Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
THE GUARDIAN: Thousands of complaints after insult that followed Fernández accusing Britain of militarising south Atlantic islands
The newspaper's website uploaded a photo of Fernández briefly using the insult as a file name on Wednesday, a day after she accused Britain of militarising the south Atlantic islands.
The word triggered an immediate avalanche of complaints and abuse from Argentinians, reflecting heightened sensitivity towards the archipelago in the runup [sic] to the 30th anniversary of the war with Britain.
The Buenos Aires daily La Nacion said the word, "perra" in Spanish, was a strong "anglo-saxon [sic] term ... signifying disrespect". Within hours more than 2,000 readers responded with comments, many vitriolic.
The Penguin News, which is printed weekly and online updated daily, usually has a tiny readership – the islands have a population of 3,000 – but the escalating diplomatic row between London and Buenos Aires has in recent weeks attracted many readers in Argentina, which calls the islands Las Malvinas and asserts ownership. » | Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, and Uki Goni in Buenos Aires | Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Mitt Romney was fighting his first election in 1994, an uphill battle for a Senate seat Edward Kennedy had held for more than 30 years. Ms. Romney invited a reporter from The Boston Globe to their home to counter her family’s image of privilege, something that did not sit well with Massachusetts voters.
Instead, she chatted about dieting down to her college weight (117 pounds) and how the couple had struggled as students, living off inherited stock investments. Asked to describe herself in three words, Ms. Romney foundered: “Peaceful, loving and serene,” she managed. At one point, she compared a political campaign to pregnancy.
“The thing that’s nice about pregnancy is that in the end, you have a baby,” she told the reporter, who concluded that his encounter with Ms. Romney in her million-dollar mansion resembled something like a trip to the Twilight Zone.
As Mr. Romney forges to the front in the Republican primaries, his wife is being heralded as one of his greatest assets, a humanizing force that counters his rigidity. She is the most visible of the Republican candidates’ wives. » | Sonia Verma | Published: Tuesday, February 07, 2012; Updated: Wednesday, February 08, 2012
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—A 23-year-old Saudi columnist fled the country, his associates said Wednesday, after his tweets on the human nature of the Prophet Muhammad led prominent clerics and thousands of their followers to use Twitter, YouTube, email and fax to demand the writer's execution.
The speed, number and intensity of messages calling for the death of the writer, Hamza Kashgari, stunned many Saudis.
"Your duty is to defend our religion against those atheists and not let it pass by with no punishment—you must write in the papers, in the Internet, and write the government, and not be silenced," cleric Nasser al-Omar urged the public in a video posted on YouTube.
Mr. Omar appeared in the video shuddering with sobs in outrage at what he said was Mr. Kashgari's insult to the Prophet Muhammad.
One tweet offered 10,000 riyals ($2,666) to Mr. Kashgari's killer. Another posted an image of Mr. Kashgari's house taken off Google Earth. "Dead man walking!" another jeered.
The furor, kicked off by Mr. Kashgari's tweets over the weekend, sparked 30,000 tweets in one 24-hour period, according to a Saudi blogger who cited an Arabic Twitter tracker.
Saudi newspapers reported King Abdullah had ordered the arrest of Mr. Kashgari and an investigation for possible blasphemy, though the reports couldn't be confirmed. The Saudi information minister said via Twitter that Mr. Kashgari would be banned from writing for newspapers or magazines.
Government officials didn't respond to requests to comment on Mr. Kashgari's case or his whereabouts.
Some Saudis saw the campaign as a show of strength by the country's religious conservatives, who have sustained perceived rebuffs recently, including King Abdullah's appointment of a more moderate head of religious police, and a government push to get women into jobs.
"The most serious thing about this was their ability to organize," said Abdullah Hamadaddin, an analyst based in Jeddah. "You're talking about two days, and they mobilized thousands of people." » | Ellen Knickmeyer | Wednesday, February 08, 2012
How times have changed! This video is from a very different era – a benighted era in which homosexuality was demonized, frowned upon, and certainly not tolerated. Things are generally very different today. Whilst not everyone agrees with the changes in attitudes towards homosexuality, it is surely good that Western societies have become altogether more tolerant of others who may have a different sexual orientation. – © Mark
LA PRESSE: La chambre des représentants de l'État de Washington a voté mercredi une loi légalisant le mariage homosexuel, qui doit être promulguée dans les prochains jours par la gouverneure de l'État, favorable au texte, a-t-on appris auprès des autorités.
La gouverneure de l'État de Washington, Christine Gregoire, a cinq jours pour promulguer le texte, qui ferait de Washington le septième État des États-Unis à autoriser mariage homosexuel. » | Agence France-Presse, Los Angeles | mercredi 08 février 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Washington set to become seventh state to approve gay marriage: Washington state lawmakers voted to approve gay marriage on Wednesday, setting the stage for the state to become the seventh in the US to allow same-sex couples to wed. » | Thursday, February 09, 2012
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
TAGES ANZEIGER: Die grössten muslimischen Organisationen der Schweiz planen eine politische Gemeinschaft. Der umstrittene IZRS-Präsident Nicolas Blancho sieht das kritisch.
Die Organisation für Sicherheit und Zusammenarbeit in Europa (OSZE) sieht in der Schweiz eine Zunahme der Diskriminierung von Muslimen. Die OSZE empfiehlt der Schweiz deshalb in ihrem Bericht, die Bildung einer Dachorganisation für Muslime zu unterstützen und zu fördern. Denn positive Schritte gegen die Diskriminierung würden behindert, weil die Muslime keine Dachorganisation hätten, die für ihre Interessen eintrete.
Die beiden grössten muslimischen Organisationen in der Schweiz - die Koordination Islamischer Organisationen Schweiz (KIOS) und die Föderation Islamischer Dachorganisationen Schweiz (FIDS) - sind jedoch bereits dabei, eine Art Parlament für die in der Schweiz lebenden Muslime vorzubereiten, wie KIOS-Präsident Farhad Afshar heute gegenüber der Nachrichtenangentur sda sagte. » | kle/sda | Dienstag, 07. Februar 2012
BBC: The big freeze continues to overwhelm many parts of Europe as the cold snap shows no signs of stopping.
The BBC's Lucy Hockings and weather presenter Helen Willetts look at why Europe is experiencing such unusually cold weather. Watch video » | Wednesday, February 08, 2012
WELT ONLINE: Werbung mit Regenbogenfahnen ist im russischen St. Petersburg bald strafbar. Die Stadt verbietet "Propaganda für Homosexualität". Auch Moskau plant ein Gesetz.
Begleitet von Protesten hat das Stadtparlament im russischen St. Petersburgam Mittwoch ein Gesetz gegen homosexuelle Propaganda verabschiedet.
Wie das Internetportal Fontanka.ru mitteilte, wurden kleinere Gegendemonstrationen vor dem Tagungsgebäude in der zweitgrößten Stadt Russlands aufgelöst. Homosexualität in einem Atemzug mit Pädophilie » | EDP/mcz | Mittwoch, 08. Februar 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Ugandan gay rights activists have condemned the reintroduction of a bill in parliament that calls for the death penalty for certain homosexual acts.
David Bahati, the MP behind the bill, formally reintroduced the legislation after MPs voted last year to pass it over to the new session after failing to debate it.
Frank Mugisha, the director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, voiced disappointment over the revival of the bill.
"We thought it would come back, but with all the condemnation from local and international human rights groups, we had hoped that Bahati would reconsider it, or that parliament would move to strike it down immediately," Mr Mugisha said.
"It is just bringing everything bad up again, but we remain committed to fighting it and challenging it in all ways possible," he added.
Originally tabled in 2009, the bill calls for "serial offender(s)" to face the death penalty, and proposes jail sentences for family members and landlords who fail to report homosexuals to the authorities. » | Source: AFP | Wednesday, February 08, 2012
YAHOO! NEWS: By Peter Slowe
Both Britain and Argentina have had serious doubts at various times about their respective claims to the Falkland Islands. The islands were probably first sighted by a British sailor, 'Captain Davis', in 1592. In 1600, they were certainly seen by the Dutch. They were claimed by the French in 1764 but were transferred to Spain in 1767 for £24,000. The British meanwhile had claimed the islands for themselves in 1765. Spanish protests were made in London and this seems to have been the earliest precursor to the dispute over the islands' sovereignty.
Everybody abandoned the islands in 1773. In 1829 a Spanish Argentine settlement was established in West Falkland and four years later this was followed by a British settlement in East Falkland. No one had or claimed to have a legal right to the islands as a whole, but the (by now independent) Argentine settlement was abandoned in 1867 to be replaced by a British settlement a year later.
Argentina and Britain both feel they have a right to the Falklands based less on legal rights than on different concepts of natural justice. In the case of Argentina, it is a right derived from a sense of thwarted destiny on the South American continent where geopolitics stir strong sentiments. Argentina has a concept of itself as a country prevented from achieving greatness, mainly by the Americans (through the agency of Chile) and the British in the South Atlantic. Even expansion to the wild frozen South into 'Antlantártida' was blocked by the British.
For the British, there is a sense of right derived from the ethnic links between Britain and the Falklands — "our own people"" as Margaret Thatcher proclaimed in 1982 — and the islanders' right of self-determination. » | Ian Hunt | Talking Points | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
CBS NEWS: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum swept the nominating contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado Tuesday night, putting him back in contention for the GOP nomination.
Santorum now has four victories under his belt in the GOP race, more than any other candidate. His new standing stalls Mitt Romney's earlier momentum and gives Santorum grounds to argue that he -- not Newt Gingrich -- is the best conservative alternative to Romney.
Speaking from his Missouri campaign headquarters in St. Charles Tuesday night, Santorum looked ahead to the general election.
"I don't stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," he said. "I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."
Santorum said that during the nominating contest, "Gov. Romney's best attribute is, 'I've got the most money and the best organization.'" But in the general election, Santorum said, that won't be the case. With that in mind, he said Republicans need a candidate who can make "sharp contrasts" with the president. » | Stephanie Condon | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
My comment:
I wonder how the British prime minister and the establishment would feel if Argentina laid claim to the Outer Hebrides? I wonder how they would feel if there were an Argentinian colony off Britain's shores? I wonder how they'd feel if the shoe were on the other foot? We have given up any claim to the Trucial States. We have given up any claim to India. The Raj is a thing of the past. Is it not also high time for the British to stop trying to box above their weight in the world? Isn't Kirchner right when she asks Cameron to give peace a chance? We talk endlessly about the Palestinian issue; it seems we are totally unwilling to even start talks about this issue.
It is high time we realised that the days of colonisation for England, the UK, are well and truly over. We cannot afford this nonsense anymore. – © Mark
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Cristina Kirchner says Britain 'militarising' South Atlantic: Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner, has announced Argentina will appeal to the United Nations over the Falklands Islands, claiming Britain had militarised the South Atlantic in a speech in Buenos Aires. » | Barney Henderson | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: German chancellor insists UK is still a key player in the EU and is 'more pro-European than some other countries'
At an event for European students in Berlin on Tuesday night, Merkel said the EU must work closer together on political as well as economic matters, specifically in developing a European defence policy.
"You can still have many dreams," she told a student who asked if she had a "European dream" to restore trust in those who had lost trust in the EU. "I think that, for example, we are going to have to work a lot closer together on defence policy," she added, going on to outline areas which needed attention.
"We have a few EU countries which are not in Nato, which raises lots of question marks. We are doubling, even tripling up on some resources," she said, acknowledging Germany was often the roadblock on decisions about deploying troops to a conflict zone because German law requires the parliament to vote on such matters.
The meeting's moderator, Financial Times journalist Quentin Peel, made reference to the venue, the Neues Museum redesigned by British architect David Chipperfield. It was a shame, he mused, that there were not more British "architects" involved in shaping Europe's future.
But Merkel insisted Britain was still a key player in Europe. Britain is "very serious" about the single market, she said. » | Helen Pidd in Berlin | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The BBC has told its journalists not to call Abu Qatada, the al-Qaeda preacher, an “extremist”.
Journalists were also cautioned against using images suggesting the preacher is overweight.
A judge ruled this week that the Muslim preacher, once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, should be released from a British jail, angering ministers and MPs.
Adding to the row, Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, yesterday insisted that Qatada “has not committed any crime” and said his release has nothing to do with the European Court of Human Rights.
A British court has called Qatada a “truly dangerous individual” and even his defence team has suggested he poses a “grave risk” to national security.
Despite that background, BBC journalists were told they should not describe Qatada as an extremist. The guidance was issued at the BBC newsroom’s 9.00am editorial meeting yesterday, chaired by a senior manager, Andrew Roy.
According to notes of the meeting, seen by The Daily Telegraph, journalists were told: “Do not call him an extremist – we must call him a radical. Extremist implies a value judgment.” » | Neil Midgley and James Kirkup | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
LE MONDE: Les autorités israéliennes ont approuvé mardi 7 février un projet de construction d'un camp de rétention pour les immigrés clandestins dans le désert du Néguev, dans le sud d'Israël, a indiqué le ministère de la défense. Selon ce texte, un budget de 250 millions de shekels (51 millions d'euros) a été dégagé à cet effet, et d'ici fin juin quelque 3 000 personnes pourront être accueillies dans ce camp qui pourra à terme en abriter jusqu'à 11 000. » | LEMONDE.FR avec AFP | mardi 07 février 2012
Der russische Außenminister Sergej Lawrow hat bei seinem Besuch in Syrienlobende Worte für Präsident Baschar al-Assad gefunden. "Jeder Führer in jedem Land muss sich seines Teils der Verantwortung bewusst sein", sagte Lawrow nach Berichten russischer Nachrichtenagenturen zu Assad. "Sie sind sich Ihres bewusst." Die syrischen Regierungstruppen setzten unterdessen ihre Angriffe auf die Stadt Homs fort.
Lawrow wurde in Damaskus mit Jubel empfangen. Fernsehaufnahmen aus Damaskus zeigten, wie sich sein Konvoi auf einem zentralen Platz durch ein Meer tausender Anhänger Assads schlängelte.
Die Menschenmenge hatte sich den Berichten zufolge versammelt, um Moskau für seine Haltung in dem Konflikt zu danken. Russland und China hatten vergangene Woche ihr Veto gegen eine Syrien-Resolution im UN-Sicherheitsrat eingelegt und damit weltweit Empörung ausgelöst. » | dapd/dpa/mcz | Mittwoch, 08. Februar 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The wife of Syrian president Bashar al Assad appears to have broken an 11-month silence with a letter supporting her husband as his forces bombard the citizens of Homs.
British-born Asma Assad is also believed to have said she was encouraging dialogue over the crisis gripping Syria, and that she was comforting the bereaved.
In an email sent to The Times [£], which has not been verified by The Telegraph, Mrs Assad, 36, wrote that her husband "is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role".
The email is said to have continued: "The First Lady's very busy agenda is still focused on supporting the various charities she has long been involved with and rural development as well as supporting the President as needed.
"These days she is equally involved in bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue. She listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence."
Before the crisis in Syria, Mrs Assad was one of the most visible of the female leaders in the Middle East. Raised in Acton in London before moving to New York, she is the daughter of a Harley Street cardiologist. » | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
PHOTO GALLERY: Asma al-Assad »
THE ATLANTIC: The Only Remaining Online Copy of Vogue's Asma al-Assad Profile: Despite all the controversy, the fashion writer's interviews are worth keeping in the public record » | Max Fisher | Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Related »
THE WASHINGTON POST: DENVER — Rick Santorum was poised for a breakthrough night on Tuesday in three contests that could provide a boost to the former Pennsylvania senator’s efforts to slow Mitt Romney’s march to the Republican presidential nomination.
Romney was hoping to extend his winning streak as he tried to strengthen his claim to the mantle of the presumptive nominee, but he was bracing for a loss in one or more states as Santorum made an aggressive run in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. » | Philip Rucker and Nia-Malika Henderson | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Alcoholic drinks should be made weaker under in Britain under Government plans to tackle the "deadly problem” of binge-drinking, a health minister has said
Anne Milton warned there would not be “one silver bullet” to deal with drinking problems when the Government’s alcohol strategy is published next month[.]
But the junior health minister said one of the key goals was to “remove significant number of units of alcohol from the UK market through changes in how alcohol is produced and sold”.
“Quality above quantity is something we’re aiming to do,” she said. "We can't turn this problem around overnight but we're deadly serious about a deadly problem."
In the strategy, ministers are expected to unveil measures to increase the price of alcoholic drinks according to how strong they are. This could be done through higher taxation per unit, minimum pricing per unit or simply higher levels of duty for strong drinks. Ministers will also encourage companies to produce weaker alcoholic drinks.
Prime Minister David Cameron is known to have sympathy with the idea of minimum pricing, which medics say could save nearly 10,000 lives per year if set at 50p per unit. » | Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
My comment:
This government is little better than their NuLabour predecessors. They all love nannying; in fact, it's their second nature.
I shall never vote for any party that decides to water down my favourite tipples: Scotch whisky and wine. Fie on those that try to do so!
If children were raised in families that had a good, sound relationship with alcohol, there would be no need to be discussing this. Children need to be introduced to alcohol at a young age: they need to be taught to take it for granted. They need to be taught how to live with it, they need to be taught how to be the master of alcohol, and not allow alcohol to be the master of them.
There was plenty of alcohol in my home when I was growing up. I was allowed to try everything, but in moderation. It never did me any harm. On the contrary, it taught me to be responsible. Were I to have children, they would be raised in the same way. I would NEVER hide alcohol away from them, regardless of what the government of the day thought.
ALWAYS work on one simple principle: Forbidden fruits taste the sweetest. – © Mark
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his ministers stormed out of parliament in protest on Tuesday after an opposition deputy accused the government of flirting with Nazi ideology.
The accusation from opposition Socialist MP Serge Letchimy came in response to Interior Minister Claude Gueant's remark at the weekend that not all civilisations were equal.
Letchimy said in parliament: "You, Mr Gueant ... you bring us back day after day to those European ideologies which gave birth to the concentration camps".
He then asked: "Mr. Gueant, the Nazi regime, which was so worried about purity, was that a civilisation?"
That provoked uproar among government ministers and deputies from President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party, who walked out en masse. The weekly question time was subsequently suspended. Read on and comment » | Source: AFP | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH – FASHION: Russian men are 'ugly', Adele is 'a little fat', Greeks are 'corrupt' and the monarchy is 'unnecessary'. Just say what you really mean Karl for crying out loud...
The German-born style guru also said Britain's Royal Family was 'totally unnecessary, but pleasant' and described the Queen as 'a more smiley version of her grandmother'.
Lagerfeld - who is notorious for his controversial public outbursts - made the remarks as guest editor of global free newspaper Metro (not to be confused with the UK paper of the same title).
Asked for his views on female pop stars, the 78-year-old said: "The thing at the moment is Adele. She is a little too fat, but she has a beautiful face and a divine voice.
"Lana del Rey is not bad at all. She looks very much like a modern-time singer. In her photos she is beautiful. Is she a construct with all her implants?"
Then quizzed over his views on Russia, he replied: "If I was a woman in Russia I would be a lesbian, as the men are very ugly.
"There are a few handsome ones, like Naomi Campbell's boyfriend, but there you see the most beautiful women and the most horrible men."
And probed over his opinion on the Greek debt crisis, he answered: "Greece needs to work on a cleaner image. It's a big problem, as they have this reputation of being so corrupt.
"You can't be sure the money will go where it's supposed to go. Nobody wants Greece to disappear, but they have really disgusting habits. Italy as well."
And he said of the Queen: "She looks a little bit like her grandmother - a more smiley version.
"In terms of what she wears, she's come into herself a little bit more - whatever that is." Read on and comment » | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
REUTERS FRANCE: AMMAN (Reuters) - La Russie a dit mardi avoir obtenu la promesse de Bachar al Assad de mettre fin au bain de sang en Syrie, mais Occidentaux et pays arabes multiplient les initiatives pour isoler le gouvernement syrien qui poursuit ses opérations de répression.
Après le veto opposé samedi à l'Onu par Moscou et Pékin à une résolution du Conseil de sécurité prônant la mise à l'écart du président syrien, conformément à un plan de la Ligue arabe, le Kremlin a entamé une mission de médiation avec la visite de son ministre des Affaires étrangères à Damas.
Sergueï Lavrov s'est entretenu avec Assad et a annoncé avoir obtenu l'assurance qu'il était "totalement déterminé" à mettre fin aux violences, qui ont fait plus de 5.000 morts depuis 11 mois selon l'Onu, et à ouvrir la voie à une réforme constitutionnelle.
"Depuis le début, la Syrie a accueilli favorablement tout effort qui soutient une solution syrienne à la crise", écrit l'agence de presse Sana citant Assad lors de sa rencontre avec Lavrov. "Le président de la Syrie nous a assuré être totalement déterminé à mettre fin aux violences d'où qu'elles viennent", a déclaré Sergueï Lavrov cité par l'agence de presse Interfax. » | Par Khaled Yacoub Oweis | mardi 07 février 2012
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Local officials and Muslim leaders attended a ceremony in the north-eastern French city to launch the cemetery, which has space for about 1,000 graves.
Mohammed Moussaoui, the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, hailed the cemetery’s opening as a “historic” moment for Muslims in France and said it was “an important symbol of belonging” for the community.
“If a religious community is to feel entirely at home in a city, it must be helped in building places for worship and for the burial of its believers,” Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told AFP.
France’s 1905 law on the separation of church and state forbids the building of municipal cemeteries restricted to only one religion.
But the Alsace-Moselle region, which includes Strasbourg, operates under different basic laws dating from its reversion from German to French control after World War I.
Home to Western Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, estimated at between five and six million, France has for years been debating how far it is willing to go to accommodate Islam, now the country’s second religion. » | IINA | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Norway's left seeks to silence Islam's critics by linking them to a mass murderer.
Last July 22, a powerful explosion rocked a government building in downtown Oslo, killing eight people. Later that day, 69 people, mostly teenagers, were shot to death by a lone gunman at a Labor Party camp on the nearby island of Utøya. By nightfall, police had a suspect in custody: a 32-year-old Norwegian named Anders Behring Breivik, who had apparently carried out both attacks on his own.
Contrary to nearly everyone's original assumption that Islamic terrorists were behind the Oslo attack, a 1,500-page "manifesto" by Breivik showed that he opposed the mass immigration of Muslims into Norway and had targeted the Labor Party gathering because of the party's role in shaping the country's multicultural immigration policy.
As an American who had lived in Oslo since 1999, I was deeply distressed by the atrocities of July 22. But when I learned that they were the work of a native Norwegian who claimed to have acted in opposition to Norwegian multiculturalism, I was even more devastated. For I saw at once what this would mean.
Consider this: Criticizing Islam is now a punishable offense in several European countries. In the past few months alone, a Danish court fined writer Lars Hedegaard for talking about Islam's treatment of women in his own home, and activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was found guilty of lecturing about Muhammad's marital history in what an Austrian court considered an inappropriate tone.
Critics of Islam have yet to be put on trial in Norway. But as I watched Norwegian TV's coverage of the massacre in Oslo and at Utøya, it was clear to me that such critics—who were already used to being labeled racists and "Islamophobes"—would have an even rougher time after July 22.
"In Norway," I wrote in these pages on July 25, "to speak negatively about any aspect of the Muslim faith has always been a touchy matter . . . . It will, I fear, be a great deal more difficult to broach these issues now that this murderous madman has become the poster boy for the criticism of Islam."
This statement was harshly criticized by Norway's multicultural left. How dare anyone speak of such issues at a time like this! It was as if the concerns I had raised were abstract or narrowly political.
On the contrary, Islam's rise in the West is a subject that needs to be discussed frankly, without euphemism or disinformation. The survival of secular democracy, individual liberty and women's rights depends upon it. » | Bruce Bawer *| Tuesday, February 07, 2012
• Mr. Bawer's e-book about the aftermath of the July 22 atrocities in Norway, "The New Quislings," has just been published by Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
WIKI: Bruce Bawer »
Related »
Russia's foreign minister has arrived in Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad as the Syrian army's deadly bombardment of the city of Homs enters its fifth day.
Large crowds greeted Sergei Lavrov in Damascus.
His visit to Damascus comes three days after Russia and China vetoed any UN-backed measures against the Assad government over its crackdown on protesters.
Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reports.
MAIL ONLINE: Reform law demands free birth control to be provided at Catholic hospitals and universities / Catholics make up quarter of U.S. population / Some now rethinking vote come election time
Prominent Catholic leaders across the U.S. have threatened to turn voters against President Obama over his controversial plans to offer free birth control.
The fight is over a provision of the health reform law announced on January 20 that would require health insurance plans -- including those offered by institutions such as Catholic-affiliated hospitals and universities -- to offer free birth control including sterilization.
According to estimates, there are some 70 million Catholic voters – and many could be posed to vote against the president in the crucial upcoming election.
Catholic League head Bill Donohue said: ‘Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,’ CBS New York reported.
'This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets.' Read on and comment » | Daily Mail Reporter | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
BBC: Reports from Iran say several people have been detained for alleged links to the BBC's Persian service, which is banned in the country.
Mehr news agency said they were involved in newsgathering, recruiting and training for Iranian journalists and had arranged trips abroad for them.
A BBC statement said no BBC Persian staff members were working inside Iran.
It said the reports "should be of deep concern to all those who believe in a free and independent media".
Last week, the BBC accused the Iranian authorities of a campaign of bullying and harassment against those working for its Persian service. » | Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Andrew Marr looks at the life and reign of HM Queen Elizabeth II in this three-part series, which includes special interviews with Princes William and Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, David Cameron, Tony Blair, Sir John Major and President Obama.
In this first episode, with remarkable archive footage, Marr tells the childhood story of the young girl who never expected to reign. He looks closely at the influence of her grandfather, father and mother and the impact of the abdication, and hears from the Queen's grandchildren about what it must have been like to become queen at the age of 25.
Marr examines exactly what the Queen's role as head of state actually entails, and follows her to the Middle East and the USA to assess the global impact of the royal family on British trade and international relations.
THE SPECTATOR: Yes
Is the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee a cause for jubilation? Certainly her reign has been a personal triumph: her iron sense of duty, gracefully performed, has been exemplary, if not an example often followed. For 60 years she has exercised a self-control that most of us find difficult even for 60 minutes; her recent state visit to Ireland put all our public figures of the past decades in the shade.
Not that that is very difficult, for there is no disguising that her reign has been an era of continuous and continuing decline. Of course, not even accelerating levels of British incompetence have been able to arrest the march of technical progress, and, in raw physical terms, life in these islands has improved greatly. It is now even possible to find passable food almost everywhere, even in the provinces.
But in relative terms, Britain has declined. When she came to the throne, the British car industry was the second largest in the world; now there is no major British-owned car company. In the land of the industrial revolution, foreign ownership and management is the sine qua non of industrial success. Though we invented the railway, others must build them for us; though we invented nuclear power, we cannot by our unaided efforts build a nuclear power station. Even in football, our clubs are foreign-owned and the players foreign. The British are too undisciplined to be good at what they are most (regrettably and childishly) interested in.
What have the last 60 years done for our villages, towns and cities? British architects, devoid of scruple as of talent or aesthetic sense, have waged war on beauty and triumphed in the struggle. It is as though they personally resented the achievements of the past. Hardly a town exists that has not been ruined by the hacks of modernism and the blindness of the town-planners. It is lucky for them that there is no justice in the world.
But it is in intangibles that the decline has been most marked. In 1952, Britain was among the best-ordered countries in the western world, and now it is the worst. The recent outbreak of mass criminality can have surprised only the wilfully blind. The British are now among the least self-disciplined people in the world: it is as though they had undergone a gestalt switch, so that what they previously decried they now honour, and vice versa. They are the fattest people in Europe: the characteristic smell of Britain is re-used fat. They treat the country as their personal rubbish tip — there is more litter here than anywhere else comparable — and they drink brutishly. They take more drugs than anyone else. They consume without discrimination and dress abominably because they have no self-respect or respect for others, an absence that is often evident in the way they work, no small matter in a service economy. They favour the uncouth over the refined and the stupid over the intelligent; their vulgarity, like their drunkenness, is not unselfconscious but militant. They mutilate rather than beautify themselves; they care for nothing except their odious entertainments, and their popular music is a paean to their hatred of life. They are individualistic without individualism. A consumer society without taste is a horrible thing to behold. » | Theodore Dalrymple | Saturday, February 04, 2012
Monday, February 06, 2012
LA PRESSE: Elizabeth II a réitéré lundi à 85 ans son serment de consacrer sa vie entière à servir ses sujets, à l'occasion du 60e anniversaire de son accession au trône, confirmant à ceux qui en auraient douté qu'une abdication n'est aucunement à l'ordre du jour.
Le message a été aussi bref que solennel pour ce 6 février résolument placé sous le règne du «business as usual». «Je renouvelle mon engagement à votre service», y écrit notamment la reine.
Elle a choisi de marquer son jubilé de diamant en vaquant à ses engagements cérémoniels habituels, en l'occurrence une visite à la mairie de la bourgade moyenâgeuse de King's Lynn puis à une maternelle voisine du comté de Norfolk (est de l'Angleterre).
Comme à l'accoutumée (si l'on excepte les photographes et caméras de télévision présents en nombre) elle a été accueillie par le triple hourra d'une centaine de badauds, et a reçu son lot habituel de bouquets. La veille, un petit garçon lui avait offert son paquet de bonbons, à la sortie de la messe.
Le message royal fait écho à un discours fameux prononcé quand elle n'était encore que princesse héritière, à l'occasion de ses 21 ans, en avril 1947.
«Je déclare devant vous tous que je consacrerai toute ma vie, qu'elle soit longue ou courte, à votre service et au service de [de] la grande famille impériale à laquelle nous appartenons,» avait-elle proclamé depuis la ville sud-africaine du Cap. » | Denis Hiault | Agence France-Presse, Londres, Royaume-Uni | lundi 06 février 2012
LE FIGARO: Le populisme ne gagne pas en Finlande » | Par Thierry Portes | dimanche 05 février 2012
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