´óÏó´«Ã½

Read the rest of this entry

President Obama has in new areas of the US coast pending investigations into the cause of the oil spill off Louisiana. Meanwhile the US military is now involved in stopping this spill reaching the proportions of the Exxon Valdez.

We'll hear your fears for what this spill may do, and discuss if the speed and nature of the reaction has been satisfactory.

Chloe's original post:

It's been called and President Obama has pledged to "use every single available resource" - including the military - to fight the massive oil slick off the coast of Louisiana. A slick which now threatens to become a greater environmental disaster than the .

It measures more than and threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of Louisiana residents and fishermen. And as we get more information about the scale of the spill, now far bigger than initially reported, there is a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government has failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina.

Gabester in New Orleans emailed the ´óÏó´«Ã½,

"So this is what we mean by "Drill, baby, drill!" Oil will make landfall in a bit. How can we allow more drilling off the coasts when things like this are happening? Katrina and now this... We're going to die in a polluted brackish hellhole of our own making."

Read the rest of this entry

Read the rest of this entry

If you've any questions for the guests that you hear on today's show, please post them here.

Sheetal: This is the latest blog from Mark in Haiti...

There's so much that you see here that will stay in the memory forever: driving down a street where 4 or 5 buildings are fine and then the next looks like someone has flattened it with a giant fist for example.

But it is the tents which define Port Au Prince more than the rubble. They occupy every free space in the city, they are on roundabouts, in parks, on the hills and sometimes, in the middle of the road. They are grouped in twos and threes, and in other places in groups of thousands and thousands.

Read the rest of this entry

When the Haitian struck on the 12th of January I was in Florida for . The sense of grief and agnst was everywhere as there is such a large Haitian community in Florida, who were desperate to know what was happening back home to their loved ones. Mobile phone lines were down, so it was very difficult to contact people in Haiti, but we did manage to connect Haitians in Fort Myers, Haitians in 'Little Haiti' in Miami with people in Port au Prince.

One of those people we spoke to was Dixie Bickel, who runs an just outside Port au Prince. When Dixie came on the line I will never forget the atmosphere in the studio at WGCU where we were broadcasting from, everyone was silent taking in every word she was saying, it was very moving.

Read the rest of this entry

Here's another blog post from Mark in Haiti:

The first thing that strikes you about the Terrain Acra camp in Port Au Prince is how small it is. Small that is for a place where 25 thousand people now live. They are crammed into an area about the size of 15 football pitches. And not just people - pigs, dogs and goats rummage around in the many, many piles of rubbish and detritus.

Read the rest of this entry

Hi Nuala here, Jonathan Frewin from Business Daily asked me to post this request.

Dear World Have Your Say listeners,

We need your help! We're preparing the ground for a planned trip that Business Daily presenter Steve Evans is hoping to take in a few weeks time, as part of an exciting bus trip across West Africa, to explore how the arrival of the World Cup on African soil for the first time will change the continent.

Read the rest of this entry

At least in New York after he came to the aid of a woman being attacked. Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed when he tried to help. It was an hour and a half before someone contacted emergency services. He bled to death on the pavement.

Read the rest of this entry

We got an enormous response to yesterday's programme with Andrew Witty of GlaxoSmithKline. By the end of the show, I had a pile of questions that would have taken several hours more to answer. Now this interview came about because I'd been reading about Andrew Witty and had noticed the number of your comments that mentioned pharmaceuticals. I suggested requesting an interview to Fiona (former WHYS prod and in charge of interview requests for World Service News) and she and GSK did the rest.

Now we're thinking about who next to invite. I'm going to sit down with Fiona later on, but I'm happy to be removed from the situation, and have you tell her direct who you'd like to speak to.

Mark has just sent this post to me: There's nothing like a 2 hour delay on a runway during a storm for you to bond with your fellow passengers. We were on our way to Haiti from Miami but - not for the first time - mother nature was having a say. As the thunder and lightning raged around us, I got chatting to the women either side of me. Both Haiti "veterans" and both on their way there to try to help out.

Read the rest of this entry

A new law in Arizona which will allow police to stop anyone they think is an illegal immigrant is causing .

The President of Mexico says it is , protesters have smeared on the Arizona state Capitol buildings and many are calling for boycotts of the state, including the county of , rapper , and this who's boycotting the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team.

Read the rest of this entry

Andrew Witty is the CEO of pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, and will be live on WHYS from 1700GMT. No subject is off limits so long as it's relevant to GSK.

In turn, Mr Witty would like to ask you if you think enough is now being done by the pharmaceutical industry to fight malaria? And if your perception of the pharmaceutical industry is changing?

PRODUCTION UPDATES:

Nuala 18:46 Andrew says never become complacent with malaria even if there were a vaccine.

Nuala 18:27 : Andrew answers whether all anti-retroviral drugs are of equal quality around the world by saying we operate a common standard across all our medications across the world.

Nuala 18:18 Andrew from GSK: 80-100 million tablets going into Sub-saharan Africa, biggest issue getting them out of the warehouses in Africa and into the villages.

Nuala 18:06, Phones on, Andrew Whitty seated and we're off.

Chris 17:46 Question from Dr Greg Kushnik, from New York:
Do you think there should be a time plan for getting people off medicines such as Paxil, to prevent the dangers of long term usage?

Nuala 17:19 Dr. Carlat There is an issue whether treating women who are pregnant with Paxil is more dangerous than other anti-depressant drugs.
Has GSK come out with a position in reference to this and has Paxil for pregnant women been contraindicated in countries?

Nuala 16.33 Question from a concerned consultant psychiatrist in the UK
A number of drug companies including GSK have been found to withhold data from the public and from regulators. Given the vast amounts of money that can be made in the drug industry, how can you reassure people that the enormous profits will not lead to further efforts at concealing bad news from the public?

And a follow-up:
Given the failure of regulation in the drug industry that has allowed drug companies to conceal damaging information, what changes to the regulatory industry would you like to see, because self= regulation has not worked.

Sarah, 15:05 So far we'll be hearing from people in 10 different countries who all have questions for Mr Witty, including Dr Ashraf Grimwood, a South African doctor who works at an HIV clinic in Cape Town.

Krupa, 14.54: Interesting article on generic drugs

Claudia, 14.46 Saudi Arabia is the first country to temporarily suspend GSK's diabetes drug Avandia. They say: The risk outweighs its benefit, especially risks like heart failure.

Nuala, 14:32

Sarah, 12:30 Subjects coming up - quality of drugs in developing world, amount of effort made to get vaccine for malaria, how drugs are priced, price of drugs in poor countries, Paxil and mental health problems, cheaper HIV medicines, GSK's profits.

Here is more information on some of the key issue that we're sure to touch on.

Read the rest of this entry

It's the league that's made cricket glamorous. And for many, it's the big bucks and display of power that make the biggest controversy to hit cricket in many years .

This morning, Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi was over corruption allegations that have touched India's top politicians, Bollywood stars and leading businessmen. It's thrown the credibility of sports' into question.

How do you ensure accountability in sport when big money is involved? If you are cricket or sports fan, do you care how your sport is funded?

Read the rest of this entry

He's one of the most celebrated scientific brains in the world, so how seriously do you take Professor Steven Hawking's claims that looking for alien life is a ?

"If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans," he says in a new documentary.

Read the rest of this entry

., an influential African-American professor at Harvard has in the NY Times today. It's on the issue of reparations but with a new twist. Gates describes reparations as: 'the idea that the descendants of American slaves should receive compensation for their ancestors' unpaid labor and bondage'
Talk of reparations is always contentious but Gates goes one step further by exploring Africa's role in slave trading and asks whether blame should also be appropriated to Africa.

Read the rest of this entry

For six weeks red-shirts have been

The clashes between the government and protesters have . Today the US, Britain and Australia have issued warnings against travel to Thailand. Later today, a group called itself 'multi-colours' is expected to rally. The 'multi-colours' want to end the red-shirts protests as they say it is hurting the country and the economy.

Read the rest of this entry

Read the rest of this entry

Just a quick post, have a read of and this Do you think single-party or multi-party governments work best based on your experience and observations?

WHO'S ONLINE FROM WHYS? Nuala

asks 'is volcanic ash the new swine flu?'
He argues that politicians and scientists have lost credibility due to the way incidents like the volcano erupting and swine flu are managed. Do you think these types of stories impact how you react to risk?

Read the rest of this entry

WHO'S ONLINE FROM WHYS?: Ros, Alicia, John Joe, Chloe, Claudia, Sarah & Mark

LIVE UPDATES AS WE SET UP THE SHOW:

1701, Krupa: If you haven't managed to see the clip from South Park yet you can see it .

1459, Ros: Two links from david on Newshour. Both on Southpark. and .

1455 Alicia: just spoke to Aliza who lives here in London wears a hijab and jilbab, says that islamophobia exists and because of this muslims are under attack, not all the time but it has been growing since 9/11.She will be joining us on the programme.

1425, Ros: If you're in a rush here are the five reasons we're asking this question - , , , , . If you're Muslim, do feel a constant stream of criticism and ill-feeling towards you and your faith? And if you're not, do you think Muslims receiving a disproportionate amount of antagonism?

1313, Ros: Katie's commented on that some Muslims deserve be criticised.

ORIGINAL POST
A radical Muslim group has warned the creators of the American television programme that they could face violent retribution for depicting the prophet Mohammed in a bear suit.

Read the rest of this entry

And if you do, do you much care are about him? We've been arguing over this around the WHYS desk and thought we'd run it by you. People who know a lot more about politics than me, are saying Nick Clegg's surge in the polls (sorry I had to give the name away there) is the most extraordinary election story in 30 years in the UK. It's grabbed me that's for sure, but then I'm going to be voting adn I'm a jorunalist. If you're on the outside looking in, could you care less? Does the leader of the second opposition party in a foreign country have to do more than rise a few percentage points to grab your attention? Twitter likes him as a trending topic, Have you seen the surge ?

The planes are and so are the accusations. As has been the case every day of this crisis, it's been impossible to narrow this down to one issue. So we're going to ask you this over-arching question to bring in...

a) whether the authorities over-reacted.

b) if Europe needed stronger and clearer leadership.

c) if your life or business is over-reliant on air travel.

d) whether we need clearer guidelines on when we can and can't fly through volcanic ash.

e) if airlines have had too much or too little influence over when airspace is opened and closed.

and anything else you'd care to raise. here's Krupa's original post about this...

Read the rest of this entry

is clearly causing a great deal of reflection on the way that flying has changed our world and our view of it. These are some of the issues that we've seen being discussed:

Read the rest of this entry

As you'll no doubt be aware, we've been planning to take WHYS to Haiti (see Alicia and James's posts below) but we were scuppered by the volcano ash .
We are provisionally flying out this Sunday , which will mean that we miss the "anniversary only journalists care about" (100 days) , but will mean we can honour our promise to Dixie to broadcast from her orphanage before she leaves.

Read the rest of this entry

...Well some of it - if you're lucky. Here's an update and here's how authorities made the decision to . Here we're no better off. Has airspace reopened where you are?

If it has, don't get too excited just yet. Fresh ash is . Iceland's President calls the eruption

So what's the recent chaos taught us?

Philosopher Alain de Botton explains his vision of a . Those of you who have been enjoying the peace and quiet of a plane-free sky may well agree with what he has to say.

Read the rest of this entry

In the past few days our meetings have become less about what story to do, and more about which issues are the most prominent. Claudia's already posted on the ash cloud, and these are the questions we'll ask today...

Read the rest of this entry

Patrick in the Netherlands is a photographer and spoke to us on WHYS on Friday just before heading out take photos of the ash-cloud sunset. Here's a photo he sent me (and to see more of Patrick's work ).

Nearly 7 million travellers across the world have been affected by the Icelandic and airlines are losing $200 million a day.

Even World Have Your Say hasn't escaped it. We're supposed to be broadcasting from Haiti this week but the trip's been postponed. And WHYSer Sheetal, is stuck in New York.

Read the rest of this entry

UPDATE: Visits to have gone through the roof because of this ash cloud. So we've got four goals on today's show:

- get experts to answer all of your questions about the eruption and the cloud.

- hear the stories of those of you still being affected.

- speak to some of you outside Europe who experience ash fall on a regular basis.

- and discuss the number one talking point online: are the countries of north and west Europe over-reacting?

Here's the original post...

Read the rest of this entry

Hello WHYS community! As you'll have read in Alicia's post, the team is heading to Haiti next week to do two programmes. I'm going to be presenting them so I thought I'd say hello before we head off.

Although I haven't been involved with the programme for a while, WHYS and I go back a long way. When I first came to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in 2006 I worked regularly on WHYS as a producer, and eventually I hung around long enough that Mark gave me the chance to present the show a few times. So though I may not know all of you, some of you are old friends.

Read the rest of this entry

A few days ago I mentioned that Tom has asked if we'd take posts from him and others who post on the blog. Of course, we our answer and here's Tom's post:

;Thanks to Ros and the WHYS team for letting me post. Lots of topics are happening
right now. But for many of us, let's look at something closer to home..

What's that? It's a proposed tax on banks, hedge funds and other financial firms (roughly
0.05%). In fact all financial transactions would be taxed. Who likes this idea?:

Read the rest of this entry

A little seven year old boy called hit the headlines this week when his adoptive American grandmother put him on a plane on his own and sent him back to Russia, where her daughter had adopted him. Justin, whose Russian name is Artyom Savelyev, was found by Moscow police with a note saying and had severe psychopathic issues.

Russia is now to America after President Medvedev called it a .

Read the rest of this entry

'Put the Pope in the dock,'

'Lead by example'

'Detain him' Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

No wonder the Vatican has gone into .

Read the rest of this entry

Hi it's Sarah posting for the first time on the blog. I spotted this story this morning and thought it might interest you.

A porn magazine, called , has been launched in Canada specifically for the blind.

The magazine's creator, Lisa Murphy, says she is filling the gap in the market because the 'blind have been left out in a culture saturated with sexual images'.

Read the rest of this entry

The message from the is clear. If nuclear weapons fall into the wrong hands the . This blogger . And there are others still who'd argue they've already fallen into the wrong hands, and we should . But there is a third line of thinking which whether this threat is as real and serious as some would have us believe. So who's right?

Read the rest of this entry

Here's an email I've just received from Tom: 'Hi Ros. Here's a hopefully helpful suggestion. Instead of you or your staff posting blog topics, any chance that one of us
could do it (say, once a week)? Think of it as a Guest Post, which is hopefully followed by lots of comments. Thanks, Tom.'

It hasn't taken me too long to think about this one, Tom. Why don't you kick things off, and if any of the rest of you would like to follow suit, please email me and we'll rig it up.

Hi, I'm John Joe. I'm on my second day of work experience at World Have Your Say. One of the topics that we saw lots of people discussing in our editorial meeting was the issue of the - or lack thereof.

Last month the social networking site to introduce a panic button on its website after of murdering a 17 year old girl he had met on the website. He was posing as a young boy. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre have taken up the fight and have tried to persuade Facebook to install a button on every page of the site that will link to a helpline and advice page. Facebook haven't exactly jumped to introduce the measure.

Read the rest of this entry

We're bending the rules a bit. We knows it's a British peg, but it's an issue that we think you'll find interesting.

A former photographer convicted of sexually abusing three young girls has left in his will to the Girl Guides. Reginald Forester-Smith died last year and left the money to the Guides in memory of his late wife who supported the charity.

He was jailed for eight years in 1999. He served his time, so is his donation still contentious?

A relative has called his will a But the Girl guides are hardly the wealthiest of charities, made up of volunteers and local resources. They've come accepting the payment. But do you blame them for not rejecting the donation outright?

Did what happened today really happen? asked .That's the question the around the have been asking all weekend as they mourn the death of their President and dozens of deputies, dignitaries, officials and military leaders killed in a plane crash.

Read the rest of this entry

This loves it.
'...in a world where new Muslim stereotypes include fiery underwear and rage against teddy bears, perhaps a new perspective is just what we need,' it says.

But others like this , fail to see the funny side of a new movie called Infidel which tells the story of a Muslim man discovering he is Jewish by birth.

The film has the potential for total disaster and outcry. According to , it's just about saved by an intelligent script and non intrusive direction.

I went to watch the film over the weekend and I thought it was an impressive attempt at endorsing religious unity, albeit bordering on the cheesy. I know many of you haven't seen the movie yet -in fact it hasn't even been released in some counties as has been pointed out on twitter, but the issue of religions being able to laugh at themselves is rich territory for us at WHYS. Is it a sign of maturity to be able to laugh at your own sacred beliefs? Here's what the Infidel team have to say about it.

Read the rest of this entry

Hi all. A few of you have mentioned frustrations with how this blog is being moderated. So here's a very quick response.

First, the blog's been moderated by the same team as the old one. No change in people or policy.

Second, we ask that all comments are brief (three or four short paragraphs unless there are personal stories to tell), polite, on subject, legally sound and not in capitals. If they're not any of these things, I'm afraid we're not going to publish them.

Third, we don't have facility to explain the precise reasons that each rejected comment has been rejected. If it says 'house rules' it's likely to be one of the above reasons. We will email you when possible, but that's not always going to happen due to time constraints.

Fourth, we do appreciate all of your comments. We have no interest in keeping you out of our discussions. You are after all what makes up WHYS.

Our experience is that if we have clear and well-maintained house rules, we're much more likely to have a conversation that we all enjoy taking part in. I hope you agree.

Feel free to email me if you have any more questions.

I heard a great new word last night which I can't claim as my own but am definitely going to share. One comment on a blog about social media talked about the shift from broadcasting to 'lifecasting'. The idea is that we'll soon be sharing so much information about ourselves, it'll be a continuous stream or 'lifecast'. In fact a look on Wikipedia suggests for some 'lifecasting' is about of one's life. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm not sure that's what my life (or the world) needs right now.

(The comment was in response to this blogger's account of his use of facebook and twitter in the minutes after his baby was born. His parents were miffed they'd just got a Twitpic rather than a call when the new arrival showed up safe and sound. I can see where they're coming from.)

If you feel that you've already made the shift to lifecasting, I'd like to know how it's going.

Most of you will have seen it, or turned it off so you that couldn't. If you're in the small group of people who want to see it but haven't, . (I can't embed it because Nike have put the squeeze on YouTube and only the Nike channel has it now.)

It raises all sorts of questions. This is a man with more money than he could ever need who has just spent months asking for people and the press to stop prying in his private life.

What does he do to tie with his first tournament back? He releases an ad which clearly refers to recent events in hi private life. And whose purpose is to make him and his sponsor more money. Anything wrong with that?

Read the rest of this entry

We're talking about nuclear weapons. In a week where the US and Russia have signed an and warned Iran to stop its mission to build a nuclear bomb; the Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for a nuclear security summit because Egypt and Turkey are planning to raise the issue of Israel's nuclear weapons.

Israel has it has nuclear weapons although in 1986 , an Israeli nuclear technician, famously revealed details of a nuclear factory. estimates Israel could have produced up to 200 nuclear weapons.

Read the rest of this entry

We're aware many of you are interested in , but maybe feel you don't know as much as you might about the country, its politics and its position in the power plays of the region. We're inviting a Central Asia expert onto the show to answer any questions that you have. Please post them there, and we'll do our best to get you an answer.

So : The first ad featuring Tiger since his private life became public. It started running on US TV last night. Nike has gone for a deep, sombre, reflective affair. Could you do better? Send us your slogan for a Tiger ad?

Read the rest of this entry

Update: Friends of a Taliban Commander who was the first to kidnap foreigners, three UN workers in Kabul in 2004, say he has been by President Karzai. Akbar Agha was supposed to serve 16 years but is now free. One of Afghanistan's Human Rights Commissioners says pardons are often given secretly to people with money or influence.

Last week President Karzai accused the West of electoral fraud and 'practically christened the Taliban as a movement against foreign domination'. In his latest statement, President Karzai has said that he'll join the Taliban should the international community put pressure on him.

Read the rest of this entry

Hi, Ian here from World Update.

Yale University made headlines this week when a strict policy banning faculty members from having romantic relationships with undergraduate students came to The policy has been incorporated into an updated faculty handbook after more than a quarter century of debate at Yale.
What's interesting about this is just how far Yale is going. Other have banned teachers from sleeping with their students. But Yale is saying all teacher-student sex is off limits - even if they never share a classroom.

Deputy Provost, Charles Long, who has been trying to enforce the ban for 27 years, says,

"I think we have a responsibility to protect students from behaviour that is damaging to them and to the objectives for their being here."

Read the rest of this entry

After violent demonstrations on Wednesday, when d bullets, tear gas and stun grenades into the crowds, opposition protestors have overthrown the government, and the President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev has fled the capital. 65 people have died and more than 400 have been injured. Residents in the capital Bishkek have been contacting the ´óÏó´«Ã½ about the violence, Bakyt a student says that "my family have a chain of shops and they have been looted, and I'm not optimistic that anything will change now."

Read the rest of this entry

I've just finished making a documentary series called Living With Tourists (you can listen to part one here, and I've just writtenfor the Guardian about what I found). First things first thanks to all you who helped me with guest and idea suggestions along the way. There were two questions that I really wanted to answer: why do different places react so differently to hosting tourists? And should mass tourism always be seen as a threat to people's way of life and culture? For this series I focused on the three places where I grew up (Cornwall, The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago) but I'd be really interested to hear your experiences wherever you are (whether as tourist or host).

Read the rest of this entry

While peace negotiations with Israel barely seem even a distant hope these days, Palestinian leaders in the West Bank are trying out a new . The Palestinian Prime Minister has been planting trees in areas that are officially off limits and former commandos have been joining unarmed protest marches. Fatah commissioner for international relations has said that 'the best answer to the Israeli occupation was non-violent resistance' and these efforts would be supported by Fatah.

Read the rest of this entry

WARNING: you may find some of the images in this video disturbing

Wikileaks has released a classified US military video showing the shooting of over a dozen people in a suburb of Baghdad, including two news staff. You can see a longer version of the - you might find some of the scenes disturbing.

believes that it was obvious that the photographers were carrying cameras and not weapons,

'War reporting is dangerous; getting caught in the crossfire is always a risk. But this video shows something else entirely -- reporters killed not despite the fact they were reporters but because of it, attracting fire with the tools of their trade. '

But insists that Wikileaks has mislead the public.

'Apache helicopters are usually not called out unless ground troops request them. In this case, ground troops were under fire and requested air support... ...No reports of a camera being found at the initial engagement have been revealed...To the contrary, we saw AK 47s, and an RPG was found at the scene of the initial engagement.'

Does the camera ever lie? Is this the that the US military didn't want you to have?

Hi, I'm Simon from World Have Your Say. During Easter Mass a senior Vatican Cardinal said that the Catholic Church should not be distracted by "petty gossip" about child sex abuse allegations. , Dean of the College of Cardinals, launched a strong attack on the Pope's critics,

"Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials that sometimes assail the community of believers."

Read the rest of this entry

The murder of Eugene Terreblanche has unleashed mixed emotions across South Africa. Many of you have been getting in touch with the

David in Sedgefield, South Africa writes

"Any murder is a tragedy. The irony is that a monster with no morals, could by his murder do even more harm and create hate as he did in his tragic and wasted lifetime."

Terreblanche, the founder of the right-wing Afrikaner Resistance Movement was brutally , allegedly by two farm workers over a wage dispute. explains who he was and what impact he had on South African society.

that his death will his death reignite underlying racial tension in South Africa, a fear that Reisa in Cape Town reflects.

"As a white single mum of one daughter I already had sleepless nights regarding my daughter's safety. Now after the murder of Mr Terreblanche I fear even more. Racial tension has been driven to the point of no return now. I can smell the fear."

Read the rest of this entry

Hi, Ian here from World Update.

There has been a fair bit of chatter lately about whether or not General David Petraeus might be eyeing a run for president in 2012. His recent visit to Saint Anselm College - a venue for past presidential debates in the key primary state of New Hampshire - started people.

The Daily Telegraph's US editor, Toby Harnden, made the case for a Petraeus bid

Read the rest of this entry

Hi I'm Kai and I work on World Have Your Say. I have seen a lot of people are discussing about a Japanese video game called RapeLay in which the player must stalk and rape women in order to win. It's part of a wider craze in Japan for Hentai - films, games and comics that feature cartoon images of a pornographic nature.

Read the rest of this entry

This week we have a lively observation of the hectic life of Tom a regular programme contributor from Sao Paulo. We will see that living in a mega city like Sao Paulo is a process of skill and patience. With 23 million or more inhabitants, almost the population of Australia, it is indeed a leading world metropolis. Read on about Tom's week

This week, the universe seemed to be conspiring to keep me off my usual chores. I was preparing myself for an introspective Good Friday and joyous Easter Sunday - striving to dodge the consumerism that has been permeating every aspect of the Easter season - even the simplest of daily tasks turned suddenly impossible.

Read the rest of this entry

The Pope's personal preacher has compared accusations against the Pope over the sex abuse allegations, to what he called the suffered by the Jews.

Speaking in a Good Friday sermon in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, quoted from a letter from a Jewish friend who'd said the accusations reminded him of the .

Update: Father Cantalamessa has since for his comments, "I am truly sorry to have hurt the feelings of Jewish friends". He also said he did not think anti-Semitism and the "attacks on the Church in these days" were comparable, and that the Pope had not known in advance about the remarks in his sermon.

Is this a fair comment?

From and the , to the execution of and , it's hard to keep China out of the news. In this week alone, China's been back in the spotlight over the , and Beijing's indecision over , another strain on US-China relations.

So is this China being difficult? Or is the West to blame for China hardening its stance? That's the line from at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Read the rest of this entry

A Belgium parliamentary committee to ban in public. If approved by the Belgian parliament, it will become the first European country to implement a ban.

, who proposed the bill, says the burqa is not 'compatible with an open, liberal, tolerant society', and we "cannot allow someone to claim the right to look at others without being seen".

Read the rest of this entry

Hi, Ian here from the World Update programme.
One of the most senior Roman Catholic clerics in England and Wales has said he can see why arguments for using contraception to tackle poverty in developing nations are attractive.
The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, said:

Read the rest of this entry