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Sunday, April 22, 2012
In the run up to Sunday's first round presidential vote, it was hard to find many people in France publicly admitting they intended to vote for Marine Le Pen. Nevertheless between 18% and 20% appear to have done so – a stunning result for the far right.
It was a record for France's Front National, beating the previous best in 2002 when Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie, won his way into the second-round run-off with 17% of votes.
The surprise score reflected not only how Marine, a 43-year-old lawyer, made inroads into the French political landscape during a campaign in which she relentlessly challenged the "established" candidates, but also a deep disillusion with the main parties. She has now become the third force in the presidential campaign and a possible kingmaker in the second-round run-off in two weeks's time. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Sunday, April 22, 2012
REUTERS FRANCE: SANAA - Un Français travaillant pour le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) au Yémen a été enlevé samedi soir par des hommes armés alors qu'il se rendait dans la ville portuaire de Hudaida, a annoncé le CICR.
Selon une porte-parole du CICR, l'homme qui travaille dans la ville de Saada, dans le nord du pays, a été enlevé samedi soir alors qu'il se trouvait à 30km de Hudaida, située sur la mer Rouge. » | Tom Finn, Marine Pennetier pour le service français | Reuters | dimanche 22 avril 2012
Having created one of the titans of cyberspace, which helps to run the lives of billions, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt may well regard themselves as masters of planet Earth. Google's mega-rich founders have built a global empire worth over £120bn by channelling unimaginable volumes of information to our cherished laptops, smartphones and tablets.
But it seems that, for Page and Schmidt, the world is no longer enough. The pair are now staking a claim for galactic domination by backing a plan to mine asteroids. Google's chief executive and executive chairman are named as key players in Planetary Resources Inc, which appears set to go boldly where no magnate has gone before. » | Michael Howie | Sunday, April 22, 2012
According to the actress Helena Bonham Carter, a long[-]term acquaintance, the prime minister is far from right wing and not even that conservative.
If her friend of 15-years had been running in America he would be a member of the centre left Democratic party [sic], she added.
The comments were made during an interview to promote her latest film Dark Shadows but the talk inevitably turned to her friendship with the prime minister and his wife Samantha.
The 45-year-old actress, who with her husband the director Tim Burton was photographed with the Camerons walking in the Chilterns on New Year's Day, is famously bohemian and liberal.
But she denied this was any hindrance to a friendship with the leader of the country. "He's not that conservative, actually," she told the Sunday Times.
"I mean, he's not a right-wing person. If he was in America, he'd be a Democrat, and he's got a hilarious sense of humour, which nobody really knows about."
She admitted that she was amazed when he became prime minister but mainly because she never expected anyone of her contemporaries to rise to such a lofty position. » | Richard Alleyne | Sunday, April 22, 2012
Related video »
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Dr Mike Davidson, a Christian campaigner with a homosexual past, says others, too, can reject what he calls a sin.
"I don’t want to be outrageous,” says Dr Mike Davidson softly – but it is hard to believe him. The 57-year-old Christian counsellor and campaigner has upset a lot of people lately, with his claims that homosexuals can become straight if they get enough help, therapy and prayer. The doctor has been called deluded and his work condemned as “inflammatory, homophobic and harmful”.
The Mayor of London has just banned advertisements that Davidson and his allies planned to put on the sides of buses, declaring: “Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it!” They were meant to mirror a campaign by the gay rights group Stonewall, but Boris Johnson pulled the ads after taking offence at the suggestion he saw within them.
“It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone can recover from,” said Johnson, who feared “a backlash so intense it would not have been in the interests of Christian people in this city”.
I’m expecting a firebrand. What I get is a gently spoken, slightly stooping man with a South African accent, who lives in a neat detached house in the countryside south of Belfast. His wife, Lynore, brings coffee and chocolate biscuits. They have been married for 32 years, during which time he claims to have been turned away from homosexuality by a combination of counselling, prayer and psychotherapy. He also claims to be able to help others do the same. Read on and comment » | Cole Moreton | Saturday, April 21, 2012
THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE: KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Muslim mob has set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.
The church in Khartoum's Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.
Sudan and South Sudan have been drawing closer to a full scale war in recent months over the unresolved issues of sharing oil revenues and a disputed border. » | Mohamed Saeed | Associated Press | Sunday, April 22, 2012
WALES ONLINE: An Islamic teacher whose group was at the centre of an anti-terror raid on a Cardiff community hall has come under fire for calling on Welsh muslims to “physically” support the fight for sharia law abroad.
Abu Hajar, of Grangetown, Cardiff, is one of the leaders of the Islamic group Supporters of Tawheed, which on its website says its core belief is the “domination of the world by Islam”.
The group – which according to its website also rejects democracy and freedom, describing them as “false deities” – hit the headlines in January when one man arrested during a raid on a meeting in the city’s Canton Community Hall told an officer “I will chop your head off” before shouting “I’m going to shoot you with a machine gun”. Mohammed Abdin, 21, was subsequently jailed for eight months for the threats.
It is understood the raids were prompted by members of the Muslim community, who feared the meeting was providing a place for radical Islamists to network.
Mr Hajar has previously said the group is simply interested in spreading the message of Islam and does not preach violence or extremism.
In a video posted last month on YouTube called “Support the Muslims of Syria”, Mr Hajar said muslims should: snub western help abroad; demand an “Islamic solution” to problems in the Middle East; and impose sharia law there. » | James McCarthy, WalesOnline | Sunday, April 22, 2012
Labour and Tory politicians love this sort of charade. It makes them look as if they are guarding the nation against the Islamist threat. Like so much of what they do, it is a noisy, empty fraud on the public.
They exaggerate hugely. Like several other furry-faced old blowhards, Qatada is said to have been Osama Bin Laden’s closest henchman. Perhaps he was. Perhaps he wasn’t. He isn’t now.
He cannot really be much use as a Terrorist Godfather now that he has been on TV, and MI5 and the police watch his every movement. Well, can he? Think about it.
It has all gone wrong for Mrs May because she and her department are not very good at what they do. But really the British people ought to have seen through this fake controversy by now.
The real Islamist threat to Britain and the rest of Europe comes from uncontrolled mass migration from Muslim countries. Combined with our national refusal to defend our British, Christian culture, this is rapidly creating a powerful and influential Muslim vote which will increasingly change our country.
Given a few more decades, it will have profoundly altered this country. I have long suspected that this island will be more or less Muslim within a century, and it will be the fault of this generation. It would be perfectly legitimate for a respectable, law-abiding and civilised political party to act now to prevent this.
But instead they leave the subject to steroid-swallowing nutcases like Anders Breivik, or creepy opportunists like the BNP.
Millions reasonably worry about this. But they are dismissed as extremists by a liberal establishment which views robust defence of Britain’s culture as bigotry. » | Peter Hitchens | Saturday, April 21, 2012
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations with medics in the UK offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls as young as 10, it has been reported.
Investigators from The Sunday Times said they secretly filmed a doctor, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner who were allegedly willing to perform circumcisions or arrange for the operation to be carried out. The doctor and dentist deny any wrongdoing.
The practice, which involves the surgical removal of external genitalia and in some cases the stitching of the vaginal opening, is illegal in Britain and carries up to a 14 year prison sentence.
It is also against the law to arrange FGM.
Known as "cutting", the procedure is traditionally carried out for cultural reasons and is widespread across Africa.
It is thought to be needed as proof of a girl's "purity" for when she marries, but victims are rarely given anaesthetic and frequently suffer long-term damage and pain. » | Sunday, April 22, 2012
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Britain’s 100,000 mutilated women » | Mazher Mahmood and Eleanor Mills | Sunday, April 22, 2012 [£]
THE SUNDAY TIMES: I can circumcise them here: £750 for the first daughter: Finding people to conduct genital mutilation in Britain is easy — even a dentist will do it, report Mazher Mahmood and Eleanor Mills » | Mazher Mahmood and Eleanor Mills | Sunday, April 22, 2012 [£]
WATCH SUNDAY TIMES VIDEO: Undercover footage from the Sunday Times investigation »
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: As drivers prepared for the Bahrain Grand Prix, parts of the desert kingdom looked more like a war zone and one protester was discovered dead. Colin Freeman reports.
Built very much for strength rather than speed, they were not the kind of vehicles normally seen at the world's premiere motor racing event. Stretched along the desert highway leading to the Bahrain's Formula One race track were dozens of armoured personnel carriers - ready to use all means necessary to ensure the event went ahead.
More reminiscent of a war zone than a spectator sport, this was the extraordinary scene on Saturday as the Bahraini authorities launched a massive security clampdown to prevent pro-democracy supporters disrupting Sunday's Grand Prix. Yet their efforts to keep things peaceful proved fruitless: by late afternoon, demonstrators around the capital, Manama, were once again fighting running street battles with police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
"This is not way to deal with peaceful protests," said demonstrator Hussein Mohammed, 25, looking down a street to where clouds of tear gas were drifting. "The government should not be hosting racing contests when people are denied basic rights."
Last night, it was claimed that one activist had already paid the ultimate price. The body of Salah Habib Abbas, 37, a municipal gardener, was found lying in a pool of blood on the roof of an allotment shed close to Shakhura village, where anti-government protesters had played a cat-and-mouse game with police the night before.
Fellow demonstrators said that after being chased through allotments, he had last been seen being arrested by police, who they alleged then beat him to death. » | Colin Freeman, Manama | Saturday, April 21, 2012
Related »
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The outspoken Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, was born in Uganda and is the only black bishop in the Church of England. A former aide, who is about to become the Church’s director of communications, said there was a “stark contrast” between the way Dr Sentamu was portrayed and the treatment of other bishops.
“At its best, the besmirching of John Sentamu has revealed that strand of snobbery which views outsiders as lacking class, diplomacy or civility — in other words 'not one of us,’” said the Rev Arun Arora.
“At worst, it has elicited the naked racism which still bubbles under the surface in our society, and which is exposed when a black man is in line to break the chains of history.” His allegation of an “anonymous whispering” campaign against Dr Sentamu has the potential to be hugely damaging to the Church.
It recalls the last time that the Church sought a new Archbishop of Canterbury, in 2002, when the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, then Bishop of Rochester, was described as a “Paki Papist” by an unidentified cleric.
Dr Sentamu has spoken in the past about his experience of racism but stressed that any abuse came from outside the Church.
However, two bishops who spoke to The Sunday Telegraph on condition of anonymity drew, unprompted, on Dr Sentamu’s African birth in their criticism — one likening his temperament to that of an “African chief”. » | Richard Eden and Edward Malnick | Saturday, April 21, 2012
Nach dem Scheitern von Budgetverhandlungen stehen den Niederlanden Neuwahlen bevor. Ministerpräsident Mark Rutte sagte am Samstagnachmittag, seine Minderheitsregierung sei sich mit der rechtspopulistischen Freiheitspartei (PVV), von der das Kabinett geduldet wird, nicht einig geworden. Daher würden die Gespräche beendet. "Es liegt auf der Hand, dass es Neuwahlen geben wird."
Die Minderheitsregierung strebt Einsparungen von 14 bis 16 Milliarden Euro an. Die liberal-christliche Koalition ist auf die Tolerierung der Rechtspopulisten angewiesen. "Ich habe gehofft, dass wir uns einigen können. Aber der Haushaltsentwurf ist weder für die Partei noch das Land tragbar", so Parteichef Geert Wilders. Er forderte rasche Neuwahlen. » | Ag. | Samstag, 21. April 2012
THE INDEPENDENT: Ken Livingstone has pulled out of a BBC mayoral election debate after it emerged a British National Party candidate would be taking part.
The former London mayor said it was a "point of principle" that he would not share a platform with the far-right party.
Labour's candidate also told BNP voters he did not want their second preference votes when they get to the ballot box in next month's vote.
The debate, due to be hosted by BBC London 94.9 on Monday, is the latest in a series of head-to-head mayoral broadcasts but most have featured just the top three or four candidates.
Mr Livingstone said: "I have long held to the belief in no platform for the far right. The far right want to destroy our democracy and stand for the elimination of our basic rights.
"They cannot be treated as a legitimate part of politics. » | Sam Lister | Friday, April 20, 2012
When Norway's biggest ever murder trial opened in Oslo last Monday, Anders Behring Breivik marched into the courtroom and shot his right arm out in a disturbing yet rather pathetic clenched-fist Nazi-style salute.
Inga Bejer Engh's reaction was typical: her blond hair swinging above the white necktie and black gown worn by prosecution lawyers, she stood up, walked forward and in an utterly disarming gesture, shook hands with the killer. He responded with a weak smile.
Blue-eyed and doll-like, Bejer Engh looks almost too unworldly to be leading the prosecution case against the man who carried out one of Europe's worst acts of violence since the Second World War. It is an appearance that deceives. Behind the state prosecutor's cool facade there is clearly a woman driven by an iron conviction in the Scandinavian approach to crime and punishment so often derided by outsiders as "too lenient".
In comments before the trial, Bejer Engh let it be known that she was proud to be part of the prosecution team. "It will give me an opportunity to show our humane system of justice to the rest of the world," she told reporters. » | Tony Paterson | Saturday, April 21, 2012
Related »
"I've no idea what they're talking about," Sister Simone Campbell, head of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, told the BBC.
"Our role is to live the gospel with those who live on the margins of society. That's all we do."
On Wednesday the Vatican announced a crackdown on US nuns long considered too liberal by the church hierarchy.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a highly critical report that accused US nuns of engaging in "corporate dissent" and of ignoring, or worse, challenging the church's teachings on abortion, homosexuality and an all-male priesthood. (+ video) » | Jane Little | BBC News, Washington | Saturday, April 21, 2012
REUTERS FRANCE: OSLO (Reuters) - Anders Behring Breivik, jugé à Oslo pour le meurtre de 77 personnes le 22 juillet 2011, s'est décrit vendredi comme une "personne sympathique" et a expliqué avoir appris à refouler ses émotions avant de pouvoir passer à l'acte.
Le militant d'extrême droite islamophobe de 33 ans a reconnu avoir tué huit personnes à Oslo dans un attentat à la voiture piégée et 69 jeunes gens réunis dans un camp d'été des jeunesses travaillistes sur l'île d'Utoya.
Au cinquième jour de son procès, il est revenu sur les circonstances de la tuerie, fournissant des détails sur son parcours meurtrier, traquant ses victimes jusque dans le lac entourant l'île.
Face à un public glacé d'effroi, Breivik a expliqué avoir tiré à plusieurs reprises sur ses victimes: une première balle pour les neutraliser et une seconde dans la tête.
"Ça a été extrêmement difficile de tirer la première balle, c'est contraire à la nature humaine. Mais (une fois cette première balle tirée), c'est devenu plus facile", a-t-il dit. » | par Victoria Klesty et Walter Gibbs | vendredi 20 avril 2012
Lien en relation avec l’article »
An obsession with games such as "World of Warcraft" might seem a plausible explanation for why the apparently unremarkable 33-year-old, now on trial for murder in Oslo, came to carry out the shooting spree and bomb attack last July, but it is a dangerous simplification driven by our need to understand.
"People want an answer for why these thing happen. That's completely understandable," said Seena Fazel, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Britain's University of Oxford. "That's also why mental illness is often an attractive avenue, because it does seem to provide some sort of answer."
The motive, in part, is to understand what distinguishes a mass killer from the rest of us, experts say. Breivik's game-playing, however, doesn't do that. » | Kate Kelland | LONDON | Friday, April 20, 2012
Related »
NATIONAL POST: They came to mourn Christopher Hitchens in the Great Hall of New York’s Cooper Union, where Abraham Lincoln gave the speech that launched his campaign for president in 1860.
The hall was filled with family, friends and readers; intimates of 40 years’ standing, and those who knew him only from the printed page and stage appearance; all still wounded by a loss that remains fresh at four months’ distance.
Most of the memorial took the form of readings from Christopher’s own works, occasionally enlivened by editorial comment. The biggest laugh was claimed by the writer, actor and gay-rights exponent, Stephen Fry.
Christopher, he said, had condemned as more trouble than they were worth: champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. “Three out of four, Christopher,” said Fry.
The piano was played — beautifully — by one of the directors of the National Institutes of Health, who also proudly identified himself as “a follower of Jesus Christ.” He had guided Christopher through some experimental therapies for the esophageal cancer that killed him. He and Christopher had many fierce debates over Christopher’s assertive atheism. He reminded the audience of the words of Proverbs: As iron sharpeneth iron, so a friend sharpens the mind of his friend. » | David Frum | National Post | Saturday, April 21, 2012
THE INDEPENDENT: The Formula One Grand Prix should not be happening in Bahrain this weekend. That is the long and the short of it. Although the security situation is evidently better than it was last season, when the race was first postponed and then cancelled, this is largely a result of the repression exerted by the authorities.
It does not mean there has been any serious accommodation with the opposition, still less that the regime has become any more democratic. Several dozen people have been killed in protests since the start of the year and a leading opposition activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, is on hunger strike in prison. Even John Yates, formerly of Scotland Yard, who is currently advising the Bahrain government, has said that the security of the race cannot be guaranteed. » | Leading article | Saturday, April 21, 2012
Related »
THE INDEPENDENT: Supposing it was Assad shelling out £40m for a race. Would Ecclestone be happy to give him a soft sporting cover for his repression?
When the Foreign Office urges British motor racing fans to stay away from Bahrain, this ain't no sporting event, folks, it's a political one. The Bahraini authorities prove it by welcoming sports reporters but refusing visas to other correspondents who want to tell the world what's going on in this minority-run, Saudi-dominated kingdom.
But what do our lads tell us from the circuit, 25 miles from the Bahraini capital, Manama? Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are only in it for sport. Bahraini repression of its democratic majority? Nothing to do with us, governor. And Sebastian Vettel? "I think it's a lot of hype." Hype? HYPE? The Arab Awakening came to Bahrain a year ago, a majority Shia people demanding a democratically elected government – with a minority Sunni monarch still at its head, for heaven's sake, as generous an Arab Spring as you could find – and it's met with police gunfire, torture and death. And Master Vettel – is there anything left of the old cliché "moral compass"? – claims "it's a lot of hype". What a disgraceful man. » | Robert Fisk | Saturday, April 21, 2012
Related here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE: BOSTON — A senior at a Roman Catholic college in Massachusetts who has written letters of support to a Norwegian mass murder suspect will not be on campus "for the foreseeable future," according to school officials.
Officials at Assumption College in Worcester wouldn't say Friday whether student Kevin Forts would graduate in May. Renee Buisson, the school's public affairs director, released a statement saying that Forts has a right to express personal opinions as a U.S. citizen, but that his conduct was "under administrative review."
The review includes the English major's comments to a Norwegian news outlet in support of Anders Breivik, as well as an arrest for an alleged assault on campus this year.
Breivik is standing trial in Norway in a shooting and bombing massacre in July that killed 77 people, including children. He confessed but rejects guilt by claiming he was trying to protect Norway and Europe by targeting political forces he says opened the country to immigration. He has said an anti-Muslim network he is part of will lead a revolt with the aim of deporting Muslims.
An English-language video interview on the website of VG Nett shows Forts defending Breivik's actions. Forts called the deaths of the children "a necessary political sacrifice that is not necessary again." Forts said people need to look at Breivik's political platform, "rather than his atrocious actions."
The student also called Breivik a patriot whose act "demonstrates a sense of nationalism and a moral conscience." » | The Associated Press | Friday, April 20, 2012
Related »
Opposition leaders in Bahrain said the man's body was found at a site where protesters had clashed violently with security forces during the night.
Protesters had flooded a main highway in a march stretching for miles while the authorities deployed armoured vehicles on to the streets of the country's capital and the main road heading to the race track.
Security forces fired tear gas into the crowds as the country's leaders struggle to contain opposition anger ahead of the Grand Prix.
The government allowed the massive Friday demonstration in an apparent bid to avoid the hit-and-run street battles that are the hallmark of the Gulf nation's 14-month uprising – and an embarrassing spectacle for Bahrain's Western-backed rulers as F1 teams prepare for Sunday's race.
But violence flared as small groups in the march peeled away from the route to challenge riot police, who answered with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.
Some protesters sought refuge in a shopping mall and nearby shops about 12 miles north of the Formula One track, where practice runs took place and Bahrain's crown prince vowed the country's premier international event would go ahead. » | Saturday, April 21, 2012
Related »
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Church of England should “rejoice” at the prospect of marriage between homosexual couples rather than fear it, senior bishops and clergy have said.
In a public letter, the influential members of the Anglican Church claimed that “God’s grace” was at work in allowing same – sex couples to marry.
The group, including members of the General Synod, the CoE’s governing body, dismissed “mistaken” impressions that church leaders were “universally opposed to an extension of civil marriage”.
Instead, they argued that same-sex couples who wanted to “embrace marriage should be a cause for rejoicing in the Christian Church”.
They wrote: "Recent statements by church leaders past and present may have given the mistaken impression that the Church is universally opposed to the extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples. We believe that does not adequately reflect the range of opinion which exists within the Church of England.
“The Church calls marriage holy or sacramental because the covenant relationship of committed, faithful love between the couple reflects the covenanted love and commitment between God and his Church.
“Growing in this kind of love means we are growing in the image of God."
They added: “That there are same-sex couples who want to embrace marriage should be a cause for rejoicing in the Christian Church.”
"We believe that the Church of England has nothing to fear from the introduction of civil marriage for same-sex couples. » | Andrew Hough | Saturday, April 21, 2012
BBC: Bahrain Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa says the weekend's grand prix will go ahead despite protests.
"Cancelling the race just [em]powers extremists. Having it allows us to build bridges and celebrate our nation as an idea that's positive," he said.
Unrest in the Gulf state has led to calls for the race to be cancelled for the second year running.
On Friday, thousands attended a protest in Budaiya, demanding an end to the crackdown on dissent.
Riot police initially showed restraint, but when a group of about 100 protesters broke away and attempted to reach the site of the former Pearl Roundabout - the focus of last year's pro-democracy demonstrations - they fired stun grenades and tear gas.
The overnight demonstrations called for the "overthrow of the regime" and the release of the human rights and political activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike in prison for more than 70 days in protest at the life sentence he received from a military tribunal in June. (+ video) » | Friday, April 20, 2012
Related »
TIME: “I dream of meeting Breivik,” 23-year-old Kevin Forts told a Norwegian tabloid.
With each passing day, Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik appears increasingly remorseless and smug during his ongoing trial for the murders of 77 people, and with each passing day the crimes he’s accused of look even more reprehensible. It is most people’s idea of a nightmare even to be in the same room as the murderous extremist.
But not all people.
Meet 23-year-old Kevin Forts of Worcester, Mass., who says it is his “dream” to meet the fanatical right-wing killer and that he agrees with his “cause” of fighting “cultural Marxism and the Islamization of Norway.”
In this videotaped interview with a reporter from Norwegian tabloid VG, Forts calls Breivik’s bombing of government offices in Oslo and the systematic executions of 69 people at a youth camp on the nearby island of Utoya a “necessary political sacrifice.” The deliberate killing of small children, he says, was “atrocious but necessary” in that it raised awareness for his cause. » | Anoosh Chakelian | Friday, April 20, 2012
SKY NEWS (AUSTRALIA): US student writes to defend Breivik: A senior at a Roman Catholic college in Massachusetts who has written letters of support to a Norwegian mass murder suspect will not be on campus 'for the foreseeable future,' according to school officials. ¶ Officials at Assumption College in Worcester wouldn't say on Friday whether student Kevin Forts would graduate in May. » | Saturday, April 21, 2012
Related »
Today, Mr Hollande is on course to succeed the late Mr Mitterrand as France's first Socialist President in 24 years, and the quiet man of French politics is finding it increasingly hard to conceal his glee.
Riding high in the polls ahead of Sunday's first round vote, France's self-styled Mr Normal told a crowd of 12,000 in Bordeaux at his final rally: "Nicolas Sarkozy said he could see a wave rising. For once he was right. The wave's coming; it's high, its strong, and it's going to smack him in the face".
"François President, we're going to win," the crowd chanted back. » | Henry Samuel, Bordeaux | Friday, April 20, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy is a victim of his own courage: The president should be applauded for his courage, hard work, plain-speaking and his love for France. » | Anne-Elisabeth Moutet | Friday, April 20, 2012
THE WASHINGTON POST: French prez race all about emotion: Fear of finance and Islam, anger at Sarkozy and the rich: PARIS — Like Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy swept to power on a wave of hope for change. Sarkozy’s wave crashed on the global financial crisis and his own failings. On Sunday, the French leader faces a tough fight against nine challengers in presidential elections awash in fear and anger. » | Associated Press | Friday, April 20, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
A note to our non-English visitors: The word ‘sixth’ is pronounced ‘siXth’ in English, not ‘siKth’, as it is pronounced in this video. It appears to be an ever-increasing practice in England these days to MIS-pronounce that word. – Mark
Please don’t forget to view the video full screen. It’s quite spectacular!
As Ina Garten would say: “How fabulous is that?”!
As his words rolled out, survivors and victims' relatives of the July 22 massacre hugged and sobbed, trying to comfort each other. That testimony was also broadcast to 17 other courtrooms in Norway where others affected by the attacks were gathered, but was not carried live on Norwegian television.
The 33-year-old Norwegian left out no detail from his rampage, explaining how he shot panicked youths at point-blank range.
Sixty-nine people, mostly teenagers, were killed on Utoya island and others only survived by diving into chilly waters to escape.
Breivik said he did not anticipate his victims' reactions.
"Some of them are completely paralysed. They cannot run. They stand totally still. This is something they never show on TV," Breivik said. "It was very strange." » | Friday, April 20, 2012
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THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: Tehran marks Holocaust Remembrance Day by running cartoons denying the crimes
While Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, Iran is playing Holocaust-denying cartoons on public television, Channel 2 News reported on Wednesday night. » | Sam Ser | Wednesday, April 18, 2012
HT: Robert Spencer @ Jihad Watch »
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