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UK & Euro-Asian News
Nick Squires
ABC News
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:03 EST
© Tony Gentile/Reuters
A crucifix on the wall of a classroom in Rome
Italians reacted with outrage on Tuesday after a European court ruled that displaying crucifixes in the country's schools violated the principle of secular education.
Italy's education minister condemned the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the Christian cross was a symbol of the country's Roman Catholic religion and cultural identity. Mariastella Gelmini, a member of the conservative government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, argued that "no one, and certainly not an ideological European court, will succeed in erasing our identity."
Other ministers said they were appalled by the ruling, calling it "absurd," "shameful" and "offensive."
Bob Roberts
Mirror.co.uk
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:32 EST
Gordon Brown will today try to bolster crumbling support for the conflict by claiming it is just as vital as the First and Second World Wars.
In a major speech, the Prime Minister will say the troops fighting global terror in Helmand are fighting for freedom like the heroes of the Somme and the Normandy beaches.
Yesterday, a YouGov poll showed support for the Afghanistan war collapsing after five soldiers were shot dead by a rogue policeman.
It revealed 73% of people want our troops withdrawn, and 35% think they should leave immediately, compared with 25% two weeks ago.
But Mr Brown will urge the British public to show the same resolution as the Blitz. He will say: "In the past, we learned of the bravery of British soldiers in the First and Second World Wars in their fight to protect our freedom. So our children will learn of the heroism of today's men and women in Afghanistan - protecting our nation and the world from the threat of global terrorism."
In a hastily planned speech, he will say: "Al-Qaeda, we know, continue to train and plot attacks on Britain from the region. We cannot, must not and will not walk away."
Haaretz
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:27 EST
Adolf Hitler was the manager of Germany's national soccer team, and Auschwitz was a World War Two theme park, a poll released by the Daily Mail on Friday said, questioning U.K. children aged 9 to 15.
The study, which was conducted by war veterans' charity Erskine in the run-up to Remembrance Day, tested 2,000 children for their knowledge of last century's two world wars.
One in 20, according to the poll, thought the Holocaust was the celebration at the end of the war and one in ten said the SS was Enid Blyton's Secret Seven.
The poll also showed only half of the respondents knew D-Day was the invasion of Normandy, with a quarter of those asked believing it was "Dooms Day," with another quarter thinking a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbour, spurring America's involvement in the war.
Twelve percent of respondents said the symbol of Britain's Remembrance Day is the golden arches of McDonald's, rather than the poppy.
Xinhua
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:44 EST
Five people have been confirmed dead in a village fire on Friday in Sanjiang County of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rescuers said on Saturday.
A fire-fighting official said 3,276 villagers have fallen victims to the fire, as their houses were burnt down.
The official said that the county government sent 43 fire engines and mobilized 2,500 people to put out the fire, which broke out at 2:30 a.m. Friday. The fire was put out at 7 a.m.
A government investigation team led by Zheng Junkang, mayor of Liuzhou City, which administrates Sanjiang, found the fire was caused by the malfunction of the electric switch of the rice mill owned by villager Wei Xianting. The 70-year-old man and his four-year-old granddaughter were among the dead.
Yulia Tymoshenko Official Website
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:29 EST
© Unknown
Ukraine PM Yulia Tymoshenko of the "Fatherland" party
The Verkhovna Rada has ratified the Law "On Border Control," which was submitted by the Yulia Tymoshenko government.
The law identifies the legal framework for border control, procedures and conditions for crossing the state border of Ukraine.
According to the law, passports and other documents of Ukrainian citizens, foreigners and stateless persons who are crossing the state border are checked by authorized officials of the State Border Service of Ukraine to establish that they are authentic and belong to the given person. They also determine the presence or absence of grounds for temporarily refusing a border crossing.
Reuters
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:25 EST
Ukraine may delay its presidential elections until May 2010 because of the flu epidemic, the deputy head of President Viktor Yushchenko's secretariat was reported by Itar-Tass news agency as saying on Friday.
"If the government fails to establish control over the situation with the influenza epidemic, the possible imposition of an emergency situation in the country and the postponement of the elections to May 30 (2010) are not excluded," the official, Igor Popov, was quoted as saying. The elections are due to take place on Jan. 17, 2010.
Interfax
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:20 EST
© Unknown
Sergiy Tigipko
The Ukrainian authorities are using hysteria over the flu outbreak in the country in order to distract the attention of citizens from economic and social problems, presidential candidate Sergiy Tigipko has said.
"The seasonal flu epidemic has completely pushed off the agenda the fight against the economic crisis and other really urgent social issues," the politician's press service quoted him as saying on Thursday.
"The mission of the World Health Organization is planning to study the situation in Ukraine for another two weeks, and only then draw a conclusion about the danger of the epidemic. However,
our authorities have created a sensation, although they in fact appeared to be unprepared for an annual seasonal flu epidemic," Tigipko said.
Victor Yushchenko
President.gov.ua
Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:00 EST
© Unknown
Victor Yushchenko, source of the infection?
Dear fellow citizens!
I address you in performance of my constitutional duty under the Article 106 of the Basic Law of the state.
The reason is the emergency epidemic situation in the country.
Infections of viral origin, including the A/H1N1 flu, are rapidly spreading across Ukraine.
The emergency is evident in the scale of the epidemic: the speed and the geography of its spreading, rapid progress of the illness and the exceptional number of deaths.
Monika Scislowska
The Canadian Press
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:44 EST
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday that his government won't buy vaccines for swine flu that have not been properly tested or from producers who won't take responsibility for possible side effects.
Tusk told reporters that vaccine producers were pressuring governments to buy, but were also demanding that all responsibility and compensation for possible negative side effects fall upon government shoulders.
"Today we are dealing with great pressure from pharmaceutical firms ... we are dealing with expectations that hundreds of millions of zlotys (dollars) will be spent on vaccine while no one wants to guarantee that it has no side effects," he said.
Agence France-Presse
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:21 EST
Tens of thousands of angry demonstrators rallied across Ireland on Friday to protest government plans for tough austerity measures, police and reports said.
The protests were called by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) to back its 10-point plan to spread belt-tightening -- ordered to deal with a ballooning gap in public finances -- over the next eight years instead of four.
Rallies took place in Dublin and seven other centres. Unions also threaten a national strike on November 24. In February 120,000 people took to the streets in Dublin in a similar protest before an emergency budget in April.
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