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| Cairns forum to present PNG AIDS research Research into issues affecting Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Pacific Island Nations will be presented at a forum in Cairns in far north Queensland today. abc.net.au |
More than 10,000 people take to the streets to protest against pope Degree of hostility over Pope Benedict's three day visit takes observers by surpriseI never expected to hear a middle-class crowd that almost filled up Piccadilly chanting "Fuck the Pope". But yesterday's anti-pope demo in London took even the organisers by surprise. I don't know how many people there were, but 10,000 seems a reasonable minimum estimate. It wouldn't be surprising if there had been 15,000.The higher figure would be nearly a tenth of the number of people who paid to see the Pope over the last three days but it is still a lot more hostility than sober observers had expected.There was a mixture of slogans from the policy wonkish to the straightforwardly abusive. "Boss of the world's largest sex abuse gang" said one, next to "Vatican promotes segregated schools". "Thou shalt not bugger boys" marched next to the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association. "Despicable, Twisted, Vile hypocrite" marched ahead of "Why not women priests?"There was a picture of the pope holding a golden swastika, which the organisers apparently took down later, as offensive. I don't know why, since Richard Dawkins later published on his web site the speech he meant to deliver, comparing every Catholic in Britain to Adolf Hitler: "Adolf Hitler was a Roman Catholic. Or at least he was as much a Roman Catholic as the 5 million so-called Roman Catholics in this country today", although in the event he said something less gratuitously provocative: "Adolf Hitler was a Roman Catholic ... If the church wants to claim [5m Britons] as Catholics, then they have to claim Hitler as a Catholic". But for the most part, the crowd was cheerful and good humoured. Almost at the end, a young man who seemed like Puck walked past wearing a spiky headdress of inflated condoms.Whether this energy will dissipate is one of the most interesting questions that the Pope leaves behind him. The crowd was certainly having a lot more fun than the gloomy handful of Paisleyite protestors traditional on these occasions. The face of anti-Catholicism in England has changed forever.• This article was amended on 20 September 2010. It was revised to reflect the disparity between Richard Dawkins' prepared text and the speech he delivered. ACBPope Benedict XVIRichard DawkinsCatholicismAndrew Brownguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Western lawmakers turn sights on endangered wolves By MATTHEW BROWN 2010-10-04T01:19:24ZBILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Two decades after the federal government spent a half-million dollars to study the reintroduction of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, lawmakers say it's time for Congress to step in again - this time to clamp down on the endangered animals.... hosted.ap.org |
Paleolithic Humans Had Bread Along With Their Meat Starch grains found on 30,000-year-old grinding stones suggest that prehistoric humans may have dined on an early form of flatbread, contrary to their popular image as primarily meat eaters. feeds.nytimes.com |
Vital Signs: Aging: Unsteady on Your Feet? Try Moving to Music A music and exercise program lowered the risk of falling in elderly participants, a study found. feeds.nytimes.com |