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This is just for the 'craic'
Irish dancing trio go around the world

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ITV Hub - the new home of ITV Player, ITV on demand and live TV. It's all of ITV in one place so you can sneak peek upcoming Premieres, watch Box Sets, series so far, ITV Hub exclusives and even live telly. Catch up on all the stuff you love anytime, anywhere on ITV Hub.

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Outside intervention has brought the "players" to the table in Northern Ireland - there are no winners in a war, despite what people may think. Both the British and the Irish state wanted to see positive results and involved international agencies in different roles, for example John De'Chastellan's IICD

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Independent International Commission on Decommissioning - Wikipedia

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In the event, progress on decommissioning was disappointingly slow, and the two-year target was not met. Decommissioning of PIRA weaponry was often used as a necessary condition before Unionists would agree to the full implementation of the Agreement including power sharing. Negotiations between Republican representatives and the IICD were carried out eventually and these arms were put beyond use.

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The role of Haass's predecessor George Mitchell is often mentioned as important in the Good Friday Agreement.

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Mitchell was born in Waterville, Maine. His father, George John Mitchell, Sr. (born Joseph Kilroy), was of ethnic Irish descent but was adopted by a Lebanese family when he was orphaned. Mitchell's father was a janitor at Colby College in Waterville, where Mitchell was raised.

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For those interested in a European version of this case check this out:

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On 9 July 2013 the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in the case of Vona v Hungary relating to a supremacist organisation engaged in military-style assemblies. The authorities had ultimately dissolved the organisation following its attempt, blocked by police, to march through a street inhabited by Roma families. In the context of protecting the rights of the Roma community from racist expression, the Court found this action against Magyar Gárda was compatible with the ECHR.

The grounds on which states may restrict assemblies and association under Article 11(2) of the ECHR, when lawful and proportionate to do so, are not limited to the 'prevention of disorder' but also include the 'protection of the rights and freedoms of others'. Parade-related and other expression can be restricted on this ground, which refers to the recognised human rights of others and not for example parades which 'offend, shock or disturb', as it has been long established that the ECHR protects such expression ( Handyside v UK, 1976). The more complex question has always been the threshold question of when a state is permitted, or even obliged, to impose restrictions.

The Vona case will no doubt be compared with the 2012 judgment of Fáber v Hungary which related the seizure of Árpád-striped flag associated with the fascist 1944/45 Arrow Cross regime being held by a counter protestor to an anti-racist demonstration. Despite the demonstration taking place on the banks of the Danube where large numbers of Jews had been massacred by the regime the Court held it had not constituted intimidation, and the arrest and fine against the protestor for the mere display of the flag had been disproportionate. This set a high threshold for sanctioning protestors in the circumstances of that case.

The case of Vona also relates to a group with affiliations to the Arrow Cross regime. A Magyar Gárda movement and association had been set up with the stated aim of preserving Hungarian traditions and culture, but engaged in clear racist discourse targeting the Roma minority in 'defence' of the 'ethnic-Hungarian' majority. A number of military-style parades and rallies had been held across Hungary often targeting areas with Roma populations. The case focuses not on the assemblies per se but on the drastic subsequent sanction of the ordering the dissolution of the organisation, following its attempt to march past Roma homes in the village of Tatárszentgyörgy. The Court, in the particular context of the case, unanimously found this action was compatible with ECHR Article 11. A lengthy concurring opinion from Judge Pinto de Albuquerque emphasises international obligations to sanction racist expression, and the Court had already held, in Asku v Turkey, there is a positive duty on states to protect persons against racist expression. The principal Council of Europe treaty body dealing with anti-racism has
characterised sectarianism in Northern Ireland as a form of racism. Given this and the interface between free expression, assembly and association the judgment therefore provides some interesting material as to what thresholds and contexts of sectarian expression are likely to be accepted as legitimate grounds to restrict assemblies.

As well as the ECHR protecting ideas which could shock and disturb, the Court in Vona did reiterate groups could not be restricted on the basis they created 'uneasiness' in groups of citizens or that some may perceive them as disrespectful. Rather such action should only be taken when organisations were a 'hotbed for violence' or incarnated a negation of democratic principles, such as the promotion of discrimination or ethnic division. A domestic court held Magyar Gárda "had made a programme about discrimination between people and expressed it by way of marches in several cases" and the European Court shared the view of the domestic courts citing that the activities and expressions of the group were targeted at the Roma. Notably the domestic courts had held this despite Magyar Gárda not being explicitly constituted as a racist group but rather given it had created an anti-Roma atmosphere by its actions. The European Court concurs it "may only be in light of the actual conduct of such demonstrations that the real nature and goals of an association become apparent", indicating a mere denial that a
groups aims or actions are racist will not suffice.

In relation to the impact of the form of expression the domestic courts considered the marches, given the military-style appearance of their participants, as having amounted to a "demonstration of power and to threatening others." The European Court cited the domestic judgements as having regarded Magyar Gárda as having "created an anti-Roma atmosphere by verbal and visual demonstrations of power" and held public authorities are entitled to take restrictive measures "if the right to freedom of assembly is repeatedly exercised by way of intimidating marches involving large groups" and the measures are necessary needed to avert large-scale, coordinated intimidation related to the advocacy of racially motivated polices. The Court held, particularly when ethnic groups are singled out, the state can protect the right of targeted groups to live without intimidation. The Court emphasised that although there was no actual violence at the march, its paramilitary nature was problematic given as this means the groups discriminatory message was "accompanied by the physical presence of a threatening group of organised activists" and hence that it was capable of "conveying the message to those present that its organisers had the intention and the ability to have recourse to a paramilitary organisation to achieve their aims, whatever they may be." The Court contextualised this threat to the historic associations and context of its association with the past racist violence of Arrow Cross, and held in that context the reliance of an association with paramilitary demonstrations, accompanied by racist discourse, "must have an intimidating effect on members of a racial minority."

The Court considered that the repeated organisation of the rallies was capable of intimidating others and affecting their rights, it elaborated that this was "notably given the location of the parades" which had been held in proximity to Roma populations. Vona referenced a concept emphasised in the domestic courts that Roma residents were a 'captive audience' of the parades and, given their locations they "had not been in a position to avoid the extreme and exclusionary views" which they articulated. The judgement concurred that the intimidating effect of the actions of the Magyar Gárda on the Roma minority was particularly the case when they were in there homes as a 'captive audience', indicating proximity is a relevant consideration.

Vona held that actual individual violations of the rights of others or actual disorder did not have to take place in order state to justify action against Magyar Gárda. Rather that the state could take preventative measures if the prejudice to the rights of others (in this case the Roma, and the potential impact of further racial segregation) was sufficiently imminent. The Court held the Magyar Gárda activities, as well as being anti-Semitic, were quite clearly targeted at Roma minority and in such circumstances authorities cannot be required to await further developments before intervening for the protection of the rights of others.

On a number of levels Vona therefore does take forward ECHR jurisprudence on the 'threshold' questions regarding the factors and contexts of where protected freedom of expression ends and where unprotected racist expression begins.

The European Roma Rights Centre, who intervened in the case, have posted a summary of the judgement on their website and have further commentary on a guest post on the Strasbourg Observers blog.

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Sectarian/racist expression and restricting parades to protect the rights of others: implications of Vona v Hungary

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On 9 July 2013 the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in the case of Vona v Hungary relating to a supremacist organisation engaged in military-style assemblies. The authorities had ultimately dissolved the organisation following its attempt, blocked by police, to march through a street inhabited by Roma families.

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What an interesting -and thought-provoking- event. Balancing everyone's rights is certainly complicated! One thing that came to mind while reading some of the comments below is the protests against an Islamic Centre (with a large focus and space dedicated to creating interfaith dialogues) that was proposed to be built near the site of the 11th September attacks. Some contrasting info: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/06/new.york.ground.zero.mosque/ andhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/nyregion/26muslim.html?_r=0

I also kept thinking of this quote from Evelyn Hall (often attributed to Voltaire): "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". Difficult advice to follow when deep emotions are involved as in many of the examples discussed here.

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"The pain never goes away," Mr. Hanson said. "When I look over there and I see a mosque, it's going to hurt. Build it someplace else."

Jean Grillo, 65, a writer from TriBeCa, said shutting out any faith undermined American values. "What better place to teach tolerance than at the very area where hate tried to kill tolerance?" she said.

The proposed center, called the Cordoba House, would rise as many as 15 stories two blocks north of where the twin towers stood. It would include a prayer space, as well as a 500-seat performing arts center, a culinary school, a swimming pool, a restaurant and other amenities.

The group behind the project, the Cordoba Initiative, is seeking to make major structural changes to the five-story building at 45 Park Place, which was built in the late 1850s in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style.

The group needs the approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which could decide as early as July if the building merits historic protection.

In addition, the center faces intense opposition in the United States and abroad. Over the past few days, Community Board No. 1, which represents Lower Manhattan, was flooded with hundreds of calls and e-mail messages about the proposal, most of them from outside New York, according to Julie Menin, the board's chairwoman.

Some of the board members who abstained said they wanted time to learn more about the Cordoba Initiative, but the board rejected a motion to delay the vote a month.

The days leading up to the vote were marked by a feverish exchange of words, culminating in remarks about Muslims from a leader of the Tea Party, Mark Williams, that were widely dismissed as racist.

But Mr. Williams was not the only critic. Many families of Sept. 11 victims fervently opposed the proposal, saying they were offended by the idea of building a prayer space so near the site.

"That should be a serene site," Bill Doyle, a leader of a group of 9/11 families, said in a telephone interview. "Now you're going to see protests and demonstrations there all the time."

City officials, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn; and the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, have rallied behind the proposal.

The City Council has the power to overturn decisions on landmarks, but Ms. Quinn pledged on Tuesday to help shepherd the center to completion.

"I'm very confident we could find a way for both the landmark concept and the development of the mosque to move forward," she said.

The center is estimated to cost $100 million, but exactly how the Cordoba Initiative will finance the project remains unclear.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has led services in TriBeCa since 1983, told the board the center would help "bridge and heal a divide" among Muslims and other religious groups.

"We have condemned the actions of 9/11," he said. "We have condemned terrorism in the most unequivocal terms."

The center is expected to create more than 150 full-time and 500 part-time jobs, and it would offer a range of cultural events, modeled on the 92nd Street Y.

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Local Board Endorses Muslim Center Near Ground Zero

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"The pain never goes away," Mr. Hanson said. "When I look over there and I see a mosque, it's going to hurt. Build it someplace else." Jean Grillo, 65, a writer from TriBeCa, said shutting out any faith undermined American values. "What better place to teach tolerance than at the very area where hate tried to kill tolerance?"

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What an interesting -and thought-provoking- event. Balancing everyone's rights is certainly complicated! One thing that came to mind while reading some of the comments below is the protests against an Islamic Centre (with a large focus and space dedicated to creating interfaith dialogues) that was proposed to be built near the site of the 11th September attacks. Some contrasting info: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/06/new.york.ground.zero.mosque/ andhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/nyregion/26muslim.html?_r=0

I also kept thinking of this quote from Evelyn Hall (often attributed to Voltaire): "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". Difficult advice to follow when deep emotions are involved as in many of the examples discussed here.

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New York (CNN) -- Protesters gathered in lower Manhattan mid-day Sunday to demonstrate against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

Protest organizer Pamela Geller, a conservative blogger, and her group, "Stop the Islamicization of America," planned the event because, according to the group's website, "Building the Ground Zero mosque is not an issue of religious freedom, but of resisting an effort to insult the victims of 9/11 and to establish a beachhead for political Islam and Islamic supremacism in New York... Ground Zero is a war memorial, a burial ground. Respect it."

Geller said the NYPD and security at the rally told her about 5,000 demonstrators were there. But NYPD spokesman Sgt. Kevin Hayes said the police department's policy is to not provide crowd estimates and that he could not confirm Geller's number.

CNN iReporter Julio Ortiz-Teissonniere, who attended the rally and sent photos to CNN, said the number was closer to 200-300 while he was there for the first 45 minutes of the event. All three said the protest was peaceful.

Human rights advocates, politicians and families of 9/11 victims addressed the crowd. Both Geller and Ortiz-Teissonniere said those family members elicited a powerful, emotional response from the protesters.

Geller recently told CNN's Joy Behar that no one's telling the mosque's planners they can't build it, but "We're asking them not to."

"We feel it would be more appropriate maybe to build a center dedicated to expunging the Quranic texts of the violent ideology that inspired jihad, or perhaps a center to the victims of hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars, land enslavements, cultural annihilations and mass slaughter," Geller said.

The project calls for a 13-story community center including a mosque, performing art center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.

It is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

The Cordoba Initiative aims to improve relations between Muslims and the West.

"The Cordoba Initiative hopes to build a $100 million, 13-story community center with Islamic, interfaith and secular programming, similar to the 92nd Street Y," its website says, referring to the cultural institution on the upper East side of Manhattan.

Daisy Khan of the American Society for Muslim Advancement told CNN it was a "community center with a prayer space inside."

She said the project was an opportunity for American Muslims living in New York to "give back" to the community.

"There is a lot of ignorance about who Muslims are. A center like this will be dedicated to removing that ignorance and it will also counter the extremists because moderate Muslims need a voice," she told CNN. "Their voices need to be amplified."

Local political leaders turned out in support of the community last month after Mark Williams of the conservative Tea Party Express reportedly said the mosque was for "the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god."

"To make room for peace there can be no room for hatred, bigotry or prejudice," City Councilman Robert Jackson said at the May 20 demonstration.

The project has the backing of the Community Board of lower Manhattan. It does not require city permission to go ahead.
iReport: Protests against mosque near Ground Zero
The plan has split people touched by the September 11 attacks.

"Lower Manhattan should be made into a shrine for the people who died there," said Michael Valentin, a retired city detective who worked at ground zero. "It breaks my heart for the families who have to put up with this. I understand they're [building] it in a respectful way, but it just shouldn't be down there."

Others such as Barry Zelman said the site's location will be a painful reminder.

"(The 9/11 terrorists) did this in the name of Islam," Zelman said. "It's a sacred ground where these people died, where my brother was murdered, and to be in the shadows of that religion, it's just hypocritical and sacrilegious. "

But Marvin Bethea, who was a paramedic at ground zero, said it was "the right thing to do."

"I lost 16 friends down there. But Muslims also got killed on 9/11. It would be a good sign of faith that we're not condemning all Muslims and that the Muslims who did this happened to be extremists," he said. "As a black man, I know what it's like to be discriminated against when you haven't done anything."
CNN's Nicole Bliman, Richard Greene and Mark Morgenstein contributed to this report.

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Protesters descend on Ground Zero for anti-mosque demonstration

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New York (CNN) -- Protesters gathered in lower Manhattan mid-day Sunday to demonstrate against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

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There were 4 cases.
In one BA had told an employee she could not wear religious symbolic jewellery to work ( a cross in this case) and 7 years later the court ruled that she should have this right.
However in another case the court found the NHS was right to refuse this right to a nurse on health and safety grounds
"The four decisions, contained in one judgment, stressed the principle that religious liberties should not trump other human rights. Freedom of religion, the court stated, as "one of the foundations of pluralistic, democratic societies" but "where an individual's religious observance impinges on the rights of others, some restrictions can be made".

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After seven years of legal appeals and accusations that Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs, the European court of human rights has ruled that a British Airways check-in operator should not have been prevented from wearing a cross at work.

After seven years of legal appeals and accusations that Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs, the European court of human rights has ruled that a British Airways check-in operator should not have been prevented from wearing a cross at work.

Nadia Eweida, 60, was jubilant over her landmark victory, declaring it a "vindication" for Christians, after the court awarded her €2,000 (£1,600) in compensation for the "anxiety, frustration and distress" she endured.

While the finely tuned judicial compromise does not establish an absolute right for every employee to wear a crucifix, or religious symbol, visibly at work, it will help define the limits of religious freedom.

The decision on Eweida, a Coptic Christian working at Heathrow, was welcomed by David Cameron and others across the political spectrum.

Equally significant in the court's complex ruling, however, was its determination that three other Christian applicants - Lilian Ladele, 52, a local authority registrar who lives in London, Shirley Chaplin, 57, a nurse from Exeter, and Gary McFarlane, 51, a Bristol marriage counsellor - who also claimed they had suffered religious discrimination, should lose their appeals.

The four decisions, contained in one judgment, stressed the principle that religious liberties should not trump other human rights. Freedom of religion, the court stated, as "one of the foundations of pluralistic, democratic societies" but "where an individual's religious observance impinges on the rights of others, some restrictions can be made".

In Eweida's case, the Strasbourg court did not criticise UK law but said British courts failed to balance competing interests in the case adequately. On one hand was Eweida's desire to display her religious belief; on the other was the employer's wish to project a certain corporate image.

"While this aim was undoubtedly legitimate," the judgment said, "the domestic courts accorded it too much weight ... the fact that [BA] was able to amend the uniform code to allow for the visible wearing of religious symbolic jewellery demonstrates that the earlier prohibition was not of crucial importance."

The prime minister, who intervened in the debate last summer by saying he might change the law, was among those who welcomed the ruling. Cameron wrote on Twitter: "Delighted that principle of wearing religious symbols at work has been upheld - ppl shouldn't suffer discrimination due to religious beliefs." In Chaplin's case, superficially almost identical to Eweida's, the judges unanimously decided the UK courts had resolved competing rights equitably. Chaplin stressed the importance for her to be allowed to bear witness to her Christian faith by wearing a crucifix visibly around her neck at work. But the Strasbourg judges said the fact that hospital authorities had asked her to remove it for the protection of health and safety and to prevent infections spreading on a ward "was inherently more important". Hospital managers, the judges agreed, "were well placed to make decisions about clinical safety".

Appeals by the other two claimants,Ladele and McFarlane were dismissed on the grounds that the disciplinary proceedings against them were justified. Ladele had been sacked by Islington council for not being prepared to conduct civil partnership ceremonies between same-sex couples. McFarlane was dismissed from his job after indicating he might have a conscientious objection to providing sex therapy to a same-sex couple on account of his Christian faith.

Both Islington council and the charity Relate were bound not to discriminate against their clients and therefore could not support staff who refused to work with homosexual couples, the court said.

After the ruling, Eweida, who lives in Twickenham, said: "I'm very pleased that after all this time the European court has specifically recognised ... that I have suffered anxiety, frustration and distress. It's a vindication that Christians have a right to express their faith on par with other colleagues at work visibly and not be ashamed of their faith."

"I'm disappointed on behalf of the other three applicants but I fully support them in their asking for a referral for their [appeals] to be heard in the [European court's] grand chamber, and I wish them every success in the future to win."

Andrea Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre, which supported the cases, said: "We are delighted that the cross has been recognised and indeed that Nadia has won her case."

In the cases of Ladele and McFarlane, she complained, sexual rights had been given priority over religious liberty: "[The judges said] that if an employer has an equalities policy and says there should be no discrimination in any way on the grounds of sexual orientation no matter what your Christian belief is that the sexual orientation rights win."

A BA spokesman said Eweida had worked continuously for the company for 13 years. "Our own uniform policy was changed in 2007 to allow Miss Eweida and others to wear symbols of faith and she and other employees have been working under these arrangements."

But the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission said it believed "the government should now look at the need to change the law to take the European court judgment into account". In the meantime, it added, it would publish guidance for employers and employees," to help them avoid further confusion and potentially costly litigation".The archbishop of York, the Most Revd Dr John Sentamu, struck a more cautionary note, insisting that courts should not have any power to prevent individuals wearing religious symbols. "'Christians and those of other faiths should be free to wear the symbols of their own religion without discrimination," he said.

"The Equality Act 2010 encourages employers to embrace diversity - including people of faith. Whether people can wear a cross or pray with someone should not be something about which courts and tribunals have to rule."
Topics

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Landmark victory for BA employee over right to wear a cross at work

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After seven years of legal appeals and accusations that Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs, the European court of human rights has ruled that a British Airways check-in operator should not have been prevented from wearing a cross at work.

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"This is because an ethnic group does not have legal personality as though it were an entity itself and it has no legal existence separate from the individuals..."

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Companies whose profits or reputation have been damaged can also claim. Non-trading corporations can also claim where they can prove that their fiscal situation has been affected, or their property damaged.

Once the 2013 Defamation Act comes into force it will be necessary for comments to have caused 'serious harm' for them to be considered defamatory. Serious harm equates to serious financial loss for businesses.

Compensation for defamation can sometimes be difficult to quantify - an organization or individual could quantify the amount for which they should be compensated if they have hard evidence of financial loss due to being defamed - for example, if a company loses business after being defamed, or an individual loses work, they can point to specific financial losses which occurred as a result of being targeted by libel or slander.

However, defamation can have negative consequences in ways beyond the purely financial - defamation can be a source of great distress and emotional turmoil for the defamed party. General damages can be sought to compensate the claimant for the impact on their reputation.

Groups which cannot make defamation claims

Trade unions are excluded from claiming for defamation, though individuals who are part of a union may claim if they are personally mentioned or are damaged.

Groups who are not considered to exist as an entity with legal personality cannot claim for defamation. This means, for example, that groups of people who are racially abused, unless they are targeted as individuals, cannot claim for defamation.

This is because an ethnic group does not have legal personality as though it were an entity itself and it has no legal existence separate from the individuals who constitute it; instead the rights of the group are enshrined in each individual who makes up a part of the whole.

If an individual from that group is targeted for specific racial abuse, they are able to claim for defamation. Defamation is unlike other cases of compensation in that there is no possibility of a posthumous claim on behalf of an individual. If a claim has been begun then it will cease with the death of the claimant.

Time limits for defamation claims

A defamation claim generally has only a year from the act of slander or libel in which to commence. Urgent legal advice should be sought regarding the time limit applicable in a particular case.

Other legal topics that may interest you

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Who Can Claim for Defamation? | Libel & Slander | Law on the Web

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Companies whose profits or reputation have been damaged can also claim. Non-trading corporations can also claim where they can prove that their fiscal situation has been affected, or their property damaged. Once the 2013 Defamation Act comes into force it will be necessary for comments to have caused 'serious harm' for them to be considered defamatory.

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It was interesting to read the related storify responding to the question : ' does London still need an lgbt parade'? My feeling is that , aside from counteracting the homophobia that still exists in the UK ( for which the pride parade plays an important role ) in an age of widespread media coverage and social networks which spread news across the globe quickly and affordably, the pride parade is an important and necessary event as it is always inclusive, even to those who are absent. Katyal has written this great and insightful article about the effects of the parade ( and opposition to it) across what she defines as the ' LGBT diaspora' as a cultural route of connectivity which can transform national politics in an age of the global

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Statistical projections of the influx of foreign tourists during the World Cup show that it won't be bigger than the regular number of these visitors.

Every day it seems more and more clear that this is about FIFA, big companies and the government embezzlers making more money for themselves.

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Are we going to discuss the role of social media in these events? This is fantastic:

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Supporters of a local Colombian soccer team took to the streets after having been duped into believing that their team had won the national championship, local media reported on Tuesday.

Fans of the Junior Barranquilla soccer team were conned by a false twitter statement that said their team were the victors in last week's championship due to a technicality, according to La Semana magazine.

Several fraudsters invented an elaborate hoax claiming that the Major League Soccer organization (Dimayor) had stripped Atletico Nacional of their title for having too many men on the field during the second half of the championship game.

The jokers went even further and concocted a story that Junior's president, Fuad Char, had confirmed the false story on Twitter despite the fact that he doesn't even have a Twitter account.

The story was so convincing that another Twitter account specializing in soccer with over 32,000 followers called "Todo Sobre Futbol" (All About Soccer) took the story as gospel and ran with it.

As a result, thousands of fans took the streets of Barranquilla on Monday night with loud-speakers, whistles, and confetti in celebration of their team's alleged "victory."

Miren celebración y que Junior Campeón jaja eyyyy averiguen primero vale pic.twitter.com/Iy2ot7wu8Y

- ❤SOY DE JUNIOR❤ (@liduispetulante) May 27, 2014

A video was also uploaded on youtube depicting the mass celebration, which included a caravan of livid of supporters reeling with pride.

The euphoria only lasted about two hours; however, when everyone realized that they had been duped, but that didn't stop fans from staying out until the early hours on Tuesday.
MORE: Nacional wins Colombia's soccer championship in final shoot-out
Colombia's championship soccer match between Atletico Nacional and Junior took place last Wednesday with Nacional being the clear winners.

Sources

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North Colombia soccer fans tricked into celebrating victory that never happened

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Supporters of a local Colombian soccer team took to the streets after having been duped into believing that their team had won the national championship, local media reported on Tuesday. Fans of the Junior Barranquilla soccer team were conned by a false twitter statement that said their team were the victors in last week's championship due to a technicality, according to La Semana magazine.

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Political and religious events obviously exclude people with different views - some more so than others. Events like the commemoration of war dead can inspire both patriotism and bitter opposition. For example, there was controversy in England in 2010 when an Islamist group announced plans to protest at Wootten Bassett, a town famous for honouring service personnel killed abroad.

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A radical Islamist group has cancelled plans to hold an anti-war march through a town famous for honouring the UK's servicemen and women killed abroad.
Members of Islam4UK had planned to march through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, to honour Muslims killed in the Afghanistan conflict.

The government had been considering outlawing the group, which is said to have extremist links.

Earlier this week, Gordon Brown said plans for the march were "disgusting".

Families of soldiers who died in Afghanistan had condemned the planned march, and MPs signed a motion calling on the home secretary and local authorities to prevent the protest.

Wootton Bassett has become the focus of public mourning, with hundreds lining the streets every time hearses carrying the repatriated bodies of killed UK service personnel are driven through the town from nearby RAF Lyneham.
'Maximum publicity'
On Sunday, a statement from Islam4UK's leader, Anjem Choudary, said it had "successfully highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan".

"We at Islam4UK have decided, after consultation with others including our Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, that no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett," he said.

The group denied members had planned to carry 500 empty coffins through the town.

Islam4UK had previously said it had chosen Wootton Bassett to create maximum publicity.

The News of the World reported on Sunday that Home Secretary Alan Johnson would outlaw the group on Monday.

The newspaper said comments made by senior members of Islam4UK and on websites breached the Terrorism Act.

A Home Office spokesman said the final decision on whether to ban the group rested with Mr Johnson but he would not confirm the plan.

"Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism," he said.

"Decisions on proscription must be proportionate and based on evidence that a group is concerned in terrorism as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000."

North Wiltshire MP James Gray said he was "extremely glad" Islam4UK had abandoned its plans, and he also condemned Mr Choudary's actions as a "media stunt".

"He was trying to make a political statement, the whole announcement was to get media coverage - he admitted that himself - and he achieved it. He received lots of coverage," he said.

Mohammed Shafiq, from the Ramadhan Foundation, said Mr Choudary had been deliberately provocative.

"His attempt to demonstrate at Wootton Bassett was set out to provoke hatred between communities and is not welcomed in the Muslim communities," he said.

"He and his cronies have no support in the British Muslim communities."

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Islamists cancel Wootton Bassett protest plans

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A radical Islamist group has cancelled plans to hold an anti-war march through a town famous for honouring the UK's servicemen and women killed abroad. Members of Islam4UK had planned to march through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, to honour Muslims killed in the Afghanistan conflict.

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People who like dressing up as pirates get the chance every year at the Brixham Pirate Festival which attracts buccaneers from all over the country - photos herehttps://www.google.co.uk/search?q=brixham+pirate+festival+2014&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=sW6LU8DqL8jZPKiygfgO&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=929&bih=367
This event is exclusive - people who don't like pirates have to keep clear of the town for 3 days.
Other towns may set up pirate festivals, but Brixham's is the original and the best.
Pirates even have their own political party now. Former pilot Bob Curtis says pirates are not very nice people.

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brixham pirate festival 2014 - Google Search

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I think certain sporting events such as football, baseball, and basketball. Other sporting events can be quite exclusive. I will provide some links below concerning the problematic of traditionally "white" sports or sports teams and the inclusion of minorities, but especially the peoples of African descent. Some recent examples are European soccer, American and European tennis, and American ice hockey.

Many musical concerts provide great public spaces of inclusion.

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Cam Neely: Racist fans don't represent Boston Bruins

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I think certain sporting events such as football, baseball, and basketball. Other sporting events can be quite exclusive. I will provide some links below concerning the problematic of traditionally "white" sports or sports teams and the inclusion of minorities, but especially the peoples of African descent. Some recent examples are European soccer, American and European tennis, and American ice hockey.

Many musical concerts provide great public spaces of inclusion.

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I think certain sporting events such as football, baseball, and basketball. Other sporting events can be quite exclusive. I will provide some links below concerning the problematic of traditionally "white" sports or sports teams and the inclusion of minorities, but especially the peoples of African descent. Some recent examples are European soccer, American and European tennis, and American ice hockey.

Many musical concerts provide great public spaces of inclusion.

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Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
After Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward sent the defending-champion Boston Bruins home for the summer with his overtime goal in Game 7, a number of fans unleashed racial slurs toward Ward following the loss.

The Bruins released a statement on their web site Thursday regarding the racist comments:

"The Bruins are very disappointed by the racist comments that were made following the game last night. These classless, ignorant views are in no way a reflection of anyone associated with the Bruins organization."

Here are a few of the tweets from fans after Ward's goal, courtesy Black Sports Online.
Warning: These tweets are NSFW and contain strong language.
Here is the video of Ward's overtime goal, as called by Capitals radio announcer John Walton.

Ward responded to the racist tweets, telling Kevin Allen of :

"It doesn't faze me at all," Ward said. "We won, and we are moving on. ... People are going to say what they want to say."

"I think it is just kids," Ward said. "It has no effect on me whatsoever. I've been playing this game long enough and I've not had any encounters of that nature."

I would agree that many of these tweets are from kids who are not mature enough to refrain themselves from this behavior.

While that doesn't make the behavior any less wrong, it highlights a problem with today's social media. Anyone can publicly express their thoughts on a certain situation without thinking, and many of these individuals, whether they are kids or not, don't think there's any consequence to their actions.

Not all Bruins fans took part in the racism seen on twitter following Game 7, which is important to understand. There's no reason to label a fanbase of millions of people based on the actions of a small number of fans.

Ward also told USA Today that a lot of fans have supported him:

"I'm definitely getting a lot of support," Ward said. "There have been a lot of Boston fans who have supported me, which is very cool to see. No hard feelings from me. This is a game."

It's normal and understandable to be mad after a heartbreaking Game 7 loss, but this sort of hatred is not the proper way to express one's frustration.

This situation involving Ward is just another example of fans taking the outcome of sports way too seriously. Fans often send vulgar letters, make hateful comments via Twitter, and even send death threats to athletes as a result of sports games.

Ward's agent, Peter Cooney, responded to the racism on Twitter, saying via The Globe and Mail:

"It's appalling," he said. "Where we are in North America now, it's hard to believe we still have that prejudice. It's disturbing. It's really disgraceful."

Cooney added that Ward is doing his best to ignore the comments.

"He's put it in his back pocket, so to speak," Cooney said. "He knows he's going to have interviews and people talking about it. He's heard about it, but he said 'Peter, don't worry - that stuff never bothered me.'"

In today's world of Twitter and other forms of social media, these vulgar comments and racism, while despicable and hateful, are unfortunately expected from fans after sporting events.

Fans need to understand that voicing their opinions on Twitter will be heard, and the people that the message is intended for will be affected.

The level of respect among players, as well as fans needs to improve for the sport of hockey to prosper. Even though there's a lot at stake in the Stanley Cup playoffs, at the end of the day, it's just sports.

There's no need to ruin what's great about sports with these kinds of racist comments.
Follow @NicholasGoss35 Nicholas Goss is a Boston Bruins Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and has covered the team firsthand throughout the season. He was also the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Final in Boston.

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NHL Playoffs 2012: Boston Bruins Fans Unleash Racial Slurs in Response to Loss

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Bruce Bennett/Getty Images After Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward sent the defending-champion Boston Bruins home for the summer with his overtime goal in Game 7, a number of fans unleashed racial slurs toward Ward following the loss.

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I think certain sporting events such as football, baseball, and basketball. Other sporting events can be quite exclusive. I will provide some links below concerning the problematic of traditionally "white" sports or sports teams and the inclusion of minorities, but especially the peoples of African descent. Some recent examples are European soccer, American and European tennis, and American ice hockey.

Many musical concerts provide great public spaces of inclusion.

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In his forthcoming book, Richard Williams asserts in vivid terms that he and his daughters Venus and Serena were attacked with racist venom from the mostly white crowd at the tournament at Indian Wells, Calif., in 2001.

In "Black and White: The Way I See it" (Atria Books), Williams again calls it a day that "disgraced America."

He writes:

The chorus of boos that cascaded through the stadium sent a powerful message to America, to Venus, to Serena, and to me. It was a message from the past, one America tries to put behind it but can never forget. It was a snapshot from the days when the open humiliation of the black race was accepted without question. Accusations and racial epithets flew through the stadium.

The book, due out on May 6 and co-authored by Bart Davis, will do little to quell the 13-year-old controversy or diminish Williams' reputation as a polarizing figure.

The episode began when Serena and Venus Williams were slated to meet in the 2001 Indian Wells semifinals. A few minutes before the match, Venus withdrew and fans booed them.

Some media and players speculated that Williams was orchestrating the pullout so that his daughters would not have to face off, but Williams writes that Venus had a knee injury and made the decision to withdraw herself.

He says they did "everything by the WTA book" and blames tournament officials for delaying the announcement of her withdrawal.

In the final, Serena received a mix of cheers and jeers but went on to win against Kim Clijsters.

When Venus and her father walked to their seats, they were met with a mix of boos and heckles. Williams has always maintained he heard racial insults directed at him, many of which he recalls with excruciating detail in the book.

Venus and Serena vowed they would never return. They have not, despite fines and efforts by tour and tournament officials.

Others who were present at Indian Wells and that have subsequently reported on the event have painted a more nuanced picture, notably Joel Drucker in a 2009 story for ESPN.com.

In January, Serena stoked prospects that she might return to Indian Wells when she made conciliatory comments at the Australian Open and then left her name on the tournament's entry list - a departure from previous years.

She eventually removed her name and has been largely silent on the topic despite comments from her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, that she had considered playing as early as last year.

Asked at the Charleston event this month if Serena's decision to keep her name on the entry list was an accident, Mouratoglou laughed and said: "Probably not."

"If she didn't do it for 10 years, why did she did it this year? There's probably a reason," he said.

A rambling tale of Williams' poverty-stricken life growing up in Shreveport, La., "Black and White" describes the beatings and psychological abuse he experienced and that shaped his philosophy of life, which centers on faith, confidence, courage and commitment.

Some of the stories stretch credulity, and unfortunately, it sheds little light on the stunning story of the sisters' rise from the Compton, Calif., ghetto to iconic, sport-altering figures.

Together, Venus and Serena own four Olympic gold medals each and 39 Grand Slam titles, including 10 of the last 14 Wimbledon singles crowns.

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Serena and Venus Williams' father details Indian Wells incident in new book

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In his forthcoming book, Richard Williams asserts in vivid terms that he and his daughters Venus and Serena were attacked with racist venom from the mostly white crowd at the tournament at Indian Wells, Calif., in 2001. In "Black and White: The Way I See it" (Atria Books), Williams again calls it a day that "disgraced America."

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I think certain sporting events such as football, baseball, and basketball. Other sporting events can be quite exclusive. I will provide some links below concerning the problematic of traditionally "white" sports or sports teams and the inclusion of minorities, but especially the peoples of African descent. Some recent examples are European soccer, American and European tennis, and American ice hockey.

Many musical concerts provide great public spaces of inclusion.

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For those who wan to follow he sorry we end last weeks Google hangout with Northern Ireland First Minister came out and backed the Pastor that suggested he did not trust any Muslims:

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The north Belfast Pastor who described Islam as "heathen" and "satanic" has said he was touched Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson had spoken in support of him.

Mr Robinson defended James McConnell and said that he would not trust Muslims involved in violence or those devoted to Sharia law.

He said, however, he would "trust them to go to the shops" for him.

Mr McConnell said he was surprised Mr Robinson had spoken in his defence.

"I didn't want him to get into trouble over me," he told the BBC's Nolan Show on Wednesday night.

"He didn't really need to do that, because when a man talks like that his career is at stake."

Police said they were investigating "a hate crime motive" after complaints about Mr McConnell's initial remarks, made during an address at Belfast's Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle Church.

However, on Wednesday night, Mr McConnell said police had not spoken to him.

"What are they investigating? It's freedom of speech, I'm allowed to say this," he said.

A police spokesman said on Thursday: "No arrests have been made. Inquiries are continuing."

Mr McConnell told his congregation on 18 May "a new evil had arisen" and "there are cells of Muslims right throughout Britain".

"Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell," he said.

Mr Robinson said that Mr McConnell had been demonised because of his remarks, and that there "isn't an ounce of hatred in his (the pastor's) bones".

The first minister, who made his remarks in an interview with the The Irish News newspaper, said he had attended the evangelical church in the past.

He added that it was a duty of any preacher to denounce what he described as "false prophesy".

He went on to say that he would not trust Muslims either, particularly with regard to those who had been involved in violence, or those who are "fully devoted to Sharia law, I wouldn't trust them for spiritual guidance".

However, Mr Robinson said he would trust Muslims to "go down to the shops" for him or to deal with a number of other "day to day issues".

Both Mr McConnell's original comments and Mr Robinson's defence of the pastor have been widely criticised.

Comments criticised

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin called on Mr Robinson to show leadership in promoting equality, tolerance and mutual respect for all.

In response, Mr Robinson said on Twitter that he would not "take lectures from a self-confessed leader of a bloody terrorist organisation".

Stormont Justice Minister David Ford said: "Frankly, it sounds like the kind of language that would have gone down well in South Africa a few years ago or the southern parts of the United States half a century ago."

The Equality Commission's chief commissioner Dr Michael Wardlow said he was dismayed by Mr Robinson's comments.

Khalid Anis from the Islamic Society of Britain said he was shocked that a prominent politician in a position of leadership could speak "with such a double tongue".

The Muslim Association of Britain said: "The pastor's comments not only hurt thousands of Muslims living peacefully in Northern Ireland, but also promote hatred and bigotry against all Muslims in the UK.

"The words of Mr Robinson demonstrate his lack of leadership, when as a representative he should be sensitive to the constituents he represents."

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The north Belfast Pastor who described Islam as "heathen" and "satanic" has said he was touched Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson had spoken in support of him. Mr Robinson defended James McConnell and said that he would not trust Muslims involved in violence or those devoted to Sharia law.

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BF have visited Blackburn - Golding with a camera crew in tow touring motels, taxi offices etc warning staff to be on the lookout for paedophiles ( BF helpfully dished out leaflets explaining what to look for and how to call their hotline.)

Al Jazeera article has several points of interest. No mention of the BNP/BF/EDL's symbiotic rivals MDL. (AFA and Red Action were much more serious about the work.)
I would add the caveat that accessibility to mosques is dependent on sectarian attitudes which are prevalent in some.

At the core of much of this is a group of young men and their elder role models that like the buzz. For all the serious column inches and those genuinely put in fear by the existence of such groups, the reality is that it is very similar to football firms. Indeed many involved will mix political and football violence as part of their diet of feeling involved and vital.
The point holds though that nobody changed their mind after a shoeing.

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The leader of the EDL's political wing, the British Freedom Party's Paul Weston, has this evening been arrested outside of Wormwood Scrubs prison where Stephen Lennon is being held. We are amused. Lennon is being held in Wandsworth Prison!

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for the record 14,838 votes and the rest is history.

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Thames Reports discuss the Valley Party campaign in Greenwich prior to the 1990 local elections.

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I would say the answer to this is mixed. Athletes from the north participate in both Irish and UK teams. Some people are quite partial in this however others show pride in athletes competing for either team. There are issues. Take a look at this story:

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"There is a rule in the Olympics that a player who has represented one nation at a previous world championship for a certain country will carry on with them."

That would apply to McIlroy, who played for Ireland in the world championship at both amateur and professional levels and in the World Cup of Golf as a pro.

Dawson has been in discussions with the International Olympic Committee, with which he holds a lot of sway, and, Telegraph Sport has learnt, with McIlroy himself.

Dawson is clearly determined to push through the judgment.

"I would very much like to take this burden of choice away from the player if we can possibly do it, because it's not fair to him," Dawson said.

"I think he's made it pretty clear in one of two pronouncements that he's worried about it and the last thing we want is players worrying about this."

McIlroy came under fire in Ireland when he hinted that he might choose Britain, saying he "felt more British than Irish".

After that comment he received abusive messages on social networks, hate mail and was criticised on Irish television and radio, leading him to issue an open letter to his fans outlining his quandary.

Later he threatened to sidestep Rio, so as "not to offend anyone".

Another Northern Irishman who will be happy with the news is Graeme McDowell. Indeed, McIlroy's World Cup partner pleaded with the IOC to take such a course of action.

"The Olympic Committee should either step and tell us either 'you guys are playing for Ireland' or 'you're playing for Great Britain'," McDowell said last October.

"We are in a unique scenario in Northern Ireland in that we have one foot in each team. So it's going to be a lot easier if someone makes the decision for us.

"Obviously Rory's come under a lot of scrutiny for saying he might play for Great Britain. I come from a mixed-religion family.

"My mum's Catholic and my dad's Protestant. And my mum would probably like me to play for Ireland, and my dad might like me to play for Britain.

"But then I always kind of sit on the fence because that's exactly the only place I can sit. I'd play for whatever team would have me come 2016."

Both McDowell and McIlroy came under the Golf Union of Ireland umbrella when growing up as that body oversees the amateur game in both the south and the north.

Dawson also revealed that the remaining permits for the course being built for the Olympics have finally been granted.

The construction, being overseen by the acclaimed golf course designer Gil Hanse, has been stalled for more than six months because of the Brazilian red tape.

Anthony Scanlon, the executive director of the International Golf Federation, under whose auspices the Olympic golf tournament is conducted, expressed his fears last month.

"There is now very little time available to construct and condition a championship-standard golf course," he said. The course is due to be opened in 2015 to stage a test event.

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Rory McIlroy to play for Ireland not Great Britain at Rio Olympics in 2016

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Rory McIlroy’s dilemma concerning which country he will represent when golf returns to the Olympics in 2016 looks to be over after the Royal & Ancient revealed on Tuesday that the authorities were ready to instruct him to play for Ireland, not Great Britain.

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his webpage explains the open ceremony by the Technical Director, Piers Shepperd, who "said last night's event was the best yet and proof the UK leads the world in staging such extravaganzas. A number of technologies were used for the first time and a range of British companies helped deliver the audacious showpieces."

I felt that what was being shown was where Britain had come from ... with an ironical ending about what we might be loosing. Though the technical brilliance of the extravaganza is what can be achieved.

As Dominic says, it was telling Britain's story, and if you could see the actors in the arena, from peop;le of the Britain's diverse culture.

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The technical director of the Opening Ceremony, Piers Shepperd, said last night's event was the best yet and proof the UK leads the world in staging such extravaganzas.

A number of technologies were used for the first time and a range of British companies helped deliver the audacious showpieces.

Shepperd revealed some of the secrets behind a ceremony which wowed thousands of spectators inside the Olympic stadium and billions of TV viewers around the world.

One of the most breathtaking sights came when the green and pleasant fields were subsumed by Britain's industrial age as seven huge smoking chimneys appeared to rocket up from deep below the earth.

When deflated, the chimneys, which were hidden in pits below the stage, sat at only three and a half metres. Within moments, they were rapidly inflated to a towering 30 metres.

The winches that lifted them from above were attached to a huge bicycle wheel network of high tensile strength cables spanning the stadium.

This "flying system" was also used to levitate the five 1.8 tonne flaming Olympic rings and the squadron of soaring Mary Poppins.

Collectively, the wire network could hoist up to 25 tonnes - the weight of five elephants.

High above the wires, the most talked about moment of the ceremony saw a helicopter arrive with two stunt doubles pretending to be the Queen and James Bond parachuting out.

Mr Shepperd said the organisers worked closely with the Civil Aviation Authority to ensure the helicopter was able to arrive at the exact time.

The two parachutists veered off to the right on descent and actually landed on a bridge outside the venue - behind where the Queen made her entrance into the stadium.

Back on ground level, 15,000 square metres of staging were used in the show - the equivalent of 12 Olympic sized swimming pools.

A total of 500 speakers and 50 tonnes of sound equipment made the million-watt PA system - double the amount of speakers on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival.

The show telling the story of Britain did rely on some assistance from beyond the UK's shores.

Chinese digital media company Crystal CG International provided the technology that saw computer-generated images blanket the seats of the stadium at points through the show.

This effect was achieved with the use of 70,000 digital "paddles", each with nine lights, which combined into a wave of colour crashing around the stadium, controlled by a central computer.

But for all the innovation, a show is nothing without the actors:

There were 7,500 cast members in total

In the long hours of rehearsals and for the show itself, they donned 57,000 garments

Around 40,000 recycled plastic water bottles and 10,000 recycled plastic bags were incorporated into the costumes

The whole thing was filmed by independent production company Done and Dusted

The opening ceremony lasted just over three hours

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behind the scenes at the london 2012 opening ceremony. sport

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Behind the scenes at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony

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The technical director of the Opening Ceremony, Piers Shepperd, said last night's event was the best yet and proof the UK leads the world in staging such extravaganzas. A number of technologies were used for the first time and a range of British companies helped deliver the audacious showpieces.

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London: Inclusive for spectators. World Olympic Games for competitors is inclusive:http://www.swimsa.org/Modules_BE/AdminConsole/Contentmanager/data/file/POLICY-GENERAL-SELECTION-CRITERIA-FOR-THE-OLYMPIC-GAMES-LONDON-2012.pdf
12th July: Inclusive for parades’ people and for spectators. Appears exclusive for Christianity, for example, there are no references to other countries in the images.
Canada Day: From the images it is difficult to identify the three groups’ separate identity therefore the images are inclusive as they have merged into one group. However as there are no obvious foreign people the images are exclusive to Canadian people in the images- are other nations invited to attend?

In the UK we have Wales Biodiversity Week, National Bike Week, Manchester Mega Mela, International Women’s Day, Movember to name but a few with each cutting across cultural boundaries.

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In Mumbai all the festivals are celebrate with great passion and togetherness. But one event which bring them all together is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_Marathon which is held every year and every one wants to be a part of it to show their support toward a cause. There is one more event which bring in all the mumbaities together ishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi irrespective of their caste and religion everyone wants to be part of this event. They come together to welcome and immersion of God.

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The festival celebrates Lord Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the god of wisdom and intelligence and is observed throughout India, especially in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Telangana, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, and is usually celebrated privately at home in states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

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In Mumbai all the festivals are celebrate with great passion and togetherness. But one event which bring them all together is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_Marathon which is held every year and every one wants to be a part of it to show their support toward a cause. There is one more event which bring in all the mumbaities together ishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi irrespective of their caste and religion everyone wants to be part of this event. They come together to welcome and immersion of God.

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The Mumbai Marathon (known as the Tata Mumbai Marathon for sponsorship reasons by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)), is an annual international marathon held in Mumbai, India, on the third Sunday of January every year. It is the largest marathon in Asia as well as the largest mass participation sporting event on the continent.

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In response to your comment about the World Cup and Brazilian feeling surrounding it, I came across this really interesting article on Aljazeera yesterday:
Beyond Samba, sex and soccer: The World Cup riots in Brazil

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Only 22 years old, the footballer known simply as "Neymar" is far more than the " face of Brazilian soccer". Since donning the iconic, canary yellow and blue kit for the first time, Neymar has sidestepped defenders as if dancing the samba, and raced up and down the pitch with the cavalier and carnival spirit definitive of Brazilian football.

As Neymar sprints into his prime, Brazil is primed to host its first World Cup in 64 years. This year's tournament, furnishes the Brazilian government with a rare opportunity to showcase its greatest export on its home soil. Brazil and football are synonymous: A conflation the state has engineered to carry forward its policies inside and outside of the country. Its iconic lineage of soccer stars, starting with Pele and ending with Neymar, provide the state with single-named ambassadors known and loved all over the world.

Through football and its stars, the state has crafted a global image of Brazil that - until recently - has distracted from the range of racial, economic, political and intersectional ills plaguing the South American giant. While playing abroad, the Brazilian football team embodied the stereotypical trilogy that has come to define the nation for the rest of the world: samba, soccer and sex.

However, this time the World Cup will be staged at home. And Brazil is set to host the World Cup during an impasse over riots ripping through the country. The majority of these riots or protests, are led by youth, aptly titled " Generation June", who embody a portrait of Brazil that threatens the state's neatly crafted global image.
Can Brazil afford the World Cup?
Brazil has spared no expense for the upcoming World Cup. The month-long competition will feature 64 matches in 12 cities across the country. Refurbishing old stadiums and building new ones has cost Brazil $3.6bn. Several of the new stadiums will seldom be used after the World Cup, and Brasilia's World Cup stadium is estimated to have cost taxpayers $900m.

Tack on an additional $7bn bill for infrastructure, this makes this World Cup an extremely costly one for Brazil, and more specifically, its growing population of unemployed and underemployed, neglected and mistreated citizens. Broken down, each World Cup match will cost Brazil roughly $62m.

Popular protests across Brazil focus squarely on the state's excessive spending on World Cup preparations and planning, in addition to draconian tactics displacing the poor from coveted communities. The state has cut expenditures and public programmes targeting poor and working-class Brazilians. From the vantage point of these communities, the nexus is clear - a fraction of the billions spent on World Cup stadiums, lodging for tourists, and cosmetic projects could have cured a number of ills plaguing the people.

Put simply, these preparations reveal that this is a World Cup intended for the country's elite and affluent tourists to enjoy, at the expense of Brazil's rising indigent and working class segments. Instead of improving urban housing or public transportation, raising the pay of government workers or funding much-needed social projects benefitting the country's rising poor, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff gave a blank check to Sports Minister Adelo Rebelo.

Her assignment was clear: Showcase Brazil's most prized product and players while the world's light shines brightly on it. The unholy trinity of samba, sex, and soccer will draw millions of tourists that pour in billions of dollars into the nation's economy during the World Cup's month-long competition. Dollars likely not to trickle into the communities that gave us Pele, Romario and Rivaldo, nor earmarked at improving the quality of life of millions of poor and working class Brazilians.

Between Neymar and the nameless

His sun-kissed skin, exuberant smile and flair on the pitch personify how the world has come to see the South American nation. One that promises fun and sun, carnival and carnal pleasure. All of this is carefully packaged to lure soccer and sex tourists, corporate sponsors, and the billions of dollars they bring into the country. The advertisements plastered throughout Brazilian cities leading up to the World Cup feature the youthful Neymar, offering to the world a carefully marketed, yet misleading image of its youth.

Brazil's protesting youth, however, are little like Neymar. Their struggle harkens back to the heroes of yesterday, such as Romario and Rivaldo, who both hailed from humble beginnings to hoist the Word Cup trophy for Brazil in 1994 and 2002, respectively. Not surprisingly, both Romario and Rivaldo are among the most vocal critics of FIFA and the Brazilian government's exorbitant expenditures for this summer's World Cup.

Romario, a congressman from Rio de Janeiro, listed a range of public programmes in need of a fraction of the cost of those vital resources. A Brazilian Horatio Alger who pulled himself from poverty by his soccer cleats, Romario embodies the struggles of the young protestors in a way Neymar does not.

Yet for every Romario, there are millions of Brazilian youth whose dreams of donning the canary yellow outfit are permanently deferred. A long way from brandishing a wicked kick on the pitch, these anonymous youth have been sidelined by economic, racial and political injustices which sparked popular protests against a World Cup millions of marginalised Brazilians cannot win. Their World Cup is on Brazil's streets, not in its multi-million dollar state-of-the art stadiums.

Largely young, black and brown protestors, hailing from indigent or working class backgrounds, began to organise protests last year. The protests include students and street kids, state employees and unemployed college graduates. FIFA and the Brazilian government want nothing more than to hide these youth and their demands, from the world's gaze. Yet, they have been protesting for more than a year and seem poised to march forward even after the World Cup kicks off.

On May 16, the riots took a violent turn. Security forces were deployed to violently quell the "Day of Action" protests in Rio, and the state's aggressive attack on a police union strike in Recife ended with seven deaths. Organisation among protestors, on social media and on the ground, is growing stronger as the World Cup nears, while the state's desperate attempts to hide them has resulted in increased police profiling and violence, mass incarcerations and death.

With Rousseff and Rebelo dismissing the "riots [as having] nothing to do with World Cup", the protests are sure to swell after the matches begin on June 12, and swarm around the very stadiums where they are played. The protestors are also well aware of the tourists filing in, the scores of journalists and their cameras, and the billions of eyes all locked on Brazil, which provide an unprecedented platform to amplify their grievances and shame their government.

The millions of sidelined youth, protesting outside of stadiums, will neither don yellow nor kick around the ball with the Brazilian flair the world has always known. They are marching to demand the basic necessities the state has denied them while a $900m stadium in a city with no club team has been built; these protesters are calling for livable wages while the pockets of World Cup handlers grow fatter.

The stakes of this face-off - for Brazil's people - are much higher than any match played inside Brazil's multi-million dollar stadiums. They march for food, better schools, livable wages, and recognition from the state. Winning on the streets, for the protesters, means far more than Brazil winning a World Cup at home. Victory will come with World Cup viewers and tourists seeing their protests and hearing their demands, forcing the world to acknowledge the millions of Brazilians living beyond the samba, sex and soccer mirage.
Khaled A Beydoun is the Critical Race Studies Teaching Fellow at the UCLA School of Law.

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Beyond samba, sex and soccer: The World Cup riots in Brazil

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Only 22 years old, the footballer known simply as "Neymar" is far more than the " face of Brazilian soccer". Since donning the iconic, canary yellow and blue kit for the first time, Neymar has sidestepped defenders as if dancing the samba, and raced up and down the pitch with the cavalier and carnival spirit definitive of Brazilian football.

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I think it was Sen. George Mitchell who said that at least in Northern Ireland, you could take both sides out for a beer. He couldn't do the same in Israel-Palestine though, since the Jews and the Palestinians have their specific and often contradictory diets that inhibit them from coming to the same table.
...
Except these guys:

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Most Canadians may not recognize the names Yotam Ottolenghi And Sami Tamimi...but they soon will.

The London-based Israeli and Palestinian duo have been credited with causing a worldwide craze for Middle Eastern cuisine with the launch of their wildly popular cookbook, last year.

They're also behind a very successful mini empire of restaurants in London, including Nopi and the Ottolenghi group of delis.

But their personal story is even more compelling. They were born in the same year in 1968, grew up in the same divided city, Jerusalem - Ottoloenghi from the Jewish Western side and Tamimi from the Arab East.

As secular, gay adults, they both moved on to Tel Aviv at around the same time, even going to the same restaurants, but still never met until they'd both moved to London. It wasn't love, but it an almost instant friendship and 13-year long business relationship that has brought both growing fame (and presumably a small fortune) with the over-the-top effusive praise and cult-following of their cookbooks.

We sat down with the chefs at the Chatelaine Kitchen in Toronto during the North American launch of their original book, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, about "Jerusalem fever," wild eating adventures and their love of poutine.
What do you make of the Jerusalem craze and Middle Eastern food now coming into fashion?
Tamimi: It was meant to happen. We started the whole thing with introducing people to the Middle Eastern flavours and ingredients and now there's this big wave, which is really good because we always said that the Middle East food had a bad reputation of grubs and greasy kebabs and stuff that you basically eat after you've been out drinking.

Ottolenghi: The funny thing is there's always been good books about Middle Eastern food and I guess you could also find it in some restaurants but the impression that most people had was like Sami says, it was very flat...

Tamimi: Cheap falafel...

Ottolenghi: Or a very bad version or a very superficial version of the food, but people thought it was only that. It's actually a very rich food culture and you find lots of ingredients that never make it to the kebab shop, so it was meant to happen. I think we were cut lucky to come at a time when there was an openness to a new cuisine. There is great enthusiasm all over the world for different kinds of ethnic cuisines, so we were quite lucky to cook with those ingredients at this time.

But I don't think our food is necessarily Middle Eastern. Jerusalem is because that's the focus of the book. But Ottolenghi has got a lot of Middle Eastern flavours but none of the recipes are really traditional. We don't have a hummus or a falafel or anything; it's more like the food that we make which is kind of modern and uses quite a bit of those flavours but is not necessarily Middle Eastern, it's more generally Mediterranean in a way.
Interview continues below slideshow: What does "Canadian" food mean to you?
Ottolenghi: I have to say maple syrup, right? I also had the most amazing Canadian thing when I was in Boston. It's amazing, it's so delicious. I think it's considered trashy but it's so good. It's like these chips with the gravy and the cheese? I thought it was stunning.
What is one of the first things you crave to eat when you return to your hometown, whether it's London or Jerusalem?
Ottolenghi: I would pick Jerusalem (as home). I miss kubbe, I love kubbe, fried kubbe, which you can get in some places but it's not really good outside the Middle East - with the bulgur wheat on the outside and meat in the middle, and pine nuts.

Tamimi: London is home for me.

Ottolenghi: What do you crave?

Tamimi: Good question actually.

Ottolenghi: Maybe I can answer for you?

Tamimi: Yeah.

Ottolenghi: Maybe Yorkshire pudding at Sunday lunch.

Tamimi: Sunday roast maybe.
What's your favorite food to make for yourself at home after a boozy night out?
Tamimi: We don't really have that but my favourite thing to eat when I'm alone is a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Ottolenghi: For me, it's a sandwich with my mom's mayonnaise. She makes the best mayonnaise and we have it in the fridge always because I always bring it when I go back home, with some pastrami or some pulled meat.
What's your favourite poison?
Ottolenghi: I love vodka, just neat. Very good Russian vodka. I can drink a lot and I don't get drunk...it just goes amazingly well with nice, heavy food, and you can drink a lot.

Tamimi: German Riesling, this is my favourite at the moment.
If you could prepare only one last meal, what would it be?
Ottolenghi: For myself? I would never cook on my deathbed.

Tamimi: I would probably do okra with lamb and rice.

Ottolenghi: That's nice. Can I eat it after you die?

Tamimi: It's my dream, my last meal!

Ottolenghi: I'd like to have pasta with sage, butter and lemon.
What is the wildest thing you've done in a kitchen, culinary or otherwise?
Tamimi: In Tokyo, we were sitting at a bar, we were eating and we were served a live baby fish in a shotglass with yuzu.

Ottolenghi: Was it delicious?

Tamimi: It tasted like sea.

Ottolenghi: I don't think I've done anything weird or crazy.

Tamimi: You didn't eat monkeys' bums?

Ottolenghi: No, monkeys' bums, no...if I've eaten daring things, one of the things that I found quite troubling was when I ate sheeps' brains in Morocco a few years ago, but straight off the skull. They just cut the thing open and you spoon out the brain. That was pretty wonderful and quite disgusting at the same time.
What is the best restaurant that no one's ever heard of?
Tamimi: I discovered this place called Duck Soup in London. They serve kind of modern English - very, very, very, very simple and it's a stunning place.

Ottolenghi: Trangalan is a great restaurant. It's in Stoke Newington in London. It's a Spanish restaurant and they serve basically a very limited menu of Spanish dishes, Galician. Tapas or small dishes mainly and the chef is just really, really good with balancing the flavours. It was quite stunning.
What would you be doing if you couldn't be a chef?
Ottolenghi: I would have probably been a news journalist. I am in a way, I write about food, but I'm really a news freak.

Tamimi: A painter.

Ottolenghi: He paints really well...You can still be a painter. He's very good at it, he's creative.
What is your favourite cheap food thrill?
Tamimi: Hot dogs.

Ottolenghi: Really good popcorn with lots of butter.
What is the most memorable food city in the world?
Tamimi: I would say Hanoi.

Ottolenghi: I would say Tokyo, although Hanoi is very close. Hanoi is amazing, I agree with Sami. It's kind of got the best street food in the world.

Tamimi: It's very clean flavour. Lots of herbs that we like; it's spicy, black-peppery and every day they go to the market and buy things and cook them. They don't keep things for the next day.
Which Canadian restaurants have you been to and would recommend?
Ottolenghi: We had a great meal for lunch today with Bonnie Stern. We went to Rose and Sons. We had...everything. Delicious.

'Grilled' is a new regular chef interview that runs every other week. Who would you like to hear from next? Let us know at canadaliving@huffingtonpost.com.

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Yotam Ottolenghi And Sami Tamimi Get 'Grilled' On Jerusalem Craze, Mideast Cuisine And Poutine

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Most Canadians may not recognize the names Yotam Ottolenghi And Sami Tamimi...but they soon will. The London-based Israeli and Palestinian duo have been credited with causing a worldwide craze for Middle Eastern cuisine with the launch of their wildly popular cookbook, last year.

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Mumsnet - the UK's most popular parenting website. Advice, support, reviews, discounts, competitions and much more

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Mumsnet makes parents' lives easier by pooling knowledge, advice and support on everything from conception to childbirth, from babies to teenagers. Join the discussion, from parenting to politics and all the juice in between.

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I think sport is a powerful example of the possibilities. The Olympic ideals themselves express a type of global citizenship. But sport is also a vehicle for particularism. As you suggest, in a divided society it is undoubtedly a policy tool.

Check out he work of Peaceplayers International along with he Irish Football Association, Gaelic Athletic Association and Ulster Rugby:

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For anyone interested in the problem with the relationship between the State and Nationalism ... take a look at this great map of geopolitical anomalies.

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As the title indicates, only a selection of geopolitical anomalies are indicated on the map. Many more are ignored, including the Basque nationalist movement, the Catalan nationality seeking status as a nation, the British bastion of Gibraltar, and the Spanish North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla-and that is merely for Spain and environs. In regard to colonial remnants, those of France are emphasized, as they are particularly extensive, scattered, and of diverse geopolitical status. A comprehensive map would have to be so involved as to be virtually unreadable. As noted below, some places, marked with # 's, are so geopolitically complex as to defy labels.

Many of the selected places have been analyzed in GeoCurrents, as linked to below (note: links are functional only through the letter "s"). The other, I hope, will the subjects of future posts.

Armed "Cease-Fire" Statelet: The United Wa State in northern Burma (Myanmar) indicated. The United Wa State is a well-armed narco-statelet, that had long been an a cease-fire relationship with the Burmese government. That relationship is now in doubt. Ethnic militias abound around the peripheries of Burma, some of which have signed similar cease-fire agreements with the government.

Autonomous Country: Faroe Islands indicated.The Faroe Islands, like Greenland, form an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Despite being under the sovereignty of Demark, and despite being in Europe, they are not part of the European Union.

Autonomy & Insurgency: Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the Philippines indicated. A section of Mindanao and most of the Sulu Archipelago have been granted limited autonomy within the Philippines, but that has not stopped the Muslim insurgency in the region, in part because of the autonomous region's restricted boundaries. State-sanctioned private militias have also played a role, undermining the notion that the state itself has a monopoly on the "legitimate" use of violence.

Bipolar Country, Currently Split: Libya indicated. Libya formed a relatively coherent country until recently, but it was always deeply split east from west. It is currently divided largely along those lines.

City State: Singapore indicated. Strictly speaking, city-states are not nation-states, as they lack an adequate territorial extent. Following the standard world model, most observers predicted economic disaster for Singapore when it gained independence in 1965. They were spectacularly wrong. Singapore's military requires agreements with other Southeast Asian countries to give it adequate room in which to train.

Collapsed State: Somalia indicated. Somalia ceased to be a functioning state and a coherent country in 1991, yet it continues to be mapped as sold and sovereign state. The territory controlled by its internationally recognized government continues to fluctuate, but it often encompasses little more than a few neighborhoods of Mogadishu. That government is always described as "transitional," but it is far from clear what it is "transitioning" from and to.

Composite Country of Four Nations: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland indicated. The U.K. is the sovereign entity that is officially composed of four nations (England, Scotland, Wales, and (Northern) Ireland. For several athletic purposes, Ireland as a whole is a nation once again.

Defeated Insurgent State: Northern Sri Lanka indicated. Northern and part of eastern Sri Lanka formed an insurgent state for decades until defeated in 2009. According to some reports, the area is now treated essentially as an occupied territory. It will take some time to see whether Sri Lanka can become an coherent state. Nation-state status seems out of the question for the time being, considering the high levels of antipathy between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority.

Divided State: Cyprus indicated. Cyprus is supposedly a single-island country, but in actuality it is divided into three sovereign entities. The Republic of Cyprus occupies most of the southern portion of the island. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized as a sovereign state only by Turkey, occupies most of the north. A buffer zone separates the two states. In addition, the U.K. maintains sovereign control over two military bases, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, on the island.

Encapsulated State: Lesotho indicated. The oddity of Lesotho, a country completely surrounded by another (South Africa), is often overlooked. Such encapsulation compromises Lesotho's sovereign integrity. The world's only other encapsulated countries are micro-states (San Marino and the Vatican City).

France: Réunionand French Guiana indicated. Réunionand French Guiana, like Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, are integral parts of France and hence of the European Union as well. France is thus (in part) a South American country, just as the EU is a South American organization.

French Territory: Kerguelen and other French Sub-Antarctic islands indicated, as well as Saint Pierre and Miquelon Islands off the coast of Canada. S aint Pierre and Miquelonform a remnant of France's once vast North American empire.France also controls the sizable (2,800 square miles/7,200 square kilometers) Kerguelen archipelago in the south Indian Ocean.

Global Commons?/Overlapping Wedges: Antarctica indicated. Antarctica is often regarded as a global commons, but seven countries maintain partially overlapping, wedge-shaped claims to the ice-bound continent.

Incongruous Commonwealth: Puerto Rico indicated. Puerto Rico, like the Northern Mariana Islands, occupies an incongruous geopolitical position. It is not fully part of the US, but neither is it a mere dependency (as are Guam, American Samoa, etc). Puerto Rica is instead officially classified as a "commonwealth." Four U.S. states (Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts) also have official "commonwealth" status. There is no connection between the two kinds of commonwealths. In fact, in neither instance does the term "commonwealth" have any real meaning at all.

Kingdom of Multiple Countries: Netherlands indicated. Several former Dutch colonies in the Caribbean are now classified as constituent countries of the Kingdom the Netherlands.Denmark is also a kingdom of multiple countries.

Legal Buffer: Zone of Excision: Sea-space around northern Australia indicated. Australia maintains a large oceanic buffer for the purposes of keeping out illegal immigrants. Australian islands within this zone occupy an anomalous geopolitical position.

Legal Autonomy: Aceh in northern Sumatra indicated. Aceh's seemingly interminable insurgency came to an end in 2005 when the it was granted substantial autonomy as a Special Region of Indonesia. It enjoys legal as well as political autonomy, and has broadly and controversially instituted Sharia (Islamic law).

Maoist Lands: Upland Areas of Eastern India Indicated. Vast tracks of land in eastern India are not effectively controlled by the Indian government, due to the presence of Maoist insurgents.

Mostly Claimed by Neighboring State: Guyana indicated. Venezuela claims more than half of Guyana's territory.

Multiple Enclaves/Exclaves: The India/Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan, and Belgium/Netherlands borders are indicated. These boundaries between these countries cannot de drawn as straight lines, as exclave/enclaves abound.

Multiple State Claims: Spratly Islands indicated. All or part of the Spratly Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, resulting in pronounced international tension.

Narco-Territories: Scattered areas in northern Mexico indicated. To the extent that the Mexican government is fighting a real war against narcotics traffickers in its own territory, its sovereignty over the lands in question is severely compromised.

Non-Autonomous Autonomous Areas: Xinjiang, and Tibet in China indicated. Several large areas of China have been designated as "autonomous areas" due to the presence of large, indigenous non-Han Chinese populations; little if any real, autonomy, however, has ever been granted. Movements for independence, or at least real autonomy, are active in both areas. Tibet in particular has a large "virtual" movement for independence, found on the internet.

Non-Territorial Sovereign Entities: Rome indicated. The Vatican City is an widely recognized sovereign state, but its realm consists of a cluster of buildings-an area hardly large enough to constitute a genuine territorial state. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Knights of Malta), recognized as sovereign by 104 states, is also headquartered in Rome. Its sovereignty might be said to extend over two buildings.

One Country, Numerous "First Nations": Canada indicated. The indigenous peoples of Canada are officially designated as "first nations." Considering as well Quebecoise separatism, Canada can hardly be considered a nation-state.

One Nation, Two States: Korea indicated. The Koreans in general have an extremely strong sense of national identity, but the nation has been split between two antagonistic states for decades.

Permanently Leased Sovereignty: Guantanamo Bay in Cuba indicated. Guantanamo Bay is officially part of Cuba, but the United States controls it, and exercises effective sovereignty over it, through an unbreakable lease. The minimal annual payments made by the U.S. government are never redeemed by Cuba.

Proclaimed but Non-Existent States: Communitarian Republic of Moskitiaand Republic of Hau Pakumoto indicated. In both cases, indigenous groups demanding independence have declared their own sovereignty, but such declarations have little meaning, and are essentially ceremonial.

Protectorate: Bosnia and Herzegovina indicated. Bosnia and Herzegovina is recognized as a sovereign state, but it does not function as one, being split between a "Serb Republic" ( Republika Srpska) and a barely functional "Bosniak-Croat Federation" (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Ultimate authority for the country as a whole is in the hands of the European Union's High Representative, making Bosnia and Herzegovina something of an EU protectorate. The division between "Bosnia" and "Herzegovina," moreover, is largely historical and has no bearing on the country's actual divisions.

Protracted Insurgency: Indonesian portion of New Guinea indicated. Western New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s through a process that most international observers regardas underhanded. A smoldering but widespread insurrection has been going on ever since. Similar problems have occurred elsewhere in eastern Indonesia.

Quasi-Colonial Financial Refuge: Cayman Islands indicated. The Cayman Islands, like several other islands and island groups in the Caribbean, are legally autonomous British dependencies, which allows them to engage in shady and highly profitable financial dealings.

Quasi-State Special Administrative Regions: Hong Kong and Macao indicated. Hong Kong and Macao are officially part of China, but they have their governments, legal codes, and border controls. When it comes to international statistics, they are often tallied as if they were independent countries.

Rebellious Panhandle: Caprivi Strip of Namibia indicated. Countries ideally have compact shapes, but not all do. Namibia's narrow Caprivi Strip gives the country a particularly aberrant form, which it acquired from the German imperial drive to obtain a access to the Zambezi River for its the colony of Southwest Africa. The Caprivi Strip has long been the site of insurgent activities.

Stateless Nations: Greater Balochistan, Kurdistan, and Oromia indicated. A number of relatively coherent nations-groups of people with a common political identity aspiring to independence-have no state of their own. Among the largest of these so-called stateless nations are Kurdistan, partitioned among Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, Balochistan, divided among Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, and Oromia, a region of Ethiopia.

Sui Generis Collectivity. New Caledonia indicated. New Caledonia is a possession of France; its geopolitical position is so anomalous that it is officially designated as "Sui Generis Collectivity." (geocurrents.info/geopolitics/new-caledonias-unique-troubles)

Theatrical Insurgency. Chiapas Mexico indicated. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation has declared "war" on Mexico, but its struggle is in large part theatrical.

Tribal Wars: Papua New Guinea indicated. With hundreds ethnic groups, Papua New Guinea (PNG) lacks effective control over much of its territory, where small-scale tribal wars are common. A more organized and protracted insurgency has long smoldered in the mineral-rich island of Bouganville, part of PNG politically, but physically joined to the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands are another unstable country, plagued by conflict between the residents of the islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita. Much of Melanesia forms an "arc of instability" that has required periodic intervention by Australia and other countries. (geocurrents.info/geopolitics/tribal-war-and-natural-gas-in-papua-new-guinea; geocurrents.info/geopolitics/ethnic-strife-and-cultural-solidarity-in-melanesia).

Uncontrolled Lands: Central, southern Sahara indicated. Vast stretches of the Sahara Desert are not under the effective control of any government, regardless what our maps tell us. Tribal groups and Islamist militants vie for control in many areas.

Unrecognized Dependent State. Nagorno-Karabakh indicated. Nagorno-Karabakh styles itself an independent state, but in actuality it is joined with Armenia. According to the international community, it is part of Azerbaijan.

Unrecognized Puppet State: Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) i ndicated. Transnistria is a de facto independent state that the international community regards as part of Moldova. Many consider it to be a Russian puppet state.

Unrecognized State in "Free Association" With Another: Cook Islands indicated.The Cook Islands are in "free association" with New Zealand, just as the Federated States of Micronesia are in "free association" with the United States. But the Cook Islands, unlike FSM, is not counted as an independent country by the international community.

Vanquished Areas. Darfur indicated. The insurgency in Darfur has largely been broken, but that does not mean that the region has been reintegrated in a meaningful sense into the state of Sudan, let alone the nation.

Vast French Sea-Space: French Polynesia indicated. France, like several other countries, has a number of far-flung dependencies and exclaves, many of which are archipelagic. As countries are granted 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zones around each island that they control, France in effect retains a vast oceanic realm.

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As the title indicates, only a selection of geopolitical anomalies are indicated on the map. Many more are ignored, including the Basque nationalist movement, the Catalan nationality seeking status as a nation, the British bastion of Gibraltar, and the Spanish North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla-and that is merely for Spain and environs.

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This course has given me much information and broadened my knowledge, especially about the issues in NI, which hitherto I had only seen through the UK Press/TV news reports. But I have never been as shocked by them as I was by the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71xFuIiXMZw that Betsy Tsai noted. Whatever bigotry the two opposing factions in NI show is actually doubled as they support it by laying claim to bigotries from the Israel/Palestine conflict. Where is nationalism, let alone identity in all this? How can 'Im a British Protestant square with 'love' as was said, for a completely different country in the Middle East? Is it the same as Kennedy's famous 'Ich bin ein Berliner' (NOT meaning a doughnut)? The calm explanations, valuable as they are, given by Milena and Dominic and others, frankly seem futile in the face of what came over to me as sheer lunacy. I cling to the idea that after all, I was seeing a small minority and most people in NI are nice and sane.

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Belfast and Israel-Palestine conflict (BBC Documentary)

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Every Summer here in Varna we have The Varna Summer Festival which runs from May through to October with events taking place all over the city. Orchestral concerts, Opera, International Ballet Competitions and International Folklore as well as Jazz and even Harmonica Evenings. All of the events are free or just a few Leva to enter which makes the culture accessible to all.
As Varna is a tourist destination it is very inclusive and welcoming.

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Top 3 best places for summer vacation near Varna ...

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In my area there are ethnic events which are very much open to all, for example they is an annual Caribbean festival in the local park, it is very much promoted as an event for all to attend and celebrate no matter regardless of ethnic identity. I think ethnic events which are perhaps more political or exclude or offend (also in a historical way) another group can be exclusive.

Although sporting events are generally inclusive, I also find that they can be exclusive in some ways, for example they are very nationalistic or location specific to the teams/sports persons identity, and unfortunately this can cause conflict between groups, for example football riots and hooliganism.
My friend told me about this particularly bad recent clash between two teams in Greece:

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THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - Police in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki arrested a PAOK fan accused of dumping a crate of fish on the visiting Olympiakos bench, in a stunt that delayed a tense Greek Cup semifinal for more than an hour.

Another six PAOK supporters were arrested during clashes with police before and after Wednesday's match, which PAOK won 1-0 to advance.

The game was repeatedly halted by brawls on the pitch, with three players sent off, while PAOK fans in the stands lit thousands of flares, and several were thrown on the pitch.

(Yorgos Matthaios/AP)

Police said Thursday a 34-year-old man covered the Olympiakos bench in several kilograms of anchovies just before the game. Olympiakos' home ground is in Athens' port of Piraeus, and its supporters are nicknamed "anchovies."

PAOK plays Panathinaikos in the April 26 final. The Greek Football Association on Thursday said the final would be held as planned at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, denying reports of a possible move to avoid more crowd trouble.

(Yorgos Matthaios/AP)

Yiannis Andrianos, a minister for sport, described Wednesday's match as a "disgrace to Greek football," noting that players involved in the brawls included members of Greece's national team.

Nine members of the current 22-man squad are from PAOK and Olympiakos. Coach Fernando Santos is preparing his final selection for the World Cup where Greece faces Colombia, Japan and Ivory Coast.
Send a Letter to the Editor

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Hold the anchovies! Cops arrest fan for dumping fish on opponent's bench

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THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - Police in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki arrested a PAOK fan accused of dumping a crate of fish on the visiting Olympiakos bench, in a stunt that delayed a tense Greek Cup semifinal for more than an hour.

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A good local example of an event that cuts across cultural values is the Tournament of Roses Parade that takes place on New Years Day in Pasadena, California.

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For an interesting take on liberal, cultural and civic ideas of identity, particularly in the NI context, see the book, 'Rethinking Unionism: An Alternative vision for Northern Ireland', by
Norman Porter. For an interesting review and synopsis, see the link,

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INCORE:ECRD:Rethinking Unionism: An Alternative vision for Northern Ireland

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for people with dual nationality to be able to vote for an 'Integration Council' sounds like a great idea. As a German living in Northern Ireland (no dual nationality) I am able to vote in council elections and elections for the European Parliament but I am excluded from the Westminster elections (only for British citizens or British subjects). However, in recent months there has been a political drive to give Ethnic minorities and migrants a separate voice via an Ethic Minority Parliament: http://nicem.org.uk/news/northern-irelands-first-minority-ethnic-parliament
as a way forward which is probably similar to the 'Integration Council'. In Germany the Ethnic minorities are a different mix from those in Northern Ireland but the idea to give migrants political franchise seems to be n excellent idea to further inclusion and lessen conflict.

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On Sunday we were celebrating Africa-Day in Bangor' Museum. it was a wonderful event, organised in a wonderful collaboration between the North Down Borough Council community development department, African event organiser Nandi Jola and Worldwide women @ North Down, a multicultural, international women's group. We had a huge number of local participants and onlookers of all ages and it was a truly positive event. Visitors who hadn't known about the event were delighted to find more than they expected and the museum staff and the attached cafe were delighted with the large increase in visitors.

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There is a big campaign or at least in the spending aspect of it to promote Gaelic and raise its profile across Scotland both to reverse the trend its decline in respect of numbers speaking the language and additionally also to embrace it as an official language and celebrate its presence and traditional heritage in the dialogue of Scotland. There are debates over whether such resource funding are worth it or not, as following news program shows:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EipiNgMQFFE

As for its connection to nationalism it is perhaps a subtle expression, there is also a large debate about whether its promotion is a nationalist propaganda tool especially in light of the referendum. Gaelic's profile is rising although and i think it is a good thing in embracing culture and history.

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Playlist Introduction & Gaelic Lullaby Discussion

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Is spending £25m on promoting Gaelic justifiable?

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Campaigners say the language is part of Scotland's heritage and must be saved.

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The Palestine/Israel situation is of particular concern to me. I thought you might be interested in some images produced by the Palestine Museum for the Pope's recent visit See @DevraWiz if you're on Twitter or my blog

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Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

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Every Summer here in Varna we have The Varna Summer Festival which runs from May through to October with events taking place all over the city. Orchestral concerts, Opera, International Ballet Competitions and International Folklore as well as Jazz and even Harmonica Evenings. All of the events are free or just a few Leva to enter which makes the culture accessible to all.
As Varna is a tourist destination it is very inclusive and welcoming.

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Top 3 best places for summer vacation near Varna ...

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In the world for those living within its territories. Can the EU ever truly embrace the diversity of all the various cultures and people groups living within its borders, whether the change necessary is initiated by these far right groups or the moderates in power within the EU today like Hollande, Cameron and Merkel? Are we seeing the disintegration of the European identity and the rise of national identities emerging and consolidating themselves in the midst of the creation of a European identity in a more political and inclusive way?

P.s here is the Aljazeera link, I just noticed I didn't appear in the post below:

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As the old, far-right warriors such as the British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL) appear to be losing some steam in recent times, their new incarnation, a relatively new group ( Britain First), is now flexing its muscles and baring its teeth at Britain's minority Muslim community. It is a tiny group, but violent and it seems bigger than it is because of its large social media presence.

Its members have recently started targeting mosques across the country. With their own film crew, they are producing short videos of their "conquests" and posting them on social media platforms to create maximum impact.

The first of their stunts was in Bradford city in May. Their members, some wearing uniforms, staged protests at 10 places of worship in the city centre and handed out Bibles outside the mosques. A statement on the Britain First Facebook page said: "This is the first of many such operations that are due to be launched across Yorkshire against Islam. The Yorkshire brigade is finally here and has 'blooded' itself in the most heavily Muslim town in Yorkshire."

Their most recent invasion was at the heart of the British Muslim community in the East End of London - the East London Mosque (ELM), Britain's largest and London's oldest mosque (established in 1910). On May 19 at midday, four uniformed members of Britain First entered the mosque after leaving their car in a no-parking area, ignored a sign requesting people to take off their shoes and walked across the carpeted lobby area where people pray, handing out leaflets and a Bible to the receptionist. The ELM were calm and dealt with these "invaders" with professionalism, dignity, and announced swiftly on social media that the "invasion" was a .

For the thousands among the congregation, Britain First's behaviour was nothing but ridiculous - the ELM has been working with other faith groups including Christians almost daily. With a synagogue next door and excellent relations with all the inter-faith groups, the East London Mosque has a unique place in London's East End. Britain First's , as part of their misnamed "Christian Patrol", and the recent "invasion" provided nothing but a distraction and irritation.

Britain First emerged in November 2011 organised by some BNP-linked activists to protect "British and Christian morality", but their blatant desecration of a prayer place with their boots goes totally against Christian teachings. They demonise the entire Muslim community for the perverted Rochdale sex trafficking gang and public murder of soldier Lee Rigby . Lee Rigby's mother has the far-right group of cashing in on people's misery.

Mosques, like prayer places of any faith community, are non-political; most mosques are at the forefront of addressing social issues and the spiritual void in our increasingly commercialised society. Many hold open days for new visitors who are given guided tours and have their own religious etiquette.

If Britain First's main aim is to provoke Muslim youth, then they are mistaken; the overwhelming majority of young Muslims (apart from tiny self-serving fringe elements, like ex-Muhajiroun) cannot be baited.. The British Muslim youth carried themselves impeccably during the 2011 England riots , where looting, and mayhem in London subsequently brought some inner cities to a standstill.

However, with increasing haughtiness, Britain First appears to be a nuisance at some mosques but also a pain in the neck for our police forces. They may be a bunch of dangerous jokers who could, and would probably like to, set off a chain reaction of backlash and counter-backlash. We all need to watch out.

Mosques are open places of worship where anybody and everybody is welcome. Britain First's undue presence has the potential to disturb peace in the mosques that are not used to, nor have sufficient funding, to employ extra staff to handle them; creating a security ghetto is against the whole purpose of a place of prayer.

The Muslim community and anti-fascist groups are waiting to see how our political leaders and media columnists respond to this new menace. Some of them do not waste time in demonising all Muslims for the actions of the very few.
Muhammad Abdul Bari was the former Secretary General of Muslim Council of Britain (2006-10).

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'Britain First': Tackling the menace of far-right intolerance

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As the old, far-right warriors such as the British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL) appear to be losing some steam in recent times, their new incarnation, a relatively new group ( Britain First), is now flexing its muscles and baring its teeth at Britain's minority Muslim community.

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For anyone interested in the problem with the relationship between the State and Nationalism - take a look at this great map of geopolitical anomalies

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As the title indicates, only a selection of geopolitical anomalies are indicated on the map. Many more are ignored, including the Basque nationalist movement, the Catalan nationality seeking status as a nation, the British bastion of Gibraltar, and the Spanish North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla-and that is merely for Spain and environs. In regard to colonial remnants, those of France are emphasized, as they are particularly extensive, scattered, and of diverse geopolitical status. A comprehensive map would have to be so involved as to be virtually unreadable. As noted below, some places, marked with # 's, are so geopolitically complex as to defy labels.

Many of the selected places have been analyzed in GeoCurrents, as linked to below (note: links are functional only through the letter "s"). The other, I hope, will the subjects of future posts.

Armed "Cease-Fire" Statelet: The United Wa State in northern Burma (Myanmar) indicated. The United Wa State is a well-armed narco-statelet, that had long been an a cease-fire relationship with the Burmese government. That relationship is now in doubt. Ethnic militias abound around the peripheries of Burma, some of which have signed similar cease-fire agreements with the government.

Autonomous Country: Faroe Islands indicated.The Faroe Islands, like Greenland, form an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Despite being under the sovereignty of Demark, and despite being in Europe, they are not part of the European Union.

Autonomy & Insurgency: Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the Philippines indicated. A section of Mindanao and most of the Sulu Archipelago have been granted limited autonomy within the Philippines, but that has not stopped the Muslim insurgency in the region, in part because of the autonomous region's restricted boundaries. State-sanctioned private militias have also played a role, undermining the notion that the state itself has a monopoly on the "legitimate" use of violence.

Bipolar Country, Currently Split: Libya indicated. Libya formed a relatively coherent country until recently, but it was always deeply split east from west. It is currently divided largely along those lines.

City State: Singapore indicated. Strictly speaking, city-states are not nation-states, as they lack an adequate territorial extent. Following the standard world model, most observers predicted economic disaster for Singapore when it gained independence in 1965. They were spectacularly wrong. Singapore's military requires agreements with other Southeast Asian countries to give it adequate room in which to train.

Collapsed State: Somalia indicated. Somalia ceased to be a functioning state and a coherent country in 1991, yet it continues to be mapped as sold and sovereign state. The territory controlled by its internationally recognized government continues to fluctuate, but it often encompasses little more than a few neighborhoods of Mogadishu. That government is always described as "transitional," but it is far from clear what it is "transitioning" from and to.

Composite Country of Four Nations: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland indicated. The U.K. is the sovereign entity that is officially composed of four nations (England, Scotland, Wales, and (Northern) Ireland. For several athletic purposes, Ireland as a whole is a nation once again.

Defeated Insurgent State: Northern Sri Lanka indicated. Northern and part of eastern Sri Lanka formed an insurgent state for decades until defeated in 2009. According to some reports, the area is now treated essentially as an occupied territory. It will take some time to see whether Sri Lanka can become an coherent state. Nation-state status seems out of the question for the time being, considering the high levels of antipathy between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority.

Divided State: Cyprus indicated. Cyprus is supposedly a single-island country, but in actuality it is divided into three sovereign entities. The Republic of Cyprus occupies most of the southern portion of the island. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized as a sovereign state only by Turkey, occupies most of the north. A buffer zone separates the two states. In addition, the U.K. maintains sovereign control over two military bases, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, on the island.

Encapsulated State: Lesotho indicated. The oddity of Lesotho, a country completely surrounded by another (South Africa), is often overlooked. Such encapsulation compromises Lesotho's sovereign integrity. The world's only other encapsulated countries are micro-states (San Marino and the Vatican City).

France: Réunionand French Guiana indicated. Réunionand French Guiana, like Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, are integral parts of France and hence of the European Union as well. France is thus (in part) a South American country, just as the EU is a South American organization.

French Territory: Kerguelen and other French Sub-Antarctic islands indicated, as well as Saint Pierre and Miquelon Islands off the coast of Canada. S aint Pierre and Miquelonform a remnant of France's once vast North American empire.France also controls the sizable (2,800 square miles/7,200 square kilometers) Kerguelen archipelago in the south Indian Ocean.

Global Commons?/Overlapping Wedges: Antarctica indicated. Antarctica is often regarded as a global commons, but seven countries maintain partially overlapping, wedge-shaped claims to the ice-bound continent.

Incongruous Commonwealth: Puerto Rico indicated. Puerto Rico, like the Northern Mariana Islands, occupies an incongruous geopolitical position. It is not fully part of the US, but neither is it a mere dependency (as are Guam, American Samoa, etc). Puerto Rica is instead officially classified as a "commonwealth." Four U.S. states (Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts) also have official "commonwealth" status. There is no connection between the two kinds of commonwealths. In fact, in neither instance does the term "commonwealth" have any real meaning at all.

Kingdom of Multiple Countries: Netherlands indicated. Several former Dutch colonies in the Caribbean are now classified as constituent countries of the Kingdom the Netherlands.Denmark is also a kingdom of multiple countries.

Legal Buffer: Zone of Excision: Sea-space around northern Australia indicated. Australia maintains a large oceanic buffer for the purposes of keeping out illegal immigrants. Australian islands within this zone occupy an anomalous geopolitical position.

Legal Autonomy: Aceh in northern Sumatra indicated. Aceh's seemingly interminable insurgency came to an end in 2005 when the it was granted substantial autonomy as a Special Region of Indonesia. It enjoys legal as well as political autonomy, and has broadly and controversially instituted Sharia (Islamic law).

Maoist Lands: Upland Areas of Eastern India Indicated. Vast tracks of land in eastern India are not effectively controlled by the Indian government, due to the presence of Maoist insurgents.

Mostly Claimed by Neighboring State: Guyana indicated. Venezuela claims more than half of Guyana's territory.

Multiple Enclaves/Exclaves: The India/Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan, and Belgium/Netherlands borders are indicated. These boundaries between these countries cannot de drawn as straight lines, as exclave/enclaves abound.

Multiple State Claims: Spratly Islands indicated. All or part of the Spratly Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, resulting in pronounced international tension.

Narco-Territories: Scattered areas in northern Mexico indicated. To the extent that the Mexican government is fighting a real war against narcotics traffickers in its own territory, its sovereignty over the lands in question is severely compromised.

Non-Autonomous Autonomous Areas: Xinjiang, and Tibet in China indicated. Several large areas of China have been designated as "autonomous areas" due to the presence of large, indigenous non-Han Chinese populations; little if any real, autonomy, however, has ever been granted. Movements for independence, or at least real autonomy, are active in both areas. Tibet in particular has a large "virtual" movement for independence, found on the internet.

Non-Territorial Sovereign Entities: Rome indicated. The Vatican City is an widely recognized sovereign state, but its realm consists of a cluster of buildings-an area hardly large enough to constitute a genuine territorial state. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Knights of Malta), recognized as sovereign by 104 states, is also headquartered in Rome. Its sovereignty might be said to extend over two buildings.

One Country, Numerous "First Nations": Canada indicated. The indigenous peoples of Canada are officially designated as "first nations." Considering as well Quebecoise separatism, Canada can hardly be considered a nation-state.

One Nation, Two States: Korea indicated. The Koreans in general have an extremely strong sense of national identity, but the nation has been split between two antagonistic states for decades.

Permanently Leased Sovereignty: Guantanamo Bay in Cuba indicated. Guantanamo Bay is officially part of Cuba, but the United States controls it, and exercises effective sovereignty over it, through an unbreakable lease. The minimal annual payments made by the U.S. government are never redeemed by Cuba.

Proclaimed but Non-Existent States: Communitarian Republic of Moskitiaand Republic of Hau Pakumoto indicated. In both cases, indigenous groups demanding independence have declared their own sovereignty, but such declarations have little meaning, and are essentially ceremonial.

Protectorate: Bosnia and Herzegovina indicated. Bosnia and Herzegovina is recognized as a sovereign state, but it does not function as one, being split between a "Serb Republic" ( Republika Srpska) and a barely functional "Bosniak-Croat Federation" (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Ultimate authority for the country as a whole is in the hands of the European Union's High Representative, making Bosnia and Herzegovina something of an EU protectorate. The division between "Bosnia" and "Herzegovina," moreover, is largely historical and has no bearing on the country's actual divisions.

Protracted Insurgency: Indonesian portion of New Guinea indicated. Western New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s through a process that most international observers regardas underhanded. A smoldering but widespread insurrection has been going on ever since. Similar problems have occurred elsewhere in eastern Indonesia.

Quasi-Colonial Financial Refuge: Cayman Islands indicated. The Cayman Islands, like several other islands and island groups in the Caribbean, are legally autonomous British dependencies, which allows them to engage in shady and highly profitable financial dealings.

Quasi-State Special Administrative Regions: Hong Kong and Macao indicated. Hong Kong and Macao are officially part of China, but they have their governments, legal codes, and border controls. When it comes to international statistics, they are often tallied as if they were independent countries.

Rebellious Panhandle: Caprivi Strip of Namibia indicated. Countries ideally have compact shapes, but not all do. Namibia's narrow Caprivi Strip gives the country a particularly aberrant form, which it acquired from the German imperial drive to obtain a access to the Zambezi River for its the colony of Southwest Africa. The Caprivi Strip has long been the site of insurgent activities.

Stateless Nations: Greater Balochistan, Kurdistan, and Oromia indicated. A number of relatively coherent nations-groups of people with a common political identity aspiring to independence-have no state of their own. Among the largest of these so-called stateless nations are Kurdistan, partitioned among Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, Balochistan, divided among Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, and Oromia, a region of Ethiopia.

Sui Generis Collectivity. New Caledonia indicated. New Caledonia is a possession of France; its geopolitical position is so anomalous that it is officially designated as "Sui Generis Collectivity." (geocurrents.info/geopolitics/new-caledonias-unique-troubles)

Theatrical Insurgency. Chiapas Mexico indicated. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation has declared "war" on Mexico, but its struggle is in large part theatrical.

Tribal Wars: Papua New Guinea indicated. With hundreds ethnic groups, Papua New Guinea (PNG) lacks effective control over much of its territory, where small-scale tribal wars are common. A more organized and protracted insurgency has long smoldered in the mineral-rich island of Bouganville, part of PNG politically, but physically joined to the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands are another unstable country, plagued by conflict between the residents of the islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita. Much of Melanesia forms an "arc of instability" that has required periodic intervention by Australia and other countries. (geocurrents.info/geopolitics/tribal-war-and-natural-gas-in-papua-new-guinea; geocurrents.info/geopolitics/ethnic-strife-and-cultural-solidarity-in-melanesia).

Uncontrolled Lands: Central, southern Sahara indicated. Vast stretches of the Sahara Desert are not under the effective control of any government, regardless what our maps tell us. Tribal groups and Islamist militants vie for control in many areas.

Unrecognized Dependent State. Nagorno-Karabakh indicated. Nagorno-Karabakh styles itself an independent state, but in actuality it is joined with Armenia. According to the international community, it is part of Azerbaijan.

Unrecognized Puppet State: Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) i ndicated. Transnistria is a de facto independent state that the international community regards as part of Moldova. Many consider it to be a Russian puppet state.

Unrecognized State in "Free Association" With Another: Cook Islands indicated.The Cook Islands are in "free association" with New Zealand, just as the Federated States of Micronesia are in "free association" with the United States. But the Cook Islands, unlike FSM, is not counted as an independent country by the international community.

Vanquished Areas. Darfur indicated. The insurgency in Darfur has largely been broken, but that does not mean that the region has been reintegrated in a meaningful sense into the state of Sudan, let alone the nation.

Vast French Sea-Space: French Polynesia indicated. France, like several other countries, has a number of far-flung dependencies and exclaves, many of which are archipelagic. As countries are granted 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zones around each island that they control, France in effect retains a vast oceanic realm.

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As the title indicates, only a selection of geopolitical anomalies are indicated on the map. Many more are ignored, including the Basque nationalist movement, the Catalan nationality seeking status as a nation, the British bastion of Gibraltar, and the Spanish North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla-and that is merely for Spain and environs.

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Here's a recent article about the cost of policing the flag protests:

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The cost of policing a long-standing protest at a north Belfast community interface is approaching £7 million, latest figures have indicated.

Violence flared in the unionist Woodvale area last summer when Orangemen were banned from parading past the adjacent nationalist Ardoyne on their way home from traditional Twelfth of July commemorations.

Rioting broke out on a number of subsequent days and loyalist demonstrators have maintained a continuous presence at a protest camp at the Woodvale/Ardoyne interface at Twaddell Avenue ever since.

The dispute has necessitated a major ongoing police presence.

Justice Minister David Ford has revealed the cost of policing the Twaddell protest had reached £5.45 million by the end of December.

With police now estimating the daily cost of the operation at £40,696, the total bill is now thought to be in the region of £6.8 million.

Mr Ford outlined cost implications in response to a written Assembly questioned tabled by NI21 leader Basil McCrea.

As well as providing an update on the Twaddell protest, the minister confirmed the total cost of policing last year's loyalist Union flag protests was almost £22 million.

Those demonstrations, which pre-dated the summer unrest in north Belfast, were triggered when Belfast City Council voted in December 2012 to limit the flying of the flag on top of City Hall. A number of the protests descended into serious violence.

Police made public the financial implications of the flag protests last year, but Mr Ford today confirmed the PSNI bill from 3 December 2012 to 31 March 2013 was £21.9m.

Mr Ford said around £250,000 had also so far been paid in criminal damage compensation linked to the flag protests, with that sum set to increase as more claims were resolved.

Referring to the cost of policing both the flag protests and the Twaddell situation, the minister stated:

"The flag protests and civil unrest have placed, and continue to place, a financial, and indeed a more general, burden or cost on many different sectors."

Mr Ford added: "These costs impact significantly on the PSNI's ability to undertake other work on behalf of the community."

The minister said processing those arrested in the various disputes through the justice system also had an impact on the public purse.

"Given that nearly 400 people have been charged in connection with the protests and associated disorder the cost will be significant," he said.

Mr Ford added: "There are also wider costs to local businesses, especially in Belfast, where uncertainty around protests have impacted heavily, particularly in the run up to Christmas 2012. Images of the flags protests and associated disorder were seen across the United Kingdom and Ireland and further afield.

"The reputational damage that such scenes can cause, the related impact to the economy should not be underestimated.

"But the greatest cost of all is arguably to our community. As I have said before, everyone has the right to protest peacefully but there can be no excuse for the scenes of violence we have witnessed. The vast majority of the community are committed to democracy and the rule of law and it is essential that we continue to work together to tackle underlying issues and build a truly shared society for all."

Mr McCrea described the costs as "truly staggering".

"As the Justice Minister has stated, they are having a significant impact on the PSNI's ability to undertake other work on behalf of the community," he said.

"The PSNI is being seriously hampered in its ability to tackle crime and protect the community across Northern Ireland. This is a serious issue which I believe political leaders in Northern Ireland need to get a grip of.

"At a time when our hospitals, schools and public services are under serious pressure, the public will find it difficult to understand such spending."

Mr McCrea blamed unionist politicians for whipping up and sustaining tensions within loyalism and urged them to reflect seriously on the cost to the public purse.

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£7m for Twaddell policing bill - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

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The cost of policing a long-standing protest at a north Belfast community interface is approaching £7 million, latest figures have indicated. Violence flared in the unionist Woodvale area last summer when Orangemen were banned from parading past the adjacent nationalist Ardoyne on their way home from traditional Twelfth of July commemorations.

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BBC Iplayer, available until 15th June 2014

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A look at life in Cantagalo, a favela overlooking the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.

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This festival is a real "village fest" around the 4th July - and I consider it very inclusive. The music and attractions usually have an "Americana" slant which is refreshing.

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Eagle Wing Festival in Groomsport, Co. Down! The 'Eagle Wing' was a pilgrim ship leaving with settlers for America from this little port in Northern Ireland. (It didn't quite make it, though).

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/fundamentalist-christian-protesters-finally-make-voice-heard-outside-bible-play-in-newtownabbey-29966696.html

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They didn't make the opening performance, but 70 fundamentalist Christian protesters made their voices heard at the second sold-out night of the controversial play The Bible: The Complete Word Of God (Abridged).

Members of the Free Presbyterian Church sang hymns and passed out leaflets at the entrance of the Theatre At The Mill in Newtownabbey last night as theatre-goers made their way to the play.

The group assembled at around 7pm before being led by a banner to the theatre's entrance.

The protesters, led by Rev Brian McClung of the Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church, handed over a letter of protest to Newtownabbey Borough Council.

On Wednesday, the first night of the two-night sold-out show, not a single protester was present.

Last night the group explained this was because the play clashed with their weekly church meeting.

The play performed by the Reduced Shakespeare Company was thrust into the spotlight when members of the council's artistic board pulled it because of complaints from the DUP.

Following an outcry, the board then decided to put the play back on, a decision which was ratified by the full council.

Rev McClung described it as "perverse human nature" that the play had sold so many tickets since opposition was raised.

He said: "Primarily we are here tonight to stand up for the honour of God's word. We believe this play mocks the word of God.

"We are offended because people are mocking the scriptures and we are here to show our offense. Supposedly the council and society is to have regard for minorities, but they don't seem to have much regard for evangelical Christians when it comes to things like this."

Police maintained a small presence but left before the play began.

Audience member Glenn Mayes said it would have set a dangerous precedent if the DUP had been allowed to tell the public what they could and couldn't watch.

"If I want to come see it, I'll come see it," he said.

"Where that type of censorship stops I don't know, so I'm glad they put it back on and I hope that's the end of it, because anything can be found offensive."

Husband and wife Steve and Jill Laird admitted that they wouldn't have known about the play were it not for the row.

"They are entitled to protest if they want to," Steve said.

"I think they are entirely wrong and it's an indictment on our society in Northern Ireland that people take things so seriously and get offended so easily."

"We can do what we want. No one should be telling us that," Jill added.

Protester Norman Davidson said that by mocking the Lord and the Bible the play had opened the door for more anti-Christian groups to come into Northern Ireland and mock God as they please.

"I hope it will make people think about the direction that this country is heading without God," he said.

"It needs a God in this society to cure all the ills that we see now, such as anti-social behaviour on the streets, drugs and alcohol."
Further reading Bible ban row play a joyous night of goofy gags Religious protests fail to materialise at ban storm Bible spoof play Bible play: The theatre row women on very different wings of the DUP, but can the party accommodate both of them? It's a sell-out... 'blasphemous' Bible play a hit at box office Bible play ban reversed: Newtownabbey council reinstates Complete Word of God to Theatre At The Mill Fears of a DUP takeover of culture in borough prompted council's arts board to cancel Bible play Bible spoof play ban makes Northern Ireland a laughing stock Outrage as DUP pressure closes Bible spoof play Complete Word of God Stop unholy play that mocks Bible, DUP man Billy Ball urges
Belfast Telegraph

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Fundamentalist Christian protesters finally make voice heard outside Bible play in Newtownabbey - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

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They didn't make the opening performance, but 70 fundamentalist Christian protesters made their voices heard at the second sold-out night of the controversial play The Bible: The Complete Word Of God (Abridged). Members of the Free Presbyterian Church sang hymns and passed out leaflets at the entrance of the Theatre At The Mill in Newtownabbey last night as theatre-goers made their way to the play.

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Recently, there was some protest over a banned play called "The Bible- abridged" and the ban had to be reversed. Due to the publicity the play was sold out.

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A Newtownabbey church is to hold a protest outside Theatre at The Mill tonight (Thursday) against a show which lampoons the Bible.

Members of Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church are expected to gather at the venue to voice their opposition to the Reduced Shakespeare Company's irreverent comedy 'The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)'.

The controversial show was axed by the council's artistic board last week in the wake of complaints that it was "blasphemous" and would cause offence to the borough's Christian community.

However, following a public outcry and claims of DUP-led political censorship, the board decided on Monday evening (January 27) to reinstate the production.

That move, welcomed by many councillors, wasn't blocked at full council as the DUP "noted" the decision.

Speaking to the Times on Tuesday, Rev Brian McClung, minister of Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church, said that he was "bitterly disappointed" by the move to reinstate the production.

Despite claims by the RSC that its show is "a light-hearted and very funny celebration of The Bible", Rev McClung believes that it "openly mocks and ridicules the sincere and deeply held beliefs of a sizable number of the borough's residents."

Although the show's two-night run was due to start on Wednesday (January 29), Rev McClung said that he would not be cancelling the church's regular midweek meeting in order to stage a protest at the play's opening night. But he revealed that he and members of his congregation would be gathering at the theatre tonight (Thursday) to voice their opposition to the show.

"This will be a Free Presbyterian protest by our church, and I'm sure that some of the ministers from neighbouring Free Presbyterian churches will be joining us as well," he commented.

Rev McClung said it was "hard to understand" what exactly had gone on at Monday night's council meeting and why there was no vote taken on whether or not the play should go ahead.

"I am bitterly disappointed with the decision to reverse the cancellation and I am bitterly disappointed with the way this was handled in the council," he added.

It seems the row over the play, and the huge controversy sparked by last week's decision to axe it, served as a highly effective marketing strategy for the RSC and the theatre.

When the decision was taken by the artistic board to pull the show last Wednesday, just 150 of the 800 tickets available had been sold. But following the extensive media coverage of the whole sorry saga, nearly every seat for the two performances was snapped up in just a few hours on Tuesday morning.

By Tuesday evening the show was almost sold out, with the theatre's website advertising 'Last Few Tickets'.

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Church to stage protest as Bible spoof goes ahead

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A Newtownabbey church is to hold a protest outside Theatre at The Mill tonight (Thursday) against a show which lampoons the Bible. Members of Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church are expected to gather at the venue to voice their opposition to the Reduced Shakespeare Company's irreverent comedy 'The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)'.

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Recently, there was some protest over a banned play called "The Bible- abridged" and the ban had to be reversed. Due to the publicity the play was sold out.

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It was interesting to read the related storify responding to the question : ' does London still need an lgbt parade'? My feeling is that , aside from counteracting the homophobia that still exists in the UK ( for which the pride parade plays an important role ) in an age of widespread media coverage and social networks which spread news across the globe quickly and affordably, the pride parade is an important and necessary event as it is always inclusive, even to those who are absent. Katyal has written this great and insightful article about the effects of the parade ( and opposition to it) across what she defines as the ' LGBT diaspora' as a cultural route of connectivity which can transform national politics in an age of the global

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For those who want to follow the story we ended last weeks Google hangout with, Northern Ireland's First Minister came out and backed the Pastor that suggested he did not trust any Muslims:

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The north Belfast Pastor who described Islam as "heathen" and "satanic" has said he was touched Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson had spoken in support of him.

Mr Robinson defended James McConnell and said that he would not trust Muslims involved in violence or those devoted to Sharia law.

He said, however, he would "trust them to go to the shops" for him.

Mr McConnell said he was surprised Mr Robinson had spoken in his defence.

"I didn't want him to get into trouble over me," he told the BBC's Nolan Show on Wednesday night.

"He didn't really need to do that, because when a man talks like that his career is at stake."

Police said they were investigating "a hate crime motive" after complaints about Mr McConnell's initial remarks, made during an address at Belfast's Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle Church.

However, on Wednesday night, Mr McConnell said police had not spoken to him.

"What are they investigating? It's freedom of speech, I'm allowed to say this," he said.

A police spokesman said on Thursday: "No arrests have been made. Inquiries are continuing."

Mr McConnell told his congregation on 18 May "a new evil had arisen" and "there are cells of Muslims right throughout Britain".

"Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell," he said.

Mr Robinson said that Mr McConnell had been demonised because of his remarks, and that there "isn't an ounce of hatred in his (the pastor's) bones".

The first minister, who made his remarks in an interview with the The Irish News newspaper, said he had attended the evangelical church in the past.

He added that it was a duty of any preacher to denounce what he described as "false prophesy".

He went on to say that he would not trust Muslims either, particularly with regard to those who had been involved in violence, or those who are "fully devoted to Sharia law, I wouldn't trust them for spiritual guidance".

However, Mr Robinson said he would trust Muslims to "go down to the shops" for him or to deal with a number of other "day to day issues".

Both Mr McConnell's original comments and Mr Robinson's defence of the pastor have been widely criticised.

Comments criticised

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin called on Mr Robinson to show leadership in promoting equality, tolerance and mutual respect for all.

In response, Mr Robinson said on Twitter that he would not "take lectures from a self-confessed leader of a bloody terrorist organisation".

Stormont Justice Minister David Ford said: "Frankly, it sounds like the kind of language that would have gone down well in South Africa a few years ago or the southern parts of the United States half a century ago."

The Equality Commission's chief commissioner Dr Michael Wardlow said he was dismayed by Mr Robinson's comments.

Khalid Anis from the Islamic Society of Britain said he was shocked that a prominent politician in a position of leadership could speak "with such a double tongue".

The Muslim Association of Britain said: "The pastor's comments not only hurt thousands of Muslims living peacefully in Northern Ireland, but also promote hatred and bigotry against all Muslims in the UK.

"The words of Mr Robinson demonstrate his lack of leadership, when as a representative he should be sensitive to the constituents he represents."

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The north Belfast Pastor who described Islam as "heathen" and "satanic" has said he was touched Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson had spoken in support of him. Mr Robinson defended James McConnell and said that he would not trust Muslims involved in violence or those devoted to Sharia law.

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BBC news report on the Ulster Covenant Centenary Parade September 2012.

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Thousands of people have taken part in commemorations in Belfast to mark one of the most significant dates in unionist history.

The six-mile march from central Belfast to Stormont marked the 100th anniversary of the Ulster Covenant, to oppose Home Rule for Ireland in 1912.

There was no trouble at a contentious feeder parade past a north Belfast Catholic church on Saturday morning.

It was the biggest policing operation in the city in 20 years.

A century ago, the signing of the document laid the foundations for the partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland a decade later.

Restrictions

Northern Ireland's Parades Commission, which makes determinations on contentious marches, had placed restrictions on the part of the route past St Patrick's Church on Donegall Street.

Analysis

The huge security operation surrounding the Ulster Covenant parade went better than anyone dared to hope.

Yes, there were some unsavoury incidents, but no-one was injured and the vast majority of the 30,000-strong marchers behaved impeccably.

The nationalist protesters had their say. The unionist marchers enjoyed their big day.

Much of the credit must go to the police. For the 10-year-old Police Service of Northern Ireland, this was their finest hour.
Parade bodes well for centenaries Mark Simpson on Twitter What was the Ulster Covenant?
A representative of a nationalist residents group which had contested the ruling said he was glad it had passed off without incident, but claimed the Parades Commission's determination had been breached.

"With one band in particular, the bass drummer danced outside St Patrick's and nobody can work out what type of hymn that was," said Frank Dempsey of the Carrick Hill Residents Association.

"The minute they passed the church, a number of bands reverted to playing (Orange Order song) the Sash and clearly broke the restriction."

The commission also placed the sacred music restriction on bands passing St Matthew's Catholic Church on the Newtownards Road, in the east of the city.

However, this was breached by some bands who played the Sash as they passed the church.

A Parades Commission spokesman said: "Any breach of a determination is a matter for the police to investigate and those involved could be liable to prosecution.

"The commission will take previous behaviour and any breaches into account in reaching future decisions."

The police said evidence had been gathered on Saturday during the parade and said if people had breached the law then they would be reported to the Public Prosecution Service.

The senior officer in charge of the police operation, Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr, said the aim had been "primarily to ensure the safety of everyone involved".

"The day passed off in relative peace and calm," he said.

"I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of those involved in the hard work behind the scenes over recent weeks, and right up to this evening, to make this possible.

"These very real efforts, made by community representatives and Loyal Orders, supported by their political representatives, show a real willingness to achieve local resolutions.

"Hopefully this will create a more positive platform for dealing with sensitive parades in 2013."

He said a "significant police presence" would remain on duty throughout the weekend to provide "reassurance and support" to local communities.

Up to 30,000 people from eight loyal orders were taking part in the events, including a religious service and celebration at Stormont.

Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson said: "Just as back in 1912, people set aside any differences that they might have within the unionist community, today we're not here as Ulster Unionists or TUV or DUP, we're here simply as unionists."

The DUP leader added: "It's good to get a sense of the occasion that there must have been 100 years ago, and we have a real expectation that this will be an enjoyable day for all who are taking part in it."

Earlier on Saturday, thousands paraded through Sandy Row in south Belfast, many wearing traditional dress, reminiscent of 1912.

The leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, Billy Hutchinson, addressed the crowd. He told them to "march with pride, march with the wind of history at their back and the spirit of the Ulster Covenant at their core".

Among those at the Stormont event was BNP leader Nick Griffin, who was handing out leaflets.

The feeder parade from Carlisle Circus in north Belfast included 14 bands and six lodges, amounting to around 2,000 people in total.

Part of their route was past St Patrick's Catholic Church on Donegall Street where there has been controversy and violence associated with parades during the summer.

The Parades Commission has ruled that only hymn music is to be played as bands pass the church and has limited any nationalist protest to 150 people.

Last month, seven police officers were injured when trouble broke out after several loyalist bands defied a Parades Commission ruling by playing music as they marched past the church.

The Royal Black Institution, which had organised the 25 August parade, later apologised "for any offence caused" to clergy and parishioners at St Patrick's.

In an open letter, it said its anger was not directed at the Catholic church.

On the Stormont estate, there were a number of covenant exhibitions and displays, and events included performances from the Ulster Scots Folk Orchestra, the Bright Lights Highland Dancers and the County Antrim Fife and Drum.

Ahead of Saturday's events, the Orange Order said it was expecting a "fun-filled" day.

Dr David Hume, the Order's director of services, said: "This will be a major event and a family day for enjoyment and celebration. We look forward to welcoming people from across Northern Ireland and beyond."

The main parade included members of the loyal orders from England, Scotland and the Irish Republic.

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Thousands of people have taken part in commemorations in Belfast to mark one of the most significant dates in unionist history. The six-mile march from central Belfast to Stormont marked the 100th anniversary of the Ulster Covenant, to oppose Home Rule for Ireland in 1912.

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Syria's chemical weapons\weapons precursors are being destroyed as we speak following international action not just by America but involving Russia and China in a major way too.

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Joel Gunter. Graphic by Mark Oliver, Tom Shiel" />

Seven countries are directly contributing to the process of decommissioning Syria's chemical weapons stock and a total of 14 are providing funding. The complex international operation behind transporting and destroying the chemicals is explained below

Extracting the hazardous material - precursor chemicals used to produce sarin and mustard gas and a small amount of produced mustard gas, known as 'priority one' chemicals - is a complex international effort. The first stage is securely packing the chemicals at 12 sites across Syria, two of which are in the middle of battlefields, and transporting them to the port. This is the responsibility of the Syrian army, which will be guarded en route by armoured trucks provided by Russia.

They are then loaded on to two cargo ships provided by Denmark and Norway, which have also supplied naval vessels to escort the ships out of Syrian waters. Additional security at the port is being provided by Russian forces, while the US has supplied loading and decontamination equipment, China has supplied ambulances, and Finland has supplied an emergency response team in case of accidents.

The Danish cargo ship carrying the first batch of chemicals has now moved back out into international waters to wait for more chemicals to arrive at the port in Lattakia. Once the cargo ship has taken onboard its full consignment it will set sail for an unnamed port in Italy, protected by a flotilla of naval vessels from Denmark, Norway, Russia and China.

When the flotilla arrives at its destination in Italy it will transfer its cargo of priority one checmicals to a US Maritime Administration ship, the MV Cape Ray. Around 150 tonnes of priority two chemicals, toxic material not disimilar to industrial chemical agents, will be transported to the UK with the help of the Royal Navy and destroyed by a commercial company in the UK. The Foreign Office estimates the cost at less than £1 million.

Entrance to the trailer deck on the MV Cape Ray, where the mobile chemical treatment stations will be housed (AFP/GETTY)

The 648-foot, 22,000-tonne MV Cape Ray will then transport the priority one chemicals out into international waters in the Mediterranean, where US Military personnel will break them down in field stations on the ships' internal trailer deck. It will be the first time the US military has disposed of chemical weapons at sea.

None of the chemicals being extracted from Syria are mounted on munitions, removing the costly and dangerous process of separating hazardous chemicals from explosives and missile casings. The Syrian government has claimed that all of the munitions designed to carry the chemicals have been destroyed. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is overseeing the process of decommissioning Syria's chemical arsenal, has not been able to independently verify that claim.

The decommissioning process aboard the MV Cape Ray is therefore a purely chemical one. It will be done in two mobile stations called Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems, worth approximately $5 million (£3 million) each.

Close up of one of the Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems aboard the MV Cape Ray (AFP/GETTY)

The FDHS is designed to be operational within ten days of being set up at a decommissioning site and is capable of breaking down 130 gallons of mustard gas at a time, over the course of about two hours.

It does so using chemical hydrolysis - mixing the hazardous chemicals with reagents such as bleach, water, or sodium hydroxide. The process will result in about 1.5 million gallons of toxic effluent that can't be used as a chemical weapon and will be disposed of commercially.

According to Frank Kendall, the US undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics, the ship's personnel are expecting around 700 tonnes of chemicals. Working at full rate, the FDHS systems can destroy 50 metric tons of chemical warfare agents a day. The team aboard the MV Cape Ray will start slowly though, according to Bob Baker, a chemical technician who will work on the hydrolysis.

"It's going to be a slow start," said Baker. "We're going to go very deliberately and safely."

A Field Deployable Hydrolysis System in the tent at the back, the containers in the forefront contain reagents and waste products (EPA)

The US will fund all operations aboard the Cape Ray, while other countries are responsible for funding their own logisitcal contributions. The stock of priority two chemicals not going to Britain will be destroyed by commerical companies, with the subcontracted work paid from an £9.8 million fund made up of contributions from 14 undisclosed countries. The fund is controlled by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has been pledged a further £16.6 million towards the fund.

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How Syria's chemical weapons are being destroyed

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Joel Gunter. Graphic by Mark Oliver, Tom Shiel" /> Seven countries are directly contributing to the process of decommissioning Syria's chemical weapons stock and a total of 14 are providing funding.

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In Germany it is an offence to display 'nazi' paraphernalia and
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140128/germany-neo-nazis-npd gives quite a good summary of the curent state of play in Germany but Chomsky and Voltaire quotes aside if Americans are so attached to the freedom of speech as a right they have to understand the consequences basically they are not going to like everything they hear but as Churchill as told by a whistling paper boy when he complained of the distraction '..you can stop your ears can't you!'

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BERLIN, Germany - Reeling from revelations that a neo-Nazi cell allegedly robbed banks and murdered immigrants with impunity for more than a decade, the authorities have been at pains to show they're acting against extremism.

Leading the effort is a drive to ban the far-right National Democratic Party, which is alleged to have neo-Nazi links.

All 16 German states filed a motion in the federal constitutional court to ban the NPD in December, arguing that it propagates racism and aims to overthrow the democratic government. But the court's dismissal of a similar case in 2003 suggests the going won't be easy, especially when neither Angela Merkel's government in Berlin nor parliament has joined the fight.

More than that, critics say, the move will do little to stop hardcore neo-Nazi street fighters even as it galvanizes support for a political organization that was already about to self-destruct.

Germany has tough laws to prevent the resurgence of Nazism, such as a ban on displaying the swastika and an edict that makes it illegal to deny the Holocaust.

However, constitutional protections for free speech have made it difficult to ban the NPD just because its ideology bears some similarity to Adolph Hitler's. To do that, the plaintiffs must show the party is actually working to overthrow the state through violence.

Experts say that may be very difficult to prove.

"There are some similarities between today's neo-Nazis and the Nazi Party of the 1920s and '30s," says Bernd Wagner, a longtime veteran of the anti-extremist unit of the German police. However, he adds, the party lacks a formal structure with a leader at the top. "There are countless cells and networks with separate activities and projects and horizontal, vertical and diagonal connections."

The danger those informal networks pose hit home in 2011, when police allegedly connected a string of bank robberies and murders to a terrorist cell that called itself the National Socialist Underground (NSU).

Among the group's alleged crimes are the murders of nine immigrants between 2000 and 2006, the bombing of an immigrant-owned barbershop in Cologne in 2004 and the murder of a policewoman and attempted murder of her partner in 2007.

Police initially failed to link the crimes to an ideological motive and insisted at first that the Cologne bombing couldn't have been a terrorist attack.

It soon surfaced that the earlier effort to ban the NPD may have aided the terrorist group.

In 2012, the Interior Ministry announced it was investigating suspicions that an NPD official named Ralf Wohlleben - who had acted as a confidential informant for the authorities seeking to ban the party - had during the same period supplied the terror cell with the gun allegedly used in the murders of the nine immigrants.

The development gave ominous new meaning to the constitutional court's 2003 dismissal of the case against the NPD.

Back then, the court ruled that the authorities had flooded the party with so many undercover agents and informants that it was impossible to ascertain whether its alleged plotting to overthrow the government had actually been hatched in the minds of the police.

Now it looked as if they had also indirectly supplied the weapons.

"Wohlleben and other functionaries of the NPD were also active in this terror network," says Wagner, who now heads a group that helps neo-Nazis who want to leave the movement.

"Even though in public they presented themselves as a non-violent democratic party, at the same time they were providing support and logisitics for violent activities."

Prompted toward new vigilance by the revelations, the Interior Ministry reopened investigations into some 3,300 unsolved murders and attempted murders committed between 1990 and 2011. As a result, nearly 750 cases were added to the 60 killings previously attributed to right-wing extremists.

The 16 state governments now seeking to ban the NPD argue that the party gives the network real political power. They allege that as many as 1 out of 3 party members is a convicted criminal or faces police investigation, according to a copy of the complaint leaked to a German newspaper.

By providing the NPD with the state funding afforded to all German political parties, German taxpayers are essentially paying for the neo-Nazi groups' propaganda, the interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia argued.

"We can't be the shoemaker who continually resoles their combat boots with this party financing," Ralf Jäger told German media after the case was lodged.

However, police say it will be difficult to establish the existence of a command structure or a money trail from allegations that the membership rosters of the NPD and informal Kameradschaften, or "fellowships" of neo-Nazis, share some common names.

There's little or no direct proof to suggest that the NPD operates like the political wing of a broader, militant neo-Nazi movement - as Sinn Fein acted for the IRA in Ireland, says Oliver Stepien of the Berlin police.

"The inland intelligence service and our own information suggests that the neo-Nazi action groups try to use the NPD structure to advance their own goals," he says.

"But there's no general rule that the NPD pays for the lawyers when a right-wing activist is accused of a crime. In fact, the party distances itself from the action groups when they break the law."
More from GlobalPost: How western Ukraine is driving a revolution
Some worry that the renewed effort to ban the NPD will galvanize its supporters and bolster its credibility with the hard-core street fighters just as it's about to fade away on its own.

The NPD has seats in only two state parliaments and no presence whatsoever in the Bundestag. In recent elections, it won a paltry 1.3 percent of the popular vote, although that total is much higher than the support it earned between 1990 and 2005.

The party is also practically broke. Its 300,000 euro ($410,000) annual government subsidy has already been frozen due to an outstanding fine of 1.27 million euros ($1.7 million) for accounting irregularities.

And it was thrown into disarray in December when former party chairman Holger Apfel was drummed out following allegations of a "homosexual assault."

Bringing the full might of the German court system to bear now could grant the party new legitimacy in the minds of potential supporters as well as stoke long-held resentment toward the liberal state's supposed persecution of "patriotic" Germans.

And it would do nothing to eliminate the neo-Nazi "fellowships" and other informal networks that keep the underground movement alive, Wagner says.

"Some might say," he says, "that the federal government is just trying to silence its critics."

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So here's why Germany is struggling to ban neo-Nazis

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BERLIN, Germany - Reeling from revelations that a neo-Nazi cell allegedly robbed banks and murdered immigrants with impunity for more than a decade, the authorities have been at pains to show they're acting against extremism. Leading the effort is a drive to ban the far-right National Democratic Party, which is alleged to have neo-Nazi links.

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This Link to a BBC London page tells a different but linked story about the decision by the local council to allow the National Front to hold a meeting in Southall Town hall in 1979

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Thirty years ago a new Government was on the brink of victory and society was in turmoil. On April 23rd 1979 the cUK had a foretaste of that turmoil when Asian "immigrants" protested against an extreme right wing rally in the heart of Southall...

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I think the case outlines a number of reasons marching and there is argument between emotional distress and constitutional rights. Issues appear to me to include, are emblems speech- if so, is it ‘fighting speech’ and is insurance Ordinance a mandatory requirement for granting permits?
432 U.S. 43 (1977) found offence breaching 1212 Ordinance #996. However 69 Ill.2d 605 (1978) found freedom of speech does not constitute as fighting ‘nor can anticipation of a hostile audience justify the prior decision’. And 578 F.2d 1197 (1978) found insurance is legitimate. I don’t know the final decisions but it’s been cited.

432 U.S. 43 (1977): http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_case?case=12634874511090553174&q=National+Socialist+Party+of+America+v.+Village+of+Skokie&hl=en&as_sdt=2006

69 Ill.2d 605 (1978): http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_case?case=17510173235257716057&q=National+Socialist+Party+of+America+v.+Village+of+Skokie&hl=en&as_sdt=2006

578 F.2d 1197 (1978): http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_case?case=7369966442251414810&q=National+Socialist+Party+of+America+v.+Village+of+Skokie&hl=en&as_sdt=2006

A Citation: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/2772

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Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository

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Pornography and the First Amendment: A Reply to Professor MacKinnon

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Professor Catharine MacKinnon, in a recent article in this journal,powerfully and perceptively developed her thesis that pornographyis "[c]entral to the institutionalization of male dominance." Pornography,she urges, is "a political practice" that "causes attitudesand behaviors of violence and discrimination which define the treatmentand status of half of the population."

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Planning applications can create stakeholder conflict.
European Union recognises community member’s, ‘rights of the public (individuals and associations) with regards to the environment.’ Where a project or projects may significantly impact upon the environment, Directive 2011/92/EU must be considered. For stakeholders in (20), ‘Aarhus Convention provides for public participation in decisions on the specific activities listed in Annex I’.
Directives are primary EU legislation of unilateral act Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (Article 288) and includes decisions, opinions recommendations, and regulations as nomenclature. They ‘serve’ policy, are ‘adopted’, and usually enabled when published in OJEU. Conventions (along with agreements) are secondary EU legislation giving rights and obligations to the nomenclature. In essence conventions are a tool of supportive.

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Planning applications can create stakeholder conflict.
European Union recognises community member’s, ‘rights of the public (individuals and associations) with regards to the environment.’ Where a project or projects may significantly impact upon the environment, Directive 2011/92/EU must be considered. For stakeholders in (20), ‘Aarhus Convention provides for public participation in decisions on the specific activities listed in Annex I’.
Directives are primary EU legislation of unilateral act Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (Article 288) and includes decisions, opinions recommendations, and regulations as nomenclature. They ‘serve’ policy, are ‘adopted’, and usually enabled when published in OJEU. Conventions (along with agreements) are secondary EU legislation giving rights and obligations to the nomenclature. In essence conventions are a tool of supportive.

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Aarhus Convention - Environment - European Commission

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Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental issues in the EU.

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Planning applications can create stakeholder conflict.
European Union recognises community member’s, ‘rights of the public (individuals and associations) with regards to the environment.’ Where a project or projects may significantly impact upon the environment, Directive 2011/92/EU must be considered. For stakeholders in (20), ‘Aarhus Convention provides for public participation in decisions on the specific activities listed in Annex I’.
Directives are primary EU legislation of unilateral act Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (Article 288) and includes decisions, opinions recommendations, and regulations as nomenclature. They ‘serve’ policy, are ‘adopted’, and usually enabled when published in OJEU. Conventions (along with agreements) are secondary EU legislation giving rights and obligations to the nomenclature. In essence conventions are a tool of supportive.

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This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website

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Planning applications can create stakeholder conflict.
European Union recognises community member’s, ‘rights of the public (individuals and associations) with regards to the environment.’ Where a project or projects may significantly impact upon the environment, Directive 2011/92/EU must be considered. For stakeholders in (20), ‘Aarhus Convention provides for public participation in decisions on the specific activities listed in Annex I’.
Directives are primary EU legislation of unilateral act Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (Article 288) and includes decisions, opinions recommendations, and regulations as nomenclature. They ‘serve’ policy, are ‘adopted’, and usually enabled when published in OJEU. Conventions (along with agreements) are secondary EU legislation giving rights and obligations to the nomenclature. In essence conventions are a tool of supportive.

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The text of all Council of Europe treaties, their explanatory reports, the status of signatures and ratifications, the declarations and reservations made by States, as well as the notifications issued by the Treaty Office since 2000, are available on this website.

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New years eve in England is a very different event to Hogmanay in Scotland so not a 'UK' celebration and nix to big sporting events too - they are not inclusive on any real level as builders of group identity in a sense of the wider community.... as for religion there is an interesting opinion piece on the BBC web site which seems to present the exact oposite of the view you expressed with regard to inclusion without belief.

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More and more people are rejecting religion but embracing spirituality. But have they got things the wrong way around, asks Tom Shakespeare.

After a relationship break up a few years ago, I signed on to a dating website. Filling in my online profile, I was interested to discover that the question on religious belief included an option that was new to me. You could tick boxes for the major religions, or for atheist, or for SBNR, which I discovered stands for "Spiritual But Not Religious".

Whereas the word "religion" generally refers to organised forms of worship and a wider faith community, "spiritual" often describes people's private individual beliefs.

A few minutes on Google revealed that SBNR is more than just an acronym. One in three Americans defined themselves as spiritual but not religious. Millions of people now think of themselves as on their own personal spiritual path, but not affiliated to any specific religion. American sociologists Robert Putnam and David Campbell talk about "Nones" - people who belong to no religion but still believe in God. Others have used the term "moralistic therapeutic deism" to refer to how young people are turning towards a vague belief that God exists and the point of life is to be happy. You could also call it "pseudo-religion".

The people who tick the SBNR box are distinguishing themselves from atheism. They would probably believe in some supreme being or higher power. Perhaps they're interested in Eastern spirituality or some eclectic mixture of ideas.

SBNR reflects a rejection of the dogmas of organised religion, even repugnance at the abuses committed in the name of Christianity and Islam and Judaism and Hinduism and Buddhism. I think it connects to the explosion of so-called personal growth movements in the West since the 1960s, such as yoga or transcendental meditation, as well as to new religious movements like paganism and Scientology.

Find out more

A Point of View is usually broadcast on Fridays on Radio 4 at 20:50 BST and repeated Sundays 08:50 BST

Tom Shakespeare is a sociologist, writer and performer who researches disability studies, bioethics and medical sociology

He was born with restricted growth and leads research into the condition

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The rise of SBNR comes in the context of declining organised religion, at least in the UK. Fewer of us are calling ourselves Christians. According to the Census, numbers fell from just over 70% in 2001 to less than 60% in 2011. That's still a majority of the population - and other religions make up another 5% or so - but only one million of us will attend church this week. More than a quarter of Britons do not identify with any particular religion,

But few members of this group are fully paid-up followers of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris or other humanist prophets. People might say, "I am not interested in organized religion, but I do have room in my life for spirituality." They have a sense that there is something "above and beyond" the everyday. They have beliefs, a faith in some transcendental force, or whatever, however inchoate it may be. It reminds me of the quotation from Carl Jung: "You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return."

I want to challenge this approach, and explain why I was unwilling to tick the SBNR box on that dating website. I worry that SBNR can just be vague, lacking the rigour which comes from centuries of refinement and debate. And unlike traditional religions, it doesn't have much to say about charity and justice.

More from the Magazine

Research has suggested "spiritual" people may suffer worse mental health than conventionally religious, agnostic or atheist people. But what exactly do people mean when they describe themselves as "spiritual, but not religious"?
Spiritual, but not religious (January 2013)
Perhaps this is because it is a reflection of the individualism that seems to be such a problem in western societies. People want a reassuring set of beliefs that makes them feel better about their own life, rather than being challenged to help others or make the world a better place.

For all these reasons, I agree with the writer James Martin when he says that "spirituality without religion can become a self-centered complacency divorced from the wisdom of a community". But then Martin is a Jesuit, and so of course he wants those wishy-washy spiritual believers to sign up to his organised faith.

Whereas my biggest problem with SBNR is the opposite. It's that it often retains the mumbo-jumbo, aspects of religion. People have rejected the shelf with the ready-made religious beliefs, and gone straight around the corner to the pick'n'mix shop to buy a more or less random set of beliefs which are, if anything, even more incredible. Many people who are spiritual but not religious reject the organisation but hang on to the supernatural bit. But I don't want to be required to have faith in a supreme being or miracles or reincarnation, or any entity for which there is no scientific evidence.

So, that makes me a humanist then? Not at all. Because don't we have four options?

We can be religious and spiritual - which is the traditional faith approach

We can be spiritual but not religious - which is the new age pick and mix approach

We can be humanist - which is neither religious nor spiritual

Or, perhaps, we can be religious but not spiritual

Quakers

Society of Friends began in England in 1650s

Quakers seek religious truth in inner experience, and place great reliance on conscience as the basis of morality

They do not have clergy or rituals and their meetings for worship are often held in silence

Name of "quakers" may derive from physical shaking which some experienced during prayer meetings

BBC Religions: Quakers
This last choice works best for me.

The word "religion" is thought to derive from Latin "religare", to bind or connect. I think that sense of a connection is the key point. Religion offers a bond between individuals and it helps them form a connection to the wider universe. The great French sociologist Emile Durkheim differentiated between belief, which was private, and religion, which was social.
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I think what we need today is more connection with each other, and with our damaged world. I don't think humanists offer us much help with that. Humanism is not positive but negative - it centres on rejecting religion. I think traditional religions do offer connections, but at the cost of demanding that we believe improbable things. So that's why I'd advocate being religious in a non-traditional way.

Without religion, the danger is that an individual thinks that he or she is the centre of the universe. Religion asks more of you than just to look after yourself. Because religion is a collective practice, it enables us to learn from others around us, and from a history of sincere and disciplined examination of the problems of life - a history which is sometimes called the Wisdom Traditions. Through reflection and discussion in the context of religion, we can achieve discernment, which means seeing reality more clearly.

I think that many people who identify as religious are not spiritual, at least in the sense of having a belief in a god or supernatural force. They may have a non-realist view of religion, which means that they consider religions to be human and pragmatic, not supernatural and god-given.

In my case, I am a Quaker, so I sit in silence for an hour a week with like-minded people, and I try to live according to Christian principles. But a few years ago, I stayed with a colleague's family in upstate New York. They were Jewish, and around the house there were mezuzot, a menorah and the newsletter from their local synagogue. But as we talked, I realised that although they attended services regularly, they did not have any particular belief in God. In fact, they had pretty much exactly the same outlook on the world as I did. And I suspect many people who sit in Anglican pews on Sundays are similar. They're going through certain rituals, and value membership in a community of folk trying to lead more meaningful lives, but their belief in a supernatural being is minimal or non-existent.

If you're an atheist, I can heartily recommend involvement in religion. It offers a sense of belonging and it offers tradition, which can be reassuring and comforting. It offers discipline, teaching us that there is something outside ourselves to which we should bend our personal will. If we do it right, religion helps us lead better lives, with a commitment to justice and social action. Sociological research shows that involvement in organised religion is good for our health and well being.

So this week, why not find a time to sit in silence with your fellows, or sing with them, or read a holy book with them, or commune with them. Take a moment to reflect on your place in the universe and your obligations towards others. Belief in God is strictly optional.

A Point of View is broadcast on Friday on Radio 4 at 20:50 BST and repeated on Sunday at 08:50 BST. Catch up on BBC iPlayer

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More and more people are rejecting religion but embracing spirituality. But have they got things the wrong way around, asks Tom Shakespeare. After a relationship break up a few years ago, I signed on to a dating website. Filling in my online profile, I was interested to discover that the question on religious belief included an option that was new to me.

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In addition some events provide opportunities for medical research understanding when linking activities with health, in this instance flu:

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Collectively NSEW brings new meaning to the word inclusive as some activities can be undertaken at home: http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/free-activities or in the workplace or conference centres as already shown.

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Funded by Department of Business Innovation and Skills and supported by Engineering UK and EDF it welcomes corporate events:

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Openings, Product Promotions, Launches, Special Days, Fetes, Client Entertainment, Staff Parties

A Science Boffin will make your corporate event go with a bang by entertaining your guests for as long as there is oxygen in the room, chemicals to react and physics to astound!

Whatever the event we can provide intelligent, science magic that is stupidly funny and brilliantly amazing.

Our Science Boffins can perform demonstrations from a tabletop, enabling your guests to participate in a whole range of experiments that will surprise and inform.

Alternatively, we can stage a show that can last for up to an hour and present some of our flashier experiments with bangs, smoke and bursts of flames .

Or, you can get the best of all worlds by inviting us to spend the day with you where we host a stall and entertain your guests with interactive experiments and also present a show of big, bold and beautiful science phenomena to demonstrate that there really is more than a little magic in science.

Contact us to discuss how we can make your Corporate Event 'Go with a Bang'!

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Openings, Product Promotions, Launches, Special Days, Fetes, Client Entertainment, Staff Parties A Science Boffin will make your corporate event go with a bang by entertaining your guests for as long as there is oxygen in the room, chemicals to react and physics to astound!

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The national level event I would like to share is National Science & Engineering Week (NSEW) open to children, adults and industry to attend:

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British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths - featuring fascinating, entertaining and engaging events and activities across the UK for people of all ages.

British Science Week provides a platform to stimulate and support teachers, STEM professionals, science communicators and the general public to produce and participate in STEM events and activities.

Anyone can organise an event or activity, and the British Science Association helps organisers plan by providing free activity and support resources. We welcome and support any type of organiser, from schools to community groups, and from local businesses to large national cultural institutions. The resulting programme of events is a hugely varied and eclectic mix.

British Science Week 2017 saw over 2,300 events engage almost one million participants, with activities taking place across the UK.

British Science Week 2018 will take place 9 - 18 March 2018. Find out more at our dedicated microsite: www.britishscienceweek.org.

What happens in British Science Week?

To give you a flavour of the creativity, inspiration and fun that British Science Week brings to communities, schools, cultural spaces, public places and national institutions, watch our highlights film from 2016.

Take part and get involved

For more infrmation about British Science Week including how to get involved by pledging your event, finding an event near you or participating in a citizen science activity, please visit www.britishscienceweek.org.

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British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths - featuring fascinating, entertaining and engaging events and activities across the UK for people of all ages. British Science Week provides a platform to stimulate and support teachers, STEM professionals, science communicators and the general public to produce and participate in STEM events and activities.

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There are events more inclusive than others, but there aren't events 'totally inclusive'. Not even a celebration of human rights. Un exmaple:

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The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam ( CDHRI) is a declaration of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted in Cairo, Egypt, on 5 August 1990, (Conference of Foreign Ministers, 9-14 Muharram 1411H in the Islamic calendar) which provides an overview on the Islamic perspective on human rights, and affirms Islamic sharia as its sole source. CDHRI declares its purpose to be "general guidance for Member States [of the OIC] in the field of human rights".

This declaration is widely acknowledged as an Islamic response to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948. It guarantees many of the same rights as the UDHR and serves as a living document of human rights guidelines prescribed for all members of the OIC to follow, but restricts them explicitly to the limits set by the sharia. Because of this limit, the CDHRI has been criticized as an attempt to shield OIC member states from international criticism for human rights violations, as well as for failing to guarantee freedom of religion, justifying corporal punishment and allowing discrimination against non-Muslims and women.

Various Muslim countries had criticized the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non- Western countries. In 1981, Said Rajaie-Khorassani-the post- revolutionary Iranian representative to the UN-articulated the position of his country regarding the UDHR, by saying that it was a relativistic " secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which could not be implemented by Muslims without trespassing Islamic law.

The CDHRI was adopted in 1990 by members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It has been signed by 45 states so far. In 1992, the CDHRI was presented to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, where it was strongly condemned by the International Commission of Jurists.

The Declaration starts by saying "All human beings form one family whose members are united by their subordination to Allah and descent from Adam." and it forbids "discrimination on the basis of race, colour, language, belief, sex, religion, political affiliation, social status or other considerations". It goes on to proclaim the sanctity of life, and declares the "preservation of human life" to be "a duty prescribed by the Shariah". The CDHRI also guarantees non-belligerents-such as old men, women and children, the wounded and sick, and prisoners of war-the right to food, shelter, and access to safety and medical treatment in times of war.

The CDHRI affords women "equal human dignity", "own rights to enjoy", "duties to perform", "own civil entity", "financial independence", and the "right to retain her name and lineage". Both men and women are given the "right to marriage" regardless of their race, colour, or nationality. The Declaration makes it incumbent upon both parents to protect the child, both before and after birth, while stressing that the husband is responsible for the social and financial protection of his family, including any children and wives.

The Declaration recognises the rights to property and privacy for the individuals. The Article 18 (b) says that "Everyone shall have the right to privacy in the conduct of his private affairs, in his home, among his family, with regard to his property and his relationships. It is not permitted to spy on him, to place him under surveillance or to besmirch his good name. The State shall protect him from arbitrary interference". It forbids the demolition and confiscation of any family's residence and the eviction of the family. Furthermore, should the family be separated in times of war, it is the responsibility of the state to "arrange visits or reunions of families".

Article 10 of the Declaration states: "Islam is the religion of unspoiled nature. It is prohibited to exercise any form of compulsion on man or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to convert him to another religion or to atheism." Since in Islamic society all reasons for conversion away from Islam are considered to be essentially either compulsion or ignorance, this effectively forbids conversion away from Islam[citation needed ].

The Declaration protects each individual from arbitrary arrest, torture, maltreatment, or indignity. Furthermore, no individual is to be used for medical or scientific experiments without his consent or at the risk of his health or of his life. It also prohibits the taking of hostages of any individual "for any purpose whatsoever". Moreover, the CDHRI guarantees the presumption of innocence; guilt is only to be proven through a trial in "which he [the defendant] shall be given all the guarantees of defence". The Declaration also forbids the promulgation of "emergency laws that would provide executive authority for such actions". Article 19 stipulates that there are no other crimes or punishments than those mentioned in the sharia. Sharia allows corporal punishment (whipping, amputation) and capital punishment by stoning or decapitation. The right to hold public office can only be exercised in accordance with the sharia.

The Declaration also emphasizes the "full right to freedom and self-determination", and its opposition to enslavement, oppression, exploitation, and colonialism. The CDHRI declares the rule of law, establishing "equality and justice for all", with the limitations provided under Islamic law. The CDHRI also guarantees all individuals the "right to participate, directly or indirectly in the administration of his country's public affairs". The CDHRI also forbids any abuse of authority "subject to the Islamic Shariah."

Article 22(a) of the Declaration states that "Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Shariah." Article 22(b) states that "Everyone shall have the right to advocate what is right, and propagate what is good, and warn against what is wrong and evil according to the norms of Islamic Shariah." Article 22(c) states: "Information is a vital necessity to society. It may not be exploited or misused in such a way as may violate sanctities and the dignity of Prophets, undermine moral and ethical values or disintegrate, corrupt or harm society, or weaken its faith." This is an explicit restriction on the freedom to make any statement which might be considered blasphemous, the penalty for the making of which might be death and as such the wording of this clause allows the death penalty for blasphemy in clear contravention of the UDHR. Article 22(d) states that "It is not permitted to arouse nationalistic or doctrinal hatred or to do anything that may be an incitement to any form of racial discrimination."

Religious features

Although the CDHRI uses a universalist language akin to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "quite a number of [its] features express an Islamic particularity." The preamble is mostly religious rhetoric, and the particulars of the CDHRI contain numerous references to the Quran, sharia, and aspects of the Islamic faith that appear on no other similar international list. The CDHRI concludes in Articles 24 and 25 that all rights and freedoms mentioned are subject to the Islamic sharia, which is the declaration's sole source. The CDHRI declares true religion to be the "guarantee for enhancing such dignity along the path to human integrity". It also places the responsibility for defending those rights upon the entire Ummah.

The CDHRI has been criticized for being implemented by a set of states with widely disparate religious policies and practices who had "a shared interest in disarming international criticism of their domestic human rights record."

Article 24 of the declaration states: "All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Sharia." Article 19 also says: "There shall be no crime or punishment except as provided for in the Sharia."

The CDHRI has been criticised for failing to guarantee freedom of religion, in particular the right of each and every individual to change their religion, as a "fundamental and non-derogable right". In a joint written statement submitted by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), a non-governmental organization in special consultative status, the Association for World Education (AWE) and the Association of World Citizens (AWC), a number of concerns were raised that the CDHRI limits human rights, religious freedom, and freedom of expression. The statement concludes that "The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam is clearly an attempt to limit the rights enshrined in the UDHR and the International Covenants. It can in no sense be seen as complementary to the Universal Declaration." In September 2008, in an article to the United Nations, the Center for Inquiry writes that the CDHRI "undermines equality of persons and freedom of expression and religion by imposing restrictions on nearly every human right based on Islamic Sharia law."

Rhona Smith writes that, because of the CDHRI's reference to Shariah, it implies an inherent degree of superiority of men.

Adama Dieng-a member of the International Commission of Jurists -has also criticised the CDHRI. He argued that the declaration gravely threatens the inter-cultural consensus on which the international human rights instruments are based; that it introduces intolerable discrimination against non-Muslims and women. He further argued that the CDHRI reveals a deliberately restrictive character in regard to certain fundamental rights and freedoms, to the point that certain essential provisions are below the legal standards in effect in a number of Muslim countries; it uses the cover of the "Islamic sharia (Law)" to justify the legitimacy of practices, such as corporal punishment, which attack the integrity and dignity of the human being.

In 2009, the journal Free Inquiry summarized the criticism of the Cairo Declaration in an editorial: "We are deeply concerned with the changes to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by a coalition of Islamic states within the United Nations that wishes to prohibit any criticism of religion and would thus protect Islam's limited view of human rights. In view of the conditions inside the Islamic Republic of Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we should expect that at the top of their human rights agenda would be to rectify the legal inequality of women, the suppression of political dissent, the curtailment of free expression, the persecution of ethnic minorities and religious dissenters-in short, protecting their citizens from egregious human rights violations. Instead, they are worrying about protecting Islam."

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Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam

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The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam ( CDHRI) is a declaration of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted in Cairo, Egypt, on 5 August 1990, (Conference of Foreign Ministers, 9-14 Muharram 1411H in the Islamic calendar) which provides an overview on the Islamic perspective on human rights, and affirms Islamic sharia as its sole source.

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London: Inclusive for spectators. World Olympic Games for competitors is inclusive:

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In Mumbai all the festivals are celebrate with great passion and togetherness. But one event which bring them all together is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_Marathon which is held every year and every one wants to be a part of it to show their support toward a cause. There is one more event which bring in all the mumbaities together ishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi irrespective of their caste and religion everyone wants to be part of this event. They come together to welcome and immersion of God.

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The festival celebrates Lord Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the god of wisdom and intelligence and is observed throughout India, especially in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Telangana, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, and is usually celebrated privately at home in states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

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In Mumbai all the festivals are celebrate with great passion and togetherness. But one event which bring them all together is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_Marathon which is held every year and every one wants to be a part of it to show their support toward a cause. There is one more event which bring in all the mumbaities together ishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi irrespective of their caste and religion everyone wants to be part of this event. They come together to welcome and immersion of God.

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The Mumbai Marathon (known as the Tata Mumbai Marathon for sponsorship reasons by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)), is an annual international marathon held in Mumbai, India, on the third Sunday of January every year. It is the largest marathon in Asia as well as the largest mass participation sporting event on the continent.

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for people with dual nationality to be able to vote for an 'Integration Council' sounds like a great idea. As a German living in Northern Ireland (no dual nationality) I am able to vote in council elections and elections for the European Parliament but I am excluded from the Westminster elections (only for British citizens or British subjects). However, in recent months there has been a political drive to give Ethnic minorities and migrants a separate voice via an Ethic Minority Parliament:

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Please not the football World Cup and all the tiresome drivel from the media outlets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MusyO7J2inM&feature=kp

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Watch the Football! - That Mitchell and Webb Look - BBC Two

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy David Mitchell and Robert Webb score a goal with a second series of their distinctively daft BAFTA-winning comedy, That Mitchell And Webb Look on BBC Two.

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Unite community membership

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Unite's community membership scheme brings together people from across our society. Those not in employment are welcomed into the union family, adding another dimension to our strength in thousands of workplaces across the UK. Unite's mission is to organise people to strive for a society that places equality, dignity and respect above all else.

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Man who shouted Irish republican slogan Tiocfaidh ar la outside Belfast McDonald's is convicted of disorderly behaviour

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A man who shouted an Irish republican slogan outside a McDonald's restaurant was convicted today of disorderly behaviour.

James Taggart's lawyer argued that using the phrase Tiocfaidh ar la, which translates as 'our day will come', was covered by his freedom of expression rights.

But a judge at Belfast Magistrates' Court ruled that his words met the criminal test of annoying members of the public.

With Taggart having failed to turn up for his hearing a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The 40-year-old, of Beech Grove, Dunmurry, was arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour over an early morning incident in the city centre on March 23.

He was standing outside McDonald's on Donegall Place and shouted Tiocfadh ar la towards police in the area.

The slogan has been used throughout Troubles by republicans declaring their belief in a future united Ireland.

A police officer at the scene interpreted his remark as foul language, the court heard.

But defence solicitor Feargal MacElhatton argued there was nothing offensive about the phrase.

He insisted Taggart was entitled to make the comments under freedom of expression entitlements within human rights legislation.

In an imagined scenario to back his submissions, the lawyer said a far-left socialist may be offended at encountering a conservative voter.

Similarly, Taggart's remarks did not justify a disorderly behaviour charge, Mr MacElhatton contended.

The defendant's non-appearance meant his motivation could not be examined.

But District Judge Fiona Bagnall said: "I do note he was saying this in a loud voice in an area which is a public space in the city centre and where members of the community are likely to be."

She pointed to a legal definition of the offence which covers words which would give annoyance to members of the public, including police officers, and attract attention meriting intervention.

It does not have to be proved that anyone was actually annoyed.

"I'm satisfied that it does meet that definition and in the circumstances I have convicted him," Judge Bagnall confirmed.

Noting Taggart has a previous record for similar offences, she issued a warrant for him to be arrested and brought to court for sentencing.

Belfast Telegraph Digital

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Man who shouted Irish republican slogan Tiocfaidh ar la outside Belfast McDonald's is convicted of disorderly behaviour - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

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A man who shouted an Irish republican slogan outside a McDonald's restaurant was convicted today of disorderly behaviour. James Taggart's lawyer argued that using the phrase Tiocfaidh ar la, which translates as 'our day will come', was covered by his freedom of expression rights.

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A series of papers discussing the tensions between community relations and Human Rights:

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We would really recommend this publication for looking at Human Rights and Peaceful Assembly

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Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission have looked at the rights to display the flag:

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Parades in Northern Ireland

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Parades and Protests in Northern Ireland (November 2013)

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (the Commission), pursuant to section 69(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, reviews the adequacy and effectiveness of law and practice relating to the protection of human rights. The present paper is a general advice on the human rights framework governing the right to peaceful assembly.

The rights of peaceful assembly and association are essential components of democracy, providing individuals with invaluable opportunities to, inter alia, express their political opinions and engage in literary and artistic pursuits1. The right of peaceful assembly is recognised at article 21 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)2 and article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).3 The right of peaceful assembly is not absolute, restrictions may be imposed to protect the broader interests of the community and society.

The Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, following a visit to the UK in January 2013, stated: the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is not an absolute right, as provided by article 214 of the ICCPR. Limitations imposed in accordance with these legitimate interests ... are justifiable and may relate to the time, place and manner of parading. Conversely, a proportionate approach to weighing the rights of all parties involved in a parade may necessitate facilitating marchers to process through contested routes. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that decisions ... should be fully rooted in the human rights framework as this constitutes an objective and justifiable means of balancing the competing interests inherent in the process. Concerns that certain parades interfere with the rights and freedoms of others can thus be balanced by understanding that on the one hand pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness are the hallmarks of a democratic society, but on the other hand article 205 of the ICCPR shall apply.6

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Parades and Protests in Northern Ireland | The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC)

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The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (the Commission), pursuant to section 69(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, reviews the adequacy and effectiveness of law and practice relating to the protection of human rights. The present paper is a general advice on the human rights framework governing the right to peaceful assembly.

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For work on the role of civic society:

See Dominic’s article on S Patrick’s day in Belfast and Milena’s paper on Belfast and Shared Space and lots of other interesting papers are  all available here:

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These Working Papers are outputs of the ESRC-funded project "Conflict in Cities".

The Series is firstly a focus for the ongoing research of team members - for preparatory work, initial findings, and later for first drafts of specific Project publications. It encompasses multi-disciplinary contributions on Belfast, Jerusalem and other divided cities; and more general or theoretical contributions on ethno-national conflict and territorial and other divisions in urban settings. It can be used for interventions in current public or policy debates if and when appropriate... Overview of the Working Paper Series and Notes for Contributors

This peer-reviewed, electronic Series provides a quick outlet for 'work in progress' by the Project team, and for invited papers by others

The views expressed in Working Papers are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily those of the Editors or the wider Project team.

The papers are available online in pdf format and can be accessed using Adobe Acrobat Read er [click here for free downlo a
All papers are sent to at least two referees. Authors get constructive feedback and the Series allows relatively speedy dissemination of work to a wide potential readership.

With revisions, the papers may be published subsequently in other publication formats such as journal articles or book chapters. All invited contributors retain full copyright of their wor k

It also publishes papers first presented in Project workshops, whether by team members or by invited participants; and papers on topics of relevance to the Project which others will be invited to contribut

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These Working Papers are outputs of the ESRC-funded project "Conflict in Cities". The Series is firstly a focus for the ongoing research of team members - for preparatory work, initial findings, and later for first drafts of specific Project publications.

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RFE/RL news report on the first Gay Pride Parade in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro in 2013.

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RFE/RL news report on the first Gay Pride Parade in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro in 2013.

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PODGORICA - The Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, saw its first-ever gay pride parade.

Amid heightened security, several hundred participants took part in the October 20 march, carrying banners and rainbow flags.

The event's chief organizer, Daneijel Kalezic, told the marchers the parade was just the start. "We will fight until the end, until we achieve the freedom and support that we deserve like everyone else," he said.

While the march itself was peaceful, away from the parade, hooligans clashed with police around the city. Montenegrin media said between 300 and 400 people shattered shop windows and hurled rocks at police.

Authorities had deployed 2,000 police to protect the parade.

WATCH: A Slideshow From The Parade

The heightened security followed a series of threats and condemnations against homosexuality in the country, including from the Serbian Orthodox church.

Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's government, which is pursuing Montenegro's membership in the European Union, had backed the idea of holding the parade in a safe environment.

Montenegrin Minister for Human Rights and Minority Issues Suad Numanovic hailed the event as a success.

"Montenegro will not let -- I can assure you -- any of its citizens feel less worthy as a person or feel unprotected by the state," he said.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

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PODGORICA - The Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, saw its first-ever gay pride parade. Amid heightened security, several hundred participants took part in the October 20 march, carrying banners and rainbow flags. The event's chief organizer, Daneijel Kalezic, told the marchers the parade was just the start.

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why not have a look at our geo-tagged images illustrating Pride events in Belfast.

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why not have a look at our geo-tagged images illustrating Pride events in Belfast.

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Pride events around the globe: Storify illustrating Pride events from around the world

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Pride events around the globe: Storify illustrating Pride events from around the world

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Spaces of Canadianess (civic): Canada Day.

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Spaces of Canadianess (civic): Canada Day.

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Spaces of Britishness (ethnic): The Twelfth of July.

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Spaces of Britishness (ethnic): The Twelfth of July.

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Twelfth of July, Belfast 2013, City Centre/Lisburn Road

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Spaces of Britishness (civic): London Olympics.

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Spaces of Britishness (civic): London Olympics.