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She 'had a fainting episode and injured her head' while on vacationThe 97-year-old mother of U.S. Senator John McCain spent the night in a Lisbon hospital after a fall, Portuguese health officials and the senator's office said Friday. The Sao Jose hospital said in a written statement that Roberta McCain was in stable condition and was undergoing tests after being admitted Thursday evening. It provided no further information. Senator McCain's office in Washington said Roberta McCain "had a fainting episode and injured her head" while on vacation in the Portuguese capital.

Lisbon, Portugal, Oct 21, 2009 / 12:43 am (CNA).- Several experts said this week that the statements by Jose Saramago about the Bible, which he called “a manual of bad customs, a catalogue of cruelties,” should lead the Church to value biblical culture and combat ignorance of Scripture. While promoting his new novel “Cain,” the award-winning Portuguese author said that without the Bible, “a book that had great influence on our culture and even on the way we are,” human beings would “probably be better.” In statements to the Portuguese news agency Ecclesia, Bishop Manuel Clemente of Porto, who is...

Portugal's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates won a second term in a general election on Sunday but his centre-Left party lost its absolute majority in parliament. Jose Socrates was elected in a landslide in 2005 Mr Socrates, who won about 37 per cent of the vote, has pledged to continue plans to spend his way out of the recession, promising big budget public works projects to stimulate growth as Portugal struggles with the highest unemployment rate in decades. "The people voted and they spoke very clearly, the Socialist Party was chosen again to govern Portugal," Mr Socrates said, adding it...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

Note: The following text is a quote: United States Transfers Two Guantanamo Bay Detainees to the Government of Portugal The Department of Justice today announced that two Syrian nationals have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the government of Portugal. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of these cases. As a result of that review, the detainees were approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. On Aug. 6, 2009, in accordance with Congressionally-mandated reporting requirements, the Administration informed Congress of...

Glenn Greenwald is a civil rights attorney, a blogger for Salon, and the author of a new Cato Institute policy study called “Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Policies.� The paper examines Portugal’s experiment with decriminalizing possession of drugs for personal use, which began in 2001. Nick Gillespie, editor of reason.com and reason.tv, sat down with Greenwald in April. Q: What is the difference between decriminalization and legalization?A: In a decriminalized framework, the law continues to prohibit drug usage, but it’s completely removed from the criminal sphere, so that if you violate that prohibition or do...

Portugal will take in two or three Guantanamo detainees once they are released by the U.S. detention center, the foreign minister said. President Barack Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center by early next year, and has asked European nations to accept some of the camp's 229 detainees. The EU, which long argued for the prison's closure, agreed last week to "turn the page" on Guantanamo, but said it was up to individual EU members to decide whether to take in detainees from the camp. Few have agreed. The Portuguese government is now working out the legal...

Pope Pius XII told senior bishops that should he be arrested by the Nazis, his resignation would become effective immediately, paving the way for a successor, according to documents in the Vatican's Secret Archives.The bishops would then be expected to flee to a safe country – probably neutral Portugal – where they would re-establish the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and appoint a new Pontiff.That Hitler considered kidnapping the Pope has been documented before, but this is the first time that details have emerged of the Vatican's strategy should the Nazis carry out the plan."Pius said 'if they want...

On April 26 in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI will canonize a Portuguese national hero who toward the end of his life became a Carmelite monk and served the poor, Nuno de Santa Maria Àlvares Pereira, O. Carm. (1360-1431), the Condestável ("Constable," meaning General) known in Portugal as "the Father of the Nation.”" Almost a century ago, Pope Benedict XV beatified Nuno (January 23, 1918), and proposed him as a model for the Catholic soldiers then engaged in combat during World War 1. So one Pope Benedict, the 15th, beatified Nuno, and a second, Benedict XVI, will canonize him....

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

Yet another embassy web site is falling victim into a malware attack serving Adobe exploits to its visitors. As of last Friday, the official web site of the Embassy of Portugal in India has been compromised (embportindia.co.in). Who's behind the attack? Interestingly, that's the very same group that compromised the Azerbaijanian Embassies in Pakistan and Hungary earlier this month. Assessing this campaign once again establishes a direct connection with the Rusian Business Network's pre-shutdown netblocks and static locations.

When archaeologists on a dig in southern Portugal last year flipped over a heavy chunk of slate and saw writing not used for more than 2,500 years, they were elated. The enigmatic pattern of inscribed symbols curled symmetrically around the upper part of the rough-edged, yellowish stone tablet and coiled into the middle in a decorative style typical of an extinct Iberian language called Southwest Script. "We didn't break into applause, but almost," says Amilcar Guerra, a University of Lisbon lecturer overseeing the excavation. "It's an extraordinary thing."

(IsraelNN.com) Portuguese cheese maker Jose Braz, one of tens of thousands of anousim ["hidden Jews"] has renewed his link to Judaism by making his unique products Portugal's first kosher cheese since 1497, when the country's Jews were expelled. Rabbi Daniel Litvak, who serves the Jewish community in the northern city of Porto, discovered that Braz was one of the Anousim after the cheese manufacturer asked him to supervise production of the special Serra da Estrala cheese and certify it as kosher. "I was surprised when he approached me, as his cheese sells very well all over the world, so it...

STRASBOURG, February 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Portuguese government broke the law in preventing the Dutch abortion boat from landing when it attempted to enter Portuguese territory in 2004, when abortion was against the law. Abortionist and foundress of the "Women on Waves" project, Rebecca Gomperts, said she is delighted with the finding. "We shall use the judgment for new campaigns outside Europe," she said. In 2004, the abortion ship was denied access to Portuguese ports by politicians and the courts. Portuguese officials ordered two naval vessels out to ensure that...

lifeissues.net:clear thinking about crucial issues Search || Home » Homosexuality » News Leader Of Portuguese Ruling Party Seeks To Create Homosexual “Marriage" In Portugal Matthew Cullinan HoffmanLifeSiteNews.com2009-01-28 January 27, 2009 — The leader of Portugal's ruling Socialist Party, Jose Socrates, has announced his support for homosexual “marriage," sparking controversy and protest throughout the country and within the Socialist Party (PS) itself. "This is the moment for the PS, in its national congress, to affirm its desire to propose to Portuguese society the right to civil marriage for people of the same sex," he said in a political speech in...

A US-BASED pressure group has warned Australia that its invited military intervention in East Timor to quell unrest did not entitle it to interfere in the country's government. The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network said it was concerned about the situation in East Timor, where the government, with the stated support of rebel leaders, requested the deployment of foreign forces to stem escalating violence. "Timor-Leste must find ways, with respectful support from the international community, to deal with problems in a manner that will not require troops," ETAN said. "Statements by Australian government leaders that providing security assistance entitles...

THIS week Australia assumed responsibility for a new state: the poor, unstable and violent nation of East Timor. Our 1300-strong troop intervention has been triggered by the failure of East Timor's political system, a crisis within its armed forces, an internal ethnic rift between east and west regions and the combination of an inept Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, and an immobilised President, Xanana Gusmao, who cannot work together but who have made a joint appeal for Australian help. This is Australia's largest ground force intervention since the 1999 Interfet operation, the international force authorised by the UN Security Council that...

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Standard & Poor's Ratings Service on Wednesday cut Portugal's long-term sovereign credit rating by one notch to A+ from AA-. "In our opinion, Portugal faces increasingly difficult challenges as it tries to boost competitiveness and lift persistently low growth," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Trevor Cullinan said, in a news release. "This, together with a heavy general government debt burden, leads us to believe that Portugal is unlikely to make the necessary structural improvements to remain in the 'AA' peer group." Fellow euro-zone members Spain and Greece have also seen their ratings cut by the agency this...

Our Celtic roots lie in Spain and Portugal May 5 2008 by Darren Devine, Western Mail THE Welsh have more in common with sun-kissed glamour pusses like actress Penelope Cruz and footballer Christiano Ronaldo than pale- faced Germans like Helmet Kohl, according to an academic. Professor John Koch suggests the Welsh can trace their ancestry back to Portugal and Spain, debunking the century-old received wisdom that our forebears came from Iron Age Germany and Austria. His radical work on Celtic origins flatly contradicts the writing of Sir John Rhys, who in the late 19th century established the idea that we...

SH 130 Concession Company LLC finalized the legal details of a financial close with Texas DOT on a $1,360m toll concession to build SH130 segments 5&6 Thursday and Friday last week in bankers' offices in New York City - at Orrick, 666 Fifth Avenue. The actual money flows should occur on Thursday or Friday (Mar 13 or 14) this week, Jose Maria Lopez de Fuentes, president of Cintra North America, told us this morning. Hundreds of documents and over 20 lawyers were involved last week representing TxDOT, private equity people, banks, mostly European, the TIFIA loan group from FHWA, and...

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Suspected Islamic extremists arrested last week in Barcelona were planning al Qaeda-style attacks in Spain, Germany, France, Britain and Portugal, according to an informant who "infiltrated" the group, Spain's El Pais newspaper reports. "If we attack the metro [subway system in Barcelona], the emergency services can't get there," one of the suspected suicide bombers told the informant, El Pais reported on Saturday. "Our preference is public transport, especially the metro." El Pais reported that it had access to the informant's testimony to Spanish officials. CNN has confirmed that authorities have given high importance to an informant's...

The head of the Portuguese agency responsible for enforcing a new ban on smoking in public was seen lighting up at a New Year party, breaking the law on the first day it came into effect. Antonio Nunes, president of Portugal's food standards agency, was photographed by the daily Diario de Noticias smoking a cigar at a casino on the outskirts of Lisbon. Nunes told the daily he was not aware the anti-smoking law, which applies to cafes, restaurants and bars, also included casinos. But a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said it did. "We will have to look...

Detectives investigating the disappearance of missing British girl Madeleine McCann are close to concluding she was killed the night she vanished after her abductor panicked when the child screamed, the London Daily Mail reported Monday. Portuguese police are reportedly considering clearing the girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, of wrongdoing in in the mystery, which has garnered worldwide attention. -snip-

Francisco Louçã, the BE leader shows his point of views over the portuguese monarchy and its actual form.

......The existence of this so-called "magic circle" of the Portuguese establishment, allegedly involved in an international paedophile ring using boys and girls from Casa Pia, was last week likened to an earthquake waiting to shake Portugal to its foundations. New allegations about the scale of the network will be put before the country's highest court within the next few weeks. Amid rumours of links to other paedophile gangs across Europe and the U.S., international experts on child sex crimes and murders are expected to be in court when the case re-opens, four years after a group of victims broke a...

A study of how Europe integrates immigrants has exposed wide variations in the welcome foreign workers receive. The European Union-backed research found Sweden doing the most to help migrants settle - and Latvia the least. Overall, EU nations are only doing half as much as they could, said researchers acting for a consortium of 25 organisations across Europe. The study of policies across the continent ranks countries on key factors affecting immigrants' lives. The Migration Integration Policy Index is produced by a consortium of European organisations, led by the British Council and the Migration Policy Group in Brussels. It measures...

About 3,500 people are expected to descend tomorrow on an isolated Catholic shrine to celebrate the 90th anniversary of what they regard as a miracle: sightings of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, by three shepherd children in 1917. There's some added buzz as the landmark anniversary draws near. Last month, late one afternoon at the shrine, known as the National Blue Army Shrine, some people in the crowd of 1,000 reported seeing the sun change colors and dance in the sky. Some claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary and Jesus in the sun; others, the letter M. The...

Thousands of pilgrims have flocked to a ceremony in Portugal to consecrate one of the world's biggest churches. The Church of the Holy Trinity is at the shrine of Fatima, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. The low, oval, white building - which cost 60m euros (£42m) to build - can accommodate nearly 9,000 worshippers and has no internal columns. Pope Benedict XVI will give a televised address to the congregation on Sunday. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, and about 40 other cardinals and bishops from around the...

Archeologists in Portugal have found more than 4,500 Roman coins bundled together inside the wall of a blacksmith's house dating from the fourth century. Antonio Sa Coixao, who is leading excavations in Coriscada in northeastern Portugal, said Wednesday by telephone the 4,526 copper and bronze coins were inside a hollow wall and covered by dirt and tools. The coins had apparently been put in a sack which had mostly disintegrated, he said... Archeologists excavating the site, which is believed to be a Roman village, came across the coins Friday, he said... The excavation site, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 8, 2007Valleta, Malta (LifeNews.com) -- The head of the pro-abortion group that operates the abortion ship that has targeted the people of Ireland, Portugal and Poland is heading to Malta, one of the few European nations that makes abortion illegal. Rebecca Gomperts will visit the island nation on Wednesday to deliver a speech advocating legal abortions.Gomperts is the director of Women on Waves, the pro-abortion organization that has taken its converted tugboat to international waters outside pro-life nations to give women the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug.Her speech, “The Right to a Dignified Motherhood: The Crucial...

Puffing on a cigarette and knocking back beers, the man leading the world's biggest missing child inquiry enjoys yet another long, boozy lunch. Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral worked as little as four-and-a--half hours a day this week - despite a mountain of uninvestigated sightings of Madeleine McCann on his desk. The Sunday Mirror has discovered that 252 possible tip-offs about the four-year-old have been reported to Amaral, any one of which might just lead to her being traced. But the vast majority have not even been checked. Amaral, in charge of a squad of 30 detectives, has convinced himself...

Police have enough evidence to charge her. Breaking on Fox News right now.

Madeleine 'died in her bedroom' TANYA THOMPSON SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (tthompson@scotsman.com) * Portugese detectives now claim Madeleine McCann was not kidnapped * Specks of her blood on wall suggest she died in apartment * Friends of McCanns in UK placed under police surveillance

International Planned Parenthood Federation Launches New Abortion Campaign in Europe Uses strongly anti-religious language By Maciej Golubiewski BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, August 31, 2007 (C-Fam.org) - Using strongly anti-religious language, the European branch of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has recently issued a document entitled "Why We Need to Talk about Abortion" calling for the legalization of abortion in the European Union (EU).  While acknowledging that the member states retain "ultimate responsibility" for abortion legislation, the IPPF-Europe urges the EU Commission and the European Parliamentarians to act "despite this mandate" to "drive the issues forward" and "keep them high on the...

First Private Abortion Mill Opens in Portugal 30 women came for abortions on its first day of operation By John Jalsevac LISBON, Portugal, July 31, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Portugal's first private abortion center has opened up in Lisbon, reports the Los Angeles Times today. Located just off the Avenida da Liberdade, the brand-new abortion mill, called Dos Arcos, reportedly has a large staff of 22 gynecologists, technicians and administrators. According to the LA Times, 30 women came to Dos Arcos on its first day of operation. "We are the first clinic," said owner Yolanda Hernandez, who has been in the...

Lisbon, Portugal (LifeNews.com) -- An abortion practitioner in Spain has opened the first private abortion business in Portugal now that the western European nation has legalized abortion. The new law allowing abortions up to 10 weeks into the pregnancy went into effect on July 15 despite a handful of Portuguese citizens voting for it. When abortion was illegal in the largely Catholic nation, Portuguese residents often went to Spain to have abortions at the facility run by Yolanda Hernandez. Now, the owner of an abortion business for three decades has opened a new center in Portugal. The new business will...

LISBON, Portugal, July 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Sunday July 15 a law came into effect in predominantly Catholic Portugal allowing abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy. After a mandatory three-day "cooling" period, abortion is available on demand in hospitals. The law maintains a few minor restrictions, including the three-day waiting period. Before procuring an abortion, the International Herald-Tribune reports, the expectant mother must first talk to a doctor who will explain the health risks of abortion. According to the new law, she must then wait an additional three days before having the operation. After an abortion, women...

Lisbon, Jul 16, 2007 / 10:46 am (CNA).- A law, legalizing abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, went into effect in Portugal on Sunday. Women who choose to abort will have to go through a compulsory medical appointment to be properly informed about the consequences of abortion, reported Reuters. The country held a referendum on the legalization of abortion in February. The referendum was invalid because of the low turnout but, of those who voted, 59 percent wanted to lift the ban. That led the ruling Socialist Party in parliament to vote in favor of legalizing abortion. According...

Lisbon, Portugal (LifeNews.com) -- Portugal has officially adopted its new law that will legalize abortions there up to 10 weeks into the pregnancy. The nation's parliament approved the law in March after being one of the few nations to legally protect unborn children, it was officially adopted today and will eventually go into effect July 15. Now, Poland, Ireland and Malta are the lone nations on the continent to have pro-life laws prohibiting abortions.After the March vote, the government's Health Ministry has been working to come up with guidelines for how the abortion law will be implemented. One of the...

LISBON, Portugal, June 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Portugal threw away some of the strictest restrictions on abortion in Europe after a new law went into effect on June 15 that offers free abortions up to the tenth week of pregnancy, reports the International Herald Tribune. Previously, abortion was illegal except for cases of rape, incest, malformation of the fetus or if the health of the mother was seriously endangered. Abortion was only permitted up to the twelfth week of pregnancy (see http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07041001.html). At present, the new law permits abortion on demand up to ten weeks into the pregnancy. Abortions can...

What is a fair voting system for the European Union? It looks as though, thanks to Poland, European leaders will be forced to debate this difficult question at their summit this week. Since the simplified draft treaty is substantively identical to the old and rejected constitution - minus some cosmetics - the voting system proposed is going to be the same one: passage of legislation requires a coalition of countries representing at least 55 per cent of the member states and 65 per cent of the population. The Poles have threatened a veto unless the second of those two numbers...

LISBON, Portugal — Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Robert Murat, who police say is a suspect in the case of a missing 4-year-old British girl who disappeared last week while on vacation with her parents in Portugal, said he had been made a "scapegoat" by Portugese police. He was detained on Monday night but released. Officers said they did not have enough evidence to arrest him in connection with 4-year-old Madeleine McCann's disappearance. "This has ruined my life and made my life very difficult for my family here and in Britain," Murat said. "The only way I will survive this...

Some of England's wealthiest celebs are shelling out a fortune to help fund the search for a 4-year-old British girl who has gone missing in Portugal. This gives new meaning to the term "giving back." Harry Potter authoress J.K. Rowling, Virgin titan Sir Richard Branson and "Idol" judge Simon Cowell have all ponied up to help find Madeleine McCann, who has been missing since May 2. According to the News of the World, Rowling donated in excess of $495,000, while Branson and Cowell chipped in $198,000 and $99,000, respectively. Rowling's fortune has been estimated at $1 billion, Branson's at a...

It is almost certain that Portugal will join the list of Catholic countries that have legalized abortion. After an inexpressive referendum, the socialist government presented a projected bill that was approved by the Portuguese Parliament on March 8. Only an unlikely veto by President Cavaco Silva, regarded as a conservative, can prevent the bill from becoming law. The sad part is that the Portuguese Catholic bishops avoided throwing the full weight of their prestige onto the scale in a country with an absolute Catholic majority. During the abortion referendum, the bishops took a non-confrontational attitude. They simply recalled documents and...

LISBON, Portugal Portugal has moved one step closer to joining most of Europe in terms of legalizing abortion. The country's parliament has voted to legalize the procedure until the tenth week of pregnancy.The new law is still on the restrictive side compared to other countries in Europe. In Britain a woman can get an abortion up to the 24th week of pregnancy, while women can get one up to the 12th week in Germany, France and Italy.

Tons of pictures at the link: http://www.geenstijl.nl/paginas/mirror/20070215-pritt-mazda/index.html

Portugal abortion vote likely invalid Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:17pm ET14 By Axel Bugge LISBON (Reuters) - A referendum on legalizing abortion in Portugal looked likely to fail on Sunday because of low voter turnout, exit polls said. Up to 57.4 percent of the electorate in the traditionally Catholic country abstained, according to an exit poll by Eurosondagem for SIC television channel. An exit poll by state RTP television channel and the Catholic University showed at least 56 percent of voters failed to turn out. If the turnout is below 50 percent the vote will be invalid, as was the...

Ex-US vice president Al Gore's global warming documentary will be shown at public schools across Portugal as part of a campaign to tackle climate change, Prime Minister Jose Socrates said. "I think the duty of a politician is to divulge a political message so that all citizens are more aware of what they can do to solve this global problem," Socrates, a former environment minister, said after meeting with Gore. Gore's Oscar-nominated film, "An Inconvenient Truth," warns that urgent action is needed to reduce carbon emissions soon or else the planet will suffer disastrous consequences from climate change. Last month...

Israel's security is at risk due to the decision by several European nations not to allow El Al cargo planes carrying arms shipments to land - and therefore refuel - on their way to Israel. According to El Al pilots' spokesman Itai Regev, the decision by England, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy - whose national carrier Alitalia recently won a bid to be the preferred carrier for Israeli public servants flying abroad on official business - not to allow arms-laden El Al flights to refuel necessitates the transport of significantly smaller quantities of weapons and ammunition per flight. At a...

If our cultural past isn't worth defending, why should our future be? ---------------------- Five years after the (a) all too predictable blowback to U.S. foreign policy born of decades of poverty and desperation or (b) controlled explosion by Bush-Cheney-Halliburton-Zionist agents (delete according to taste), I get a lot of mail on the lines of: C'mon, man, cut to the chase--are we gonna win or lose? Well, let me come at that in an evasive non-chase-cutting manner and circle around to it very gradually. I gave a speech in Sydney last month and among the audience was a lady called Pauline...