Tradition or act of cruelty? Spanish or Catalan custom? These two questions were answered today by the people of Catalonia - or rather, by their Parliament, the result of a petition taken to the legislative assembly with 180,000 signatures calling for the abolition. The result has brought about mixed feelings in Catalonia in particular and Spain in general.

The recent meeting of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) in Lisbon, Portugal was focused on a new role for women and the media in solving problems in facilitating dialogue and breaking down social barriers, such as hate-fuelled stereotypes as a first step towards meaningful dialogue with practical results.

India's telecom revolution is bearing fruit, propelling this South Asian giant to new frontiers as a pioneer of worldwide digital inclusion, furthering equal opportunities, creating the conditions for every child to have access to knowledge and the chance of an education - as a birthright.

India's new machine is a low-cost computing and access device, unveiled on Thursday in New Delhi. At an initial cost of just Rs 1,500 (35 USD), a figure which could fall as low as 10 dollars in the near future, according to the Indian Ministry of Education. Based on the Linux operating system, the prototype includes an Internet browser, a PDF reader, touch screen, videoconference capacity and the design permits the user to add new functions.

Dilma Roussef, backed by Lula

Ever since President Lula won the first of his two Presidential elections in 2002, Brazil has grown from strength to strength, while his social policies targeted the poor, bringing millions out of poverty and from welfare to workfare, contributing towards the economy. Today Brazil has proudly announced that it has surpassed the average world GDP per capita. Do we pay attention to the sunshine today or the clouds on tomorrow's horizon?

What exactly is going on in the Gulf of Mexico? When there are reports of media blackouts, then the natural reaction is to start investigating, and in the current environmental catastrophe, the more stones one turns, the more horrific the potential scenario becomes. While scare mongering is as pointless as it is dangerous, the truth remains that the media have the duty to inform.

The United States Senate has called for Britain to hold a full and independent enquiry into whether BP lobbied for the release of the Libyan held in Scotland over the Lockerbie bombing. This position reveals two things: ignorance (the jurisdiction was not a British question, but a Scottish one) and arrogance (suppose the Senate held an independent inquiry into the Iraq War as Britain has done?)

The ten UN judges at the International Court of Justice who supported the opinion that Kosovo's Declaration of Independence on February 17, 2008 does not violate general international law are, at best, incompetent charlatans; at worst, they are towing the line of the gray, malevolent forces which wish to create a Kosovo Mafia State in the Balkans. And after all, anyone can declare himself the King of Saturn and issue certificates selling its rings...

The "ruling" of the International Court of Justice on the status of Kosovo's independence holds as much influence over international law, creates as much jurisprudence, as the "opinion" of a first-year law student opining on some hypothetical case in an academic debate. Today's "ruling" is in fact no more than a non-binding statement after a "hearing" among 14 judges at the ICJ. A "hearing" whose results had to be postponed because of the severe degree of disagreement among those involved.

An alarming truth coming out of the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna is that women's voices are not being heard, women are not participating at the same level as men in decision-making processes to find sustainable solutions. Gender exclusion norms were mentioned as the main reason by almost 80 per cent of those polled.

As the count-down to August's great kick-off in Europe gets under way, after South Africa's FIFA 2010 World Cup, who is going where, and for how much? Does the factor of financial crisis come into play in Soccer, the great Communicator? It seems not....read on.

Amir Farha, from Sao Paulo, writes in his column in Brazil's  IG website, that "In times of financial crisis, in most leagues, few clubs have the financial conditions to make big buys, however a small and powerful group can, these being mainly English clubs along with the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona". Outside this clique, only Italian astro-clubs like AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus can get a look-in. Have money, can buy.

Last week an Unidentified Flying Object disrupted traffic at Xiaoshan Airport in the PR China. The incident happened late last Wednesday night, July 14. 18 flights, involving 2,000 passengers were affected by the apparition, which was seen by several eye-witnesses (see photo) but which did not show up on the airport's radar system.

China Daily reports that the UFO incident which occurred last week over Xiaoshan Airport, Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang Province, more specifically at around 20.30 on Wednesday July 14, has still not been solved. The airport was closed after an airport official saw "a shimmering object" over the airport at 20.30. The alert was given and the airport was closed fifteen minutes later.

No more tears at the doctors, no more promises "It's only a little prick" or "This won't hurt". The feared annual flu jab is about to be replaced by microneedles, similar to a nicotine patch. No needle, no pin-prick, no bleeding...and, say scientists, the results are far more effective.

In the last twenty-four hours, seventy-one people have died in Russia as a result of the heat. The record temperatures felt across the country, but mainly in Moscow, have caused people to take risks swimming in unfamiliar environments. So far in July, 1,244 people have died, almost three hundred of these last week as the country faces its worst drought in 130 years.

The deaths have all occurred as a result of drowning, when people tried to escape the heat wave by swimming in water tanks, waterways and rivers. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, just in the last 24 hours, seventy-one persons have drowned in all the territory of the Russian Federation.

From the Ivory Coast to Guinea, from Nigeria to Angola, around 60 per cent of the fishing vessels are illegal. According to the local agencies, the prime suspects are the Chinese and the European Union. Does this illegal catch, stolen from African waters, come into the European Union through lax control centres in Spain's Canary Islands?

The continent which produced imperialism, slavery and Hitler now produces Geert Wilders. Belgium and France ban the burqah, a British MP has stated he will refuse to speak to constituents who refuse to reveal their face and Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders declares his aim to launch his Stop Islam movement in five countries. It is Europe, not the Moslems, who are seeking a culture clash.

Europe never ceases to amaze with its abject arrogance, its imperious imperialistic policies and its disgusting demagogy. The continent which produced, imperialism, slavery and Hitler now produces Geert Wilders. The victims this time are not the Jews, but Muslims and as was the case with Hitler, the horrific, racist, genocidal Nazi movement was not only endemic to Germany but had its metastases spring up all over the Continent in similar movements.

Whether we like it or not, whether we label it a conflict or clash of civilizations, the fact remains that the banning of the burqah and the internationalisation of Dutchman Geert Wilders' Stop Islam movement are producing hot debate in Europe, as indeed was the case with yesterday's article Islamophobia Sweeps Europe in PRAVDA.Ru.

Not wishing to flog a dead horse, after writing about the burqah and after deriding Wilders as a dangerous xenophobe, I had intended to move on today to another topic. However such was the debate produced on our front page, I feel compelled to address some of the issues.

Firstly, Pravda.Ru front page is a place for open debate, dialogue and discussion and people's opinions are welcome, whether they agree with the author's personal opinions or not and I thank you all for having your say, whichever side of the argument you supported. However I would request in future that the vitriol released did not include swear words and would thank the readers for respecting this.

For those of us in positions of symbolic or actual control, those of us in our fifties and sixties, the truth dawns upon us that we have collectively failed to take advantage of what we inherited, namely a welfare system which provided public services, and that what we leave to our children is a shambles, a deteriorating downward spiral of abject misery for your average twenty-one-year-old with no job prospects, no chance of buying a house, no future and no life. We created the generation of 500 dollars.

Carbonated Drinks: Learn the Truth!

A study by a Brazilian Professor from Matto Grosso Federal University has revealed the shocking truth about the effects of having a can of a carbonated drink. Learn what happens inside your body in the sixty minutes after you glug down your refreshing sizzling drink...and think carefully!

After just ten minutes, 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your body, 100% of the daily recommended dose. You do not immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because the Phosphoric acid in the drink cuts the taste.

"The confession by the highest military official of the NATO war in Afghanistan [Gen. Stanley McChrystal] that it is a monstrous crime against the civilian population was not considered a news theme". It is with "news criteria" like this from the mainstream press in this world that imperialism shapes the social conscience of the people.

The war in Afghanistan continues to make many victims. The most numerous are those about which less is said: the Afghan population.

In February the Dutch government fell after the prime minister refused to meet his campaign promise to withdraw troops. Weeks later the German President resigned, after confessing the truth in public: the participation of Germany aims to defend the "interests" of the great German capital. Now was the resignation of the commander in chief of NATO troops in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Moroccan police have allegedly beaten up and verbally abused a female activist from Western Sahara who claimed her right to her passport, seized by the invading Moroccan authorities, so as to be able to travel. Aminetu Ameidan was beaten on the morning of July 13 in El Aaiun, the capital of Occupied Western Sahara. Hillary Clinton, where do you stand?

The Saharawi human rights activist, Aminetu Ameidan, was attacked yesterday morning, July 13, by a group of Moroccan police when she demanded that her passport be handed over at the police headquarters in the Moroccan city of El Aaiun, the occupied capital of Western Sahara, informed the Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations committed by the Moroccan State (AVGHRV).

These are difficult times because people choose to make them difficult and could be simple, common-sense times if the media chose to talk sense instead of hyperbole. Just because a woman wears a burqah does not mean she is going to blow herself up in a metropolitan train. Is death by stoning a savage and barbaric practice or should it be relegated to the realm of local custom and tradition?

We are facing difficult times. We have an insurgent Islamist movement called Al-Qaeda, we have ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have a situation of growing confrontation with the Islamic Republic of Iran, we have a confrontation of values in the heart of Europe, where in two countries the burqah (the full-body covering of the Islamic woman) has been banned.