France attacked the European Commission yesterday for producing three million copies of an EU diary for schools that contains no reference to Christmas but includes Jewish and Muslim festivities.
“Are we ashamed of our Christian identity?” France’s Minister of European Affairs Laurent Wauquiez asked at a press briefing. “Are we ashamed that the Europe of church towers was the base of our European identity?”
But he stopped short of demanding that the commission recall the 2010-2011 diary that has been sent out to schools across the 27-state bloc, saying he would be satisfied if next year’s diary corrects the omission.
A commission spokesman in Brussels, Frederic Vincent, said that future editions would not repeat what he called a “blunder”. (AFP)
Jolie donates $100,000 to aid Pakistan
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, in Europe to promote her spy thriller Salt, has handed $100,000 (€78,000) to help refugees from Pakistan’s floods, UN sources told AFP.
A crowd of 1,000 fans engulfed the 34-year-old actress, who is also a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, when she stepped out of a limousine in Paris on Tuesday evening clad in a short shiny number with plunging neckline for the French premiere of the movie.
A UNHCR source attending the gala screening said she had donated the sum to help relieve Pakistan, where aid has been short and slow in coming. (AFP)
Hail, Mary
Israel is inviting tourists to retrace the footsteps of the Virgin Mary as part of a growing campaign to entice Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.
The Tourism Ministry is helping holiday firms plan pilgrimages to sites where the mother of Jesus Christ lived and travelled.
They include her birthplace near Nazareth, as well as Mary’s Spring and the Tomb of the Virgin near Jerusalem. (PA)
Marked out
An Ohio science teacher has been fired after being accused of burning the image of a cross on pupils’ arms.
An internal investigation found John Freshwater had preached Christian beliefs in class.
He was also accused of using a scientific device to mark several students with a cross and of keeping a Bible on his desk. (PA)
Tall story?
Zoo keepers have been shocked by the birth of a five-foot baby giraffe to a mother who kept her pregnancy hidden.
The as-yet-unnamed calf was born at Paignton Zoo in Devon at 7.30 a.m. on Monday to first-time mother Sangha.
Zoo keeper Jim Dicks said: “The birth has come as a bit of a surprise.” (PA)
Israeli guards tell journalists to strip
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security detail ordered a pregnant Arab journalist to remove her bra and told other reporters to strip to their underwear, a media group said yesterday.
The requests were made on Tuesday as journalists tried to enter a five-star hotel in Jerusalem for the premier’s annual reception for the foreign press, prompting some to walk out rather than face humiliating and invasive searches.
The incident drew cries of outrage from the Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association (FPA). “While we appreciate the need for security, it is not remotely acceptable to invite people for cocktails at a five-star hotel and then make them undress at the door,” it said in a statement.
Najwan Simri, an Arab-Israeli reporter and producer who works for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, said that a female security agent asked her to take off her coat and shirt, and finally her bra. (AFP)
Scraps price list to boost business
A café owner in the Czech capital Prague has devised an unconventional, but apparently successful, scheme to drum up business: scrapping the price list.
“I had no customers and couldn’t attract new ones, so I got this idea. The place is mostly full these days,” 42-year-old Ondrej Lebowski told AFP.
Now clients at his Big Lebowski bar are free to set their own price for drinks, food, and even some of the memorabilia inside including film posters, books, toys and chess boxes.
Mr Lebowski launched his innovative bid to attract more custom last August. Five months on, curious customers are flocking to the cafe which would otherwise have gone bust.
“Customers try to arrive at the correct price, some give more, some give less,” with most people doing their best to offer a fair amount rather than drinking and eating for free, Mr Lebowski explained. (AFP)
Prince Harry eyes North Pole trek
Prince Harry is determined to join wounded British soldiers on a landmark trek to the North Pole, his office said yesterday – military commitments and his brother’s wedding plans permitting.
Two servicemen who lost limbs fighting in Afghanistan, plus two others maimed in the conflict, are attempting to become the first amputees to trek unaided to the pole.
The expedition, leaving on March 23, will raise money for the Walking With the Wounded charity, which helps to rehabilitate injured troops and help them back into work.
Prince Harry, an army lieutenant who has served in Afghanistan, is the charity’s patron and is keen to join the 320-kilometre slog across the polar ice cap from Siberia.
However, the adventure is set to reach the pole around April 25 to 26 – if it is not delayed – which would not give him much time before his brother Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in London on April 29. (AFP)