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I would like to know what is making headline news in the different countries represented here. I am interested in what preoccupies different nations and if it is often the same things or if there are wide variations. If anyone can be bothered, could you post what is being presented as important in your national press just now?

In the UK yesterday most of the papers were leading on the fact that the 100th British soldier was killed in Iraq. There is a strong body of opinion that the troops were sent on the basis of false information. A group of MP's are apparently trying to arrange for Mr Blair to be impeached, though I doubt they will succeed. Some of the families of dead soldiers are campaigning to bring the troops home. The newspaper I read also analysed the regional origins of the dead soldiers and made a feature of the disproportionate numbers who come from the north of england and from Wales and Scotland. There seems to be a growing anger about this war in the popular press and this seems to reflect the mood in the country, at least to the limited extent I am able to judge.

The other main item was the defeat of the government's bill to outlaw the promotion of religious hatred. This has been a very controversial bill, and it has been modified several times in the hope of getting it passed. But suprisingly the MP's have refused it on the basis of interference with free speech.

Yesterday's headlines were that 14 Hong Kong residents were killed and 30 injured in a traffic accident in Egypt.

Are you in Hong Kong, Rookie? Or is that an international story? I didn't see that here. What happened?

We've just had the most famous of our stories last year, sparked again.

It's basically about this woman, who has been convicted of smuggling marijuana into Bali. She says it was planted on her, she was convicted for 20 years (could have easily been death) and due to her large bouts of crying, it appeared she was innocent. However the family always seemed dodgy, as the mum was constantly appearing on talk shows, her sister was paid $ 10,000 to run out of court crying while the verdict was announced, and then give exclusive story rights. Her brother was found to have been a drug dealer, and then, just yesterday, the father was found to have had connections to another drug dealer who was producing mass amounts of marijuana.

They taking this as evidence that the conviction was sound?

[QUOTE=Fiona]Are you in Hong Kong, Rookie? Or is that an international story? I didn't see that here. What happened?[/QUOTE]
I'm in Hong Kong. Something about rushing to catch up with the schedule, and the rest is history. Nice way to celebrate Chinese New Year (this happened on the third day of the new year). Interestingly major traffic accidents on foreign soil involving Hong Kong residents seem to enjoy happening on this day, a similiar accident happened last year, and during the Chinese New Year of 2002 TWO accidents happened, all three on mainland China.

Well not really, because you can get more ratings my having a sad story about someone affected by other people, and cruelly treated, than having one about people caught smuggling... we already have nine of the caught doing that... 'The Bali Nine', two of the leaders have been sentenced for death, the others will face jail.

@ Rookie. Does that mean that a lot of Hong Kong people go abroad for New Year, or is that coincidence?

@ DJ. There have been cases like that here and they are usually dealt with by pushing for the person to serve their sentence in this country. Lots of features on the conditions in foreign jails and stuff. They approaching this in the same way? What do you think about it if they are?

No, infact, ours is the complete opposite.

The only thing our government can do is appeal for clemency, and all that does is let you serve the last three quaters in your home country, after serving the first quater in that country. The sentence cannot be changed, or suspended, so it serves no real purpose.

But heaps of ignorant people keep saying bring her home, let her go, Howard's not doing anything (our pm) and so on, and so forth.

But as more and more convicting evidence comes out, less and less people are fighting for her, as her case was weak, and is even weaker now.

Belgium: Not really one subject but the aftermath of the speech of the King in which he, yet again, warned for separatism is still making a bit of waves (with today a reaction of the prime minister to those who voiced their criticism of speech yesterday. Note: the federal government is responsible for anything the king does, even it wasn't consulted or involved). For the rest a mixture of national and international news.

Liberia: what's in the newspapers, frankly I don't read them that much, but the donor community is scrambling to find things and projects that have quick, visible results in support of the recently elected president Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson (and to avoid a return to civil war and/or failed state status). Though that is of course somewhat behind the scenes.
If I a common newspoint now in some papers is the halting of the "decongestion" order. The idea was not only to clean up the city but also to remove small stallholders from pavements and streets. That has been halted, officially for empathic reasons (the country is just coming out of difficult times and these stalls are often the only way some people can earn a bit of money) but avoiding problems is certainly part (note: over a year ago some seriously heavy riots were caused by discontent and rivalry among street marketeers).

@ Rookie. Does that mean that a lot of Hong Kong people go abroad for New Year, or is that coincidence?

Yes, as it is a 3-day public holiday.

Only thing which consitently have been in the danish medias lately is the whole buisness with the Mohammed-drawings.

Same with Pakistan and a majority of the middle east. The Arab News has been dealing with for the past few days.

Local Headline from this morning:

The MCLU (Maine Civil Liberties Union) filed a Freedom of Information Act request in June on behalf of seven peace and justice groups and 15 people here in Maine. They just received notice the FBI has a file on one of those groups and they intercepted at least one of the group's e-mails.
Wednesday, the MCLU filed another Freedom of Information Act to find out if the pentagon also has files on groups in Maine.


And on a lighter note:
Punxsutawney Phil Sees His Shadow...6 more weeks of winter....
Stupid <*Bleep-ing*> rodent....

Our government marketing ex-lead marketing person was found out to have an account on the US where he used to send "washed" money from the campaigns to the government and, potentially, some bribes.

Also, in the economic newspaper, they're talking about the dollar and how has it been behaving weird on the last few days.

I really like this thread, I hope it catches on.

Our news is talking about who will be the next House Majority Leader. I don't like any of the prominent politicians that are running, but then again I don't get to vote for it. It seems the two big leaders in the house have a lot of ties to lobbyists, so that could be a problem as the GOP is trying to seperate from K street.

I was woken with great news this morning... Queensland Rail (the train provider for my state) was on strike. That meant no trains were going. And because it was a snap strike, there was no warning, so there was no substitute buses.

On top of that, the way into my school had construction occuring along the main road, causing more delays.

So that was extremely annoying.

Sweden:

The headlines here in Sweden have for the last couple of days been the same as in Xandax's Denmark I guess...(the Mohammed drawings)
Focusing on Palestinians burning Norwegian and Danish flags....and also misplaced threats against Sweden...

We (the Dutch) also had much news about the Danish drawing of Mohammed. The biggest news story the last couple of days was about whether we would send soldiers to Afganistan or not.

The headlines here (Norway) is of a cruise ship with 1412 people aboard which has mysteriously gone down in the Red Sea.

Edit: of course the media has it all backwards, and it was a ferry, not a cruise ship.