Forget defence, Austria needs army to prep ski races

France24 – AFP, 5 February 2013

A general view shows the snow-covered roofs of Schladming, Austria on
February 5, 2013.

AFP - Two weeks after voting to keep the military draft, neutral Austria has discovered why it needs an army: not for defence but to prepare the ski races so beloved in this alpine country.

Some 70 recruits were mobilised overnight to help combat severe snowfall on the courses of the World Ski Championships in Schladming, which kicked off officially on Monday.

After the famed Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbuehel a week ago, troops in brown could be seen dotted along the icy steep slopes, on skis or armed with large shovels, frantically digging up the protective race nets.

With close to a dozen World Cup events held in this small country every winter -- from alpine skiing to ski jumping and nordic combined -- the army has often been recruited to clear snow and prepare courses.

At Monday's glitzy opening ceremony in Schladming -- which featured ski acrobatics, lederhosen-clad dancers and the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger -- a small troupe of soldiers marched forward to raise the Austrian and International Ski Federation flags.

"Ah, so that's what we need an army for!," exclaimed Gerhard, one of the 10,000 spectators in the large arena, to nods and laughs from his neighbours.

Austrians voted in a referendum on January 20 to maintain the current conscription system rather than switch to a professional, more specialised army, bucking a European trend since the end of the Cold War of scrapping the draft.

Related Articles:

"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version) - New

“… New Ideas - You Don't Know What You Don't Know

In recent past channels, we told you some of the new inventions to look forward to in this new era. But now we speak of new ideas and new paradigms of thinking. After these things happen, and when you look at them in retrospect, you're going to say, "Why didn't we think of that before?" The reason is because you weren't ready for it. So that brings up a process that is difficult for us to explain to you, because Humans do not want to hear this.

Human Beings believe that their brains are capable of any thought that is thinkable in the Universe and that the sky is the limit. They believe that at any given time, any intellectual can come up with whatever is needed, which is the next step in evolved thinking. Yet history doesn't show that, does it? In the past messages we pointed this out, and we gave you something to think about. We brought up the fact that it should have been obvious to you how to fly and, of course, now it is. As we speak, thousands of Human Beings are in the air, flying from one place to another with principles that the birds showed you thousands of years ago. Yet it's new to humanity, having only been developed recently. Now, how long have you been looking at birds and longed to fly? How long have certain cultures been flying kites? Yet you never figured it out! How's that for being a Human Being with unlimited thought? You never figured it out!

Finally, about 100 years ago, two bicycle makers finally did it. I ask you, does it look like something happened here that is just a little out of the ordinary? Did you know (and I'll say it again) that those bicycle makers only beat the record of first Human flight by a week or so? Others on the earth were also working on it simultaneously. Did you know that? Here's why - because Spirit implants ideas and inventions when you're ready, and not before. These seemingly obvious ideas are invisible and blind and unattainable to the Human Being because they can't think of it. You're seeing this attribute everywhere with humanity, whether you know it or not.

How many years did you feel you had to build a fortress around your city-states and block out other Human Beings in other cities? Humans built walls and had regular battles so that the other guy wouldn't get your possessions. So how long did it take you to figure out that maybe you could share your resources, or perhaps even trade with the other one so that you'd both have each other's resources, and everybody wins in the process? What a concept! Well, really, you only just did it. Putting things together instead of tearing them apart has only occurred to you in the last 75 years. Why didn't that occur to you 1,000 years ago? Instead, you continued to sequester your borders and build armies to keep you safe. Now, suddenly there is the idea of "country groups" that share common resources, trade without tariffs, and have a common defense in consciousness. Have you noticed this? Well, get ready for more, since there will be entire continents who will do this in the future. But why did it take so long?

Until very, very recently, you were conquerors. That's all you did, since that's all that occurred to you. Armies wiped out other Human Beings so that where they stood, they now owned the land and the resources. That was the thinking of the day. Now you say, "Well, we're beyond that." Not much. Not really, but you will be.

New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

"THE NEXT 18 YEARS"–  Dec 2, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) (Subjects: You are looking  at a Quantum event, clearing a filter - Portal pineal , Higher self to step forward and communicate to You, Still remains in 3D but exposure to multi dimensions, Evolution of humanity, Intent, Mayan Calendar, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, 26.000 Years, Milky Way, Nostradamus, 1987, Beginning to a New Time, Channellers/Teachers, Center of Galaxy – Black hole, Bridge of Swords, Pleiadians, Children, Inventions – The discoveries (e.g. : Airplanes - Medicines – Radio ...): These new Discoveries were given all over the planet when Human consciousness was ready for it, New Inventions are coming, the timing depends on how the middle East problems are solved, Biology reaction of quantum energy; new radio of the future, seeing quantum energy, when it is revealed all science books will have to be rewritten, This will be an AHA moment – be possible to communicate with the rest of Galaxy, NASA, Church/religion will be effected the most by these discoveries, The quantum discovery will see the grid, life, gardens and will redefine life, DNA (3 billion pieces) evolving piece DNA are chancing, Gaia/Humanity are linked, new instruments will start to reveal the DNA variance, Evolution revealed: Autistic children have born with the removal of their 3D structure in the brain, Gaia/Spirit are testing these quantum beings  (Evolved DNA), Universe central clock = Rifs,  Globally there will be only 5 currencies, Wars on earth will be declared barbaric, Middle East, Global Unity, .. etc.)

Vatican official opens to gay union rights

The Daily Star, AFP, February 05, 2013

People take part in a demonstration for the legalisation of gay marriage and
LGBT parenting, in Paris on January 27, 2013. AFP PHOTO /THOMAS
SAMSON

                               

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican's top official on family policy has opened slightly to the possibility of rights for gay civil unions, although he also stressed that marriage should remain between a man and a woman.

The remarks from Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, wee made at a Vatican press conference on Monday and were quoted in Italian press on Tuesday.

"Marriage is a clear legal dimension. There are then multiple other types of non-family cohabitation for which solutions should be found in terms of individual law and in my view also in terms of property law," Paglia said.

His comments were widely seen as a reference to gay couples.

"I think this is a terrain that politicians should begin to approach," said the archbishop, adding that legal rights for non-traditional families would "prevent injustice against the weakest".

"This seems an important path to pursue," he said.

The Italian prelate also spoke out against homophobia in the Middle East and Africa, saying that in countries where being gay is considered a crime "this should be fought against".

Gay rights activists gave mixed reactions to his comments.

"For the first time a senior prelate recognises that there should be rights also for gay couples and that there are many countries in the world where being gay is a crime," said Franco Grillini, the head of Gaynet.

But Aurelio Mancuso, head of Equality Italia, said the type of legal protection that Paglia was talking about would mean "keeping the status quo, in other words an absence of rights".

"The only chance is a clear law that recognises the rights and duties of gay couples, in terms of property and inheritance, medical assistance, social welfare," he said.

Paglia has been in charge of his Vatican ministry for a year and is considered more open and modern than his predecessors, particularly on accepting the reality of the daily lives of many Catholics.

The British and French parliaments are currently examining draft laws to legalise gay marriage.

The Catholic Church considers homosexuality sinful but is opposed to any discrimination against gays.

Related Articles:

Dutch anger over pope's gay marriage condemnation

Irish PM: Magdalene laundries product of harsh Ireland


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“ … Spirituality (Religions)

Number one: Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while keeping the basic doctrine the same.

The doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the Christ. It simply changes the interpretation. …”

Football calls for joint effort to tackle fixing

Google - AFP, Jan Hennop (AFP), 4 February 2013

Europol's chief Rob Wainwright (2nd L) arrives for a press conference in

The Hague on February 4, 2013 (ANP/AFP, Robin van Lonkhuijsen)

THE HAGUE — Football on Monday vowed to fight the scourge of match-fixing but warned a joint effort was needed to tackle the problem after police unveiled a massive criminal network that rigged hundreds of top-flight matches.

Europol said a five-country probe had identified some 380 suspicious matches targeted by a Singapore-based betting cartel, whose illegal activities stretched to players, referees and officials across the world and at all levels of the game.

Matches included two Champions League games, one of them in England, and World Cup qualifiers, netting criminals more than eight million euros ($11 million, 6.9 million pounds) in profit.

"It is clear to us that this is the biggest investigation ever into suspected match-fixing," Europol director Rob Wainwright told a news conference in The Hague, adding that the fall-out hit at the heart of the world game's reputation.

Michel Platini gives a speech in Dubai

 on December 28, 2012 (AFP/File, Marwan

Naamani)

"It is the work of a sophisticated organised crime syndicate based in Asia and working with criminal facilitators around Europe," said Wainwright.

He added: "Match-fixing is a significant threat to football... involving a broad community of actors. Illegal profits are being made that threatens the very fabric of the game."

World governing body FIFA said closer cooperation was needed between football's authorities and law enforcement agencies to crack down on match-fixers.

"FIFA and the football community are committed to tackling this problem, but we will not succeed alone," said FIFA's own "corruption buster" Ralph Mutschke, a former Interpol executive and police officer.

"The support of law enforcement bodies, legal investigations, and ultimately tougher sanctions are required, as currently there is low risk and high gain potential for the fixers."

European governing body UEFA for its part said it was already working with the authorities "on these serious matters as part of its zero tolerance policy towards match-fixing in our sport.

"Once the details of these investigations are in UEFA's hands, then they will be reviewed by the appropriate disciplinary bodies in order that the necessary measures are taken," it added in a statement.

Monday's revelations come after Interpol last month warned that global football corruption was helping to fuel the criminal underworld's domination of prostitution, drug-trafficking and gun-running and in the wake of several high-profile scandals.

The global policing body's chief Ronald Noble said last November it expected to make arrests in Singapore over last year's Italian illegal betting scandal after links were suspected between one suspect and crimelord Tan Seet Eng or Dan Tan.

Juventus coach Antonio Conte
in Catania on October 28, 2012

while serving a 'Calcioscom-
messe' match-fixing ban (AFP/
File, Marcello Paternostro)

As part of investigations, which involved investigators in Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Finland and Austria, 14 people have already been sentenced to a total of 39 years in prison, Europol said, with more than 100 prosecutions still expected.

At least 425 referees, players and other officials were suspected of involvement, with matches rigged so that major sums of money could be won through betting.

Some 151 suspects were living in Germany, 66 in Turkey and 29 in Switzerland but suspects fixing matches in other parts of Europe and around the world are also being probed, Europol said.

No details were given about which top-flight matches were involved because some investigations were still on-going.

But footage was shown of a suspect junior international between Argentina and Bolivia during which a Hungarian referee awarded a highly dubious penalty in extra time.

The largest bet profit was 700,000 euros in an Austrian league match between Redbull Salzburg and Hartberg. As well as arrests, some two million euros in cash and profits were seized, Europol said.

A further 300 suspicious matches were identified outside Europe in Africa, Asia and South and Central America.

Related Articles:

Singapore under pressure over Football Match-Fixing

Five Dutch nationals implicated in European football-fixing probe

France lifts 200-year-old trouser ban on women

TheLocal.fr, AFP, 4 February 2013

From now on women in Paris will no longer flout the law if they wear a pair
of trousers. Photo:Leather fashion fashionista

Women in Paris can finally wear trousers without fear of criminal prosecution after the government said a more than 200-year-old ban no longer had any legal effect.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France's minister of women's rights, said in a statement that the ban, imposed on November 17, 1800, was incompatible with modern French values and laws.

The municipal order required Parisian women to seek permission from local police if they wanted to "dress like a man" by wearing trousers.

It was modified in 1892 and 1909 to allow women to wear trousers if they were "holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse" but had officially remained on the books.

Answering a question in the Official Journal of the French Senate,Vallaud-Belkacem said that while it had not been formally struck down, the order was in effect abrogated.

"This order was aimed first of all at limiting the access of women to certain offices or occupations by preventing them from dressing in the manner of men," she said.

"This order is incompatible with the principles of equality between women and men.... From that incompatibility stems the implicit abrogation of the order," she said.

Parisian women had demanded the right to wear trousers during the French Revolution, when working-class revolutionaries were known as "sans-culottes" for wearing trousers instead of the silk-knee breeches (culottes) favoured by the bourgeoisie.

Women's dress continues to stir political passions in France, with Cecile Duflot, the 37-year-old Green housing minister, criticised last May for wearing jeans to the first cabinet meeting of Socialist President Francois Hollande's new government.

She was later subjected to jeers and wolf-whistles while wearing a floral summer dress in the National Assembly.

A number of women also broke parliamentary protocol by wearing jeans during an extended debate at the weekend over France's planned legalisation of gay marriage.

UK Police spies stole identities of dead children

Exclusive: Undercover officers created aliases based on details found in birth and death records, Guardian investigation reveals

The Guardian, Paul Lewis and Rob Evans, Sunday 3 February 2013

John Dines, an undercover police sergeant, as he appeared in the early 1980s
when he posed as John Barker, a protester against capitalism

Britain's largest police force stole the identities of an estimated 80 dead children and issued fake passports in their names for use by undercover police officers.

The Metropolitan police secretly authorised the practice for covert officers infiltrating protest groups without consulting or informing the children's parents.

The details are revealed in an investigation by the Guardian, which has established how over three decades generations of police officers trawled through national birth and death records in search of suitable matches.

Undercover officers created aliases based on the details of the dead children and were issued with accompanying identity records such as driving licences and national insurance numbers. Some of the police officers spent up to 10 years pretending to be people who had died.

The Met said the practice was not "currently" authorised, but announced an investigation into "past arrangements for undercover identities used by SDS [Special Demonstration Squad] officers".

Keith Vaz, the chairman of parliament's home affairs select committee, said he was shocked at the "gruesome" practice. "It will only cause enormous distress to families who will discover what has happened concerning the identities of their dead children," he said. "This is absolutely shocking."

The technique of using dead children as aliases has remained classified intelligence for several decades, although it was fictionalised in Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal. As a result, police have internally nicknamed the process of searching for suitable identities as the "jackal run". One former undercover agent compared an operation on which he was deployed to the methods used by the Stasi.

Two undercover officers have provided a detailed account of how they and others used the identities of dead children. One, who adopted the fake persona of Pete Black while undercover in anti-racist groups, said he felt he was "stomping on the grave" of the four-year-old boy whose identity he used.

"A part of me was thinking about how I would feel if someone was taking the names and details of my dead son for something like this," he said. The Guardian has chosen not to identify Black by his real name.

The other officer, who adopted the identity of a child who died in a car crash, said he was conscious the parents would "still be grief-stricken". He spoke on the condition of anonymity and argued his actions could be justified because they were for the "greater good".

Both officers worked for a secretive unit called the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), which was disbanded in 2008.

A third undercover police officer in the SDS who adopted the identity of a dead child can be named as John Dines, a sergeant. He adopted the identity of an eight-year-old boy named John Barker, who died in 1968 from leukaemia. The Met said in a statement: "We are not prepared to confirm nor deny the deployment of individuals on specific operations."

The force added: "A formal complaint has been received which is being investigated by the DPS [Directorate for Professional Standards] and we appreciate the concerns that have been raised. The DPS inquiry is taking place in conjunction with Operation Herne's investigation into the wider issue of past arrangements for undercover identities used by SDS officers. We can confirm that the practice referred to in the complaint is not something that would currently be authorised in the [Met police]."

There is a suggestion that the practice of using dead infant identities may have been stopped in the mid-1990s, when death records were digitised. However, the case being investigated by the Met relates to a suspected undercover police officer who may have used a dead child's identity in 2003.

The practice was introduced 40 years ago by police to lend credibility to the backstory of covert operatives spying on protesters, and to guard against the possibility that campaigners would discover their true identities.

Since then dozens of SDS officers, including those who posed as anti-capitalists, animal rights activists and violent far-right campaigners, have used the identities of dead children.

One document seen by the Guardian indicates that around 80 police officers used such identities between 1968 and 1994. The total number could be higher.

Black said he always felt guilty when celebrating the birthday of the four-year-old whose identity he took. He was particularly aware that somewhere the parents of the boy would be "thinking about their son and missing him". "I used to get this really odd feeling," he said.

To fully immerse himself in the adopted identity and appear convincing when speaking about his upbringing, Black visited the child's home town to familiarise himself with the surroundings.

Black, who was undercover in the 1990s, said his operation was "almost Stasi-like". He said SDS officers visited the house they were supposed to have been born in so they would have a memory of the building.

"It's those little details that really matter – the weird smell coming out of the drain that's been broken for years, the location of the corner Post Office, the number of the bus you get to go from one place to another," he said.

The second SDS officer said he believed the use of the harvested identities was for the "greater good". But he was also aware that the parents had not been consulted. "There were dilemmas that went through my head," he said.

The case of the third officer, John Dines, reveals the risks posed to families who were unaware that their children's identities were being used by undercover police.

During his covert deployment, Dines had a two-year relationship with a female activist before disappearing from her life. In an attempt to track down her disappeared boyfriend, the woman discovered the birth certificate of John Barker and tried to track down his family, unaware that she was actually searching for a dead child.

She said she was relieved that she never managed to find the parents of the dead boy. "It would have been horrendous," she said. "It would have completely freaked them out to have someone asking after a child who died 24 years earlier."

The disclosure about the use of the identities of dead children is likely to reignite the controversy over undercover police infiltration of protest groups. Fifteen separate inquiries have already been launched since 2011, when Mark Kennedy was unmasked as a police spy who had slept with several women, including one who was his girlfriend for six years.

On Tuesday the select committee will hear evidence from lawyers representing the 11 women who are suing the Met after forming "deeply personal" relationships with the spies. Kennedy, who worked for a sister unit to the SDS, is not believed to have used the identity of a dead child.

Vaz said MPs were now likely to demand answers from the Met police about the use of children's identities. "My disbelief at some of the tactics used [by undercover police] has become shock as a result of these latest revelations. It is clear that inappropriate action has been taken by undercover police in the past. But this has now taken it to a new level," he said.

"The committee will need to seek answers from the Metropolitan police, to find out why they allowed these gruesome practices to happen."

Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer who infiltrated a
group of environmental protesters. Photograph: Philipp Ebeling

Related Articles:

Second police spy unit stole dead children's IDs - New

UN official calls on British government to investigate undercover police scandal

French President Hollande gets warm welcome in Bamako

Deutsche Welle, 2 February 2013

French President Francois Hollande, speaking before a friendly crowd in the Malian capital, has said military operations in the country will be short. But he added France will stand by Mali during its rebuilding process.

A cheering crowd met Hollande Saturday in Bamako. The French president was there to visit French troops fighting Islamist rebels in Mali's north, as well as to meet with the country's interim president, Dioncounda Traore (above right). 

"You're celebrating a new kind of independence, not from colonialism but from terrorism," Hollande said to thousands of spectators at the capital's Independence Square.

"We'll stay as long as we need to, but there's no question of us getting entrenched here, this is a short operation. We'll stay by your side as you address rebuilding in your nation."

The French president's one-day tour of Mali came as troops worked to secure Kidal, the last bastion of the al Qaeda-linked rebel fighters who took control of Mali's desert north following a coup last year.

Visiting Timbuktu

Thousands came out to welcome Hollande earlier in the day during his visit to Timbuktu, which was retaken by French and Malian forces six days ago.

"It's not over yet, it's going to take several weeks, but our goal is to pass the baton," he said. "Our African friends will be able to do the job we've been doing until now."

Traore thanked Hollande for the French troops' "efficiency," which he said had allowed the north to be freed from "barbarity and obscurantism."

Hollande said France would withdraw its troops from Mali once the country had restored sovereignty over all its national territory and a UN-backed African military force had taken over.

That force is expected to number more than 8,000, but its deployment has suffered repeated setbacks, including shortages of kit and airlift capacity and questions about who will fund its estimated $1 billion (732,000 euros) cost.

The US and the European Union have backed France's military campaign in Mali, saying the Islamist militants there could use the north of the country as a launch pad for international attacks.

Complicated campaign

Rights groups have reported summary executions by both the Malian army and the Islamists during the fighting. Human Rights Watch said Friday that Malian troops had shot at least 13 suspected Islamist supporters in Sevare and dumped them into wells, but the Malian army denied any crimes by its forces.

Some 377,000 people have fled their homes during the crisis, including 150,000 who have sought refuge across Mali's borders, according to the United Nations.

France's military campaign has been met with little resistance, with many Islamists believed to have retreated into the desert hills around Kidal.

 Hollande called on all troops in Mali to show "exemplary" conduct and respect human rights, an appeal reiterated by Traore.

"Don't let yourself give in to excess, to vengeance, in the euphoria of your new-won freedom. I know I can count on you not to commit any abuses, not to settle scores," Traore told the crowd in Bamako.

dr/rc  (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

France's parliament approve gay marriage article

BBC News, 2 February 2013

Related Stories

• France's gay marriage fight
• Paris rally against gay marriage
• Paris gets gay-friendly 'mosque'

The bill marks one of France's biggest
social  reforms since the abolition of
the death penalty in 1981

The French National Assembly has approved the most important article of a bill to legalise same-sex marriage.

Deputies voted 249-97 in favour of redefining marriage as being an agreement between two people - not just between a man and a woman.

President Francois Hollande's Socialists and their left-wing supporters backed it, opposed by many opposition UMP and centrist MPs.

The proposals have generated protests and counter-protests for months.

Opinion polls suggest that around 55-60% of French people support gay marriage, though only about 50% approve of gay adoption.

Correspondents say the ease with which the article passed suggests the bill as a whole will pass.

Debates are expected to go on for more than a week, as MPs discuss hundreds of amendments, most of them filed by the centre-right opposition.

On the way they are expected to approve the other key measure in the bill, which would allow gay couples to adopt children.

'Freedom to choose'

The bill marks one of France's biggest social reforms since the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

"We are happy and proud to have taken this first step," Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said.

"We are going to establish the freedom for everyone to choose his or her partner for a future together."

UMP MP Philippe Gosselin said the legislation was only the beginning of a trend that the French people did not want.

"Today it is marriage and adoption. Tomorrow it will be medically assisted conception and surrogate mothers."

It is expected that the legislation will reach the statue books by the middle of the year, AFP reports.

In September last year, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, argued that plans to redefine the concept of marriage would open the door to incest and polygamy.

The debate in the National Assembly is due to last throughout the weekend.

Related Article:

Tens of thousands gather to back gay marriage in Paris

German Cardinal says yes to 'morning-after pill'

Deutsche Welle, 2 February 2013

Two Catholic hospitals in Cologne declined to give emergency contraceptives to a rape victim. The archbishopric in Cologne has now changed its mind - and has also shown an impressive capacity for contraceptive nuance.

That the Catholic Church intends unequivocally to protect conceived life is nothing new. What has changed is how Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meisner approaches the "morning-after" pill.

Through his spokesman Christoph Heckley, the Cardinal issued a personal explanation on Thursday (31.01.2013) which read: "If, after a rape, a supplement is used with the intend of preventing fertilization, that is in my view justifiable." Heckley reiterated once again, however, that everything which is abortive in nature is not allowed.

Cardinal Meisner's change of heart is the result of consultations with specialists. He now understands that certain forms of the "morning-after" pill prevent conception and are not technically abortive. This suggests that the Cologne church leader previously believed that all kinds of pills which could be taken by a woman after intercourse prevented an already fertilized egg cell from implanting in the uterus.

The morning after

The pill's effect is, in medicinal jargon, "anti-ovulatory." It prevents ovulation and thus the chance that an egg cell will be fertilized, resulting in conception. The active hormonal ingredient, levonorgestrel, is comparable to traditional birth-control pills but is simply taken in higher, post-coital doses.

The morning-after pill has been
accompanied by controversy

"The Catholic Church already had a problem with that one," says Antonio Autiero, a professor of moral theology at the University of Münster, in a reference to the traditional pill.

"Artificial contraceptives" have been prohibited by the Catholic Church ever since Pope Paul VI published an encyclical, "Humanae Vitae," in 1968. "Nothing has changed doctrinally to this day," Autiero said.

When does life begin?

Yet what happens when ovulation occurs just before unprotected sex and the pill's "anti-ovulation" effect doesn't serve its purpose? Then the pill's "anti-nidative effect" comes into play, preventing the fertilized egg from settling on the surface of the uterus. "Whether the morning-after pill inhibits ovulation or nidation, it still lacks a final safety mechanism. If that's the case then we're heading more toward abortion," Autiero said.

"The doctrinal outlook is very clear in that the fusion of egg and semen cells constitutes life and human dignity. That is why it is seen as a form of abortion when one prevents fertilized egg cells from nidating," Autiero said.

Abortion, or the ending of human life - even a life so tiny - is something with which the church doctrine can find no accord. "There's no room for discussion within Catholic doctrine," Autiero said. The termination of a pregnancy would never be carried out at a Catholic hospital - not even in the first few hours or days of a pregnancy.

Ethical absolutes

Or that is the principle, at least. So are there exceptions? What happens in cases of extreme bodily harm or emotional emergencies, such as when a woman has been raped?

"For the church the answer is clear," Autiero said. "Abortion and contraception are condemnable in and of themselves, and there is no situation where they can be ethically justified."

 Antonio Autiero: Nothing has
changed doctrinally

This "normative ethic," which allows no exception to the highest principles, has "radicalized" over the years, he said.

Yet in moral theological science there is also an ethical counterweight that "depends on objectives and the context of an action." And this is where, beyond the untouched highest principles, even more questions come into play.

They relate to concrete medicinal and emotional situations, human empathy, companionship, one's own conscience and professional ethics. "Are we a church of ethics or are we a church of compassion?" Autiero asked.

'Deep shame'

The cardinal's new position gives a sense of clarity to the work of Catholic hospital doctors. Previously they had feared that they would be drawn into conflict with their employer.

In all likelihood they would have previously found themselves in situations where they would have had to discuss the morning-after pill with patients - something that would have been difficult for them to justify to their hospitals before Cardinal Meisner's recent clarification.

As for the treatment - or lack of treatment - two Catholic hospitals in Cologne gave to the allegedly raped woman, Meisner had already apologized publicly. "This incident shames us deeply," he said, "since it contradicts our Christian duty and self-image."

Related Articles:

Scandal in Ireland as woman dies in Galway 'after being denied abortion'


Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

“… No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give. …”

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"... I want to define life for you - not biological life, but spiritual life. So for all those intellectuals, just hold on, for many won't like this. Spiritual life, as measured by Spirit, is when a Human has free choice. When is that? It's when they take their first breath. Not in utero. There will be those who will say, "That's wrong, that's wrong. The soul in the woman's body is alive!" Just wait. I'm talking about spiritually. That which Spirit sees, and it's when you come from the other side of the veil and take your first breath.

A child with the mother has no free choice. That child is linked to the choice of the mother until it is born. It is, indeed, a soul in preparation for free choice, and there are many attributes that are spiritual that we have discussed before about how that soul reacts. But now I'm discussing life with polarity [duality], free choice.

But let's discuss that "child inside" for a moment, for there is a process I want you to know about. I want to talk about 240 days into the pregnancy. At about that time, the child has perfect DNA. It hasn't taken its first breath. The DNA hasn't measured the energy of the planet yet, since it is contained. Did you realize that? Inside the womb is a perfect child. The child's DNA has all the attributes of the Akash and also the parent, but it's different in a way you have not been told. The DNA is 100% as designed.

The quantum instructions within the DNA are all talking to the biology of the child,, getting ready for the first breath. ..."

Iceland president: Let banks go bankrupt (Video)

Published on Jan 25, 2013

Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson tells Al Jazeera's Stephen Cole that Europe should let banks that are ran "irresponsibly" go bankrupt.

Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Grimsson also held his country as a model of economic recovery after its near-collapse four years ago.

Related Articles:

IMF Says Bailouts Iceland-Style Hold Lessons in Crisis Times


Channel:  Wanderer of the Skies - April 14, 2012

“… Your nation of Iceland is being used as a testing ground for the rolling out of financial strategies for the betterment of your planet. It would be wise to follow their progress in this respect, as it will be the fate of all nations in a very brief period of time. We have always advised you that such an action would never come from the larger powers and nations of the world, but they will follow in lockstep once the actions begin their domino effect…..” 

Struggling borrowers in Ireland could claim debt forgiveness