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The couple chose an idyllic resort in the Maldives as the perfect place to renew their marriage vows and pledge everlasting love. But their happiness has turned to humiliation after the wedding video was posted on YouTube and subtitles disclosed that their "Islamic blessing", which was conducted by a hotel employee in the native Dhivehi language, was in fact a stream of insults. "You are swine. The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine. Your marriage is not a valid one," he intoned as the couple held up their hands in prayer, blissfully unaware of...

Ahead of a planned summit of European Union leaders, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has put all 17 Euro nations on review for a credit downgrade, which means France and Germany could lose the pristine AAA ratings they presently enjoy, Bloomberg News is reporting. The euro area’s six AAA rated countries are among the nations to be placed on a negative outlook pending the result of a summit of European Union leaders on Dec. 9, the people said today on condition of anonymity because the decision has yet to be announced. The euro reversed its gains and U.S. Treasuries rose...

Vice President Joe Biden, now best known for being the man who relies primarily on Jon Corzine for financial advice, continued his recent roll of epic linguistic blunders this morning. As Reuters reports, the VP, "joked during a visit to debt-choked Athens on Monday about bringing money to help Greece out of its deepest financial crisis in decades. Introducing a member of his delegation during a meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, Biden said: "This man represents the Treasury department. He's brought hundreds of millions of dollars." His comments drew laughs from both the Greek and U.S. delegations." It...

The Irish and German governments became entangled in a spat on Thursday after details of the Irish budget were given to the German Bundestag, before being presented to the Irish parliament, the Dáil. The sensitive plans, including a two-percent increase in the top value added tax (VAT) and a €100 household tax, were sent by the German finance ministry—along with a letter of intent from the Irish Finance Minister—to the Bundestag budgetary committee. This provoked outrage in Ireland, and denials from Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny that he had given the information to the Germans. Irish opposition parties said if...

Did you know that the EU has ensured that there has been no war between its members for last 60 years?

Saw this article today from a link a friend sent me. He thought it was cool. Apparently, the University of Stuttgart has designed a house that generates enough power that you can charge your electric vehicle without plugging into the power grid.

Report reveals all bar one of party's 48 mid-term election candidates are sceptical about climate changeAll but one of the 48 Republican hopefuls for the Senate mid-term elections in November deny the existence of climate change or oppose action on global warming, according to a report released today.The strong Republican front against established science includes entrenched Senate leaders as well as the new wave of radical conservatives endorsed by the Tea Party activists, says a report by the Centre for American Progress.

Do you miss those days in Little League when everyone received a trophy no matter how poorly you played? Now glory can be yours, for the Nobel Peace Prize is within reach of even the most incompetent fools. Just open a box of Cracker Jack.

President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize ABC NEws

The court ruled that employees had the right to ask for statutory leave to be "reallocated" when it was spoilt by sickness. Under the terms of the judgement, employees would even be allowed to carry any annual leave ruined by illness over into the next holiday year. The ruling is effectively a new interpretation of the European Working Time Directive on workers' hours, which applies in Britain across the entire private and public sector. Leading employment lawyers warned it would be costly for businesses and that it left "the door open for abuse" by unscrupulous employees seeking to bolster their...

It’s been a privilege, says the BBC’s North America editor Justin Webb, returning to London from DC after nearly eight years. And quite a privilege for America too, eh, Justin? Now, don’t get me wrong: this is not a man who despises ordinary American folks. On the contrary, he appreciates their curious ways: In more than seven years of life in America, I have come to value - to love, actually - the stolid, sunny, unchallenging, simple virtuousness of the American suburban psyche … Indeed, he forgives all manner of faults: And yet for all the ugliness, the deadening tawdriness...

Note: this is the Google automatic translation. The original is in Italian (at the link)     June 9 2009 - It is the proposal of Nobel Peace Prize in 1980, the Argentinean Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who through the 'International Academy of Environmental Sciences (IAES), which he chairs, has launched in recent days in Rome, the international campaign to collect signatures "Justice for Planet ", an initiative to support the creation of a European criminal court and international environmental havoc against the environmental equivalent to crimes against humanity (to participate in the petition, click here). The IAES, to which belong...

Swiss con man Helg Sgarbi has been sentenced to six years in jail after admitting sleeping with and blackmailing a succession of rich women out of millions of pounds including BMW heiress Susanne Klatten. The 44-year-old wined and dined a string of rich wives and widows, including Germany's wealthiest woman Mrs Klatten, winning their confidence and then asking for money.

CNN) -- Europe's expectations of a Barack Obama presidency are vibrant, vast and probably incapable of fulfillment by any president, let alone one who will come to office in the middle of a worldwide economic crisis and with huge, unfinished business in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no doubting the buzz and the optimism that the election victory of an African-American candidate has brought. Most in Europe are instinctively America's friends and, after the unilateralism of the Bush years, they want to have something to love about America again. Obama's arrival, they hope and believe, will give them that opportunity....

The United States has been left diplomatically isolated after European members of NATO moved to reject an American proposal to scale back ties with Moscow following Russia's invasion of Georgia. US diplomats attending an emergency NATO summit in Brussels had called on the alliance to suspend ministerial meetings with Russia, held twice a year, as a way of demonstrating the West's disapproval of the war. But other members of the alliance, including Britain, rejected the plan, saying that it would be foolish to isolate Russia. Instead diplomats released their strongly-worded statement, stopping short of concrete action, at least for now....

A female television presenter on TV4 has been charged after flashing her breast to an elderly man in Humlegården park in Stockholm last summer. The stunt was to be part of comedy programme 'Raj Raj' but the man didn't see the funny side. Instead he reported the woman, who is now the subject of a police enquiry, reports Metro. Despite the fact that the presenter repeatedly apologised to the man and assured him that the scene would not be broadcast, he refused to withdraw his allegations. The episode was to be shown on what TV4 describes as 'a Swedish comedy...

A homosexual foster couple were left free to sexually abuse vulnerable boys in their care because social workers feared being accused of discrimination if they investigated complaints, an inquiry concluded yesterday. Even when the mother of two of the children reported her suspicions to the council, officials accepted the men’s explanations and did nothing. Instead of banning children from staying with Faunch and Wathey, they sent youngsters with more serious problems to them. Between them, the couple abused four boys aged between eight and 14. Their victims included a 14-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism,who had a...

Kosovo Builds Statue To 'Saviour' Clinton Last Updated: 2:35am BST 24/05/2007 Kosovo Albanians plan to honour their “saviour” Bill Clinton by erecting a statue of the former United States president in the capital of Serbia’s breakaway province. Izeir Mustafa was thrilled to be asked to sculpt a statue of Bill Clinton The 10ft tall monument is still under construction in a studio in Podujevo, 40km north of Pristina. “He is our saviour. He saved us from extermination,” Izeir Mustafa, the sculptor, said. “I was thrilled by the work because I know what he did for us.” Kosovo has been under...

The angry comments attributed to Mr Wolfowitz came from damning testimony by Xavier Coll, head of human resources at the bank, who provided investigators with his notes of a meeting with Mr Wolfowitz last year. The notes directly contradict Mr Wolfowitz's assertions that the details of Ms Riza's treatment were properly shared with senior bank officials. In March last year, when a mention of Ms Riza's secondment outside the bank to avoid rules about partners was first published in the magazine US News & World Report, an angry Mr Wolfowitz accused Mr Coll of leaking the information. According to Mr...

As the biggest commercial jet ever made swoops into Chicago for the first time Tuesday, Airbus SAS, the plane's European maker, has yet to find a U.S. airline buyer. Manufacturers typically show off new planes to buyers and members of the media through demonstration flights -- barnstorming tours such as this week's inaugural visit. That the A380 is stopping in the Midwest on its maiden voyage to the U.S. is no coincidence, analysts say. Elk Grove Township-based United Airlines and Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines Corp. are considered the two likeliest purchasers in an otherwise tough market for the superjumbo jet. Airbus...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- A senior U.S. administration official on Wednesday warned that ongoing inquiries into secret CIA activities in the European Union may undermine intelligence cooperation between the United States and European nations. The European Parliament accused Britain, Poland, Italy and other nations in mid-February of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons in third countries. In a report that concluded a yearlong investigation, the parliament identified 1,254 secret CIA flights that entered the European airspace since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States. It said that these flights were against international...

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NOTICE: YOU'LL HAVE TO: 1. CLICK THE LINK TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ABOVE (IN RED)OR IN MY POST BELOW, THEREAFTER 2. CLICK THE MONITORS IN ORDER TO DISPLAY THE CLIPS The Article: "The humour of IKEA A Norwegian IKEA ad is entertaining Scandinavians on Bubblare.se at the moment. It certainly casts new light on the oft-quoted Swedish adage that ‘we’re all farmers at heart’. Enjoy: (SEE MY POST BELOW OR CLICK THE LINK IN RED ABOVE) That prompted us to have a rummage for more humour from the furniture makers of Älmhult. This one, produced for the German market last...

If you ever wanted to see Paris or Rome before you die, but haven't had a chance to do so, you might want to hurry. Soon enough, most of what we now think of as Western Europe will be transformed into a branch of the Muslim world, which is sure to make it an even less welcoming place for Americans, Israelis and for Jews. That, at least, is the unpleasant, yet entirely unavoidable conclusion to be drawn from Europe's headlong demographic drive toward oblivion. Think I'm exaggerating? Consider a few cold hard facts. According to a recent report by the...

Media 'repulsed' by Saddam footage AFP Sunday, December 31, 2006 20:23 IST LONDON: Commentators and the media across Europe expressed shock and unease on Sunday at graphic television pictures showing the last moments of Saddam Hussein just before his execution. Images of the fallen Iraqi dictator with a noose around his neck, surrounded by hooded xecutioners, horrified a continent which does not use capital punishment, even though the actual death was not shown. "The images of Saddam Hussein with a noose around his neck are extremely disturbing and unnecessary," said Sir Menzies Campbell, leader of Britain's second opposition Liberal Democrat...

An American woman has been refused treatment by a doctor in Blekinge in southern Sweden because of her nationality. The woman's husband has now reported the incident to the Medical Responsibility Board. Valery Johansson, who lives in a small town just outside Nashville, Tennessee, was in Sweden to celebrate Christmas with her husband's family. On Christmas Day, worried that she may have contracted strep throat, she sought medical help. Her husband and niece made an appointment for her at a clinic in the town of Karlshamn. "We went up there and the nurses were really nice. They did some swab...

Ségolène Royal, the French presidential candidate, was embroiled in a damaging row on a visit to the Middle East yesterday after appearing to condone a Hezbollah MP who denounced US “insanity” and compared Israel to the Nazis.Ms Royal, the first woman with a realistic chance of winning the French presidency, was struggling to extricate herself from the controversy sparked by a meeting in Beirut with MPs, including Ali Ammar of Hezbollah. In a 20-minute tirade Mr Ammar attacked “unlimited American insanity” for sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. He then said that Israeli “Nazism” was no better than Hitler’s Third...

AMERICAN proposals to strengthen Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian security forces with additional guns and fighters have alarmed other Western nations, who argue that it is tantamount to supporting one faction in a potential civil war.Fearing the strength of Hamas in Gaza, some US officials have urged that the moderate President Abbas should be given “deterrent capability” so that his Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority forces can confront the Islamist group if talks on a national unity government fail. The divisions have led to a stand-off over the past month, with US officials saying that the unity government proposal had “no legs”. Other members...

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia has hit back at France over its threat to impose a tax on industrial goods from countries that ignore the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Prime Minister John Howard described the plan as "silly", while the mass-circulation Daily Telegraph headlined its report: "Back off, Frogs". Running across a picture of a French nuclear bomb explosion in the Pacific in 1971, a subheading read: "The French did this to our backyard and they have de Gaulle to attack us on Kyoto." Australia, like the United States, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing the emission...

French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday told his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani that it was important to fix a prospect of foreign forces' withdrawal from Iraq, the French leader's spokesman Jerome Bonnafont told the press. "Regarding the international troop's presence in Iraq, he (President Chirac) said that in the eyes of France, it is important to fix a prospect of withdrawal," Bonnafont said. Whether to withdraw the 150,000 American troops from Iraq has recently triggered a fierce debate in the United States.

THE war in Iraq is unlikely to be resolved by a US Administration committed to a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, according to Gerhard Schröder, the former German Chancellor, whose newly published memoirs stoke his four-year feud with President Bush.Herr Schröder won a re-election campaign in 2002 by setting out German opposition to the invasion of Iraq. As a result, relations with Washington deteriorated and the two leaders barely spoke for three years. In extracts from his memoirs to be published in Der Spiegel magazine, Herr Schröder explains what went wrong and why it will be difficult for the President to make...

It's that horrible moment when it all comes to a head. You finally know that you were wrong. You know that you were right, too, that things weren't as they seemed, that one day you would come and there she would be, beneath him on the bed, splayed like a starfish, like an exploding constellation, crying out too, but not to you. Even in the full tide of horror, you are astonished at how unsurprised you are. Because you knew. All along, you knew. In my case, it was a love affair that had been going on since I was,...

Davids Medienkritik discovered deep condescension toward America from a German executive whose company makes most of its money here. Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking defends the German “social model” of capitalism, and implies that we Americans are barely out of the backwoods with our rifles. Europe’s culture is decidedly older than that of the USA. The Fuggers were doing business, while hunting was still the order of the day in America. Right now 37 million people in the USA live below the poverty line. The gulf between poor and rich has widened brutally. Do we want to have a situation like...

What makes today special? It's the last business day in September. Which means it's been a month since the expiration of the United Nations Security Council deadline for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment. Needless to say, Iran did not stop preparing its nuclear weapons production. So how do we handle such important matters in the world of international diplomacy? Why, we set a new deadline, of course. That's what we did last week when the five permanent members of the Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. – plus Italy and Germany agreed to give European...

The Netherlands' justice minister says he would welcome Islamic law, or Sharia, to his European nation if the majority of his people vote for it. Piet Hein Donner wants the Netherlands to give Muslims more freedoms to behave according to their traditions, reported the NIS News Bulletin, a Dutch online publication. "For me it is clear: If two-thirds of the Dutch population should want to introduce the Sharia tomorrow, then the possibility should exist," Donner said. "It would be a disgrace to say: 'That is not allowed!'" Donner was reacting to a plea by a parliamentary leader, Maxime Verhagen, who...

BBC did not know of 9/11 film's link to religious right David Leigh Wednesday September 13, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The BBC broadcast a controversial docu-drama, The Path to 9/11, this week without realising that it had been made by a member of the US religious right. The three-hour programme, shown over two nights on BBC2 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, was purchased from ABC, a subsidiary of Disney. At the last minute the US television company was forced to re-edit sequences after claims of distortion from former president Bill Clinton and members...

The maker of a controversial movie that portrays President Bush as an assassination victim admits he hid his true intentions from White House officials in order to film footage of the commander in chief on a visit to Chicago. Gabriel Range, the 32-year-old British director of "Death of a President," told the Los Angeles Times his crew received official White House press credentials by proving they were affiliated with Britain's Channel 4, which will air the film this fall. Range, who filmed the president's arrival at the airport and his speech to the Economic Club of Chicago, spent six months...

OSLO, Norway, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The spiritual leader of Norway's Muslims told readers of Aftenposten Monday he doubts Muslims were responsible for the 2001 terror attacks on the United States. Imam Zulqarnain Sakandar Madni answered questions from the newspaper's readers. "There's some good evidence that (U.S. President George) Bush and company were behind this," he said. "See the film that's called 'Loose Change.' An American film!" He also said he doubts that al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden exist. "If everyone respected one another as people, we wouldn't have any problems," the imam said. "But it seems everyone wants to...

PARIS - The nations of the world joined Monday in solemn remembrance of Sept. 11 — but for many, resentment of the United States flowed as readily as tears. Critics say Americans have squandered the goodwill that prompted France's Le Monde newspaper to proclaim "We are all Americans" that somber day after the attacks, and that the Iraq war and other U.S. policies have made the world less safe in the five years since. Heads bowed in moments of silence for the 3,000 killed in the attacks on New York and Washington — while the No. 2 al-Qaida leader issued...

Contraceptives are to be more easily available for children under Labour's latest drive to tackle teenage pregnancy and social exclusion, Tony Blair pledged yesterday. The controversial move is part of a campaign that will focus on areas where teenage pregnancy rates are rising. Ministers are understood to be examining ways of making contraceptives more affordable for young people as well as of encouraging boys and young men to use condoms. More details of the Government's plans will be spelt out next week when the Government publishes a new strategy paper on teenage pregnancy. The flurry of activity reflects growing alarm...

EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE (Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG) A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements. Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of...

PARIS (Reuters) - Challenging one of the great taboos of French politics, a new book has laid bare the love life of the country's amorous leaders. Sexus Politicus, published on Thursday, reveals decades of philandering, adultery and seduction at the heart of the French state, with politicians of all colours apparently sharing the same passion for extra-marital sex. According to the book, President Jacques Chirac and his predecessors Francois Mitterrand and Valery Giscard D'Estaing have juggled the fate of France, their families and a bevy of lovers with great ease, helped partly by an acquiescent media.

AN Italian politician has used the "work makes you free" slogan that topped the gates at Auschwitz in a brochure to promote local job centres, saying he could not remember the source but was impressed by the quote. News agency Ansa reported the vice-president of the Jewish community in Rome had sharply criticised Tommaso Coletti, president of Italy's southern Chieti province and member of the centre-left “Daisy” party, for using the quote. Countless photographs have focused on the “Arbeit macht Frei” sign at Auschwitz to encapsulate the horror of the Nazi death camps. “Work makes you free. I don't remember...

Schoolgirl 'stabbed for love of AC/DC' (Filed: 30/08/2006) A teenager who was stabbed in the eye during her school lunch break said a "gang mentality" singled out pupils for their music and fashion tastes. The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, narrowly escaped losing her sight in the attack last November. She had been the victim of a string of attacks, threats and had even received prank calls at home because she is what is known as "a metaler", Guildford Crown Court heard today. advertisementBut she said: "I mean, it's this gang mentality that my generation seems to...

Two bombs in two crowded trains. Neither bomb, though, exploded. It would have been one of the most lethal terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001. And it was planned not for Britain, not for Indonesia, not for the U.S., but for Germany, of all places. Suddenly the threat to the people there seems very real. German authorities say two people placed suitcase bombs on regional trains that departed from Cologne's main station on July 31. One suspect, a Lebanese student enrolled in a prep program at Kiel University in northern Germany, has been arrested. Police are searching for the other...

he Catholic church has blasted a decision by the Procurator Fiscal to issue Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc with a caution for blessing himself. Polish star Boruc was rapped for making the sign of the cross at Ibrox in an Old Firm match last season. The caution was issued after a six-month police investigation into the incident, which is said to have angered a section of the Rangers support. Boruc is reported to have been completely baffled by the decision to issue him with the warning But the move has angered the church and prominent Scottish Catholics including outspoken composer James...

BERLIN, August 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Germany has accepted child-pornography in its mainstream culture, and even celebrates it as Deutsche-Welle, a German media source, reveals today in its culture and lifestyle section. In a column entitled “Germany’s Teen Sex Doctor”, Deutsche-Welle unabashedly reports, “Generations of confused German teenagers have turned to Dr. Sommer for honesty -- and explicit photos.” The column continues, “Sandra, 16, looks up coyly from the pages of Bravo, wearing a black choker and nothing else. Boyfriend Elias, 18, grins from the opposite page, also in his natural state. “‘Tell me, why do you love each other?’...

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government is considering a system of passenger profiling that includes checks on travelers' ethnic or religious background, according to media reports. The planned system of tougher airport checks would create a new offense of "traveling whilst Asian," according to one of Britain's most senior Muslim police officers. Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei said intelligence could be used to examine travel history, how a ticket is purchased and frequency of travel, but added: "It becomes hugely problematic when it's based on ethnicity, religion and country of origin. I don't think there's a stereotypical image...

A top United Nations official says to quiet the "demons" across the "wider Islamic world" the United States and the international community must respect Hezbollah as a political party, not a terrorist organization.

WASHINGTON — U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown may want to stick to reforming his own office and stop criticizing member states, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday. Malloch Brown was quoted in a British newspaper Wednesday suggesting that he does not think that Hezbollah, the Syrian- and Iranian-backed group currently fighting Israeli Defense Forces, is a terrorist organization. "It's not helpful to couch this war in the language of international terrorism. Hezbollah employs terrorist tactics; it is an organization, however, whose roots historically are completely separate and different from Al Qaeda," he said, according to a transcript of an...