Despite the agreement on the possibility that Muslims and Copts could be mutually donors of organs, the chairman of the Egyptian doctors´ association, Muslim Hamdi el Sayed, decided to ban the donations waiting for the approval of an ad hoc law, currently under discussion in Parliament. The goal is to impede fictitious donations, actually made for money. The decision however sparked off a fierce polemic by the Copts who consider it a discriminatory measure. The news was reported by the Egyptian and Arab media after Copt lawyer Naguib Jibrael, chairman of the non-government organisation Egyptian union for human rights, threatened to take El Sayed in court. "The association of the doctors behaves as if it were an authority that has the right to issue fatwas (religious opinions), Al Azhar or the church, putting in discussion even the right to citizenship," the lawyer says. "Why the Muslims are not angry at this decision, as some Copts are?" replied the chairman of the doctors association who is also chairman of the healthcare committee at the lower house of Parliament and author of the bill currently under discussion in Parliament. The decision to block for the moment the donations between Muslims and Copts and vice versa, El Sayed claims, came from the need to impede the illegal trade of organs, but there is no objection to the donation if it is really free.

http://www.ansamed.info/en/news/ME03.@AM12205.html

´Ping pong is coming home´London´s Mayor accepts the challenge to better Beijing.

===

The London Mayor strode on to the international stage yesterday, happily waved the Olympic flag, and told the watching world in no uncertain terms: "Ping pong is coming home".

...., Mr Johnson said Britain had invented table tennis over its dining tables before it became a Chinese national obsession.

To cheers from the assembled British officials, Mr Johnson declared that the Chinese "have excelled magnificently at ping pong. Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England and it was called whiff whaff".

"There you have, I think, the essential difference between us and the rest of the world. Other nations such as the French looked at the dining table and saw the opportunity to have dinner. We looked at the dining table and saw an opportunity to play whiff whaff.

He continued: "That is why London is the sporting capital of the world. I say to the Chinese and I say to the world – ping pong is coming home."

.....

Incidentally, Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, is the great grandchild of Ali Kemal (who was a journalist who fled in exile to Paris after receiving a death sentence for his newspaper articles, then became part of the Turkish government until soon after Ataturk became leader - whereupon he was killed by a mob of nationalists.

Boris Johnson´s surname is Kemal, but his mother changed their name to Johnson after the family came to the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Kemal_Bey

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson

A must see animated Iranian movie:  PERSEPOLIS, by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis tells the story of Marjane, a young girl born to an aristocratic Iranian family during the reign of the Shah. As adolescence hits Marjane, the Islamic Revolution hits Iran. Guided by a sage and saucy grandmother, independently minded parents and the lyrics of 80s-era American punk, Marjane is the kind of girl that doesn’t take crap from anyone. This charming trait soon lands her in trouble in a country that frowns on dissent.

She is sent abroad, takes up with a group of anarchists, gets her heart broken, lives on the streets and eventually finds herself back in Iran, pretending to live the life of a nice Muslim girl. But as we all know, opinionated women never stay quiet for long.

From the moment the film began, I was transported into a mythical and exotic land where everything revolved around the world of a precocious girl. Instead of being waifish and weak, or cruel and conniving, this little girl was a bull. And she was funny. Her treacherous navigation into adulthood was incredibly real and riddled with pain. But all of her struggles made Marjane’s eventual redemption that much more sweet.

The film also allows an insider glimpse into the mysterious culture and politics of Iran. In case you haven’t noticed, the Republicans are ready to bomb the shit out of that country as soon as they have a good enough excuse. Most Americans don’t know anything about Iran or the people that live there, myself included. Persepolis at least helped me understand that, like America, not everyone in Iran is pumped about their leadership.

Politics and puberty aside, Persepolis is ultimately about trying to fit in. Marjane struggles to belong in a restrictive society, but when she goes abroad, she discovers it´s no fun living in a world where everyone thinks Muslims are cruel heathens. In the opening scene, Marjane puts on her head scarf in the airport bathroom, readying for her return to the Muslim world. She immediately garners dirty looks. In the next scene, Marjane rips the headscarf off and lights a cigarette. It’s clear that, whether heading to Iran or not, she never really want to wear it anyway.

Roswitha  I actually read the graphic novel, i love it 

i will try to watch the movie though 

I´d like to see this film - with English subs if possible - how?

´Plot to kill Obama´ scare: four arrested

http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/plot-to-kill-obama-scare/2008/08/26/1219516441367.html

German Bild Zeitung:

http://www.bild.de:80/BILD/news/politik/2008/08/26/anschlag-auf-obama-vereitelt/in-denver-vier-maenner-festgenommen.html

Have you ever noticed that herds of grazing animals all face the same way?

Images from Google Earth have confirmed that cattle tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction.

Wild deer also display this behaviour - a phenomenon that has apparently gone unnoticed by herdsmen and hunters for thousands of years.

In the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences, scientists say the Earth´s magnetic fields may influence the behaviour of these animals.

Or maybe they are all just turning their back on thehandsom?

Right..

A new rule:

-nobody is allowed to turn their back on thehandsom. Including animals!!!!

ps..what about this picture? eh?