Sammy forgives critics, sees West Indies resurgence

(Reuters) - Leading West Indies to their first World Cup title since 1979 gave Darren Sammy a chance to hit back at his critics but the all-rounder preferred to forgive them and talk about a possible resurgence of cricket's former superpower instead.

Sammy's rise to captaincy and his place in the side have often been questioned by critics, including former players, but the 28-year-old silenced them all on Sunday.

Sammy hit 26 runs off 15 balls and then returned to claim two Sri Lankan wickets as West Indies emerged as the new World Twenty20 champions.

"I never worry about the critics," Sammy, the first player from St Lucia to captain West Indies, said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

"I go by one way in my life. I say if Jesus Christ... never did a thing wrong but yet still he was crucified, who is Darren Sammy? That's the way I live my life.

"Everybody will have an opinion but when I go out there on the field, I go on to play for this crest," said the ever-smiling player, tapping on the West Indies logo on his shirt.

"...as long as I go out there and put a hundred percent, that's what matters to me," he said.

West Indies are a pale shadow of their former self, having ruthlessly dominated the game in the 1970s and 1980s, winning the first two 50-over World Cup.

Their glory days well behind them, West Indies rank seventh both in the test and one-day rankings but Sammy expected Sunday's victory to trigger a turnaround.

"The last decade we have been through a lot... this hopefully would be the beginning of things to come, a step in the right direction," he said.

"Hopefully this team would go on. We won't say we are back but it's a step in the right direction. Hopefully we can maintain the team spirit and make the Caribbean people proud.

"I know it's a party from Jamaica down to Guyana. Thank God it's a Sunday. If it was a weekday, nobody would be at work. It means a lot to the Caribbean people." (Writing by Amlan Chakraborty; Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

UN condemns Syrian attack on Turkish town

The UN Security Council has condemned a Syrian mortar attack on a Turkish border town that killed five civilians.

The statement said the attack underscored the grave impact the Syrian crisis was having on "regional peace and stability".

An earlier draft referring to "international peace and security" was blocked by Syria's ally Russia.

Turkey's parliament has authorised military action inside Syria, a move that triggered anti-war protests.

However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country does not intend to start a war with Syria.

The BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN says the statement was strongly worded but was still the result of a compromise with Russia, which has blocked previous resolutions condemning Damascus.

Russia had tried but failed to include language apparently aimed at balancing the Syrian attack with Turkey's military response, she says.
Threat or not?

But Russia did succeed in blocking a draft version that called the mortar attack "a threat to international peace and security", a phrase our correspondent says could be used to justify greater Security Council involvement.
Continue reading the main story   
“Start Quote

    We never want to fight with the Syrian people or go to war with them. We have lived with them for centuries”

Ufuk Yigit Turkish resident of Izmir

    Turks react: 'Enough'
    Analysis: Underlying issues
    Tensions in pictures

The final version said the incident "highlighted the grave impact the crisis in Syria has on the security of its neighbours and on regional peace and stability".

It demanded that "such violations of international law stop immediately and are not repeated".

It called on the Syrian government to "fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours" and urged "restraint".

Syria's UN envoy Bashar Jaafari said his government was not seeking escalation with Turkey.

He criticised the Security Council's silence on "suicide terrorist attacks that struck the city of Aleppo" that killed dozens of Syrians on the same day as the Turkish incident.

A senior diplomat said the Security Council would address that issue on Friday.

On Thursday, Turkey's parliament authorised troops to launch cross-border operations against Syria for a period of one year.

The emergency vote followed the shelling of the Turkish town of Akcakale in which two women and three children were killed.

Turkey's immediate response was to shell targets inside Syria.
Mr Erdogan said at a news conference in Akcakale on Thursday evening: "We want peace and security and nothing else. We could never be interested in something like starting a war."

But he added: "The Turkish Republic is a state capable of defending its citizens and borders. Nobody should try and test our determination on this subject."

On Thursday evening thousands of people held an anti-war rally in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

Demonstrators chanted: "No to war! Peace now! We won't be soldiers of imperialists!"

Some banners accused Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) of being a stooge of the US.

Bedri Baykam, a Turkish artist and activist, said: "[The] United States wants Turkey to enter war against Syria because there are elections coming in the United States. Obama doesn't want to send American troops so the Turkish army serves as their tool but we don't want to be part of the bloodshed in the Middle East."

Other, smaller anti-war protests were reported in Izmir, Mersin, Eskisehir and other cities and towns.

Mr Jaafari said his country had offered condolences over the deaths but not an apology because an inquiry into the incident had not been completed.

Turkey has been a critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since anti-government protests erupted there more than a year ago.

Ankara has openly supported the armed rebellion and called for the end to the regime.

Obama comes out swinging at Romney after debate

US President Barack Obama has accused Mitt Romney of being dishonest, after a televised debate that most observers agreed his Republican rival won.

'If you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth'

Speaking in Denver, Colorado, Mr Obama urged his rival to tell the "truth" about his own policies.

A total of 67.2 million people watched Wednesday's debate, the Nielsen TV ratings service announced.

The Obama campaign has said there will be some "adjustments" in strategy before the election on 6 November.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday suggested Mr Romney had a net positive rating for the first time in the presidential campaign.

The poll said 51% of voters viewed him positively, with Mr Obama at 56%. The Republican moved ahead of the president on which candidate voters trust to handle the economy, create jobs and manage the deficit.
'Big Bird'

Mr Obama told a rally of some 12,000 supporters on Thursday: "When I got on to the stage, I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney.
"But it couldn't have been Mitt Romney, because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favour the wealthy. The fellow on stage last night said he didn't know anything about that."

The president continued the theme in front of an estimated crowd of 30,000 people on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Madison later in the day.

At a campaign rally in Virginia on Thursday evening, Mr Romney did not respond directly to the president's criticism.

But he did argue that Mr Obama had failed during the debate to make his case for another term.
"I got the chance to ask the president questions people across the country have wanted to ask him." Mr Romney said.

"Such as why is it he wanted to push through Obamacare at a time when we had 23 million people out of work?"

During Wednesday night's head-to-head Mr Romney repeatedly denied the $5tn (£3tn) claim.

Fact-checkers have said that Mr Romney's proposal to lower taxes by 20%, abolish estate tax and the alternative minimum tax would reduce revenue by $5tn over a decade.

The Republican has said he would help offset that by eliminating tax loopholes; the non-partisan Tax Policy Center says the sums do not add up.

Mr Obama told Thursday's rally: "So Governor Romney may dance around his positions. But if you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth.

"So here is the truth. Governor Romney cannot pay for his $5 trillion tax plan without blowing up the deficit or sticking it to the middle class. That's the math. We can't afford to go down that road again."

The Democratic president also mocked Mr Romney's plan to cut government subsidies for the PBS television channel that produces Sesame Street.

Mr Romney said during the debate: "I love Big Bird", adding that would not stop him axing federal funding to the public broadcaster.

"Thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird," Mr Obama told Thursday's rally. "It is about time. We didn't know that Big Bird was driving the federal deficit."
'Damage control'

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams dismissed the president's attack.

"In full damage-control mode, President Obama today offered no defence of his record and no vision for the future," he said.
Obama strategist David Axelrod told reporters on a conference call that the campaign would now rethink its strategy.

"We are going to take a hard look at this," he said. "I'm sure we will make adjustments as to where to draw the line in these debates and how to use our time."

The candidates went head to head on Wednesday for 90 minutes on jobs, taxes and healthcare.

Opinion polls agreed that Mr Romney had the upper hand in the debate - the first of three between the White House rivals.

Various surveys gave Mr Romney a 46-67% margin, with Mr Obama trailing on 22-25%.

The president was criticised for appearing hesitant and subdued, while the former governor - who has been lagging in the race - seemed animated and assertive.

Vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will meet in Danville, Kentucky on 11 October, before the second presidential debate on 16 October.

India beat South Africa but crash out of World Twenty20

 COLOMBO: India would say that they were a bit unfortunate to exit from the World T20. They beat England and Pakistan, and then pipped South Africa by one run in a thriller, as L Balaji castled Morne Morkel, who has just smashed the first six of his T20I career.

India's chances were dented grievously by Pakistan's big win over the favoured Aussies which left the Men in Blue with the stiff ask of beating the Proteas by a minimum margin of 31 runs in their final Super Eights game on Tuesday in order to make the semis. They sneaked out a close win, but couldn't do enough to make the cut for the last four.

India made 152 for six, and needed to stop the Proteas at 121, but Faf du Plessis, who had a highest T20I score of 13 before this match, smashed 65 (38b, 6x4, 2x6) to spoil their plans.

However, questionable team composition for Tuesday's must-win game, along with a major captaincy gaffe by skipper MS Dhoni didn't help India's cause. In the end, the hammering at the hands of Shane Watson and David Warner, which won Australia their Super Eights game against India with 31 balls to spare, came back to haunt them. It just proved too costly.

Dhoni will have much answering to do about why he didn't play veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on a wicket on which Pakistan played four spinners against Australia with much success. The Proteas are as bad players of spin as anybody in the world, so why was Harbhajan, who took four for 12 against the English earlier in the tournament, not brought on in this game at the expense of a seamer, preferably Balaji?

Zaheer and Balaji bowled their heart out, picking up three wickets each, but India needed to win a bit more easily. Harbhajan could have helped them do that.

That wasn't enough. Even as South Africa, especially Du Plessis, seemed to be rather comfortable against the seamers after suffering the initial blows, Dhoni perhaps forgot that he had R Ashwin's services up his sleeve.

One of the best off spinners in world cricket was brought on after even part-timer Rohit Sharma had tried his arm around! Ashwin came on in the 10th over but it was too late by then.

Yuvraj Singh did his bit for India, scoring 21, and then taking two wickets, but he would trade his Man of the Match award with a spot in the last four for his team any day.

Earlier, Suresh Raina's run out off the final ball of the Indian innings summed up India's campaign in the World T20 this time. The stylish left-hander, who had kept India's challenge alive till then with a 34-ball 45, was found inches short of the crease while going for the second run. For both India, and Raina, it was a case of being so near, yet so far!

India fumbled initially, slipping to 36 for three, as the top-order batsmen panicked in search of quick runs, throwing their bats around at everything. It was always going to be difficult to go bang bang against the likes of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel from ball one. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag fell trying to be too adventurous. Sadly, Virat Kohli, who normally steps up on these occasions, had an off day, gloving Jacques Kallis down the leg side.

Yuvraj then brought India back into the game, smashing two trademark sixes in a 15-ball cameo. There was a 44-run stand between Rohit Sharma and Raina off 36 balls that gave India a decent total. In the slog, Dhoni and Raina gave India the surge they needed.

It was tragic to see India crash out despite the batting line-up they posses, and despite eking out a thrilling win on Tuesday.

Somewhere, though, they had themselves to blame.

HOW INDIA LOST THE PLOT

After Pak beat Aus by 32 runs, India needed a big win over S Africa to make the semis. Pak used spinners for the first 17 overs against Aus, but on the same ground, India went in without Harbhajan.

The openers failed again. Kohli's rare off-day plunged India into trouble. Rohit Sharma tried to rebuild but his 25 off 27 balls was too slow.

Having scored 152, India needed to restrict the Safs to 121 or less. But Dhoni gave Irfan a third straight over which went for 14 runs. Part-timer Rohit's over too was taken for 13 runs as the momentum swung decisively.

By the time India's main spinner R Ashwin came on, S Africa were already 68/3. Balaji got his first over at 79/3. India finally won by 1 run, but were knocked out of the World T20.

FIFA World Cup 2018 to be held in 11 cities: Russian chief

Moscow: Eleven Russian cities will host the 2018 World Cup, head of the local organising committee (LOC) Vitaly Mutko said on Friday following FIFA's executive board meeting in Zurich.

"FIFA has made a decision to use 12 stadiums in 11 cities," Russian Sports Minister Mutko told reporters without naming the two cities who did not make the list.

Thirteen Russian cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Rostov, Sochi and Yekaterinburg - had been competing for the right to stage the matches.
FIFA World Cup 2018 to be held in 11 cities: Russian chief
Getty Images

Local media reported that Saransk and Yaroslavl had been dropped. Mutko said earlier this month that Saransk, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Kaliningrad and Rostov were the most under threat.

"The official decision is to have 11 host cities, which will be announced live on national television on Saturday evening," a LOC spokesman said.

"Until then, anything else is pure speculation."

Moscow will have two venues - the 90,000-seat Luzhniki stadium which will stage the final - and another to be chosen from two 45,000-seat arenas that are being built by the Spartak and Dynamo clubs.

Russia beat England and joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands in December 2010 to win the right to stage the tournament.

World city in a garden

I visited Singapore recently to attend the World Cities Summit, a biennial event that aims to present the best directions urbanism has taken in key cities worldwide. It aims to highlight these great cities as models for how we should shape our metropolises for tomorrow.

Today, the world, the Philippines included, is more urban than rural. By 2050, 70 percent or more of the people on this planet will be living in cities. The world’s population is also expanding, and the challenge is how to accommodate more people into more sustainable cities; marshalling and managing natural and social resources to ensure a quality of life that should only get better.

Of course, a key model city is Singapore itself. It seems the city, which was my second home for 12 years, can’t get any better. But despite an increase of close to a million people since I lived there in the ’90s, the city, or city-state to be precise, has lived up to its billing as the best place to live in Southeast Asia.

One of the key ingredients of this liveability is the fact that the city has one of the most extensive parks and open space systems in the world. Singapore is a city in a garden, not just a garden city, which was the original goal in its earlier decades under Lee Kuan Yew. Mr Lee and the rest of Singapore’s leaders understood, decades before the rest of the world, that being green was one sure way to keep urban problems at bay.
The Flower Dome conservatory is cooled down to support temperate flowering displays.

This year, the city launched its most ambitious green development, its Gardens by the Bay. We glimpsed the lush new park as our shuttle approached the city center and our hotel and convention site — the Marina Bay Sands. I had taken the family to take advantage of the trip and the opportunity to stay at the iconic venue. The view from its 57th floor’s 150-meter-long infinity-edge pool alone was worth the trip. We took a dip every day of our stay.

Our room faced the new park and we strolled over early the first morning before the summit. The 100-hectare Gardens by the Bay accents the city’s new inner harbour, an extension of the city’s original central core. It is twice the size of our Rizal Park and serves to bring people close to nature in the middle of the city.

The park, actually three connected parks, is a product of an international competition won by the landscape architectural firms of Gustafson Porter and Grant Associates. The three main features now open in the Bay South Garden section are the super trees and the two conservatories. The super trees are a cluster of 25-50-meter-tall armatures on which verdant and colorful tropical plant life is now thriving. The “trees” also harvest rain water and produce energy. They are also linked with sky bridges for touring.

We also toured the two fantastic conservatories — the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. Each conservatory is cooled to recreate cool-dry and cool-moist habitats respectively for plant life not found in Singapore. The conservatories are an amazing way to show visitors plant life, from tropical mountains to the sub-tropical coasts of the Mediterranean and the temperate regions of the globe. Of course, the rest of the park has themed gardens highlighting the tropical plants and flowers of Singapore and the region.

The summit itself was held at the Marina Bay Sands expansive convention and exhibition center. The three-day event covered presentations on the theme “Liveable and Sustainable Cities — Integrated Urban Solutions.” It was the third edition of the event launched in 2008 and each staging gets bigger in size and scope, proving that the topic is gaining more and more relevance globally. Over a hundred city mayors and top government officials and thousands of participants from all over the world attended.

The summit was coorganized by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Center for Livable Cities (CLC). Summit participants like me, along with youthful mayors Herbert Bautista of QC and John Rey Tiangco of Navotas, had the chance to visit the URA headquarters to get a briefing on how urban planning and rational physical development helped Singapore achieve its goals. I love that they know where every building, infrastructure and utility line is in Singapore. In Philippine cities, one has to guess all the time as our maps and “as-built” plans are all inaccurate or non-existent.

I went dizzy trying to attend all the presentations I wanted, as the event was an embarrassment of riches in terms of plenary and break-out sessions. Bundled with the event were two other related confabs — Singapore International Water Week and the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore. This was apart from the annual World Cities Summit Mayors Forum, which of course was limited to government officials.

The issue of water as a resource for cities was an important one and there were numerous presentations on new technologies for water management, processing and distribution (many from firms based in Singapore). I even got to visit the famed Marina Barrage at the end of the Gardens by the Bay. Housed in a literally-green building (its lawn sweeps up to its roof), the facility controls what is essentially a dam that stores water in the inner harbour. This water is the island’s 15th reservoir and harvests rainwater, storing it for future use. The structure also houses interactive displays for school kids and other visitors to learn about water conservation and sustainability.

A key event in the summit was the awarding of the Lee Kuan Yew City Prize. The prize is a biennial award given to individuals and organizations that contributed to creating “vibrant, livable and sustainable urban communities around the world.” It honors initiatives in creative planning, good governance and innovation in addressing problems faced by today’s cities.

This year, the prize went to New York City for its transformation in the last 30 years from a lost cause to a place that continues to lead in terms of urban governance, planning and urban design. It is also a city that takes its greens seriously and although Mayor Bloomberg was unable to accept the prize, Adrian Benepe, head of the city’s Parks Department, represented him and the Big Apple. I did attend Benepe’s most interesting talk on the city’s renaissance with special emphasis on parks development and maintenance.

Key to New York’s success, Benepe explained, is PPP. Public-private partnerships were, in fact, a recurring theme in a lot of the presentations. This is something we should learn from in terms of what works and what does not in taking this direction for urban development. I spoke to Cheng Hsing Yao, deputy executive director for the Centre for Liveable Cities, co-organizer of the event. Cheng emphasized this plus the importance of integrating urban solutions into the fabric of city governance, economy and social development.

The lesson from the World Cities Summit can be summarized, paraphrasing one of the keynote speakers and melding his message with key messages from others, thus: “Build the most beautiful city you can… plant as many trees as you can… plan as comprehensively as you can… partner with as many groups in society as you can, towards the creation of improved cities… because there is no excuse not to build better places for our people to live, work and play.”

World powers open to more nuclear talks with Iran

 WASHINGTON: World powers decided to lay the groundwork for another round of negotiations with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, a senior US official said, but they want a significantly improved offer from the Islamic republic.

Neither the US nor any of its international partners was ready to abandon diplomacy in favor of military or other actions, as Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has advocated.

The new hope for a negotiated end to Iran's decade-long nuclear standoff came Thursday after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with the foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia - powers that have sought, over several rounds of talks, to persuade Iran to halt its production of material that could be used in nuclear weapons. All such efforts have failed so far.

The latest stab at a diplomatic compromise collapsed this summer after Iran proposed to stop producing higher-enriched uranium in exchange for a suspension in international sanctions, which Clinton has termed a "nonstarter." The US official said Iran would have to bring a much better offer to the table this time, but stressed that nations were seeing some signs for optimism and that diplomacy remained "far and away the preferred way to deal with this issue."

Catherine Ashton, the European Union's top diplomat, who has been spearheading the international diplomacy with Iran, was instructed to reach out to Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. Still, no date was set for the possible resumption of the so-called P5+1 talks with Iran, said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to comment publicly about the closed-doors meeting at the United Nations.

After looking for a diplomatic solution there, Clinton met later Thursday with Netanyahu one-on-one for 75 minutes at a New York hotel where she was expected to hear the alternative argument for possible military action. The US official said they agreed that Iran must be prevented from becoming a nuclear power, without going into details.

Their meeting occurred just hours after the Israeli leader warned in an address to the U.N. General Assembly that Iran will have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon by next summer.

Pulling out a red marker while holding a poster depicting a cartoon-like bomb that measured Iran's nuclear progress, Netanyahu drew a "red line" across the second-to-last stage of nuclear development, reminding everyone of his demand for President Barack Obama to declare when the U.S. might attack Iran. Obama has rejected the demand.

It is getting "late, very late" to stop the Iranian nuclear threat, Netanyahu said at the United Nations.

"Red lines don't lead to war; red lines prevent war," he said.

Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful energy and medical research purposes, while the U.S. and many Western and Sunni Arab states see that as a cover for developing nuclear arms. But there is disagreement on how to stop Iran, with Obama insisting there is more time for diplomacy and hard-hitting sanctions while Netanyahu presses for a military response.

That disagreement has spilled over into Obama's bid for re-election, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney accusing the president of being weak on Iran. Romney has promised a more credible threat of military action and closer alignment of U.S. policy with Netanyahu's positions - an argument that resonates with some Jewish and pro-Israel evangelical Christian voters.

Neither presidential candidate, however, advocates clearly for military action.

An attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would surely prompt retaliation. Iran could seek to disrupt fuel supplies from the Persian Gulf, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil flows, or it could support proxies such as Hezbollah to attack Israel or U.S. allies in the Gulf. A worst-case scenario might see the U.S. dragged into another major war in the Muslim world at a time of staggering American debt and continued economic struggles.

Obama and Netanyahu probably will speak by telephone Friday, the White House said, after Clinton's meeting are over. She is doing the bulk of America's diplomatic work at this year's gathering of global leaders in New York, with Obama ruling out any bilateral meetings with presidents or prime ministers so he can spend more time campaigning for re-election.

America's partners also prefer diplomacy.

"We discussed at length the need for Iran to take action urgently," said Ashton, who briefed officials for more than an hour on her recent discussions with the Iranians.

"We were united," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, refusing to comment on Netanyahu's call for red lines.

City lawyer among seven Britons killed in Nepal plane crash

A young City lawyer, two mountaineering friends and a group of outdoor enthusiasts from the north west were among the 19 people killed in yesterday’s plane crash outside Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

The victims all perished when their light aircraft ploughed into a flat river valley shortly after take-off on route for the Mount Everest region. It is believed the pilot was trying to return to the airport after the plane was struck by a bird – possibly a black eagle - as it was taking off.

In total seven Britons died on the flight alongside five Chinese tourists, four Nepalis and three crew members. The youngest British victim was 27 whilst the oldest was 60.

Among those killed in the crash was Ben Ogden, a 27-year-old Oxford graduate and rising star in the “magic circle” law firm Allen and Overy. The city firm released a statement saying they were “deeply shocked and saddened” by the news, describing him as “an excellent lawyer and a very popular member of the firm.”

Stephen Holding, 60, from Barlaston, Staffordshire and Timothy Oakes, 57, from Warrington were also named as among those killed. The two men were experienced trekkers and were often involved in the Bremex Mountaineering and Climbing Club.

As well as Mr Oakes, three more of the victims were from the north west. Among those named last night were Vincent and Darren Kelly from Lostock, Bolton, and 54-year-old Raymond Eagle, a keen marathon runner from Macclesfield.

AIR safety investigators in Nepal are trying to determine the cause of a plane crash, the latest of a number of recent tragedies that caused concern about the Himalayan nation’s air safety record.

In the latest of a series of deadly air crashes in Nepal, the twin propellored Sita Air Dornier 288 aircraft crashed with the loss of everyone onboard as it began its journey to the small town of Lukla – the gateway to the popular trekking region - at around 6.30am on Thursday. Five Chinese tourists, four Nepalis and three members of crew were also aboard the aircraft when it crashed close to the Manohara river, less than a mile from Kathmandu airport from where it had taken off. Locals said they heard screams coming from the wreckage as they waited for the fire brigade to arrive.

In a statement, the British Embassy in Kathmandu said: “We can confirm that there were British national fatalities. The Embassy remains in contact with Nepalese authorities.” It said that Ambassador John Tucknott had gone to the Tribhuvan Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, where the bodies of those killed were taken.

Our thoughts are very much with the families of those affected, both in the UK and in Nepal,” the firm’s managing director, Ashley Toft, said in a statement.

Kunda Dixit, editor-in-chief of the Nepali Times, said that while Nepal had a notorious air safety record, this incident appeared to have been caused by a bird-strike.

“Air traffic control told me that this was a bird strike on the left engine shortly after take-off,” he said, adding that the pilot tried to return to the airport and that the plane banked steeply. He said he believed the plane probably then started stalling. “Unlike previous accidents where there has been pilot error, this could have happened anywhere in the world.”

This was later reportedly confirmed by the general manger of the Kathmandu airport, Ratish Chandra Suman, who said the pilot had reported trouble two minutes into the flight. According to the Kathmandu-based Sherpa Adventure Travel Pvt, the British tourists were heading for a two week trek in the Khumbu region. This month marks the start of the most popular trekking season.

Dipendar Shahi, marketing manager for Sita Air, told The Independent that seven British and five Chinese tourists had been on board the flight. He said he had heard that a black eagle may have hit the plane. “The plane took off and straight away it crashed,” said Mr Shahi. “People are now investigating what happened.

Dozens of army personnel and rescue personnel rushed to the scene of the crash though some reports said the fire brigade took more than half-an hour. Local television footage showed shocked crowds gathering as the plane burned. A number of burned bodies were subsequently laid in a line close the smouldering fuselage. Mobile phone video shot by local people reportedly showed the front section of the plane was on fire when it first hit the ground

Tulasha Pokharel, a 26-year-old woman who lives near to the crash site, told the Agence-France-Presse that she was among the first on the scene. “We could hear people inside the aircraft screaming, but we couldn’t throw water at the plane to put out the fire because we were scared that the engines were about to explode,” she said.

Binod Singh, a national police spokesman, said the civil aviation authority had set up an investigation committee and that the flight recorder had been recovered. “The committee will analyse all the records and they will visit the site and gather all the exhibits. Normally they report back after three months,” he said.

Nepal has a poor road network and large numbers of tourists and climbers often opt to use the country’s network of 16 domestic airlines and 49 airports to reach remote areas. But the air safety record is equally bad and local media reported that this was the sixth crash in the last two years in which a total of more than 110 people had lost their lives.

In May, 15 people were killed when a small Agni Air plane taking tourists to a treacherous high-altitude airport near Nepal’s Annapurna mountain region ploughed into the ground. In September last year, a small plane taking tourists on a sightseeing trip around Everest crashed into a hillside, also killing all 19 people on board. The Buddha Air Beechcraft plane, carrying 10 Indians, two Americans, one Japanese citizen and three local passengers, came down in heavy rain and fog at Godavari, about six miles from the capital.

The weather in Kathmandu and surrounding areas was said to have been clear yesterday morning and the Sita flight was among the first to leave the city’s Tribhuvan International Airport. Other flights reported no problems, and the airport operated normally. The airport was subsequently reopened soon afterwards.

World hockey chief expects NHL players in Sochi

 World stock markets rose Friday after Spain announced severe budget cuts meant to show international lenders and investors that the country is taking steps toward getting its debt under control.

The Spanish government on Thursday unveiled a draft budget for 2013 that cuts overall spending by €40 billion ($51 billion). Wall Street spurted higher on the news. Many economists see the cost-cutting as a signal Spain is preparing to request financial aid from other governments and the European Central Bank.

Spain, whose banks have been hobbled by toxic assets, has so far been reluctant to ask for help because stiff conditions will likely be imposed in exchange for any aid.

European stocks rose in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.3 percent to 5,797.35. Germany's DAX added 0.5 percent to 7,322.85. France's CAC-40 advanced 0.2 percent to 3,446.37. Wall Street headed for a flat open, with Dow Jones industrial futures nearly unchanged at 13,412 and S&P 500 futures barely budging at 1,441.20.

In Asia, stocks were also helped by speculation that China's central bank will act soon to help the world's No. 2 economy.

Lorraine Tan, director at Standard & Poor's equity research in Singapore, said she believes the Chinese government is likely to introduce incentives to encourage domestic spending rather than making more money available for loans, as the U.S. Federal Reserve has done under its quantitative easing programs.

"Banks are indicating that they are not finding takers for loans," Tan said.

"The Chinese have a lot of flexibility ... the question is, they will only act on it if they think it will achieve something."

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.4 percent to 20,840.38. South Korea's Kospi added nearly 0.4 percent to 1,996.21 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced slightly to 4,387. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines also rose.

Mainland Chinese shares rose ahead of an extended holiday next week.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.5 percent to 2,086.17 and the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.9 percent to 853.83. Property stocks rose, including industry leader China Vanke, up 2.7 percent.

But Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost 0.9 percent to 8,870.16, sinking on a government report that showed industrial production fell a further 1.3 percent in August. Weak global and domestic demand is weighing on manufacturers, particularly electronics makers, who are facing intense competition from South Korean, Taiwanese and other Asian manufacturers.

The strong yen, which erodes overseas earnings and makes Japanese-made products relatively more expensive, is also eating into profits.

Major Japanese exporters got slammed. Toyota Motor Corp. fell 2.4 percent and Honda Motor Co. shed 2.7 percent. Sharp Corp. lost 3 percent.

Rising gold prices helped related shares. Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Co., China's largest gold miner, gained 1.6 percent. Australia's Newcrest Mining Ltd. jumped 3.3 percent.

Benchmark oil for November delivery was up 41 cents to $92.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.87 to finish at $91.85 on the Nymex on Thursday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2934 from $1.2917 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.59 yen from 77.62 yen.

FIFA shrugs off criticism over World Cup heat

ZURICH: Soccer's governing body FIFA has refuted suggestions that it has put commercial considerations before the health of players in deciding on kickoff times for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Several matches at the competition will be played in the early afternoon in tropical venues such as Natal, Recife and Salvador, as well as the dry and dusty capital Brasilia.

The kickoff times were finalised by FIFA on Thursday. With most of Brazil three hours behind GMT, the afternoon times are favourable for European television viewers who will be able to watch matches in their evening.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, clearly exasperated at constant criticism of the tournament's organisation, said there had been little room for manoeuvre.

He also dismissed talk that Brazil, who will not have to play any early or mid-afternoon games, had been favoured.

"I don't even imagine why and how you could think we are making decisions thinking about the television and not thinking about the health of the players," Valcke told reporters following a question from a Brazilian journalist.

"The first thing we need is a good World Cup and to have a good World Cup we must make sure we have the best of football and to have the best of football, we need the best teams and the best game.

"Every decision we make takes into consideration the health of the players."

Valcke said that part of the problem had been caused by local organisers wanting teams to move around between venues in different parts of the country,

"We have made a decision to play in all Brazil because that was the request of Brazil," he said.

"You have a country which is not a small country, it is a continent, where it can be two degrees and 26 degrees at the same time on the same day.

"Then you have to take these teams around the country because it was also a decision not to play in just in one region of the country but to travel all around the country to give all Brazilians the chance to enjoy Germany, Italy and the other top teams."

BRAZIL LUCKY

Valcke added that, whatever they did, World Cup organisers were criticised.

"The match schedule was wrong, the kickoff times are wrong," he said with an air of frustration.

"We have discussed with our medical department, we have been discussing with our local organising committee and finally also with football specialists and they all agree that these kickoff times, wherever we put them, from south of the country to the north, are still at a time where players can play without any problem."

Valcke, speaking after FIFA's Executive Committee meeting, acknowledged Brazil had been fortunate.

"The match schedule has not been organised just for Brazil to win this World Cup, it is true they are lucky and playing in very good conditions," he said.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said players would adapt. "The history of football has shown that great players can play in all conditions," he said. "In Mexico in 1970 and 1986, we played at high noon, at 2,400 metres and the quality of the game did not suffer.

"You know that in difficult conditions, you can stop the game, you can cool down, and have drinks. You will remember 25 years ago, the referees said it was forbidden to drink water during the matches, and now all that has been changed because we want to take care of the health of the players."

"The actors are the players, we need the players." This week, UEFA boss Michel Platini again called for a winter World Cup in Qatar in 2022 because of worries over the heat.

World's Largest Ferris Wheel Coming to Staten Island

The Big Apple is getting another "biggest": the world's tallest Ferris wheel, part of an ambitious plan to draw New Yorkers and tourists alike to the city's so-called "forgotten borough."

The 625-foot-tall, $230 million New York Wheel is to grace a spot in Staten Island overlooking the Statue of Liberty and the downtown Manhattan skyline, offering a singular view as it sweeps higher than other big wheels like the Singapore Flyer, the London Eye and a "High Roller" planned for Las Vegas.

Designed to carry 1,440 passengers at a time, it's expected to draw 4.5 million people a year to a setting that also would include a 100-shop outlet mall and a 200-room hotel.

It will be "an attraction unlike any other in New York City — in fact, it will be, we think, unlike any other on the planet," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as he unveiled the plans against the backdrop of New York Harbor. While the privately financed project faces various reviews, officials hope to have the wheel turning by the end of 2015.

The wheel would put Staten Island on the map of superlatives in a place where "biggest" is almost an expectation — home to the nation's biggest city population, busiest mass-transit system, even the biggest Applebee's restaurant.

The attraction stands to change the profile of the least populous and most remote of the city's five boroughs, a sometime municipal underdog that has taken insults from New Jersey and was once known for having the world's largest ... landfill.

"It's going to be a real icon. The Ferris wheel will be Staten Island's Eiffel Tower," Sen. Charles Schumer enthused.

As a visible addition to the skyline around the harbor, the wheel "gives Staten Island an identity beyond its role as a suburban community," while letting it tap into the stream of tourist money in a city that drew 50.9 million visitors last year, said Mitchell Moss, a New York University urban policy professor.

The project is expected to bring $500 million in private investment and 1,100 permanent jobs to the borough's St. George waterfront, and the developers will pay the city $2.5 million a year in rent for the land.

Staten Island isn't entirely off the tourist map. Its free ferry is the city's third-largest tourist attraction, carrying an estimated 2 million visitors a year alongside millions of residents, officials say.

But the city has long struggled to entice tourists off the boat and into Staten Island. Much-touted Staten Island sightseeing bus tours fizzled within a year in 2009 for lack of ridership.

Australian tourists Leah Field and Adam Lica, for example, were riding the ferry Thursday for its views of the Statue of Liberty. They thought they might have lunch on the Staten Island side but weren't planning to explore further.

"We weren't sure what there is to do there," explained Lica, 32, of Melbourne. But were there a giant Ferris wheel, the couple likely would go ride it, he said.

But Henriette Repmann, a German university student, said she wouldn't bother.

"You don't have to have the biggest Ferris wheel in the world to get a good view of New York," Repmann, 20, of Leipzig, said Thursday as she visited the Empire State Building.

Largely a bedroom community for other parts of the city, Staten Island boasts about 470,000 residents and a minor league ballpark, cultural sites and quirky attractions, from locations in the video for Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" to the Staten Island Zoo, home to New York's answer to Pennsylvania's prognosticating groundhog. The Staten Island rodent bears the dubious distinction of having once bitten Bloomberg.

But Staten Island, the only one of the city's five boroughs not accessible by subway, tends to get overshadowed by its bigger neighbors, so much so that some have at times suggested it secede from the city.

And residents often bristle at an image shaped by such television shows as "Mob Wives" and "Big Ang" — and by a former New Jersey beach town mayor who portrayed Staten Islanders in a blog post as heavy on hairspray and light on class. (The ex-mayor, Ken Pringle of Belmar, visited Staten Island in 2008 to make amends.)

Resident Miatta Bryant thinks the wheel might bring the borough more respect.

"People always say Staten Island is so boring," the 26-year-old certified nursing assistant said.

The Ferris wheel, state Assemblyman Matthew Titone hopes, will show the world a different Staten Island than the one they see on TV.

"They will see our cultural institutions and will see that we are not idiots," he said. "Shirtless, musclebound idiots."

FERRIS WHEEL FACTS:

— The first Ferris wheel, 264 feet high (80.4 meters), was invented in the U.S. by Pittsburgh engineer George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. Powered by steam engines, it was introduced at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago.

— The proposed New York Wheel on Staten Island is planned to be 625 feet and expected to open by the end of 2015.

— Caesars Entertainment Corp. plans to build a Ferris-style wheel on the Las Vegas Strip. It is planned to stand 550 feet tall and open in late 2013.

— China began construction in 2007 on what was planned to be the world's tallest Ferris wheel, at 680 feet. Officially called the Observation Wheel, it's also referred to as the Beijing Great Wheel or the Great Beijing Wheel. Meant to be open for the 2008 Olympic games, it's still not completed because of design and financing problems.

WORLD'S 10 TALLEST FIXED FERRIS WHEELS:

— Singapore Flyer, 541 feet (165 meters) completed in 2008, in downtown Singapore, was said to cost $240 million. The original spinning direction was reversed on the advice of a group of feng shui masters, ostensibly to revolve wealth back into the financial district.

— Star of Nanchang, 525 feet (160 meters), completed in 2006, in Nanchang, China. Said to cost $7.1 million, it's decorated with 21,300 feet (6,500 meters) of fluorescent lights.

— London Eye, 443 feet (135 meters), inaugurated on Millennium Eve — Dec. 31, 1999 — in London. Because of a safety glitch, the first public ride took place a month later, on Feb. 1, 2000.

— Suzhou Ferris Wheel, 394 feet (120 meters), completed in 2009 in Suzhou, China, was the fourth 120-meter-tall Ferris wheel built in the country.

— Southern Star, 394 feet (120 meters), completed in 2008 in Melbourne, Australia, at a cost of $100 million, was closed after 40 days when cracks appeared, but it remains standing.

— Tianjin Eye, 394 feet (120 meters), completed in 2008. It was built over Yongle Bridge, with cars passing on either side, in Tianjin, China's fifth-largest city.

— Changsha Ferris Wheel, 394 feet (120 meters), completed in 2004 in Changsha, China.

— Zhengzhou Ferris Wheel, 394 feet (120 meters), was the tallest in China when completed in 2003 in Century Amusement Park, in Zhengzhou.

— Sky Dream Fukuoka, 394 feet (120 meters), completed in 2002 in Fukuoka, Japan. The slow pace of 20 minutes per revolution was used as a selling point, providing "maximum kissing time." It closed because of high maintenance costs in September 2009.

— Diamond and Flower Ferris Wheel, 369 feet (117 meters), completed in 2001 in Tokyo, named for the patterns in its nighttime lighting.

NBC'S 'Today Show' Provides Peek into the Pope's Life in Rome Visit

Host Matt Lauer, escorted by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, visited the Holy Father after a traditional Wednesday audience.Lauer was introduced by the archbishop and presented him with a crystal cat. The host asked the Bishop of Rome for a message for Americans and the Holy Father responded: "Confidence in God and continue in the faith of Christ."

Egypt holds 3 suspects in church slayings

CAIRO – Three suspects in a drive-by shooting that killed six Christians and a Muslim guard in an attack on Coptic Christmas Eve were captured by police Friday.
Egyptian security forces had blanketed the area between the village of Farshout and the town of Nag Hamadi, where the slayings occurred early Thursday, and flushed the suspects out of dense sugar cane fields, the state MENA news agency reported.
Early Thursday, gunmen opened fire on a crowd of worshippers leaving midnight Mass for Coptic Orthodox Christmas Eve.
The Interior Ministry called the shooting revenge for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Muslim girl by a Christian man in the town.
The attack was the worst to target Christians in Egypt in nearly a decade.
Copts, descendants of the original inhabitants of Egypt, make up most of the 8 million Christians in this country of 80 million people.
The Associated Press

Four Malaysian churches firebombed after court rules Christians may use ‘Allah’

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan 9, 2010 / 01:12 am (CNA).- Four churches in and around Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia have been firebombed in the continued reaction to a court ruling that Christians may use the word “Allah.”
One attack destroyed the first-floor offices of the three-story Metro Tabernacle Church. The Times reported that the worship hall itself was undamaged, but Kevin Ang, a church spokesman, said that the church is “90 percent gutted.”
Ang also reported that witnesses saw two persons on a motorbike who approached the entrance and threw in what looked like a petrol bomb.
Minor damage was caused in petrol bomb attacks on three other churches, one of them Catholic, in the adjacent town of Petaling Java, the Times reports.
Angry protests and cyber attacks on the website of the Herald, the Catholic newspaper involved in the case, followed the Malaysian High Court’s Dec. 31 ruling. The court said that the paper, Malaysia’s largest Catholic newspaper, may use “Allah,” also a traditional Malay word, to name the Christian God.
The high court suspended its ruling on Wednesday in anticipation of a government appeal.
Muslim preachers used Friday prayers to object to the decision, the Times reports.
“We will not allow the word Allah to be inscribed in your churches,” one speaker said at the Kampung Bahru mosque in central Kuala Lumpur. Protesters also carried posters reading “Heresy arises from words wrongly used” and “Allah is only for us.”
Muslims are a small majority in Malaysia, which has large Chinese and Indian populations who follow Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Most of the readers of the Herald are Christian tribespeople in the states of Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo.
In a Wednesday statement the Herald editor Fr. Andrew Lawrence told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that the paper believed the website attacks were designed to create a “climate of fear” and a “perceived threat to national security” in order to pressure the court to reverse its decision.
“We are Malaysians and we want to live in peace and happiness,” Fr. Lawrence added.

Did Jesus oppose capitalism, as Moore argues?

Michael Moore, director of Capitalism: A Love Story, says you can’t be a religious Christian and a capitalist. (Chris Pizzello / AP)ndre

Would Jesus Christ — the founder of the largest religion in the world, unequivocally recognized as a messenger of peace and love — support capitalism?
It’s one of the questions filmmaker Michael Moore, the well-known creator of documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine and Sicko, asks in his latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story.
In Capitalism, the filmmaker wonders whether Christ would support a system that, as the filmmaker stated, "has allowed the richest one per cent to have more financial wealth than the 95 per cent under them combined."
Moore, a Roman Catholic, argues that Jesus’ commandments to care for others and feed the poor and hungry go against the love of money and greed that make up capitalism. He argues that one cannot be a religious Christian and a capitalist.
Clement Mehlman, a Lutheran chaplain at Dalhousie University, agrees.
"Jesus was a Jewish peasant, coming from an underprivileged tradition Himself, so He would have been what we would call a communist or a socialist," he says. "And there are elements of communism in descriptions of early Christian communities. They pooled their resources. There was not independent wealth, there was communal wealth."
The idea that Christ preached a socialist message would probably scare some conservative believers, but Mehlman has no problem with that.
"Jesus says to follow Him, you have to give everything you own to the poor," he says with a wry smile. "How many Christians do you see doing that? It’s a text that should be thrown at the wealthy fat cats."
While Mehlman does not see capitalism as being compatible with the Christian faith, Rev. Gary Thorne, an Anglican minister and chaplain with Dalhousie and the Canadian Forces Reserves, thinks Christians should take a second look at the system.
"There’s nothing wrong with the free market system in itself," he says. "It’s how it’s used. I don’t think there’s anything inherently evil in the free market system, in supply and demand and the exchanging of goods."
He argues that the problem is not capitalism, but what people bring to it — in particular, greed and desire for wealth.
The intent of the heart is crucial in any system, Thorne says. For him, Jesus’ message is not about the market system, but about the people who make up the market.
"If the poor are those who are opposed, marginalized, persecuted and forgotten, then clearly Jesus would have us look at these people, really look them in the eye, and be with them, not just write them a cheque."
He also draws upon church history, and the beliefs of the church’s most important figures, in making his argument.
"Martin Luther, John Calvin, they were really clear. They were entirely in favour of a free market system."
He says leaders like Luther viewed it as motivation to work hard, both to earn an income and to please God.
But the most important part about acquiring wealth is the willingness to share it, Thorne says. And part of that sharing comes through paying taxes.
"Any Christian who says that we pay too much in taxes is just bonkers," he says. "They should want to give more of their money to taxes, so the government can use the money to take care of the poor."
Thorne believes the core of capitalism is working hard to acquire wealth, but that one should be willing to use the wealth to help others.
"If you acquire a great deal of wealth, you should be happy to be taxed at 75 per cent because you can live comfortably with the 25 per cent you keep."
While Mehlman thinks Jesus would question capitalism, and believes that the government cannot do the work of the church, Thorne sees no problem with a free market, but is in favour of the government raising taxes to fulfill the command to feed the poor.
Is there middle ground between the two?
Russell Daye, a minister at St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax, thinks so.
"I don’t think Jesus was flat out opposed to capitalism," he says. "He lived in what can best be described as a free market, and He contributed to it. Economies back then worked with small pools of capital, which is literally what capitalism is. But what capitalism has become now is a system filled with greed that has proven it can’t maintain itself."
Daye says that capitalism fails when greed takes precedence over compassion.
"Look at globalization. What we’ve seen with rampant, unchecked globalization is First World countries hurting the Second and Third Worlds, through child labour, destroying the environment and taking away land."
Daye says Jesus would never approve of that.
Then how should Christians respond to a system that is rampant with greed and lust for money?
Rev. Brad Close, a Christian Reformed minister, says they should try to avoid supporting it as much as possible.
"If someone wants to follow Christ, they have to realize where the money they spend is going," he says.
He encourages Christians to boycott large corporations that exploit workers or the environment, and suggests buying fairly traded products instead.
Those who claim to want to follow the teachings of Christ, but wilfully profit from an unjust system, need to realize the harm they are causing to community, he says.
"You need to come to a point where you realize what you’re doing is wrong. In that case, change it from the inside, or get out. Those are the only two choices."
Ultimately, despite some disagreement among theologians, Moore’s argument that Jesus opposed capitalism — at least, the money worshipping form of capitalism that has grown in his country — has found much support within the Christian community.
Even Pope Benedict XVI, in his most recent encyclical, condemned the greed-driven, free market systems that helped to cause the economic collapse. He also said people’s attitudes towards money must change.
It appears that the ultra-progressive Moore may have finally found an opinion with which Christians agree.
Andrew Clumpus is a journalism student at the University of King’s College, Halifax.

Media Homosexuals Bash Uganda's Christians

The Washington Post editorial page has now joined lesbian MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow in blasting the government of Uganda for considering a law to protect children from homosexual predators and the dangerous public health impact of the homosexual lifestyle. Despite its moderate views on some foreign policy issues, the Post has always come down firmly on the side of making homosexuality into a special right that should be protected and even glorified by governmental institutions. Now it wants to impose that view on Uganda's mostly Christian population.

The editorial was probably written by Post editorial writer and homosexual activist Jonathan Capehart, who wrote a blog post on January 5 griping about the Ugandan bill. Like Maddow, who has been campaigning against the legislation, Capehart falsely claimed it would make homosexuality "a crime punishable by death."

"If the law passes, Uganda should be punished by the international community," Capehart thundered. "I would love for the U.S. to strip the country of foreign aid. Nothing focuses the mind like cash deprivation."

The Post editorial says the proposed Ugandan law against homosexual conduct, including the deliberate spreading of the AIDS virus, is "homophobic" and will "foment hate." In fact, the bill is designed to save lives by curtailing the spread of homosexual conduct and a disease that kills millions.

The determination of this major paper to use its influence to impose acceptance of homosexuality on Uganda, possibly using foreign aid as a lever, is not something that generates outrage or even concern in the rest of the nation's media. Rather, a humorous skit on the David Letterman show about Obama's first openly transgender appointment is what has led to a media firestorm, with publicized demands from various "gay rights" groups for apologies from Letterman to avoid "violence" and "hate."

The silly Media Matters group is even claiming that WorldNetDaily is guilty of "bigotry" for referring to the appointee as Mitchell rather than Amanda Simpson. Mitchell was the name before the man had sex-change surgery.

There is a determined effort to prevent the media from reporting a natural reaction of revulsion to this kind of perversion. Part of that effort includes accepting the terminology of the "gay" community.

But some aren't buying. "This is a man-and by the way he is a man; he's not a woman-who is one of the leaders in crusading for so-called 'civil rights' based on gender-confused behavior," Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth was quoted as saying by onenewsnow.com "Gender identity disorder" is "a recognized mental illness that should be treated-not affirmed and protected," points out Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Indeed, according to WebMD, "Gender identity disorder typically is diagnosed by a trained mental health professional (psychiatrist or psychologist)."

But thanks to the financial largesse of George Soros, who puts money into such groups as Simpson's National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, the "right" to be highlighted as a "transgender" individual is being presented as fact.

The Post seems to find normal heterosexuality, not gender identity confusion, to be a disorder. It had previously condemned General Peter Pace for expressing his view that homosexuality is immoral. The Post was also one of the first papers to run "gay marriage" announcements.

It is clear that Jonathan Capehart's basic problem is with the Christian character of the opposition to his lifestyle.

The Uganda motto is "For God and My Country." Its national anthem, "Oh Uganda, Land of Beauty," includes the words:

"Oh, Uganda! may God uphold thee,

We lay our future in thy hand;

United, free for liberty

together we'll always stand."

This kind of language rubs some people in liberal-left circles the wrong way. Look at how "progressives" in the media are going ballistic because Brit Hume of Fox News suggested that Tiger Woods accept the Christian faith in order to clean up his life.

Capehart, a former officer of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, used to specialize in covering gay sex clubs, supposedly to expose their unsafe sexual practices. "At the YMCA after a swim, Jonathan Capehart, naked, frequently lingers under the wallmounted driers and observes men beckoning from the adjacent toilet stall," is how POZ magazine covered one of Capehart's adventures into the homosexual culture. It was an assignment, the magazine explained, for the New York Daily News, where he previously worked. He became such an expert that he emerged as a contributor to the volume, "Policing Public Sex: Queer Politics and the Future of AIDS Activism."

The Post says sponsors of the bill in Uganda are "ignorant." But perhaps they don't want the gay sex clubs that Capehart "exposed" to start appearing in their country.

What you will NOT learn from the Post editorial is that Uganda, which is 85 percent Christian, is still trying to recover from a time when King Mwanga forced his homosexuality and pedophilia on others. After Uganda began to convert to Christianity in the 1800s, a group of young Catholic Christian men, led by Charles Lwanga, refused to be sodomized by the King. As a result, they were tortured and killed. The executions are now remembered on June 3, Martyrs' Day, a national holiday in Uganda. Lwanga was made a Saint in the Catholic Church.

"We respect a nation's right to defend its culture and values," the Post says. But it won't explain why Uganda wants to defend its culture and values against the homosexual movement, which was started in this country by a supporter of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, Harry Hay.

While the Uganda bill goes too far even for pro-family activists in the United States and several provisions will probably be eliminated or modified before final passage, it does not advocate the death penalty for being homosexual. Instead, the death penalty is proposed for cases of "aggravated homosexuality," mostly involving pedophilia and rape. The bill was introduced by a Ugandan parliamentarian named David Bahati, a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement and a Christian.

While opposing anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda, Capehart is a cheerleader for Obama's pro-homosexual agenda here.

Capehart supports Obama's threat to homosexualize the Armed Forces, saying in a blog post on April 15, 2009, that "Gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve. They should be allowed to serve openly."

Capehart was taking issue with an op-ed in the Post by the founding members of Flag and General Officers for the Military, who said that, in their experience, and that of more than 1,000 retired flag and general officers who had signed an open letter to President Obama and Congress, repeal of the law against open homosexuality in the military "would prompt many dedicated people to leave the military." They noted that polling by the Military Times publication of its active-duty subscribers over the past four years indicates that 58 percent have consistently opposed repeal and that, in its most recent survey, 10 percent said they would not reenlist if that happened, and 14 percent said they would consider leaving.

When he is not writing editorials promoting the homosexual movement, he is participating in it.

Capehart traveled to San Francisco in December, where he appeared at the 25th International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference, along with openly "gay politicians" such as Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jared Polis, D-Colo.

Another speaker at the event was Jim Kolbe, an openly homosexual former Republican member of Congress who came under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix because of a 1996 camping trip he took with two male former pages, both of them 17-years-old. No charges were filed, however.

The conference program features an ad from LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered) elected officials saying they would "resist" campaign contributions from the tobacco industry because of the threat to public health posed by smoking. However, a workshop at the conference noted that HIV/AIDS "is still a deadly disease and a major health concern for the LGBT community," almost 30 years after HIV was first identified.

According to federal figures, 77 percent of adults and adolescents living with AIDS in the U.S. are male. Of this figure, 61 percent got AIDS through homosexual relations and another eight percent through homosexual relations and drug abuse. Perhaps Ugandan politicians understand the significance of these numbers.

The FAIR Foundation points out that AIDS gets far more federal money for research than 16 diseases that kill a million more people a year. But don't look for Capehart to write a Post editorial on the unfairness of this.

At a time when WorldNetDaily is reporting that the White House initially refused to publicly confirm the presidential appointment of the first openly "transgender" individual to a federal post, possibly out of embarrassment over the anticipated public reaction, it turns out that John Berry, director of Obama's Office of Personnel Management, was at the San Francisco conference with Capehart. Berry is described as "the Obama administration's highest ranking gay appointee" and probably had some role in-or knowledge of-the appointment.

Out of fear of the media reaction, most conservative politicians will be reluctant to even call for an investigation of this appointment.

On Tuesday, as reported by the New York Times, the Obama administration went one step further, inserting language into the federal jobs website explicitly banning employment discrimination based on "gender identity," even though Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council pointed out that "Congress has never passed a law saying that."

Don't look for a Post editorial from Capehart taking issue with Obama's use of executive power to benefit this special interest group.

"This new policy applies only to the federal government," Perkins says. "But there is a bill being considered in Congress, the so-called 'Employment Non-Discrimination Act' (ENDA), which would require every employer in America to open every position to homosexuals (by making 'sexual orientation' a protected category) and 'transgenders' (by protecting 'gender identity')."

Perkins says, "All American employers including Christian-owned businesses and potentially Christian ministries would be affected."

Russia Celebrates Orthodox Christmas

In Russia, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the Catholic Christmas. Orthodox Christians all over the country observed Christmas Eve on Wednesday and early Thursday morning.

[Tamara, Parishioner]:
"Christmas is a great celebration for all orthodox Christians. It's renewal, it's good; beauty and hope for a light future."

Mass began late on Wednesday evening. In Moscow, more than 800 churches held mass. And millions of people attended mass all over the country.

[Yekaterina, Parishioner]:
“As usual we are expecting only the best in the year to come. You always have hopes. You always think the life will be better."

According to Russian Orthodox tradition, Christmas is first observed with an evening mass, and then the celebration with family and friends occurs the following day. The mass lasts for several hours. Orthodox midnight mass concludes a four-week fast.
    
The Russian, Georgian Orthodox, Serbian and Jerusalem churches, Athos monasteries, some Protestants and some Catholics celebrate Christmas on January 7, according to the Julian calendar.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Orthodox Church decided to follow the old Julian calendar, which lags almost two weeks behind the new Gregorian calendar of all other Christians.

After the 1917 revolution, Christmas was banned in Russia. But Russians started to celebrate Christmas again only years later, with the break-up of the Soviet Union.
 

North Korea remains on top of watch list for Christian persecution

A women's prison at the border of North Korea at Dandong. North Korea tops a list of nations persecuting Christians for the eighth consecutive year.

For the eighth consecutive year North Korea tops the list of 50 countries regarded as the worst persecutors of Christians.
Open Doors USA has sponsored the list since 1991. The ministry supplies Christians around the globe often worshiping in secret for fear of reprisals with basic necessities and biblical material.
The list is compiled through questionnaires to field staff and other experts, said Open Doors advocacy director Lindsay Vessey. She said that Open Doors has people in 46 of the 50 countries on the list and distinguished it from State Department statistics which focus on persecution of all faiths.
While North Korea remaining on top of the list may not be surprising because of the well-known Stalinist oppression practiced by dictator King Jong-Il’s regime, Vessey said risks for Christians worshipping in secret continue to deteriorate. She said government attempts to restrict movement by assigned specific jobs or workforces to its citizens prompted the ministry to stop its shipments of food and Christian literature into the country.
“There were two of these (work detail programs) one right after the other and our people there asked us to continue in faith (with shipments),” she said. “Christians continue to meet in secret with the threat of being placed in a political prison or labor camps.”
Also in the top 10 are three countries with a high value of interest to American foreign policy.
Iran is second on the list amid the ongoing unrest since the heavily disputed re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last summer. Street battles between demonstrators demanding more openness and government forces have ebbed and flowed for months.
“With all the news that has come out of Iran in the past year there has been no focus on the fact that there has been a real crackdown on Christians during that time,” Vessey said.
Afghanistan, where 30,000 more U.S. troops are scheduled to be deployed this year, is sixth. Yemen is seventh. The country has received a great deal of attention since it is believed to have been the site of the terrorist training ground for suspected Nigerian bomber Umar Abdulmutallab who attempted to destroy a plane on a Detroit runway Christmas Day. Both Afghanistan and Yemen operate under the tents of Islamic Sharia Law which prohibits the practice of any other religions.
“There has been a lot of very good information compiled by the State Department on religious freedom, but it hasn’t been taken as seriously as it should,” Vessey said.
She said Christians interested in influencing public policy should engage elected officials, including President Obama, who has yet to appoint an at-large ambassador on religious freedom to the State Department. She also encourages concerned Christians can also become involved in advocacy against restrictive legislation in other countries to protect other overseas.
Vessey and Open Doors CEO Carl Moeller said the most sought after commodity by persecuted Christians is prayer and the knowledge that their struggles haven’t been forgotten.
“There is a strong group of Christians in North Korea and actually the number of Christians in North Korea has grown in the last 10 years,””Moeller said in a press release. “Many are coming to Christ in the Muslim world. But we need to continue to embrace them in prayer in 2010.”

Mukesh, Anil groups deny hand in YSR death

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh police have filed a case against a Telugu news channel over a report alleging foul play by the Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil in the death of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.The police have already begun a probe and are collecting evidence, including video tapes of the news footage beamed by TV5 that alleged that the Ambani brothers were behind the helicopter crash in which Reddy was killed on September 2, last year.The report last night triggered an attack by Reddy's supporters on business outlets of companies led by Mukesh and Anil, and the two groups separately accused each other of fuelling the allegations.Mukesh-led Reliance Industries today denied the allegations and called them "malicious" and "motivated" and said that it was the "dirty handiwork of our business rivals in cohoots with TV5."The Anil Ambani-led Reliance group said: "A malicious and criminal disinformation campaign has been engaged into by our corporate rivals leading to substantial loss and damage to our several offices and businesses of Reliance ADA Group in Andhra Pradesh yesterday evening."We are shocked to see our corporate rivals stooping down to new levels of desperation by engaging in such imaginative and baseless rumor-mongering."According to a senior police official, a case has been registered suo-motu against the Telugu news channel TV5.

Celebrating The Christian Feast of The Epiphany

On January 6, Italy celebrates the national holiday for the Christian Feast of the Epiphany, to commemorate the manifestation of Christ to the magi, or wise men.
But it’s also a popular tradition that La Befana – an ugly Christmas witch – gives candies and gifts to deserving children, or coal to the naughty ones.
In Rome, the tradition includes a trip to the historic center, to shop at the Christmas booths at Piazza Navona, filled with toys and gifts, and above all throngs of people.
This is a tradition that I normally gladly avoid. But this year I made the trip.
Here is a video I shot with my Flip camera … hope you enjoy and Buon Anno!
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