No honorary lights for Mother Teresa

New York's Empire State Building is lit up for a host of reasons - national holidays, the release of The Simpsons movie - but Mother Teresa's admirers are wondering why their request for honorary lights was refused.

For decades the iconic building has been bathed in different colours, honouring everything from red for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China through green for Saint Patrick's Day and yellow for Homer Simpson and his family. But officials have refused to offer Mother Teresa's classic white and blue - colours of her ubiquitous veil - for the centenary of her birth on August 26.

Anthony E. Malkin of Malkin Holdings, manager of the 1931 art deco building said, "The Empire State Building celebrates many cultures and causes in the world community with iconic lightings, and has a tradition of lightings for the religious holidays of Easter, Eid al Fitr, Hanukkah and Christmas. As a privately owned building, ESB has a specific policy against any other lighting for religious figures or requests by religions and religious organisations."

The Catholic League, supporters for the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner who was beatified six years after her death, are imploring Mr Malkin to reverse the decision. The building, they noted in a petition, shone to honour the Chinese Revolution, "yet under its founder, Mao Zedong, the Communists killed 77 million people. In other words, the greatest mass murderer in history merited the same tribute being denied to Mother Teresa," they said.

In a bid to tamp down the controversy, a handful of city council members presented a resolution on Wednesday asking the building managers to reverse their decision.