Security amiss: Firecrackers on plane and pope attacked

Further to my post about how security all boils down to "the people who implement it", rather that to "the systems themselves":

The pope was attacked at the start of the midnight Christmas mass, and someone set off firecrackers aboard a US transatlantic plane..

Lunatics in both cases, I am sure. But what if the intent was more serious?

Update:
It seems the fire cracker guy was serious, and it was an attempt to blow up the plane. To make everyone feel comfortable: US officials confirmed he was on a terrorist watchlist.

Cartoon courtesy Bob Englehart/The Hartford Courant (via The Moderate Voice)

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Holy Condoms!

His Holiness is at it again. On his tour to Africa, he stated Aids " cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems." (Full)

Health workers beg to differ with the pontiff.

The UN rather explicitely rebroadcasted their stand: "Condom use is a critical element in a comprehensive, effective and sustainable approach to HIV prevention and treatment. Prevention is the mainstay of the response to AIDS. Condoms are an integral and essential part of comprehensive prevention and care programmes, and their promotion must be accelerated."



Sub-Saharan Africa is the world's most heavily affected by HIV, accounting for 67% of all people living with HIV and for 72% of AIDS deaths in 2007.

Update: AVAAZ is running an online petition asking the pope to exercise due care in his leadership on this issue. (Thanks Becks - who runs this health project in Madagascar!)

Map and statistics from the latest UNAIDS report on the AIDS epidemic.

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Headline: The Pope looses hat. Read all about it!

Some serious reporting going on over here in Italy:

Vatican City, February 18 - The pope's hat flew off in an icy blast during Wednesday's general audience but he kept on speaking as if nothing had happened.

Benedict XVI had opened the audience by telling the faithful, gathered despite the wintry weather: "It's cold but at least it isn't raining or snowing and we have to be thankful for that".

The pope tried to keep hat on his head but a particularly vicious gust wrenched it from his grasp, observers said.

He was seen soon afterwards with replacement headgear the Vatican keeps ready for such accidents.

It was the second time Benedict has lost his hat in St Peter's. In May 2006 the wind blew his hat off as he rode the Popemobile through the crowds. (Source)

Picture courtesy ANSA

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News: Vatican opposes UN gays, disabled rights bill.

Following the Vatican's controversial opposition to a UN declaration calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals, the Vatican envoy to the UN, confirmed that the Holy See also refused to sign off on the rights of the disabled. They claim it did not condemn abortion or assert the rights of foetuses with birth defects.

The Vatican made its position clear today, marking the UN's International Day of Disabled People.

The Pope's spokesman, said the Vatican's position was "already widely known": they support the rights of the disabled, but could not accept a clause in the UN declaration affirming a right to "sexual health and reproduction" because "in some countries such rights include the right to abortion". (Full)

Picture courtesy Time

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News: Vatican states Darwin’s theory compatible with Bible. No apology, though.

Today, the Vatican said the theory of evolution is compatible with the Bible but planned no posthumous apology to Charles Darwin for the cold reception they gave him 150 years ago.

Christian churches were long hostile to Darwin because his theory conflicted with the literal biblical account of creation. Earlier this week a leading Anglican churchman said the Church of England owed Darwin an apology for the way his ideas were received by Anglicans in Britain. The Vatican has no intention of apologising for earlier negative views, though.

"Maybe we should abandon the idea of issuing apologies as if history was a court eternally in session," the Vatican's culture minister said. (Full)

[Ed: Maybe history should be a court eternally in session. Maybe then we could indite some of the past popes for crimes against humanity, no?...]

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