Ian Black, Middle East editor, Saeed Shah in Islamabad and agencies | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Related articles >>>
THE GUARDIAN: BSkyB in talks to start free-to-air competitor to al-Jazeera, run as 50/50 joint venture with investor from Abu Dhabi
BSkyB is in talks about launching a Sky News-branded 24-hour Arabic language service in conjunction with an Abu Dhabi-based private investor.
It would compete with the Qatar-based al-Jazeera and other Arabic language news services in the Middle East and North Africa.
Sky said that the channel will launch within the next two years if the discussions are successful.
The new channel, which would be a 50/50 joint venture between the two parties, will be based in Abu Dhabi and have bureaux "in most major regional and international news centres". >>> Mark Sweney | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Tony Blair branded Gordon Brown 'beyond redemption' and reneged on deal to stand down after his second term
The relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown became so hostile that Blair described his chancellor as "mad, bad, dangerous and beyond redemption" and likened Brown's behaviour to that of a "mafioso" in his dealings with him, Lord Mandelson has revealed.
The breakdown in the two men's relationship is detailed in the third instalment of Mandelson's memoirs, The Third Man, in which he describes how he and other No 10 aides drew up plans – codenamed Operation Teddy Bear – to split the Treasury into two in an attempt to weaken Brown's challenge to Blair after the prime minister agreed in 2003 not to fight the next general election, only to renege on his promise.
But plans to remove Brown from the Treasury and put him in the Foreign Office were twice considered and rejected by Blair because he feared Brown would resign and become an even greater threat.
Blair's broken promise led to an almost complete breakdown in relations between the two men, and while Mandelson's memoirs lack genuine revelation in many areas they confirm some intriguing details.
Mandelson said at a meeting with John Prescott, then deputy prime minister, Blair agreed to the deal in which he would step aside in favour of Brown. Blair is quoted as saying that even Prescott was "scared" by Brown. "He knows there's something wrong with him," Blair is reported as saying. Mandelson said Blair described Brown as "flawed, lacking perspective and having a paranoia about him". >>> Allegra Stratton, political correspondent | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
NEW YORK POST: Rivals clash at hearing on Ground Zero project
A city hearing yesterday on the historical significance of the downtown Manhattan site of a proposed mosque quickly turned into a raucous -- and at times ugly -- debate about whether an Islamic center should be located so close to Ground Zero.
About 150 people crowded into the Hunter College Auditorium in Manhattan for the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing, held to see if the 152-year-old building at 45-47 Park Place in lower Manhattan had the cultural or architectural consequence worthy of being landmarked.
Those who opposed the construction of the 13-story mosque and community center, called the Cordoba House, accused their opponents of being unpatriotic and insensitive to the thousands who died on 9/11.
But attendees who want to see the $100 million project completed accused their challengers of being racist and encouraging conflict with Muslims.
One protester, shouting, "Down with this McCarthyistic witch hunt against Muslims," was escorted out after interrupting speakers against the mosque.
Sally Regenhard, mother of an FDNY firefighter who died on 9/11, begged the commission to landmark the spot, which could end or complicate plans for the new mosque.
"I'm here to represent my son, probationary firefighter Christian Regenhard, a beautiful person who loved all people," she said.
"Follow the guidelines to making this a landmark. Please do not fold to political forces."
Joseph Reichling of Ridgewood, Queens, said, "Our forefathers are turning in their graves. Have we forgotten what happened on 9/11? We must never forget 9/11."
Andrea Quinn echoed his sentiments.
"The plan to build a 13-story mosque on that site is ludicrous," said Quinn of Queens. "Not to preserve this building is to allow for a citadel of Islamic supremacy to be built in its place." Continue reading and comment >>> Tom Topousis | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: A roadside billboard created by a branch of the Tea Party in Iowa comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin has been condemned by other groups in the movement.
The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the sign in Mason City last week. It shows photographs of Mr Obama, the German Nazi leader and Russian communist with the statement: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."
The words "Democratic Socialism" are featured over Mr Obama's picture, over Hitler's photo is "National Socialism" and over Lenin's head is "Marxist Socialism." The word "Change" – Mr Obama's campaign slogan – is included on each photo.
North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson said the sign highlighted what the group argues is Mr Obama's support for socialism. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Roman Polanksi's victim has called for the sex case against him to be dismissed "once and for all" after Swiss authorities rejected an attempt by prosecutors to have him extradited to the United States.
Samantha Geimer said she hoped the Los Angeles district attorney's office would finally cease its pursuit of the film director over the crime he committed against her 33 years ago.
The victim, who is now a mother of three in her 40s, said: "I am satisfied with this decision and I hope that the district attorney will now close the case and get it over once and for all." However, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley said the case was not closed and he would continue to pursue Polanski if he is arrested again in another country from where he can be extradited. A US arrest warrant remains active. >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Isn’t it about time for the American authorities to stop hounding this 77 year old man for what was supposedly done 33 years ago? It seems totally ridiculous to pursue someone for something that was done so, so long ago, especially since the victim has made it absolutely clear that she wants the case to be closed. One can only imagine the pain that dragging all this up again must be causing the victim! The American authorities should think again, long and hard, about this case, if only for that reason alone. The Swiss authorities must surely have done the right thing in setting the man free. The American authorities should respect that judgement. – © Mark
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Michelle Obama has provoked controversy by giving the keynote speech for a civil rights organisation which has formally accused the American Tea Party movement of being 'racist'.
The First Lady said that her husband's presidency had been made possible by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and urged the group to "increase its intensity".
The organisation later issued a motion condemning the Tea Party movement – which is closely linked to the right wing of the Republican Party – as racist.
The motion threatens to turn race into an important issue in this autumn's midterm elections as several members of the movement are standing for the Republican Party.
Mrs Obama's appearance at the organisations's annual conference in Kansas City, was primarily focused on warning African-Americans about the dangers of childhood obesity.
However, she also lavished praise on the NAACP. Mrs Obama said: "I know that I stand here today, and I know that my husband stands where he is today, because of this organisation – and because of the struggles and the sacrifices of all those who came before us.
"When African American communities are still hit harder than just about anywhere by this economic downturn, and so many families are just barely scraping by, I think the founders would tell us that now is not the time to rest on our laurels.
"When stubborn inequalities still persist – in education and health, in income and wealth – I think those founders would urge us to increase our intensity, and to increase our discipline and our focus and keep fighting for a better future for our children and our grandchildren."
In its motion, the NAACP said the Tea Party movement engaged in "explicitly racist behaviour" and called for people to "stand in opposition to the drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era."
The increasingly influential Tea Party movement has been embraced by a series of senior Republicans including Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential nominee. >>> Robert Winnett in Washington | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
FOX NEWS: They may call it the "Land of the Pure," but Pakistan turns out to be anything but.
The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world's leader in online searches for pornographic material, FoxNews.com has learned.
“You won’t find strip clubs in Islamic countries. Most Islamic countries have certain dress codes,” said Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. “It would be an irony if they haven’t shown the same vigilance to pornography.”
So here's the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content. >>> Kelli Morgan | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
This should come as no surprise. Anyone who has ever worked in the Islamic world, and who has kept his eyes open, will have experienced prurience as he will never have experienced it before in the West. The seclusion of women – purdah – is one of the main causes of this preoccupation with matters sexual in the Muslim world.
Homosexuality, too, is a huge problem in the Islamic world. Why? Because young men, when they reach puberty and become frisky, have no outlet for their sexual urges. So, what they do is look for pretty young men to fit the bill! If the young man is clean-shaven and handsome, look out!
This is one reason why the French and Belgians are so much wiser than the Brits and the Americans. The burqah should be banned. The Belgians have banned it already; the French will have banned it very soon. Britain should follow suit. But our politicians lack the balls to take such a bold step.
Children need to be raised in mixed sex environments. That way they grow up taking interaction between the sexes for granted. If children are raised the Islamic way, it leads to an unhealthy attitude to sex, to the opposite sex, and to everything related to things sexual. – © Mark
Americans will come to rue the day they ever elected B. Hussein Obama into office. He is nothing other than the iPresident. That ‘i’ stands for the Internet, through which he got elected; but it also stands for incompetence, inexperience, insincerity, incapability, irrationality, immaturity, oh and, of course, Islam! – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: French MPs have passed a law banning Islamic face veils from public areas amid warnings it poses constitutional problems and risks being overturned in the courts.
On the eve of Bastille Day, marking the birth of France's staunchly secular republic, the vast majority of MPs in the country's National Assembly voted in favour of outlawing the burka and the niqab from French streets, making it the second European country after Belgium to clamp down.
The new law, passed by 335 votes to one, is expected to sail through the Senate in September and be in force by early next year after a six-month explanatory period.
However, it could yet be deemed unconstitutional by France's highest legal body, the Constitutional Council, which President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party has asked to rule on the matter, while it could also fall foul of European human rights legislation.
Under the new law, women who wear face-covering veils in all public places in France, including the street, face being fined 150-euro (£125) or ordered to follow citizenship classes, or both.
Husbands and fathers who force such veils on women and girls risk a year of prison and a 30,000-euro (£25,000) fine, with both penalties doubled if the victim is a minor. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
LE FIGARO: Un seul élu a voté contre le texte et vingt élus de gauche l'ont approuvé.
La loi antiburqa a franchi le cap de l'Assemblée nationale. Vingt députés de gauche (dont 14 socialistes, 4 radicaux de gauche, le communiste André Gerin et le chevènementiste Jacques Desallangre) ont voté mardi le projet de loi visant à interdire le port du voile intégral dans l'espace public. Michèle Alliot-Marie n'y est pas étrangère. La garde des sceaux a adressé de nombreux signes aux dirigeants socialistes.
Le texte a été adopté à une écrasante majorité (335 voix), seul un député non inscrit, Daniel Garrigue (villepiniste, ex-UMP), votant contre. Les villepinistes Marc Bernier, François Goulard, Jean-Pierre Grand et Marie-Anne Montchamp, eux, n'ont pas participé au vote.
Ce résultat est une victoire pour Jean-François Copé, le patron des députés UMP, ardent partisan de ce texte. La quasi-totalité de la droite (UMP et Nouveau Centre) a voté pour, de même que le président du MoDem François Bayrou, le souverainiste Nicolas Dupont-Aignan et les villiéristes Véronique Besse et Dominique Souchet. >>> Par Sophie Huet | Mardi 13 Juillet 2010
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Die französische Nationalversammlung hat ein landesweites Verbot der Burka verabschiedet, der Senat muss aber noch zustimmen. Mit dem Gesetz will die Regierung das Tragen von Vollschleiern in der Öffentlichkeit komplett untersagen.
Die französische Nationalversammlung hat am Dienstag ein landesweites Verbot der Burka verabschiedet. Die Abgeordneten stimmten mit 336 zu einer Stimme für das Gesetz, das die Gesichtsverschleierung in der Öffentlichkeit verbietet.
Das Gesetz sieht ein Verbot jeglicher Art von Vermummung vor, etwa auch Gesichtsmasken bei Demonstrationen und nicht nur von muslimischen Frauen getragene Schleier wie die Burka oder den Nikab. Im September stimmt der Senat über das Gesetz ab, das kommendes Jahr in Kraft treten soll; auch der Verfassungsrat soll noch Stellung dazu beziehen. >>> Text: AFP, Bildmaterial: Archiv, dpa | Dienstag, 13. Juli 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Eric Woerth, the minister at the heart of the French political funding scandal announced he would step down as treasurer of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party to quell suggestions of a conflict of interest.
Mr Woerth had been under pressure to drop the treasurer and party fund-raiser post following allegations over campaign donations from L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
He was accused of a conflict of interest as Mrs Bettencourt, 87, employed his wife to help manage her fortune and had failed to declare Swiss bank accounts while Mr Woerth was budget minister and on a mission to fight tax fraud.
A finance ministry report released on Sunday cleared Mr Woerth of having intervened to protect Mrs Bettencourt from tax scrutiny while he was budget minister.
However, question marks remain over allegations by Mrs Bettencourt's former accountant that Mr Woerth accepted 150,000 euros (£125,000) in illegal cash donations from France's richest woman. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Justice ministry says it won't extradite the film director because allegations of judicial misconduct have yet to be disproved and because prosecutors didn't immediately seek the fugitive's arrest.
In the end, the move by Swiss authorities to free Roman Polanski did not come down to whether he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl.
Instead, the Swiss government's refusal Monday to extradite the director centered in part on a controversial 1977 backroom meeting that a Los Angeles judge held with the prosecutor and defense attorney on the case.
Polanski's lawyers say the judge made it clear at the meeting that he intended to send the director to prison for a 90-day psychiatric test as his full sentence behind bars. They say that Polanski completed his punishment when prison authorities released him after 42 days and that the filmmaker fled the country when the judge indicated he would send him back to prison.
The Swiss justice ministry cited the meeting in a statement explaining its decision, saying that a U.S. court's ruling that kept some records about the meeting secret created "persisting doubts concerning the presentation of the facts of the case."
"In these circumstances, it is not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty that Roman Polanski has already served the sentence he was condemned to at the time," the statement said.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said he was "genuinely surprised and disappointed" by the legal reasoning behind the decision.
He described the failure to return Polanski as a "disservice to justice."
Experts said the latest development in the long-running legal saga was a blow to Cooley's office. Continue reading and comment >>>
TIME: Fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski's onscreen dramas are rivaled only by his private ones. The latest plot twist came Sept. 26, when the director of Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist touched down at Zurich airport to find police waiting to arrest him in connection with charges of a 1977 sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl. Polanski, 76, was arriving in Switzerland to collect a lifetime-achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival. Fast Facts: >>> Laura Fitzpatrick | Monday, September 28, 2009
TIME: Polanski's Arrest: Why the French Are Outraged – Although the cultural divide between Europe and the U.S. has narrowed over the years, the legal fate of director Roman Polanski shows there are still major differences. Polanski's arrest in Switzerland on Sept. 26 [2009] was greeted with satisfaction in the U.S., where authorities hope he will face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Europeans, meanwhile, are shocked and dismayed that an internationally acclaimed artist could be jailed for such an old offense. >>> Bruce Crumley, Paris | Monday, September 28, 2009
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NZZ ONLINE: In den amerikanischen Medien wird der Entscheid, Roman Polanski nicht auszuliefern, relativ nüchtern zur Kenntnis genommen. Ob die Freilassung des renommierten Filmemachers mehr recht denn schlecht ist, mag niemand so recht beantworten.
Es bleibt der Haftbefehl
Die Schweizer Behörden hätten nicht in der Frage, ob der Regisseur eine damals minderjährige Person sexuell missbraucht habe, geurteilt, schreibt die «Los Angeles Times». Die Aufhebung des Hausarrests sei vielmehr von technischer Natur, weil die amerikanischen Justizbehörden den Schweizern die Akteneinsicht verweigert hätten.
Dennoch sei der Sieg, den Polanski durch die Aufhebung der Auslieferungshaft in der Schweiz davonträgt, ein kleiner. Der Haftbefehl bleibe; die zu den längsten Kriminalsaga der kalifornischen Kriminaljustiz zählende Causa Polanski gehe bloss in eine weitere Runde, folgert die «Los Angeles Times». Weiter lesen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> hoh. | Dienstag, 13. Juli 2010
THE GUARDIAN: French parliament approves ban on face veils: Move sparks concern amongst Muslim and human rights groups but is popular with French voters >>> Associated Press | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Die französische Regierung hat das Verbot für die Vollverschleierung muslimischer Frauen vorgestellt. Frauen, die gezwungen werden eine Burka zu tragen, können ihre Männer anklagen.
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Die französische Nationalversammlung diskutiert derzeit über ein Burka-Verbot. Mit dem von der konservativen Regierung eingebrachten Gesetzentwurf sollen sämtliche Ganzkörperverschleierungen aus dem öffentlichen Raum verbannt werden. Zum Aufakt der Debatte hat sich Justizministerin Michèle Alliot-Marie für das geplante Gesetz starkgemacht.
Verbunden >>>
THE TELEGRAPH: An Iranian nuclear scientist claimed by Tehran to have been abducted by the United States has sought refuge in the Pakistan embassy in Washington, state television said on Tuesday.
In a dramatic development in a long-running mystery, Shahram Amiri was said to be demanding to be allowed to return home.
Mr Amiri disappeared last year while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Iran claimed he had been seized by the Saudi intelligence services working in collaboration with the CIA.
Washington said such claims were "ridiculous" but shed no light on what happened to him. The American television channel ABC reported it had been told by official sources that he had defected voluntarily and was providing information to the US authorities.
Intelligence websites said he had been "turned" while on trips to Frankfurt and Vienna, and had provided detailed information on the secret uranium enrichment plant the Iranians were discovered to be building near the holy city of Qom.
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since the Islamic revolution in 1979, and national interests are looked after by the Pakistan embassy in Washington and the Swiss embassy in Tehran respectively.
Mehr, an Iranian news agency, reported on Tuesday morning that Mr Amiri, a nuclear researcher at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University who also worked for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, "went to Iran's interest section and asked for a quick return to Tehran". >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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THE TELEGRAPH: The new science of geomythology links ancient legends and natural disasters - and supports climate change , writes Steve Jones.
'Global warming is a myth.” Type that into a search engine and you get thousands of hits – but global warming is not a product of the human imagination; or no more so than any other scientific claims for – like them – it depends on its data, the accuracy of which has been affirmed by the inquiry into the leaked East Anglia documents. The subject has, alas, become the home of boring rants by obsessives.
More interesting is the notion that myths themselves may reflect real happenings of long ago. The new science of geomythology sets out to tie such tales to ancient disasters. Often, geology and legend fit remarkably well. >>> Steve Jones | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: In rare appearance, Cuba's former president, 82, analyses Middle East situation and says Iran will not be cowed by the US
The Middle East is on the verge of a nuclear war triggered by a US attack on Iran in the name of preventing the country from developing its own weapons, according to ageing Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.
"To do this on the basis of a calculation that the Iranians are going to come running out to ask the Yankees for forgiveness is absurd," Castro said. "They [the US] will encounter a terrible resistance that will spread the conflict that cannot end up any other way than turning nuclear."
The former Cuban president said Israel would throw the first bomb, but the risk that red buttons would also be pressed in Pakistan and India was latent.
Castro made the prediction on Cuban TV last night, in a dramatic return to public life after four years in near-seclusion.
"The US is activating the machinery to destroy Iran," he said. "But the Iranians have been building up a defensive force little by little for years."
Castro said attacking Iran would have a very different result from invading Iraq. "When Bush attacked Iraq, Iraq was a divided country," he said. "Iran is not divided."
The Cuban leader also emphasised that India, Pakistan and Israel are the three nuclear powers who have refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
"The control that Israel has over the United States is enormous."
"US foreign policy is better described as the policy of total impunity." (+ video) >>> Jo Tuckman in Mexico City | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Fidel Castro returns to Cuban TV: Fidel Castro appeared relaxed and lucid in his most prominent television interview in years Monday. >>> | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The district attorney prosecuting Roman Polanski in the United States have criticised the Swiss government's refusal to extradite the director and said the case was not closed.
Polanski was freed after the Swiss government rejected a US extradition request that he be brought back there and sentenced for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
However, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley said he was "deeply disappointed" by the decision and would work to try to extradite Polanski if he is arrested again. An arrest warrant on the 33-year-old case remains active in Los Angeles. >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN: Der Bezirksstaatsanwalt von Los Angeles, Steve Cooley, will auch nach Ablehnung des Gesuches durch die Schweiz die Auslieferung von Filmregisseur Roman Polanski fordern, sollte er in einem anderen Land festgenommen werden. Polanski nicht auszuliefern sei eine Unterlassung der Schweiz und ein Affront gegen das Gericht in Kalifornien.
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