Switzerland is known as a haven of peace and neutrality. But today it is home to a Swi new extremism that has alarmed the United Nations. Proposals for draconian new laws that target the country’s immigrants have been condemned as unjust and racist. A poster campaign, the work of its leading political party, is decried as xenophobic. Has Switzerland become Europe’s heart of darkness? At first sight, the poster looks like an innocent children’s cartoon. Three white sheep stand beside a black sheep. The drawing makes it looks as though the animals are smiling. But then you notice that the three white beasts are standing on the Swiss flag. One of the white sheep is kicking the black one off the flag, with a crafty flick of its back legs. The poster is, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in the heart of one of the world’s oldest independent democracies. A worrying new extremism is on the rise. For the poster – which bears the slogan ‘For More Security’ – is not the work of a fringe neo-Nazi group. It has been conceived – and […]
This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was thoroughly trashed by the Western media over its recent agreement with Iran, an agreement that, ironically, was warmly embraced by the majority of nations that are members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The North-South gap has turned ballistic, and there is no bridge over this troubled water. ‘NAM respects the recent report by the IAEA’s director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, on Iran,’ the Cuban foreign minister and current head of NAM, Felipe Perez Roque, told the press after the conclusion of a two-day NAM summit in Tehran. The ministerial meeting was a timely shot in the arm for Tehran, which hopes to avoid a new round of United Nations sanctions come this autumn, even though British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned that new sanctions are inevitable if Iran continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions on its nuclear program. Not surprisingly, little if any of the praise for the IAEA heard at the NAM summit has been echoed in the United States, which is keen on maintaining the delicate coalition at the UN that brought the first two anti-Tehran resolutions and yet is concerned that the IAEA’s agreement […]
SAN DIEGO – The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego reached a $198.125 million settlement with 144 sexual abuse victims Friday morning. Marathon settlement talks at the downtown Federal Courthouse ended with the announcement that the church would settle the case for $1.37 million per victim. The diocese filed for bankruptcy Feb. 27 amid allegations by roughly 150 men and women who said they were sexually abused by priests and church workers as minors. It was the largest diocese in the country to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of such allegations. The victims were seeking financial compensation and disclosures from church hierarchy about what they knew about the abuse and when they knew it. After four years of failed settlement talks, San Diego Bishop Robert Brom sought bankruptcy protection, saying it was ‘the best way available for us to compensate all the victims as fairly and equitably as our resources will allow.’ The diocese previously offered to settle the case for $95 million settlement offer, about $600,000 per victim. The victims’ attorneys were seeking twice that amount. Settlements in other dioceses across the country have also included agreements that church leaders would release […]
VIENNA — Pope Benedict rejected the concept that abortion could be considered a human right on Friday and urged European leaders to do everything possible to raise birth rates and make their countries more child-friendly. The 80-year-old German Pontiff told diplomats and representatives of international organizations that Europe could not deny its Christian roots because Christianity had played a decisive role in forging its history and culture. ‘It was in Europe that the notion of human rights was first formulated. The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself,’ he said in an address at the former imperial Hofburg Palace. ‘This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right — it is the very opposite. It is a deep wound in society.’ Abortion is available in the first three months of pregnancy in Austria under legislation similar to that of other Western European countries, many of Catholic tradition. But his words had ramifications beyond Europe. Abortion is expected to a big issue in next year’s campaign for president in the United States, where conservatives want to […]
A federal judge struck down parts of the revised Patriot Act, saying investigators must have a court’s approval before they can order businesses such as Internet service providers and telephone companies to turn over records without telling customers. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act ‘offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.’
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
