World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Philomena Lee issues letter defending film against anti-Catholic charge
- Last member of Burma's Thirty Comrades dies at 91
- Japanese Nikkei hits six-year closing high - business live
- Liberia bans motorcycle taxis in Monrovia – in pictures
- When the Time Comes by Josef Winkler – review
- Briton jailed for ex-marine's murder in Thailand
- Berlusconi critics toast former prime minister's ignominious exit from senate
- Joe Hockey open to scrapping debt limit to end political impasse
- John Robertson to face inquiry for failing to report $3m bribe offer
- Tony Abbott says we'll 'speak our mind' on China’s new air-defence zone
- Liberia's motorbike taxi ban cuts accidents, but revs up other problems | Clair MacDougall
- Morrison video tells asylum seekers: 'smugglers have told you lies'
- Telstra's copper network held together with plastic bags, Senate told
- Scott Morrison in Nauru TV news report - video
- Aung San Suu Kyi: 'We all want peace, security and freedom' – video
- Stop attacking Aunty: in defence of the ABC and Guardian Australia | The Spectator Australia
- Indonesian foreign minister says relations with Australia at 'step one'
- Christopher Pyne rules out return to Howard-era school funding
- Queensland father and two sons charged over 328 illegal weapons
- Why is Christopher Pyne dumping Gonski?
- Thailand's prime minister survives vote of no confidence
- My message to Queen Elizabeth II: Aboriginal art needs support | Lenie Namatjira
- Adam Hills quits as ABC TV host, saying he’s ‘running out of funny’
- Goodbye Ja’mie, hello Jonah: can Chris Lilley win back his fans?
- 'Vested interests' are harming efforts to save the Leadbeater's possum
| Philomena Lee issues letter defending film against anti-Catholic charge Posted: 28 Nov 2013 01:26 AM PST  Subject of Stephen Frears's drama about a women forcibly separated from her child takes on critic who says film is 'hateful' attack on Catholics Philomena Lee, the real life subject of the acclaimed forced-adoption drama Philomena, has issued a letter defending the film against accusations that it is "anti-Catholic". Responding specifically to a review in the New York Post that called the film "hateful and boring". The letter, signed by Lee and published by Deadline, responds directly to the Post's critic, Kyle Smith. "Your review of the movie paints its story as being a condemnation of Catholicism and conservative views. It states that the relationship depicted between Mr Martin Sixsmith and myself comes across as contrived and trite, and funny for all the wrong reasons. Forgive me for saying so, Kyle, but you are incorrect." Philomena, based on Martin Sixsmith's book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, tells the story of Lee and Sixsmith's attempt to contact Lee's son, removed from her by the nuns with whom she has taken refuge in 1950s Ireland. Judi Dench plays Lee, and Steve Coogan the journalist and former spin doctor Sixsmith. Lee's letter then goes on to paint her as a staunch Catholic, despite her experiences. "The story it tells has resonated with people not because it's some mockery of ideas or institutions that they're in disagreement with. This is not a rally cry against the church or politics. In fact, despite some of the troubles that befell me as a young girl, I have always maintained a very strong hold on my faith." In his review, Smith lambasts Lee herself as a "ninny" and claims that "in 1952 Ireland, both mother and child's life would have been utterly ruined by an out-of-wedlock birth and that the nuns are actually giving both a chance at a fresh start that both indeed, in real life, enjoyed." But Lee's letter concludes on a magnanimous note: "Just as I forgave the church for what happened with my son, I forgive you for not taking the time to understand my story. I do hope though that the families heading to the movie theatre to see the film decide for themselves – and disagree with you." The last few lines suggest the motivation behind the letter: distributors the Weinstein Company have been particularly concerned that "church families" as Harvey Weinstein has described them may be put off by any furore surrounding the film – hence the recent successful battle to have the restrictive R rating removed. • Tom Shone: Judi Dench re-introduces herself to America as comedienne of Philomena theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Last member of Burma's Thirty Comrades dies at 91 Posted: 28 Nov 2013 01:22 AM PST  Ye Htut was part of group that spearheaded struggle against British colonial rule The last member of the Thirty Comrades, the group that spearheaded Burma's struggle against British colonial rule, has died. Ye Htut died at a hospital in Rangoon on Wednesday, family members said. He was 91. The Thirty Comrades were led by General Aung San, father of the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. During the second world war the men went to Japan for training to fight British colonists. Aung San later negotiated independence from Britain. He was assassinated in 1947. Ye Htut, who had been serving in the Burmese army until independence, went underground soon after, joining the armed struggle of the banned Burma Communist party. He laid down his weapons in 1963 to join the ruling party of the dictator General Ne Win, but was purged several years later in an inner-party struggle, according to his eldest son, Kyaw Kyaw. Ye Htut was involved in the 1988 pro-democracy movement. Tin Oo, a former chief of staff and a veteran of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, expressed his condolences, saying he had great respect those who helped the country fight for independence. "I am very sad to hear about the death of the last surviving member of the Thirty Comrades," he said. Tin Oo said he had met Ye Htut before independence and also when he served in Ne Win's ruling party. "U Ye Htut served as a patron of the Patriotic Old Comrades league, a group formed by retired army leaders during the peak of 1988 uprising. He shared his experience and had given us advice during the initial days," he said. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Japanese Nikkei hits six-year closing high - business live Posted: 28 Nov 2013 01:20 AM PST Weak yen drives stocks higher in Japan, after Wall Street closed at fresh record highs last night.       |
| Liberia bans motorcycle taxis in Monrovia – in pictures Posted: 28 Nov 2013 01:01 AM PST In November, the Liberian government banned motorcycle taxis from the main roads of the capital, Monrovia  |
| When the Time Comes by Josef Winkler – review Posted: 28 Nov 2013 01:00 AM PST  Alberto Manguel hopes this translation of stories about sin and retribution will give an Austrian great the credit he is due During a lunch with WG Sebald in June 2000, I asked him, since he had written splendid essays on Austrian literature, which Austrian writers he recommended. Immediately he mentioned Josef Winkler, whose work he considered a counterweight to what he saw as Austria's moral infamy. I then read three or four of his novels, which all revolve around the same theme: the deep-rooted corruption of Austrian society, especially the farming society into which Winkler was born in 1953. The themes of medieval Catholic traditions, the hardships of rural life and a loveless family are explored over and over again. Winkler's prose reads like a palimpsest of angry stories, each trying to outdo the previous one in increasing depth and relentless scrutiny. Reading Winkler is like peering harder and harder into one of those painted Flemish hells that seethe with horribly inventive details of sin and retribution. The horrors of the second world war provided European countries with a gruesome mythology that has taken on different guises in the various literatures. By and large, for the English, the stories that stem from it are documentary; for the French, they lean towards philosophical fables; for the Italians they take on the tone of magical folk-tales. For German speakers, they seem to have a grotesque eschatological underpinning, as if for Anna Seghers, Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass and so many others, the experience of the war in this world darkly mirrored, not through religious faith but through literary intuition, the experience of the next. For Austrian writers in particular (Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek), the mindset that made so many of their fellow citizens behave as they did under Hitler did not change much after the war. For Winkler, the period from the Anschluss in 1938 to the division of Austria into four zones in 1945 merely rendered the Austrian ethos more explicit: nothing much changed before or afterwards, except an uncanny ability to dissemble. As the old joke has it, the Austrians' greatest triumph has been to convince the world that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was German. Only three books by Winkler have been translated up to now into English. The third, cleverly translated by Adrian West, with an illuminating introduction, is a good example of Winkler's powerful art. Set in a village in his native Carinthia, it centres on a 90-year-old man whose occupation is to cook bones until they become a greasy, viscous, foul-smelling brew used to smear the eyes, ears, nostrils and bellies of horses, to protect them from pestering insects. The noxious liquid becomes the device by which the many characters and events of the novel are brought into play; like the bones of the dead used by the ancient brewer, the flesh of the living is collected and made to render its stories. Thus we hear of the artist-priest who decorated a calvary wall with the image of a soul being tortured in hell, that of a villager who, before the war, threw a statue of Christ over a waterfall and who, later, during the war, lost both arms in the trenches. We hear of the hunchback Hildegard, an arthritic hag who forgets to wash, and whose sister Helene is married to a brutal man "who even today venerates Hitler [...] and who, by way of punishment, used to make his daughter Karin – not yet 20 – go alone to the cesspit with a long-handled ladle to gather faeces and throw them into the manure tanker with a rusty bucket, until bloody blisters formed on her hands". We hear of two boys who end their lives together, lovingly embraced, by tying ropes to their necks and jumping into the stream where the blasphemer had thrown the holy statue. We hear of 15-year-old Ludmilla who, upon discovering her first menstruation, flings herself into the nearby rapids. The recorder of all these deaths (there are many more) is the almost anonymous narrator; the stories are those of his childhood. In opposition to the pastor's credo, who tells the dead: "A deep chasm divides us. None of us can go to you and none of you can come to us," the narrator's mission is to allow the dead to speak again. "I've written 13 books on death," Winkler told an interviewer, "but I always manage to stick life somewhere in them." Baudelaire's "The Litanies of Satan" punctuate this novel, undermining the Catholic litanies that the characters occasionally mouth, just as the occasional memories of the events of the Nazi era are set alongside episodes of ordinary daily brutality. The standing of Winkler in German-language literature is undisputed. The German writer Martin Walser was euphoric when he discovered Winkler's work; Grass praised him for the intensity of his writing. He has won almost every major literary prize in Germany and Austria. It is to be hoped that this translation will bring his writing to the attention of a wider, curious and intelligent English-speaking public. • When the Time Comes is available from contramundum.net theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Briton jailed for ex-marine's murder in Thailand Posted: 28 Nov 2013 12:52 AM PST  Lee Aldhouse, a semi-professional kickboxer, stabbed American Dashawn Longfellow during bar brawl in Phuket in 2010 A Thai court has sentenced a British kickboxer to 25 years in jail for the murder of a former US marine on a resort island. Lee Aldhouse was convicted on Thursday of fatally stabbing Dashawn Longfellow during a brawl at a bar in Phuket in 2010. The Phuket provincial court reduced Aldhouse's sentence from life because he pleaded guilty. Aldhouse, a semi-professional kickboxer who fought under the nickname Pitbull, had been staying on and off in Phuket, where 23-year-old Longfellow was also studying the sport. Aldhouse was extradited to Thailand last year in the first case of extradition of a criminal suspect from Britain to Thailand. He was arrested at London's Heathrow airport after fleeing Thailand. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Berlusconi critics toast former prime minister's ignominious exit from senate Posted: 28 Nov 2013 12:45 AM PST  Italian parliament expels 77-year-old after conviction for tax fraud at his Mediaset empire but tycoon vows to stay in politics Showing on a loop on the screens outside Palazzo Grazioli was a compilation of clips that had a strangely retro feel to it. In one, Silvio Berlusconi was laughing with Tony Blair; in another, he was chatting affably with George W Bush. Jacques Chirac, Kofi Annan, even Pope Benedict XVI: the roll call of former leaders went on – and Berlusconi, in a somewhat more youthful guise, was with them all. Across town, in a historic and at times openly confrontational series of votes, Italian senators were bringing an end to the former prime minister's near two decades in parliament. But, lest anyone think the 77-year-old might take that as his cue to join his old confrères in retirement, he made it clear that, as far as he was concerned, his political career was still very much ongoing. "Today they [my opponents] are celebrating because they have managed to bring an adversary – an enemy – before the executioner's squad. They are euphoric," he told the supporters who had gathered outside his mansion to hear of his "persecution" by the country's judiciary. "They have been waiting for it for 20 years … But I don't believe they have definitively won the match of democracy and of freedom." Waving her flag dreamily as the strains of party anthems thundered around Piazza Venezia, Mariella, a fan from the southern region of Calabria, gave her verdict: "It's a coup d'état. Because justice is not a weapon." Rather than consigned to history, she added, Berlusconi was still the man to lead Italy forward. "Even at 76, 77 years old, if he can rouse young people like that, he's the future," she said. Most Italians disagree with that assessment. As news of the expulsion came through, a group of anti-Berlusconi activists began celebrating outside the senate with spumante (sparkling wine) and chants calling for the former prime minister to be sent to prison. The move ends the partial immunity from which, as a senator, Berlusconi benefited, though his lawyers have dismissed his arrest as a possibility. The landmark expulsion – confirmed by the senate speaker at 5.42pm after several hours of fractious debate – followed Berlusconi's definitive conviction for tax fraud at his Mediaset television empire on 1 August. He denies any wrongdoing, and ever since, the political debate of Italy – a country in grave need of concerted action to lift it out of its longest postwar recession – has been dominated by the saga. Though not part of his actual sentence, the ousting was deemed necessary under an anti-corruption law passed last year that prohibits anyone with a conviction of more than two years from holding elected office or standing for office for six years. Berlusconi was also ordered to serve a four-year prison sentence, commuted to one, which will be enforced next year, either as community service or house arrest. In the senate on Wednesday, centre-left MPs from the Democratic party (PD) combined with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and others to approve the expulsion – to the obvious rage of Berlusconi loyalists. Several of his female senators had come dressed in black, at least one with an armband. At one point, they began chanting "Silvio, Silvio". The vote attracted some of the recently appointed senators-for-life, among them the architect Renzo Piano. In a defiant address that sounded much like an election campaign speech, Berlusconi acknowledged that the expulsion – one of the heaviest blows in his eventful political career – had made for "a bitter day, a day of mourning for democracy". But, speaking to fans waving the flags of his newly revived Forza Italia (FI) party, he said he would continue to "fight for our freedom" from the outside. "We will stay on the field," he said, pointing to Beppe Grillo, figurehead of the M5S, and Matteo Renzi, the Florence mayor likely to become the next chief of the PD, as examples of leaders orchestrating their parties from outside the national parliament. "My father has been stripped of his seat as senator, but it will certainly not be today's vote that will undermine his leadership and his commitment," said Marina Berlusconi, the media magnate's eldest daughter, who is regularly tipped by the Italian media as his most likely political heir – a prospect she rejects. For the moment, Berlusconi will remain at the helm of the party named after a football chant, which he first launched for his entrance into politics in 1994. Replaced as the main centre-right party by the Freedom People (PdL) for several years until this summer, FI was reformed and, on Tuesday, moved into opposition by Berlusconi, who has seen his power base split by a breakaway faction led by an erstwhile loyalist, Angelino Alfano. Alfano, the interior and deputy prime minister, has pledged his allegiance to Enrico Letta's government, which emerged stronger from a confidence vote on Tuesday. Most analysts agree that, as old age and party splits combine with continuing legal woes, Berlusconi's farewell from politics is inevitable. Among other matters, he has been ordered to stand trial on charges of bribing a senator in an attempt to bring down Romano Prodi's government, and is appealing against a first-grade conviction handed down in June for having sex with an underage girl and abusing his office to cover it up. He denies the allegations in both cases. But the question most observers ask is how long his goodbye will be - and nobody believes that the expulsion by itself will stop him. "It's certainly not the end for Berlusconi. He will join Beppe Grillo as a party leader outside of parliament and in 10 days time Matteo Renzi will be a party leader outside of parliament," said James Walston, of the American University of Rome. "Even when he's barred from taking part in politics, he'll take part in politics." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Joe Hockey open to scrapping debt limit to end political impasse Posted: 28 Nov 2013 12:02 AM PST The treasurer is prepared to consider the Greens proposal, but criticises 'nitty-bitty politics' being played over the legislated ceiling       |
| John Robertson to face inquiry for failing to report $3m bribe offer Posted: 27 Nov 2013 11:45 PM PST NSW opposition leader said businessman Michael McGurk offered the bribe over a property sale when he was union leader       |
| Tony Abbott says we'll 'speak our mind' on China’s new air-defence zone Posted: 27 Nov 2013 11:16 PM PST The prime minister backs Julie Bishop's criticism of China and says it’s 'important for Australia to stand up for its values’       |
| Liberia's motorbike taxi ban cuts accidents, but revs up other problems | Clair MacDougall Posted: 27 Nov 2013 11:00 PM PST  Banning the motorbikes in Monrovia has improved road safety, but has inconvenienced commuters and curbed drivers' incomes Musa Sayee Konneh stands on a street corner in Monrovia amid a fleet of parked motorbikes, with faded Liberian dollars folded around his middle finger. On a good day, grubby bills would fan from his hands. But since the government banned motorbike taxis from the capital city's main roads this month, Konneh's work has been curtailed. So far today he has earned just 90 Liberian dollars (7p) for half a day's work, a quarter of his usual take. The ban took effect a week after the driver of a motorbike taxi, or pehn-pehn, was killed in a collision with a schoolbus. In response, an angry mob set the bus on fire. An official from Liberia's ministry of transport acknowledged that the schoolbus incident had prompted the ban, but said public safety was the prime motivation. "We have been getting a lot of alarming figures from the ministry of health about accident rates going up," says Charles Nelson, a deputy minister at the transport ministry, who admits that he does not know how long the ban will last. The city's motorbike unions have failed to enforce the government's safety policy, he says, which encouraged, but did not legally require, pehn-pehn drivers to wear helmets, closed shoes, and reflective jackets, and to carry only one passenger at a time. The ministry of health says that in October alone 1,011 patients were admitted to the city's hospitals because of motorcycle accidents; in contrast, only one accident was reported in the three days after the ban. "[The ban] will significantly reduce the costs on Liberia's health system," says Tolbert Nyenswah, the assistant minister of health, although he admits that data needs to be collected over a longer period to measure the full impact. Pehn-pehn owners have a reputation for dangerous driving and theft. John Saah, chief of traffic for the Liberian police force, says the authorities are trying to curb the "carnage and mayhem" the pehn-pehns are causing. Drivers have been accused of rapes and snatching bags from women, he adds. But the ban inconveniences commuters in Monrovia, where roads remain congested despite recent improvements. Before the ban, hopping on the back of a pehn-pehn that could weave through traffic was an efficient mode of travel for commuters in a rush. The transport ministry plans to provide three or four buses to help ease the crush, but until then people are having to join long queues to use dilapidated yellow taxis. "Pehn-pehns are fast. They were really helping some of us," says Patricia Nyakun, a middle-aged woman who takes her vegetables to market every morning. At 5pm on a recent weekday, she waited two hours for a taxi home. "Now you are fighting for a car," she says, adding that taxi drivers have been raising their prices since the ban. Representatives from Monrovia's five motorbike unions are negotiating with the government, but for now it looks like the ban will hold. Clarence Quaye, chairman of the Motorbike Riders Organisation of Liberia, supports increased regulations and safety measures, but not the ban. He says the government needs to take responsibility and develop plans to improve safety. If the authorities do not listen to the concerns of motorbike owners, he says, they will take their protest to Liberia's parliament and the presidential mansion. In the meantime, the economic impact of the ban could be devastating for Konneh and the 12,000 other pehn-pehn drivers in the city. A former fighter in Liberia's 14-year civil war, Konneh exchanged his AK-47 for a motorbike when the conflict ended in 2003. He says the ban's adverse effect on his income means he may not be able to send his son back to school. "We don't want to steal, we don't want to kill," Konneh says. "Let the government give us a chance." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Morrison video tells asylum seekers: 'smugglers have told you lies' Posted: 27 Nov 2013 10:59 PM PST Scott Morrison speaks on Nauruan television       |
| Telstra's copper network held together with plastic bags, Senate told Posted: 27 Nov 2013 10:55 PM PST 'This is the exact network that will be sitting outside there, tying into the NBN that is built to the node,' says union leader       |
| Scott Morrison in Nauru TV news report - video Posted: 27 Nov 2013 10:23 PM PST A recording of a Nauruan TV news report shows the minister for immigration and border protection, Scott Morrison, addressing a group of asylum seekers       |
| Aung San Suu Kyi: 'We all want peace, security and freedom' – video Posted: 27 Nov 2013 09:59 PM PST Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi meets Tony Abbott in Canberra as part of her Australian visit       |
| Stop attacking Aunty: in defence of the ABC and Guardian Australia | The Spectator Australia Posted: 27 Nov 2013 09:44 PM PST Editorial for the Spectator Australia: The spying revelations may have enraged some conservatives, but we must defend the ABC and Guardian Australia's right to publish them       |
| Indonesian foreign minister says relations with Australia at 'step one' Posted: 27 Nov 2013 09:32 PM PST There is a long way to go, says Marty Natalegawa, who is calling for a binding code of ethics between the two nations       |
| Christopher Pyne rules out return to Howard-era school funding Posted: 27 Nov 2013 08:43 PM PST Education minister moves to quell criticism two days after saying the old funding system would be 'a good starting point'       |
| Queensland father and two sons charged over 328 illegal weapons Posted: 27 Nov 2013 08:11 PM PST Police seize weapons and 4.2 tonnes of ammo in largest haul of illegal weapons ever uncovered in the state       |
| Why is Christopher Pyne dumping Gonski? Posted: 27 Nov 2013 08:03 PM PST Things have changed dramatically since the Coalition told voters it was on a 'unity ticket' with Labor on school funding       |
| Thailand's prime minister survives vote of no confidence Posted: 27 Nov 2013 08:01 PM PST  Yingluck Shinawatra uses large majority in parliament to quash motion but anti-government protests continue Thailand's embattled prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has breezed through a no-confidence vote in parliament where her party holds a commanding majority but still faces mounting pressure from widening anti-government protests. Her Puea Thai party and coalition partners dominate the lower house with 299 seats and comfortably survived the three-day debate during which the opposition grilled Yingluck on a 3.5 billion baht (£66m/US$108m) water management scheme and financially troubled government rice intervention scheme. Thailand has had eight years of on-off turmoil, from crippling street rallies to controversial judicial rulings and army intervention, each time with Thaksin at the centre of the tumult. The billionaire former telecommunications mogul fled into exile to dodge a jail sentence for abuse of power in 2008. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| My message to Queen Elizabeth II: Aboriginal art needs support | Lenie Namatjira Posted: 27 Nov 2013 07:59 PM PST Lenie Namatjira: It was a great honour to meet the Queen, and to be able to tell her that we need help to get Aboriginal children to paint. We have to keep this tradition strong for generations       |
| Adam Hills quits as ABC TV host, saying he’s ‘running out of funny’ Posted: 27 Nov 2013 07:48 PM PST Comedian says he needs to recharge from busy schedule across UK and Australia and spend more time with growing family       |
| Goodbye Ja’mie, hello Jonah: can Chris Lilley win back his fans? Posted: 27 Nov 2013 07:35 PM PST At 39, Lilley may be reaching the point where his teenage characters are decreasingly feasible for him to play       |
| 'Vested interests' are harming efforts to save the Leadbeater's possum Posted: 27 Nov 2013 07:24 PM PST Panel created to save Victoria's faunal emblem favours the logging industry, says Wilderness Society       |
| You are subscribed to email updates from World news and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Posting Komentar